SAP Note 10737 - Partial payment on requests for down payment.

Symptom

In certain industries (e.g. construction), down payments are
requested, but the customers often only pay part of the requested
amount. Handling the manual payment receipt is quite complicated
in this case.

Cause and prerequisites

Programs are not configured for incoming partial payments
on requests for down payments.

Solution
A different organization of requests for down payments is required
in Financial Accounting (described below):

1. The special G/L indicator for received down payments
is "A" in the following. An additional special G/L indicator,
"X", has also been defined.

"X" = downpayments requested but not yet received.

The special G/L accounts for "A" and "X" are carried on the
same balance sheet item "Received down payments..."

2. Instead of a request for down payment, use POSTING -> Invoice
to post the following document:

PstCd 09 Acct. CUSTOMER SGLID X to
PstCd 19 Acct. CUSTOMER SGLID A

All open items with SGLID "X" now represent requests for
down payment. The posting shown above does not affect the
"Received down payments" balance sheet item.

3. When a payment is received, not only the "Normal open items",
are selected, but also the items with SGLID "X". With this
change, both normal invoices and "Requests for down payment"
can be processed in one step.

As with invoices, "Requests" with SGLID X can also be assigned
partial payments or form residual items. This means that when
a request has been made for $100,000.00 and a payment received
for $70,000.00, the system automatically generates a residual
item (remaining request) for $30,000.00.

All possibilities for correspondence are also available in the
clearing operation. For example, a notification of payment for
the customer can automatically be created in case of an
underpayment.

Clearing the request for $100,000.00 and creating the new
residual item of $30,000.00 results (after the payment has been
received) in a proper balance of $70,000.00 in balance sheet
item "Received down payments ...".

4. You can also cancel "Requests for down payments" with the
cancel function, provided no partial payment has been made.

To cancel a residual item (e.g. because the customer no longer
has to pay the residual amount), post as follows:

POSTING -> OTHER -> INTERNAL TRANSFER POSTING -> WITH CLEARING

Only fill out the document header and select the SELECT OPEN
ITEM function.

The system selects the residual item of $30,000.00 by SGLID "X"
and the originally posted item of $100,000.00 by SGLID "A".

Both items are set to "Active" and a residual item of $70,000.00
is formed for the "A" item". (It suffices to double-click the
mouse on the residual amount in the residual item screen).

You then post the documents. After posting, a received down
payment of $70,000.00 is shown (residual item for the $100,000.00)
and the "Requests" with SGLID "X" have all been cleared.

The above procedure offers significant advantages. While
posting the request requires one more dialog step, processing the
received payment is much easier.

Key word: Down payments