Balance confirmation in SAP Business One

A balance confirmation allows you to check the correct amount of receivables from and payables to your business partners. This task can be automated with the Versino Financial Suite.

Versino Financial Suite for SAP Business One Finance

Purpose of the balance confirmation

There may be discrepancies with the respective Business partner must be clarified. Individual value adjustments may also need to be posted. With the confirmation of balances, the transferring debtor or creditor recognises the balance at a certain point in time, so that later complaints in this regard are pointless.

The different shapes

- Balance confirmation

In the balance confirmation, the business partner is informed in detail of the amounts to be confirmed. The corresponding reconfirmation is requested, regardless of whether there are differences or not.

- Balance notification

When notifying balances, the business partner is also informed in detail of the amounts that they have to confirm. On the other hand, however, feedback is only requested if it does not agree with the balance notified.

- Balance request

With the balance request, you ask your business partner to transmit the balance of the account according to his accounting.

Legal background

With reference to the so-called commercial practice, confirmations of balances are a promise or acknowledgement of debt. This is also recognised by the BGB in § 782 so. Even without a response, a balance so communicated will be recognized by civil courts.

Requirement of the auditors

Under the special circumstances, the tax consultant or auditor specifies the debtors and creditors whether a confirmation of balances must be requested. In practice, this is done according to special selection criteria (samples, maximum values, anomalies) using the jointly agreed balance lists.

Are balance confirmations a must?

In principle, there is no obligation to obtain third-party confirmations. The question of whether to obtain balance confirmations must be answered on the basis of professional judgement. Above all, it should be ensured that a possible audit can be carried out without risks even without a balance confirmation.

discrepancies in the balances

Reasons for a discrepancy in the balances and any associated incorrect information may originate on both sides of the business relationship. For example, postings may have been made for different periods. The receivable was settled before the balance confirmation was created. A return was not posted or was posted incorrectly. As always, there are many possible sources of error.

Balance confirmation on the key date in SAP Business One

In SAP Business One, several steps are necessary to create balance confirmations according to certain requirements. With the Versino Financial Suite an assistant takes over and automates this. You can specify criteria such as the key date and customer, but also customer groups and/or responsible sales employees. The software then generates the corresponding letters.