F-53 in SAP: How to Post an Outgoing Payment
Mason Garcia
⚡ Smart Summary
Outgoing vendor payments in SAP are posted with transaction F-53, which clears one or more open supplier invoices against a bank or cash account and records the payment document in Financial Accounting.
An outgoing vendor payment records the money leaving the business to settle a supplier invoice. Transaction F-53 posts that payment manually, clears the selected open items on the vendor account and updates the bank or cash general ledger account in a single document.
How to Post an Outgoing Vendor Payment in SAP Using F-53
Step 1) Enter the transaction code F-53 in the command field of the SAP GUI, as shown below.
Step 2) On the Post Outgoing Payments: Header Data screen, enter the following header and bank details. The screenshot after the list shows where each field sits.
- Enter the Document Date
- Enter the Company Code
- Enter the Payment Currency
- Enter the Cash or Bank Account from which the payment is made
- Enter the Payment Amount
- Enter the Vendor ID of the vendor receiving the payment
Step 3) Press the Process Open Items button to display the list of pending invoices for the vendor.
Step 4) Assign the payment amount to the appropriate invoice so that the amount entered balances against the open item and the Not Assigned field reaches zero.
Step 5) Press Post on the standard toolbar to post the outgoing payment, as highlighted below.
Step 6) Check the status bar for the document number that SAP generates, confirmed in the message below.
The outgoing payment for the vendor has now been posted successfully, and the cleared invoice no longer appears as an open item on the supplier account. The same document can settle a purchase invoice booked earlier through FB60.
Key Fields and Sections in the F-53 Payment Screen
The F-53 screen is organised into three areas — header data, bank data and open item selection. The table below explains the fields that most influence how the payment posts.
| Field or section | What it controls |
|---|---|
| Document Date / Posting Date | The document date is the date printed on the payment; the posting date sets the period and fiscal year in which the payment reaches the ledger. |
| Document Type | Defaults to KZ for a vendor payment. The type drives the number range and separates payments from invoices in reporting. |
| Company Code | The company code that makes the payment and owns the bank account being credited. |
| Bank Data (Account, Amount) | The house bank or cash general ledger account that is credited and the amount that leaves it. |
| Value Date | The date the bank actually debits the funds, used in cash management and later bank reconciliation. |
| Open Item Selection (Account, Account Type) | The vendor whose open invoices are read when Process Open Items is pressed. |
Behind the scenes the payment posts with two lines. The bank or cash account is credited with posting key 50, and the vendor is debited with posting key 25, which clears the selected open item and reduces the payable balance.
Full, Partial, and Residual Payments in F-53
F-53 does not always settle an invoice in full. When the amount paid differs from the open item, the Partial Payment and Residual Items tabs decide how the difference is treated.
| Payment type | What happens | Open items afterwards |
|---|---|---|
| Full (standard) | The payment equals the invoice and clears it completely. | The invoice is cleared; nothing remains open. |
| Partial payment | The payment is posted, but the original invoice stays open and is linked to the payment through the Invoice Reference field. | Both the invoice and the partial payment stay open. |
| Residual item | The original invoice is cleared and a new open item is created for the unpaid balance, with a fresh baseline date. | One new residual item for the remaining amount. |
The choice affects ageing analysis. A partial payment preserves the original due date of the invoice, while a residual item restarts the ageing clock, which can make overdue payables look younger than they really are.
F-53 vs F-58 vs F110: Choosing the Right Payment Transaction
F-53 is only one of several ways to pay a vendor in SAP. The right transaction depends on whether a payment medium such as a cheque is needed and on how many payments are involved.
| Transaction | Processing | Payment medium | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| F-53 | Manual, one payment at a time | Posts the payment only; no print | Ad-hoc single payments and manual clearing |
| F-58 | Manual, one payment at a time | Posts the payment and prints the payment medium, such as a cheque | A single payment that also needs a printed instrument |
| F110 | Automatic payment run against parameters | Posts and prints many payments, with a proposal step | Mass payments across many vendors on a schedule |
For routine bulk runs the automatic payment run in F110 is the usual choice, because it selects due items, groups them by vendor and produces the payment media in one pass. F-53 remains the quickest route for a one-off manual payment and fits naturally into day-to-day accounts payable processing.
