By Dan Magni
SAP Credit Management in S/4HANA helps companies manage customer credit risk, credit limits, and credit exposure. Unlike classic Credit Management in SAP ECC, S/4HANA Credit Management uses credit segments to organize credit management processes and evaluate business partners.
Credit Segment Definition
A credit segment is an organizational unit in SAP Credit Management used to manage a business partner's credit limit and credit exposure. A business partner can be assigned to multiple credit segments, allowing credit risk to be managed separately for different parts of the business.
With the Manage Credit Accounts app, you can view and maintain a business partner's credit information for each credit segment in which the business partner conducts business.
How Segments Are Organized
Credit segments allow companies to organize credit management according to their business requirements. One approach is to create credit segments by currency or organizational structure.
For example, a company may use a main credit segment for group-wide credit management and additional credit segments for individual currencies:
- Segment 1100 – USD
- Segment 1200 – CAD
- Segment 1300 – EUR
This structure allows the company to monitor total credit exposure at the main credit segment level while also managing credit exposure within individual credit segments.
When using SAP Credit Management in S/4HANA, a main credit segment can be defined to provide a central view of credit exposure. Figure 1 shows an example of the main credit segment delivered with SAP Best Practices.
Figure 1 Main Credit Segment in SAP S/4HANA Credit Management
Figure 1 shows the Main Credit Segment indicator along with the case type for credit limit increase requests and the due date and overdue grids. These settings support credit management reporting and the evaluation of business partner credit exposure.
In multinational organizations, credit segments can also support credit management across different currencies. For example, a U.S.-based company may conduct business in USD while subsidiaries or customers operate in CAD, EUR, or other currencies.
A company may create separate credit segments for these currencies while still consolidating credit exposure for group-level reporting. This provides visibility into both local-currency credit exposure and the business partner's overall credit risk.
SAP Credit Management in S/4HANA
SAP Credit Management provides centralized tools for managing business partner credit limits, credit exposure, and credit risk. Credit segments allow organizations to manage credit according to different business requirements while maintaining visibility into overall customer credit exposure.
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