Automated Clearing Processes
Match open items automatically — lift the manual clearing burden off your team.
In SAP FI, every invoice, payment and credit memo on a customer or vendor account sits as an open item and stays open until it is cleared against its counterpart. In many companies this matching is done by hand: the team picks out corresponding items from among a large number of lines. The work is slow and error-prone, and uncleared items overstate open receivables and payables and distort reports. Conforcus automatic clearing matches open items by defined criteria (amount, reference, due date, document) and clears them automatically. Unmatched items drop into a worklist, so manual intervention is limited to those items.
How manual clearing affects reports and the close
Clearing means linking debit and credit items that offset each other and closing them. If an incoming payment has been posted to the account but not cleared against the related invoice, both the invoice and the payment continue to show as open. Because aging and due-date reports read open items, this feeds straight into the reports: a paid invoice appears as an overdue receivable, and the collections team contacts a customer about an amount that has already been paid.
In manual clearing the user opens the account, selects the items that offset each other and posts once the difference comes to zero. When a customer settles many invoices with a single payment, or when the payment carries no invoice information, finding the right items takes a long time. Selecting the wrong items distorts both the account and the reports.
Standard SAP has an automatic clearing program (F.13), which clears items that carry the same value in the fields defined in configuration and whose total comes to zero. In practice those fields are not always filled consistently: the invoice number on a payment posting may be missing or written differently. Such items do not match under the standard criteria and are left for manual clearing. In companies with high transaction volumes the work piles up towards period end and lengthens the close.
How the solution extends standard clearing
The solution builds on SAP FI automatic clearing (F.13) and open-item management, and extends it with company-specific rule sets and matching algorithms. Open items are compared by defined criteria such as amount, reference, due date and document, and the items that satisfy a rule are cleared automatically. The rule set determines which criteria are applied and in what order.
Clearing runs as a batch, so users do not have to select items one by one. Items the rules cannot match drop into a worklist and appear in the exception report. The outcome of each run is therefore clearly divided: the items cleared automatically, and the exceptions that need to be reviewed. Instead of searching account by account for the items to review, the team works directly from the worklist.
What changes for accounting and treasury teams
The team is freed from routine matching and spends its time on the exception items. Exceptions are mostly the cases that genuinely need attention: a short payment, a wrong reference, or a document whose counterpart has not yet been posted. Having these items visible without waiting for period end allows problems to be resolved early.
Customer and vendor balances stay clean and accurate. Aging and due-date reports show only the items that are genuinely open, so collection and payment planning can rely on them. Clean accounts also make balance reconciliations with customers and vendors easier. With no backlog of clearing left for period end, this step of the close becomes shorter.
Defining the rule set for the company, and who the solution suits
Matching rules differ from company to company, because customers’ payment habits, the descriptions that arrive from the bank and the reference fields used on documents all differ. Rule sets are therefore defined during implementation around the way the company collects, pays and posts. How often the batch is run is planned at the same stage, according to the company’s transaction volume and closing calendar.
The solution suits companies that have a high number of open items on their receivable and payable accounts and currently clear them largely by hand. It is aimed at accounting managers, treasury and finance teams. It is developed on top of standard SAP clearing and is live across several sectors.
Benefits
- Clearing drops from hours to minutes
- AR/AP balances stay clean and accurate
- Team focuses on exceptions, freed from routine work
Where it sits in SAP
Extends SAP FI automatic clearing (F.13 / open-item management) with custom rule sets and matching logic; includes batch runs and an exception report. Live across multiple sectors.
Who it is for: Accounting Manager, Treasury, Finance
Frequently asked questions
Standard SAP already has automatic clearing (F.13); what does this solution add?
The solution does not replace standard automatic clearing; it extends it with company-specific rule sets and matching logic. Open items are matched by defined criteria such as amount, reference, due date and document, and cleared automatically. With batch runs and an exception report, manual clearing is limited to the items the rules could not match.
Which open items does it work on, and how are the rules defined?
The solution works on receivable and payable open items in FI. Matching rules are defined during implementation around the way the company collects, pays and posts, and the rule set determines which criteria apply and in what order. Clearing runs as a batch, scheduled according to the company's transaction volume and closing calendar.
How are unmatched or wrongly matched items handled?
Items the rules cannot match drop into a worklist and appear in the exception report, and the team reviews and resolves only those. Every automatic clearing creates a clearing document, so it is traceable which items were cleared together. If a wrong match is spotted, it is undone with the standard SAP clearing reset and the items become open again.
Why does an invoice still show as open after the payment has been posted?
In SAP, posting a payment and closing the invoice do not have to be the same transaction. If the payment is posted to the customer account without being assigned to the invoice, both the invoice and the payment remain as open items; the net balance of the account is correct, but item-level reports become misleading. Automatic clearing matches these items by the defined criteria and closes them.
What should we pay attention to in the data for automatic clearing to work well?
Matching relies on amount, reference, due date and document information, so filling these fields consistently is decisive. Carrying the invoice number as the reference on a payment posting, for example, makes matching easier. Items with missing or inconsistent information drop into the worklist, which also shows where data discipline needs to improve.
Can items still be cleared manually once the solution is in place?
Yes. Because the solution is built on standard SAP clearing, the standard transactions used for manual clearing remain in place. The team resolves the exception items in the worklist with those transactions. The solution takes over routine matches, and the items that require a decision stay with the user.