When working with accrual plans, two types of posting activity occur:
Accrual amounts are posted from sales and purchase activities, or according to a predetermined accrual schedule.
Payment amounts are posted based on posted accruals. These payments are made to accounts specified for each accrual plan.
Posting levels
Accruals are posted to the accrual ledger at the document line level. If a document has ten lines and each line has a calculated accrual amount, there are ten separate posted entries. Accruals are always posted at the document line level.
Payments can be calculated and posted at a broader level. This lets you consolidate several accruals together into a single payment. For example, set up a sales rebate plan to accrue and pay amounts to a customer. Amounts are still accrued for individual document lines, but by changing the accrual plan's payment posting level, these individual accrual amounts can be combined into a single amount and paid to the customer.
You can also indicate the level at which accrual amounts post to general ledger accounts. Every accrual amount posted to an accrual account is also posted to related G/L accounts. As with payments, you can select the level at which these amounts are posted to the general ledger. The G/L posting level cannot be more specific than the accrual plan's payment posting level.
Accrual posting groups
Set up accrual posting groups to create a link between accrual plan accounts and G/L accounts. This lets you post to accrual accounts instead of posting directly to the general ledger. When accrual entries are created, the posting groups ensure that corresponding entries are made in the general ledger.
You can also assign accrual accounts for specific combinations of general business and general product posting groups in the General Posting Setup table. When an accrual amount is posted for a transaction line, Anywhere Mobility Solutions accrual accounts assigned to the corresponding combination of general business posting group and general product posting group are used as balancing accounts instead of those assigned to the accrual plan's posting group.
Price impact
You can indicate the impact a calculated accrual has on an item's unit price when it appears on a sales document. An accrual amount can be calculated for an item and then added to or subtracted from the item's original sales price. When an accrual amount is subtracted from an item's price directly on the sales document, additional posting must occur to reflect that no liability exists for the transaction. Define the accounts to which these amounts are posted alongside the other necessary accounts for an accrual posting group.