Vendor Invoice Management
Achyuth Kakarla
Uses of VIM
• Acceleration of AP operations across the enterprise.
• Optimal integration of an invoice automation solution into SAP S/4HANA on
Premise.
• Higher productivity in Accounts Payable and increased flexibility in cash
management by reducing time until invoices are free for payment.
• Improved supplier relations through fast and accurate invoice processing.
• Accurate, on-time financial reporting with integrated access to AP information.
• Regulatory compliance through a well-managed process using preconfigured
rules, roles and actions considering country specific regulation
VIM Classic Mode
About VIM
• Vendor Invoice Management does not replace SAP invoice transactions and SAP
core logic of logistic invoice verification - Many categories of invoices can be
automated or treated by manual intervention through VIM screens. For other
invoice categories, navigation from VIM into the SAP invoice transaction (typically
MIRO) is required to fully post the invoice. Not all MIRO fields are provided in the
VIM baseline configuration.
• VIM builds on top of the SAP core invoice verification. Tolerances are defined in
core SAP customizing. This logic will apply blocking reasons to line items when
invoices are posted. Most prominent blocking reasons are price and quantity. VIM
catches the events created by blocked invoices in core SAP and triggers workflows
for block resolution.
VIM Simple Mode
VIMP Process steps
• An OCR process (optional) sends metadata and invoice image to VIM. On a
system without OCR, the invoice images go through a standard SAP ArchiveLink®
early archiving scenario.
• The Document Processing (DP) component validates the metadata and identifies
exceptions.
• Invoice Exception workflows address the exception issues.
• After validating the data and handling data exceptions, VIM creates an SAP
invoice.
• If no business rules are violated, VIM posts the invoice.
VIM workflow process
Validate metadata:
• The metadata or index data are validated against the SAP database. If validation fails, an
exception is triggered.
Check duplicates:
• The validated metadata is used to check whether the new invoice has been entered
already. If the new invoice is suspected to be a duplicate of any existing invoice, an
exception is triggered.
Apply business rules:
• Invoice pre-processing: Business rules are applied to detect additional exceptions before
posting.
Post for payment:
• The invoice is posted and released for payment.
Simple mode VIM
Simple Mode is an add-on solution to SAP S/4HANA on premises. It provides the
following features:
• Automation of invoice processing.
• Routing of invoice exceptions.
• Managing of processing rules.
• Monitoring of process flows.
Simple Mode is based on new technology. To distinguish between documents
running into Simple Mode VIM and documents running into Classic Mode VIM, a
new business object type (/OTX/PF01R for content repository connection) and new
document types (/OTBC/8IN1 and /OTBC/8IN2) are used.
Simple mode VIM
As a principle, Simple Mode is integrated in SAP Fiori apps for invoice processing as
well as for invoice upload. The following processes are performed in Fiori apps:
• Validation
• Process
• Cost assignment
• Approval
• Workplace
Configuring Simple Mode VIM
Inbound configuration:
This section describes the relevant settings for document injection using the
different input channels.
1. Document types:
Simple Mode delivers the following basic ArchiveLink document types with
document class PDF to process the incoming invoice.
• /OTBC/8IN1 Invoice - Manual Indexing.
• /OTBC/8IN2 Invoice - Capture Center
These ArchiveLink document types must be linked to the corresponding business
objects (/OTX/PF01R, /OTX/PF02, BUS2081) and to the repository in transaction
OAC3 for archiving.
Configuring Simple Mode VIM
Registration:
The registration types early archiving and incoming mail are supported for the
Simple Mode.
Information extraction:
With Simple Mode, also the new document handler CAPTURE_CL is delivered.
Agents:
Simple Mode delivers different roles where users / user groups must get assigned.
You assign them in the Business Process Configuration in the delivered invoice
profile PS08_BCF_INV.
Role assignment to process step:
Baseline delivery contains the assignment of role IDs to Simple Mode process
steps.