This tutorial is part of our SAP FI course and it talks about SAP Tolerance Groups in Financial Accounting. You will learn what are tolerance groups in SAP FI and why they need to be set up. We will show how to define tolerance groups for employees and assign them to people working in your company.

In this tutorial we are going to discuss SAP Tolerance Groups. SAP Tolerance Groups define posting authorizations of users in SAP ERP system. These posting permissions define the amounts that certain groups of accounting clerks are allowed to post. SAP Tolerance Groups determine various amount limits for employees and predefine the maximum amount an employee is permitted to post, the maximum amount the employee can post as line items in a customer or a vendor account, the maximum cash discount percentage the employee can assign in a line item, and the maximum allowed tolerance for payment differences for the employee.

In accounting, tolerances are divided into three groups. The three tolerance groups are:

• Employee tolerances
• General ledger account tolerances
• Customer or vendor tolerances

In this tutorial, we are going to learn how to define SAP tolerance groups for accounting clerks and how to assign users to tolerance groups.

Define SAP Tolerance Groups for Users

To define SAP tolerance groups, go to SPRO transaction by entering its code in the command field on the SAP Easy Access Screen. The system will take you to the backend of the system where configuration is done. Follow the menu path illustrated on the screenshot below to get to the node where you define SAP tolerance groups.

Next, click on execute  icon on the Define Tolerance Groups for Employees node and you will see the screen FI Tolerance Groups for Users.

The above screen shows all tolerance groups that have been defined and the company codes that they were assigned to. If a tolerance group is left as blank, that will allow all employees who are not assigned to a specific SAP tolerance group to use that blank tolerance group by default. To define a new SAP tolerance group, click on New Entries button on the toolbar and you will see the following screen.

To create SAP tolerance group, you have to specify the name of the tolerance group. This name is a four-character alphanumeric code, which means one can use numbers, letters or their combination. If this field is left blank, it means that all employees who are not assigned to specific groups will use the blank tolerance group by default.

The company code field is used to specify the company code in which the tolerance will be used. That field cannot be left blank. It is possible to have a company code without SAP tolerance group(s). The system allows one to create several groups for one company code, but it is not possible to create two blank groups or two groups with the same group code.

SAP tolerance group will control the amount that an accounting clerk can post per a document and it also controls the maximum amount that an employee can post per each line item. If an accounting clerk attempts to post a line item with the amount higher than the maximum one set for the tolerance group, the SAP system will give an error message informing the user that he/she has no permission to post an amount more than the one set in the corresponding SAP tolerance group.

SAP tolerance groups also control payment differences. When clearing payment differences the SAP system will first check payment differences considered immaterial set for customer or vendor tolerances and, if the difference is significant, the accounting clerk can manually post the payment difference. Now when the accounts clerk is posting the payment difference, the system checks the maximum difference that the accounts clerk is permitted to post, set in the tolerance group.

Assign a User to SAP Tolerance Groups

In this activity, you assign financial accounting employees to whom you wish to give special tolerances to a group. Tolerances are set for a group for posting and clearing documents or line items. For employees that you do not assign, you must define tolerances for which you leave the group as blank and only assign the company code.

To assign a user to SAP tolerance group, you should go to SPRO and navigate to the following menu path.

Click on execute  icon next to Assign User/Tolerance Groups. You will see the following screen, which shows the users that are already assigned to various SAP tolerance groups.

Now, to make new assignments you should click on New Entries button.

Next, you should enter the username of the employee and match it with the tolerance group. After saving your input, the setting up of posting authorizations for your employees will be completed. Now, they can make payments in financial accounting transactions.