Automatic Accruals Management in SAP® S/4HANA

02 June 2025

Automating Accruals in SAP® S/4HANA – Efficient Month-End Closing With Accruals Management

In many finance departments, it’s the same recurring challenge every month: at the end of the period, accruals for unbilled services need to be recorded – often under time pressure, using Excel lists, email reconciliations, and manual system postings. This not only consumes valuable resources but also poses risks to data quality and compliance.

What Are Accruals – and Why Do They Matter?

Accruals represent expenses for services already rendered but not yet invoiced – for instance, from service providers, maintenance contracts, or third‑party transactions. Without proper accruals, profits are reported inaccurately, directly impacting reporting, forecasting, and audits.

SAP® Accruals Management – The Integrated Accruals Process

SAP® S/4HANA provides a powerful solution that automates and standardizes the accrual process. It connects purchase orders, goods receipts, invoices, and manual entries in one central system. Instead of isolated FI postings or external Excel tracking, you now benefit from:

Automated proposals for accrual amounts
Approval workflows for procurement, controlling, and accounting
Direct postings into the Universal Journal
Transparent visualization and traceability of all entries

Practical Example: Purchase Order Accruals (POAC)

Imagine this: a service contract runs monthly, the service has been delivered, but the invoice is still missing. SAP® S/4HANA automatically determines the difference between the planned cost (e.g., from the purchase order schedule) and the invoices already posted. Only this difference is accrued – audit‑proof, traceable, and fully automated.

Depending on the scenario, different methods apply:

Without goods receipt: Distribution based on schedule or fixed amount.
With goods receipt: Accrual based on delivered but not yet invoiced quantities.
For services: Calculation via Service Entry Sheets.

Efficient Workflow – Step by Step

Proposal: Automatic accrual proposal per purchase order and period
Review: Buyers and controllers review and adjust where needed
Approval: Accountants approve the accrual within the workflow
Posting: Journal entry directly into the general ledger

Each step is transparent, reproducible, and system‑guided – including powerful visualization, filtering, and analytical features.

Your Benefits

Accelerated month‑end closing
Less manual work, fewer errors
Central control – ideal for shared‑service or group environments
Standardized and audit‑compliant across the enterprise

Interested in Learning More?

In our training course “Automated Accruals Management in SAP® S/4HANA”, you’ll gain hands‑on insights into setting up efficient accrual processes, tailoring them to your industry, and managing them securely within the system. The session includes live demos, real‑world use cases, and best practices from procurement and finance.

Request your session or book directly today – we’re looking forward to meeting you!