Dunning procedure in configuration:Define Parametrize External Transactions

[Former Member]

Hi There,

We can assign a Dunning Procedure in configuration at "Define and Parametrize External Transactions".

Path:

Financial Accounting->Contract Accounts Receivables and Payables->Basic Functions-> Posting and Documents->Document->Maintain Document Assignments-> Maintain Transactions for Non-Ind. Contract Accounts Receivables and Payables->Define and Parametrize External Transactions.

For every unique combination of Application Area, Company Code, Division, Main and Sub Transaction:

When you Add or Select an External Main and Sub transaction, on the Line Item Parameters you can add among other things - a Dunning Procedure and Dunning Lock reason. We cannot assign a Dunning Grouping here though.

I have been trying to figure out what the use is of assigning the Dunning procedure here.

1)In what business processes and when/where is this used? What circumstances is Dunning Procedure assigned at Transaction (Main and Sub) level?

2)Does this configuration insert the dunning procedure at the Item level? i.e all items created by this configuration (main and sub transaction) are configured with this Dunning Procedure or Dunning Lock Reason?

3)What advantages does it provide over assigning the dunning procedure to the Contract Account or Contract Object?

Thank you.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi,

1)In what business processes and when/where is this used? What circumstances is Dunning Procedure assigned at Transaction (Main and Sub) level?

Everytime a document item with this combintaion of transaction is created. It is a way to default some attributes when documents are posted. This dunning procedure has priority over the one filled in the contract account.

2)Does this configuration insert the dunning procedure at the Item level? i.e all items created by this configuration (main and sub transaction) are configured with this Dunning Procedure or Dunning Lock Reason?

Yes, this level has the highest priority (the specific level over the general level), and yes this configuration insert the dunning procedure at the item level

3)What advantages does it provide over assigning the dunning procedure to the Contract Account or Contract Object?

Well, it depends what do you want to get. Sometimes specific postings done in the contract account are required to be dunned using a different dunning procedure than the one filled in the contract account.The dunning procedure filled in the contract account is used by dafault to dunn all the contract account postings, but the postings with its own dunning procedure.

[Former Member]

Hi i017240,

Thank you for your kind reply.

I'm really trying to get to the bottom of when and under what circumstances this configuration is used.

From what I understand, since there is a unique combination of Application Area, Company Code, Division, Main and Sub Transaction we can use this to differentiate and insert this dunning procedure at the item level.

But since this is at main and sub transaction level, if we want to have different treatment for different Business Partners and/or Contract Accounts for the same Company Code and Division, we may need to configure so that different sets of BP's and CA's use different combinations of External main and Sub transactions to do essentially the same thing (mapped to the same internal main and sub trans) to benefit from this config.

Is this really how this configuration is used?

I'm guessing there are other creative and useful application of this configuration and am in search of some real world use and examples from existing implementations.

Many thanks.

[william_eastman]

Consider that certain items might be excluded from the dunning process (or interest, etc) based upon the type of charge (main/sub) or the source of the charge (company/division). A client might not be able to dun for dunning charges; might not be able to disconnect for non-billing charges, etc. These will be not very common but possible. Since dunning procedure is a grouping criteria, setting items to be at different procedures will result in multiple dunnings which likely will be confusing to users and end-customers.

Just because the settings can be made - does not mean that they are required or should be made. In the end the client requirements will dictate whether dunning settings are made at the item level, but almost always will not be.

regards,

bill.