This blog is intended to complement my previous blogs on automation and augment professional services scenario described in
SAP S/4HANA Cloud for Professional Services – The Collection
Professional Services Companies are seeking exciting innovation avenues for simplifying supplier invoice information management and enhance financial journal entry auditing for government authorities.
SAP S/4HANA Cloud, public edition is ready-to-run cloud ERP that delivers the latest industry
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documentation
In external procurement system scenario, supplier invoices are generated in the SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition through integration with other purchasing solutions, such as SAP Ariba.
Companies often have the need to enhance their proactive management of information in these supplier invoices ex. Tax and audit information found in specific text fields to be accessible and linked to the corresponding finance Journal Entries connected to the supplier invoice.
A Professional Services company, headquartered in Mexico, aims to enhance audit information management by seamlessly incorporating it into journal entries for auditors. Learn more with documentation on supplier invoices from the external procurement system (SAP Ariba)
Click here.
In compliance with electronic accounting regulations in Mexico, the company recognizes the significance of providing the compensation unique identifying code (UUID) for each journal entry. Unique identifying code is generated by the Mexican government agencies for electronic invoicing purposes.
SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition offers seamless integration with external procurement systems (SAP Ariba) to harness the combined benefits of our integrated product alongside streamlined business processes and enhanced data transparency.
When supplier invoices are created or processed in the
external procurement system, it triggers the automatic generation or updating of supplier invoices in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition. These supplier invoices are then readily accessible to accounts payable for smooth follow-on processes.
SAP Build Process Automation enables rapid automation of business processes. Using visual drag-and-drop tools and preconfigured, specific content, no specific programming skills are required, making it easy for citizen developers to get the job done.
The built-in content store offers hundreds of
pre-built process content packages, RPA bots and connectors (as of this quarter we have 400+ Bots in on our
Public Store) designed specifically to enhance the capabilities of your SAP applications such as SAP S/4HANA public cloud, SAP Ariba, SAP SuccessFactors and more.
Once Supplier invoice from SAP Ariba are available in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public edition, SAP Build Process automation takes over, effortlessly handling multiple status requests from suppliers. . Accounts Payable clerk can embrace the future of invoicing and experience the power of SAP Build Process Automation with Supplier Invoice Status Inquiry, eliminating manual invoice querying with a faster, error-free process.
SAP Build Process Automation Supplier Invoice Status Checks Bot will require you to add the Communication Scenario (SAP_COM_0057) to use the API service. Create a communication user, and then create a communication arrangement between the communication user and the communication scenario in your SAP S/4HANA Cloud system. For more details, see
Communication Management and Link
here.
Accounts Payable Accountant can search for supplier invoices in "Supplier Invoices List" Fiori app and use the search result as a supplier invoice worklist that allows AP accountant to display the detail data. Fiori App "Supplier Invoices List" will display the supplier invoices that are created with or without using the Business Network. For example, you can display a list of blocked supplier invoices and release or reverse them. (More Information
here)
SAP Build Process Automation provides an intuitive, unified development experience enabling fusion teams of business users and developers to work together and solve the challenge to update unique identifying code (UUID) in Finance Journal Entries.
Example: Automate Journal Entry update with unique identifying code (UUID) from Supplier Invoices
Let’s take a deeper dive into the technical consideration of this SAP Build Process Automation driven business solution.
- Business Process started through an API Trigger in SAP Build Process Automation (SAP Documentation) which download the supplier invoices that are posted from SAP Ariba and have external origin status.
- SAP Build Process Automation leverage the OData API to get the list of Journal entries to be updated with unique identifying code (UUID). This is accomplished by using Custom CDS View with data sources as I_JournalEntryItemCube and "I_SuplrInvcStsAndOrignAPI01" . This CDS View is filtered by status values ("SupplierInvoiceStatus" = Posted from Ariba (5)) and InvoiceStatusAndOrigin = (6).
- Business users often have the need for personalized insights to make informed decisions. You can seamlessly combine data from multiple released CDS views and craft your own Custom CDS views tailor-made to suit your requirements. These exclusive custom CDS views can be easily accessed via OData API, giving you the option to incorporate them into analytics reports or fulfill your automation needs. SAP Build Process Automation brings the future of data-driven decision-making by using new Custom CDS Views app to incorporate OData API’s. Refer to new Custom CDS Views app with the blog
For general information about how to create and expose custom CDS views, see Creating Custom CDS Views and External API: Exposing a Custom CDS View as OData API.
- Create Custom Communication Scenario and Communication Arrangement.(Documentation)
- Business Rules are defined in the bot to determine the supplier invoices matching Journal Entry with company code, Fiscal Year etc. and fetch the Audit information ex. unique identifying code (UUID) captured in notes field from Supplier invoice.
- Decision tree with SAP Build Process Automation is used to determine the journal entries that are required to be updated based on if unique identifying code (UUID) is updated or already exist in the journal entry.
- SAP Build Process Automation update G/L journal entry details without impacting existing financial postings for compliance, reporting, operational reasons, and localization-specific purposes.
- Bot retrieve G/L Journal Entries that need updating unique identifying code (UUID)generated by the Mexican government agencies for electronic invoicing purposes.
- The bot returns G/L journal entries that match user-specified criteria and saves in the excel input template format. The Business user has the option to edit this file or use "as is" for mass update G/L Journal Entry Details.
- The bot updates the details of journal entries (headers and line items of journal entries with specific attribute values such as unique identifying code (UUID) retrieved from supplier invoice into the journal entry field “Country/Region Specific Reference 1” without impacting financial postings.
- You can refer to prebuilt bot content “Mass Update of G/L Journal Entry Details Without Impacting Financial Postings (6RT)” that help you accelerate this automation development while making use of best practices with components reference & used in the content. Refer API Journal Entry - Change (Asynchronous) for more details.
BOT in Action to update the Journal Entry
- After the scenario is executed, an email notification with the bot run results is sent to specified recipients for updated journal entries.
BOT in Action
Analytics can be performed with new features available in “Manage Journal Entries”. Business users can manage and analyze journal entries. You can find, filter, sort, and group journal entries or even navigate to the details of individual journal entries to display more information, such as transaction data, line items, associated journal entries, and other related documents.
You can learn more with
documentation , how to address the localization need in country/region-specific, country/region-specific extensions are now available in the Manage Journal Entries app.
Business users can automate maintenance of specific field with unique identifying code (UUID) which can be included in the header of journal entries.
Stay tuned for more updates in the next quarters!
More Information on SAP S/4HANA Cloud, Public Edition:
- SAP S/4HANA Cloud, public edition release info here
- Latest SAP S/4HANA Cloud, public edition release blog posts here and previous release highlights here
- Product videos for SAP S/4HANA Cloud and SAP S/4HANA
- SAP S/4HANA PSCC Digital Enablement Wheel here
- SAP S/4HANA Cloud, Public Edition Early Release Series here
- SAP S/4HANA Cloud for User Experience and Cross Topics, Public Edition Continuous Influence Session here
- Inside SAP S/4HANA Podcast here
- openSAP microlearnings for SAP S/4HANA here
- Best practices for SAP S/4HANA Cloud, public edition here
- SAP S/4HANA Cloud, public edition community: here
- Feature Scope Description here
- What’s New here
- Help Portal Product Page here
- Explore SAP S/4HANA Cloud Extensibility in the Extensibility Explorer
Feel free to ask your questions on SAP Community
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Follow us via @Sisn and #S4HANA, or myself via@har1234 (Hardeep Tulsi)