Keeping track of finances is a business-critical function in SAP. In this book chapter excerpt, you'll learn the...
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basics of managing financial transactions in SAP, including how usage conventions work and how to create a financial transaction using the entry screen.
Table of contents:
Getting started with SAP financial transaction management
3 Transaction Management
Financial transactions are agreements on financial rights and obligations.
Their operative flow is managed within transaction management.
Treasury and Risk Management adopts the traditional division
of transaction management into trade, back-office processing, and
This chapter starts by introducing you to how different financial
instruments are represented as financial transactions and how these
transactions can be created and processed. It then examines trade
that arises from the preparation and creation of transactions, as well
as the exercising of rights. The section after that deals with backoffice
processing, which includes monitoring, controlling, and
releasing transactions (e.g., settlement).
Section 3.4 deals with operative reporting and how you can check
deadlines, monitor the progress of transactions, and gain an overview
of existing transactions. This is followed by a brief introduction
to the architecture of the transaction management using a sample
implementation of the customer-specific tab. We then take a look at
some special topics that go beyond the basics of transaction management.
This chapter does not include any menu paths for system Transactions.
Depending on the financial instrument used, these system
Transactions can be found in the menu under Treasury and Risk
Management Transaction Manager Money Market/Foreign
Exchange/Derivatives/Securities/Debt Management and then in the
corresponding subfolder — depending on the section you are reading.
Due to the large number of system Transactions used in transaction management, omitting them from the text makes it much easier
to read. We will only specify the path in a few exceptional cases.
3.1 Financial Transaction
A financial transaction is a contract between at least two business
partners governing the exchange of ownership of a financial instrument
or a right in the form of a financial instrument. The variety of
different financial instruments is reflected by the variety of financial
transactions. The structure of financial transactions in Treasury and
Risk Management is made up of the description of the actions for a
financial transaction and the description of the general components
of a financial transaction.
The actions for a financial transaction are divided into creating
actions and processing actions. When creating, you refer to a financial
instrument via the context of the company code, transaction
type, product type, partner, and possibly some other specific data.
When processing, however, you use the unique ID based on the company
code and the financial transaction number to select an existing
These two basic procedures are reflected by the system Transactions
in transaction management. Most of these system Transactions are
two-screen transactions. In the entry screen for transaction creation
or processing, you must either specify the context (when creating a
financial transaction) or select an existing financial transaction in
order to process it. The second, data screen, is used for entering the
financial transaction data.
Because there is a great deal of financial transaction data, the data
screen is structured using tabs. Most of these tabs contain characteristics
and key figures required for every financial transaction that are
independent of the characteristics of the financial instrument. These
tabs are identical for all financial transactions. However, it is the
structure data that distinguishes the different financial instruments.
For this reason, every financial instrument has its own individual
tabs. The structure data is set out in basically the same way and is
based on flows, conditions, underlying data and/or master data. It is the financial instrument itself that determines upon which data a
financial instrument is based and how the data is set out.
You can individually configure which fields are used for data entry in the corresponding tabs. You can use the field modification settings in
Customizing to define whether a field is hidden, displayed, ready for
input, or mandatory.
A financial transaction has different status values as it passes through different trade or back office processing functions. Activities are used
to reflect and represent these clearly. The financial cash flow is
assigned to an activity in the form of flows and conditions, making it
clearer and easier to follow.
3.1.1 Usage conventions
The system Transactions within transaction management, especially
those involving the creation and processing of financial transactions,
follow certain conventions of use. As soon as you have learned these,
you will find it relatively easy to use new system Transactions without
any further instruction being necessary.
These conventions include the use of icons on buttons for quick recognition
of their function, specification of precise dates using inclusive
and month-end indicators, as well as input help using shortcuts
for dates and amounts. This section describes these conventions in
As is standard in SAP systems, buttons in transaction management
also use icons. The icons are generally self-explanatory, rendering
the use of additional text on the buttons unnecessary. Moving the
cursor over a button will display a tool tip text with a short description
of the function.
Figure 3.1 displays the most commonly used icons in transaction
Figure 3.1 Commonly Used Icons in Transaction Management
Both the flows and the conditions include a great deal of data information.
In order to make these clear when the system is making calculations,
a date field often has an inclusive indicator that specifies
whether the date entered is also included in the period it delimits. In
some cases, there may also be a month-end indicator. This indicates
whether the date falls on the last day of the month.
The most important example of the use of inclusive and month-end
indicators is period calculation. If April 30, 2007, is set as a period
end with a monthly frequency and the inclusive indicator is selected,
the following period ends will be May 30, 2007, inclusive, June 30,
2007, inclusive, etc. If the month-end indicator is also selected with
a monthly frequency, then the period ends would be May 31, 2007,
inclusive and month-end, June 30, 2007, inclusive and month-end,
Period Calculation in February
For interest calculation methods based on 30 days and a period end of
February 28, 2007, inclusive, interest is applied to February with 28 days.
Where period end is February 28, 2007, exclusive and month-end, interest
is applied to 29 days. Where the period end is February 28, 2007,
inclusive and month-end, interest is applied to 30 days.
When creating financial transactions, many fields are already assigned values that make sense in the relevant context. For example,
the start of term is already set as the current date. If, in your particular
case, different preassigned values would make more sense, you
can use BAdIs to change them in some cases. In other cases, you can
only change preassigned values by modifying the standard SAP coding.
