What is Clearing in SAP?

Clearing in SAP refers to squaring-off open debit entries with that of open credit entries. Clearing is allowed in GL accounts maintained on an ‘open item’ basis and in all customer/vendor accounts. The clearing can either be manual or automatic. In the case of manual clearing, you will view the open items and select the matching items for clearing.

What is Clearing in SAP?

In the case of automatic clearing, a program determines what items need to be cleared based on certain pre-determined open item selection criteria and proposes assignments before clearing these assigned items. Whatever the type of clearing, the system creates a clearing document with the details and enters the ‘clearing number’ against each of the cleared open items. The clearing number is derived from the document number of the clearing document.

You will also be able to do a ‘partial clearing’ when you are unable to match open items exactly; in this case, the balance amount not cleared is posted as a new open item. You may also configure clearing tolerance and also define rules on how to tackle the situation where the net amount after clearing is not zero (such as, writing off, posting the difference to a separate ‘clearing difference’ account, etc.).

In the case of customers who are also vendors, you will be able to clear between these two provided it is duly configured in the relevant master data (by entering the customer number in the vendor master record and the vendor number in the customer master record).

The clearing between the customer and vendor can happen by following the below settings

1. The customer number must be entered in the corresponding vendor master record
a. FK02->General Data -> Control
In the ‘Account control’ tab, in the ‘Customer’ field, enter the customer number

b.In the Company Code Data –> Payment Transaction Accounting, select the checkbox – ‘Clrg with Cust’

note:If you do not fill ‘Customer’ field ,the ‘Clrg with Cust’ field can not display.

2. The vendor number must be entered in the corresponding customer master record

a. FD02->General Data -> Control
In the ‘Account control’ tab, in the ‘Vender’ field, enter the vendor number

b. In the Company Code Data –> Payment Transaction Accounting, select the checkbox – ‘Clearing with vendor’

3. For testing, create a vendor invoice through FB60 and customer invoice through FB70. Note that customer and vendor are properly selected.

4. To see the vendor/customer balance both together use FBL1N/FBL5N, when you execute FBL1N select customer check box, when you execute FBL5N select vendor check box along with open item/cleared item check box

5. For clearing the open items. Use the TCode F-32. On clicking the ‘Process open Items’, the vendor invoice (KR) and customer invoice (DR) are shown automatically. It will generate the FI document with proper entry.

Note: Partial / Residual payment between customer and vendor is also possible

Also See: SAP Down Payment Process an Overview