Cash Management – How to combine Cash Flow Analyzer and reports Cash Position and Liquidity Forecast FF7AN/FF7BN (2024)

Product Information

Betty Guedez

Cash Management – How to combine Cash Flow Analyzer and reports Cash Position and Liquidity Forecast FF7AN/FF7BN

Updated as of release 2022

Hello SAP Community,

I am Betty Guedez, Finance Product Expert at SAP S/4HANA RIG.

Today I would like to talk about Cash Management in SAP S/4HANA. There is great news about this business process, no matter if the decision was to go for the basic or the advanced version of it. Today, it is possible to work with Cash Position and Liquidity Forecast (AKA FF7AN and FF7BN) from the backend or the Launchpad, together with Cash Flow Analyzer app, to obtain better and more complete information about financial flows derived from items in Finance and Logistics.

As Cash Flow Analyzer uses a predefined structure and brings more dynamism in financial position visualization with less selection criteria, let´s move thru its different selection fields and see how we could get a similar output in Cash Management and Forecast FF7AN /FF7BN transaction.

I will speak about relevant fields for the two reports.

Cash Flow Analyzer – Initial Screen

Cash Management and Forecast FF7AN/FF7BN – Initial screen (1)

In Cash Flow Analyzer, when filling up Currency, you are choosing the transaction currency of the items to be displayed. So, to visualize items in all transaction currencies, just leave it blank.

To get a similar effect on FF7AN (FF7BN), leave Planned Currency field with no values and tick Display Currency Overview.

Then, let´s try Time Period in Cash Flow Analyzer and see how it can be filled.

Entry here can be any possible combination of days, weeks and months, in the format D#+M#+W# in any order (D#+W#+M#, M#+D#+W#, M#+W#+D#,W#+D#+M#, and so on). Also, just one of them (D#, for example) could be entered or 2 of them (W#+M#, for instance), is a valid combination too. For example: D7, will show 7 days and last column will be future flows.

In Cash Management and Forecast FF7AN/FF7BN transaction, Time Period is equivalent to Increment field, and is referred to intervals of n number of days, weeks or months. It is also possible to select periods of n weeks divided into days, n months divided into weeks or simply, how many months it is going to show, till a maximum of 14, 18 or 23 columns. For instance, 4 months divided into weeks will show 15 weeks and last column will be future flows. 4 weeks divided into days will show a maximum of 22 days and in the last column, future flows.

Reconciliation Status: In Cash Flow Analyzer app, it is very important what is the criteria to select items which are going to be displayed. In this field, we have the chance to select between 2 specific business processes: Intraday Bank Statement or Forecasted items, Reconciled or Not yet Reconciled, to make sure everything is going to be selected and from now, been able to choose the right one to be shown on the report. My recommendation is to select all of them.

There is no corresponding field to Reconciliation Status in Cash Management and Forecast FF7AN/FF7BN, as it is handled thru customizing, building Structures with Planning levels and Group levels included on it.

Date Indicator: Last relevant criteria to execute Cash Flow Analyzer is the date field used to include the items on the report. There are 2 options: Value Date and Posting Date.

I would recommend Value Date, which is regularly the field relevant to determine if the item is due or not.

Regarding Cash Management and Forecast FF7AN/FF7BN, Date Indicator is set in Customizing. So, if business decision is to use Value Date, it is recommended to use the same accordingly in Cash Flow Analyzer app. Otherwise, outcomes between the two of them are not going to be coincident as expected.

Now we compare entry screens and results of these two reports:

Cash Flow Analyzer – Selection criteria and results

Cash Management and Forecast FF7AN/FF7BN – Initial screen (2)

In the backend, Cash Management and Forecast FF7AN/FF7BN retrieves the following

Cash Management and Forecast FF7AN/FF7BN – Results

What motivated me the most to write this blog post was that I once heard about these two reports, the one provided by Cash Flow Analyzer app and by Cash Management and Forecast FF7AN/FF7BN transaction, saying that they seemed to deliver information from different sources. Absolutely not.

The truth is that looking at them in a synchronized way gives you more and deeper insights than ever.

When Cash Flow Analyzer app reports overdue items along all the columns – because one overdue item today, remains the same until it is paid, no matter what was the initial due date, right?, probably causes Delta Display with Balances delivered by Cash Management and Forecast FF7AN/FF7BN to be greatly missed:

New Display screen on by Cash Management and Forecast FF7AN/FF7BN

When drilling down each of them, you can see the tight relationship between these 2 reports and you will also be able to compare them to see if there are any inconsistencies (caused by some missing customizing, for instance).

Cash Flow Analyzer – Drill down

After selecting Delta Display and Balances view in Cash Management and Forecast FF7AN/FF7BN, you get the view accordingly. The detail of variances of balances from period to period are displayed, crystal clear after drilldown. I put them together to easily appreciate both:

Cash Management and Forecast FF7AN/FF7BN versus Cash Flow Analyzer – Drill Down

It is important to bear in mind that Cash Management and Forecast FF7AN/FF7BN has some premises, and netting is one of them. In all possible cases, netting will be applied, which is not necessarily the case in Cash Flow Analyzer app.

Different criteria in customizing for Cash Management and Forecast FF7AN/FF7BN and not using aligned displays with in Cash Flow Analyzer, could drive to completely different results, despite the source data is the same for both. So, this blog post tries to provide an option to combine two great tools to obtain deeper insights using both Cash Flow Analyzer app and Cash Position and Liquidity Forecast transactions FF7AN/FF7BN, especially when analyzing those overdue items just in the timeframe they were supposed to be paid/received, as we have in SAP ECC. Recommendation: Use them both together to get a clearer picture of overdue items.

I have two final recommendations to have these two reports even more harmonized:

For Cash Management and Forecast FF7AN/FF7BN transaction, Entry view:

• Tick Cash Position and Liquidity Forecast options
• Provide Groupings for these 2 different options (Cash Position and Liquidity Forecast): It is also possible to combine both in one grouping: it´s up to you.
• Always hit All Selections, to use those fields which are hidden at the beginning

For Cash Flow Analyzer app:

If separation of overdue and not overdue items is required, use it in combination with Cash Management and Forecast as described here, to get a wider view of Cash Position and Liquidity Forecast at the same time. Consider also use Delta View to restrict Overdue items to the date they become overdue and use Cash Management and Forecast FF7AN/FF7BN transaction instead to get Initial and Final balances of each period.

I hope you like this blog post and find it useful.

Let´s keep safe and healthy

Brought to you by the SAP S/4HANA RIG