Preassignments can also be imported from Customizing (e.g.,
payment details from the standing instructions for a business partner).
In the user settings you can configure the date format (e.g.,
MM/DD/YYYY). In transaction management, a date can be entered as
an absolute value. Abbreviated notations are also recognized (e.g.,
021307 as 02/13/2007). A date can also refer to another date. For
example, the end of term is relative to the start of term. This reference
to date fields is not visible on the screen, but it is stored within
the system. You can use various shortcuts to specify the direction of a
relative date entry (see Table 3.1).
Table 3.1 Shortcuts for Date Entries
Shortcuts can be used alone or they can be combined (see Table 3.2).
|+2||In two days|
|--4||Four months ago|
|+++1++3||In one year and three months|
Table 3.2 Examples of Shortcuts for Date Entries
For amounts, you can define which abbreviations you want to use
for thousands and millions in Customizing, under Treasury and Risk
Management Transaction Manager General Settings Organization Define User Data. In the standard system these settings are
preassigned with the abbreviations listed in Table 3.3.
Table 3.3 Abbreviations for Amounts
Here too, it is possible to combine shortcuts (see Table 3.4).
Table 3.4 Example of Shortcuts for Amounts
The shortcut is calculated after you press Enter or execute an action.
You can check whether it corresponds to the required entry.
Even though System Transaction FTR_CREATE for creating financial
transactions is not explained until the next section, we are using its
data screen here to provide an example of shortcut usage. We are
performing a forward exchange transaction on 02/13/2007 involving
the exchange of 100,000 EUR into USD on 03/13/2007 at a rate
of 1.3. The value date is a relative date entry and we use a standard
abbreviation for the amount (see Figure 3.2).
Figure 3.2 Data Screen for Foreign Exchange Transaction
3.1.2 Transaction Management, Entry Screen
The entry screen of transaction management for creating and
processing financial transactions can be accessed via many different
system Transactions and functions. The user will proceed differently
depending on the activity they are currently pursuing. The following
section describes the most important system Transactions.
Creating a Financial Transaction
The main way of accessing the screen for creating a financial transaction is via the Create Financial Transaction (FTR_CREATE) System
Transaction, from which you can create a financial transaction for
every financial instrument defined in transaction management (see
Figure 3.3). Also, every financial instrument has its own system
Transactions for creating a financial transaction. These are no longer
listed in the menu, however.
Figure 3.3 Creating a Financial Transaction via Transaction FTR_CREATE
System Transaction FTR_CREATE allows you to enter the values you
want directly via the keyboard. However, the fields are also provided
with input help. You can use the list box on the right to restrict the
values at the level of financial instruments so that only fields relevant
to the current financial instrument are available for input and you
only view input help relevant to that specific financial instrument.
Processing a Financial Transaction
The main way of accessing the screen for processing a financial transaction
is via the Process Financial Transaction (FTR_EDIT) system
Transaction. When using this system Transaction, you not only enter
the financial transaction you want to process, you also select the
action you want to perform. The list box allows you to restrict the
displayed actions to those relevant for the current financial instrument
(see Figure 3.4).
As is the case with financial transaction creation via FTR_CREATE,
every financial instrument has a separate system Transaction for each
action. In these cases, the entry screen is identical with the Company
code and Transaction number fields. You can also use these system
Transactions, although they are not listed in the menu.
Figure 3.4 Processing a Financial Transaction via System Transaction FTR_EDIT
As an alternative to central or financial instrument-specific entry
transactions, you can also access financial transaction processing
screen via the collective processing function. Collective processing displays
an overview list of financial transactions and gives you the
option to navigate directly from the list to financial transaction processing.
The following collective processing functions are available for the
different financial instruments:
- Money market (TM00)
- Foreign exchange (TX06)
- OTC options (TI91)
- Interest rate derivatives (TI92)
- Futures and tradeable options (TI00)
- Repos (TF00)
- Securities lending (TSL00)
- Securities (TS00)
Central Collective Processing
There is also central Collective processing Transaction Manager
(FTR_00), which provides an overview of the financial transactions
across all financial instruments. You can also use this system Transaction
for operative reporting (e.g., using variants and their comprehensive
selection options — see Figure 3.5).
Figure 3.5 Selection Screen for Central Collective Processing FTR_00
In this case, bear in mind that the characteristics of the financial
instruments are so different that they cannot be represented in a
standardized way. Therefore, the result screen contains a field specifying
the most important characteristics of a financial instrument as
body text (see Figure 3.6).
Figure 3.6 Result Screen for Central Collective Processing FTR_00
Some financial instruments also offer a Fast entry option. This combines
the data from the entry screen and the data screen on a single
screen. Both the input-ready data and the functionality are restricted
so that you can create simple “standard financial transactions” using
The following fast entry transactions are available:
- Fixed term deposit — fast entry (TM0F)
- Deposit at notice — fast entry (TM1F)
- Commercial paper — fast entry (TM3F)
You can process the financial instruments, fixed term deposit and
deposit at notice using the Money market: fast processing (TM20)
System Transaction for fast processing. Several fixed-term deposits
and deposits at notice are displayed on the same screen, and you can
change the amount, interest rate, end of term, interest rate handling
with rollover, and interest capitalization.
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