Third-Party Payments With SIPO (SAP S/4HANA Cloud ...

This blog post introduces business scenarios and explains how to process payment with SIPO in Czech Republic for SAP S/4HANA Cloud public edition. 

SIPO (Soustředěné Inkaso Plateb Obyvatelstva) that is used for direct debit of multiple payments through the Czech Post’s system. It is a national payment aggregation system operated by the Czech Post. This business concept relates to payments through a third party. 

Business Scenarios 

Let’s start with the parties involved in SIPO payments.  

Customers that have SIPO connection number pay on a regular basis 
Service providers that offer services of utilities, multimedia, or internet, send payment requests to SIPO 
Czech Post Office, or the SIPO operator, collects all payment requests, aggregates them into one payment, and distribute paid money by customers to service providers 
Banks that serve as payment channels carry out direct debit from bank accounts

There are two business scenarios of payments involving SIPO: 

Scenario 1: You, as a service provider, post receivable items. After executing a payment run, you send a SIPO file, as an outgoing file, to the Czech Post for informing the customers to pay.  

Scenario 2: Continuing with scenario 1, you, as a service provider, want to clear the open items by processing incoming SIPO files after your customer completes the payment. 

Prerequisites 

Bank Account Settings  

Since the payments with SIPO order are not directly paid out from the payer's bank account, instead it is paid out from the post office, it is necessary to create a fictive bank account and account ID for the post office.  

Open the Manage Bank Accounts app.  

For your company code, create a fictive Bank Account and Account ID for the Czech Post.

Define Parameters for Paying Out   

Since payment is carried out through the third party (Czech Post),  you need to identify which payee whom the post office pays.   

In the Define Parameters for Foreign Payment Transactions (ID: 101953) configuration to fill the service provider‘s SIPO number in the Customer number field.  

Define Payment Methods 

Open the Define Payment Methods (ID: 101952) to create a payment method or use the pre-delivered format - CZ_PSTLPAYMENT_SIPO as the payment medium format for Czech SIPO payments.

Define Payment Lot Specifications  

Open the Define Payment Lot Specification activity (ID:107255).  

Select the format type Czech Republic: Postal Payment Item (SIPO file) (CZ-POSTAL-PAYMENT-ZA) and complete the Bank statement settings section.  
Note: It is not required to configure the Czech Republic: Postal Payment Header (SIPO file) (CZ-POSTAL-PAYMENT-PZ).

Define Interpretation Rules for Note to Payee   

Open the Define Interpretation Rules for Note to Payee activity (ID: 103949) to assign keywords.

Procedure

Processing SIPO Outgoing Payment Files 

You post contract accounting receivable items. 
Execute a payment run. The payment order then is created. 
During the payment run, the system uses the payment format CZ-POSTAL-PAYMENT-SIPO to generate the payment file for the Czech Post. 
You then send the payment file to Czech Post. 
Czech Post informs the customer to conduct the payment.

Processing SIPO Incoming Payment Files

After the customer pays, the Czech Post sends back the SIPO files.  

The SIPO files contain the following files: 

SIPO header file – Includes the total settlement amount that matches the bank statement of the incoming payment

SIPO item file – lists the clearing of open receivable items per customer’s individual SIPO number

You have to import both files in the Manage Incoming Payment File (3rd-Party Payments) app (F1680).  

Open the Manage Incoming Payment File (3rd-Party Payments) app (F1680). 
- Select Import and choose Third-party Payment.
- Select Czech Republic: Postal Payment Header (SIPO file) and upload the SIPO header file. 
- Repeat the same operation and upload the Czech Republic: Postal Payment Item (SIPO file). 
Open the Process Imported Third-Party Payments app (F9000) to schedule a run. 
- Select Third-Party Payment: Transfer data as the job template.  
- In the Parameters, select Czech Republic: Postal Payment Item (SIPO file) (CZ-POSTAL-PAYMENT-ZA) as a format type.  
  Note: When processing the imported file, you only need to process the item files. (Header files are not required.) 
- Schedule a run and you can see that the payment lot number is created in the log .
  If you select the Post Lot check box and you can directly process the payment order lot without additional operation. 
Run the payment lot and you clear the open items. Use the payment lot and process it in the Process Payment (Order) Lot app and clear open items of the customer. If you did not select the checkbox in the previous step.