Lesson 2 of 5
Bank account management
6 min
Bank accounts are some of the most sensitive master data in a company. Each one can send money, so opening, changing or closing an account, and deciding who may sign for it, are governed decisions. In SAP S/4HANA, bank accounts are maintained in the app Manage Bank Accounts, and with the full cash management scope those changes can run through an approval workflow.
What a bank account record holds
| Area | Examples | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| General data | Account number, IBAN where used, currency, account holder, bank | Payments and statements identify the account by these values |
| Bank relationship | Bank contacts, statement settings | Who to call when a statement is missing |
| Connectivity | Link to the house bank and account ID in company code 1710 | Without it, payments and statements cannot use the account |
| Limits | Overdraft limits | Cash position can warn before a limit is breached |
| Signatories (full scope) | Who may approve payments from the account, with limits | A control auditors check |
| Attachments | Account opening letters, signatory cards | Evidence for audits |
What Manage Bank Accounts maintains.
Basic and full scope
SAP's learning content describes bank account management "lite" as available to any SAP S/4HANA Finance customer without a cash management license: managing banks and house banks, defining common bank account attributes, list views, import and export, cash position monitoring and memo records. The full scope adds, among other things, workflow-based governance for opening, changing and closing accounts, signatory management, overdraft limits and periodic review of accounts, and bank hierarchies and groups. Check SAP's comparison for your release before promising any of these features.
| Capability | Basic (lite) | Full scope (licensed) |
|---|---|---|
| Maintain bank accounts | Yes | Yes |
| Import and export accounts | Yes | Yes |
| Approval workflow for open, change, close | No | Yes, optional |
| Signatory management | No | Yes |
| Bank hierarchy and account groups | Limited | Yes |
| Periodic bank account review | No | Yes |
The approval workflow
With the full scope, a change to a bank account can be submitted as a change request that goes through approval steps before it takes effect. A typical design: a treasury analyst requests the change, the treasury manager approves, and for high-risk changes such as a new account or a new signatory, the CFO approves too. Only after approval is the account active for payments. The workflow leaves an audit trail of who requested and who approved each change.
- RequestTreasury analyst requests to open a new USD account at an existing bank for Chicago plant 1720 receipts
- ReviewTreasury manager checks purpose, bank, currency and signatories
- ApproveCFO approves because it is a new account
- Bank opens accountBank confirms account number; analyst completes the record
- ConnectLink to house bank and account ID; G/L accounts assigned
- ActivateAccount available for statements and payments
Who owns bank account data
Bank account master data belongs to treasury, not to AP, IT or the SAP project team. Treasury knows which accounts exist, why, and who may sign. IT and the project team build and maintain the configuration around it, such as house banks and G/L accounts, and the finance master data team may enter data under treasury's direction. Making ownership explicit avoids two common failures: accounts opened at the bank but never recorded in SAP, and accounts closed at the bank but still active in SAP.
What would you do?
A treasury analyst at Contoso closes an account at the bank but forgets to close it in SAP S/4HANA. What risk does this create?
- Manage Bank Accounts holds general, connectivity, limit and (full scope) signatory data.
- Basic (lite) scope is included; workflows and signatories come with the full, licensed scope.
- Approval workflows record who requested and approved each change.
- Treasury owns bank account master data; open and close accounts in SAP and at the bank together.
Check your understanding · not graded
Lesson check
1. Who should own the company's bank account master data?
2. Which capability typically requires the full cash management scope?
3. What must exist before an account can be used for payments and statements?
4. What does an approval workflow add to bank account changes?