Types of payment block

Types of payment block

1. 
   Manually blocking, payment block A
   
2. 
   Automatically blocking, payment block R
   
3. 
   Blocking by payment team(or related bot which called Apex First Strike control), payment block Z
   

Manually blocking, payment block A
Every AP worker can block an invoice for payment manually
On Ariba its possible to block invoice before posting it

In SAP we can block invoice before the payment

We can open any item on SAP

Then put A on the payment block section by editing the item

• 
  We need payment block A because in some company codes we have final invoices which should be cleared with advance payments, we can block final invoice until the clearings and it avoid incorrect payments
  
• 
  If we made mistakes, payment block avoids payment until we correct it
  
• 
  While posting reversal and correction of the invoice we use payment block A because they should not be paid
  

Automatically blocking, payment block R or we call it MRBR control
It happens only with PO invoices
When SAP finds any kind of difference between PO and posted invoice, SAP automatically blocks it with payment block R, to avoid mistakes. AP should check this case and unblock it for payment or correct the mistakes then unblock

Transaction code MRBR on SAP shows invoices with blocked for payment R

Blocking reason can be because of price or because of quantity

• 
  Blocking because of price happens when amount of the invoice is more than amount of the PO
  

We can check if this price is correct on ARIBA because there should be exception for the requestor to confirm price, or if there is no such exception on ARIBA, we can check limit of PO on SAP, if its enough more for the invoice we can unblock it for payment

• 
  When quantity of items on the invoice is more than quantity of booked GR, this invoice will be blocked because of quantity
  
• 
  In this case we should check if requestor booked all necessary GR on ARIBA
  
• 
  If this GR is booked correctly or not and if this GR is transferred to SAP
  
• 
  If not we have to contact to the requestor and remind about GR
  
• 
  If GR is correctly booked, invoice could be incorrectly processed, so we have to check the invoice, if its incorrect, reversal and correction should be posted to unblock this invoice for payment
  

Blocking by payment team(or related bot which called Apex First Strike control), payment block Z
Around two months ago Takeda started to check invoices on SAP by bot to avoid duplicate payments
When this bot finds any two item with same price, number, supplier, date and etc. it blocks this item for payment with payment block Z
This could be happened when we post reversal or corrections and forgot to clear them together, bot thinks they are duplicate to original invoice and blocks all of them
AP should analyze if they are duplicate or not then unblock it for payment