Business Need
An Israel-based organization operating in the professional services and training sector manages recurring supplier-related financial transactions as part of its regular monthly operations. The existing process required the finance team to manually create similar Recurring Journal Entry Vouchers (JEVs) for supplier invoices and goods receipt postings. As the volume of recurring entries increased, the process became time-consuming and heavily dependent on manual effort, making it difficult to maintain efficiency and consistency in monthly financial postings.
To overcome this gap, the client requested to automate the recurring Journal Entry Voucher process for supplier invoices and goods receipt transactions. The objective was to simplify recurring financial operations, reduce repetitive manual activities, and ensure a more consistent and manageable posting process for the finance team.
Solution
Since no standard API was available to support this requirement, the recurring financial posting process was automated using SAP Build Process Automation. The complete process was designed to run in unattended mode, enabling the automation to execute without manual involvement.
The solution was structured into two separate automation flows:
- Data Extraction
- Screen Recording Process
1. Data Extraction
Flow Diagram 1
The “Data Extraction” process is responsible for retrieving the required supplier invoice details and preparing the data for further recurring Journal Entry processing. This process collects the required records, maintains execution logs, and stores the processed data in Excel format for the next stage of automation.
This main automation includes the following sub-steps:
- Create Folder
- Create Log Folder and File
- Call Web Service
- Write Log Files
Initially, the required folders and log files are created to store the processed data, execution records, and automation-related files used throughout the process.
Once the initial setup is completed, the automation proceeds with retrieving supplier invoice data through the web service process.
Call Web Service
- In this process, the system first checks whether the required path exists.
- Once the validation is completed, the Curl command is generated.
- The query file is then created and the web service call is executed.
- The web service retrieves all supplier invoices based on the defined filters and returns the data in JSON format.
- This process also includes the READ JSON activity for further processing of the response data.
Read JSON
- A custom script is used to parse the response string into a JSON object.
- Another custom script is used to store multiple values in an array and write them as a single row into Excel for column header creation.
- Within the “For Each” loop, invoice data is processed individually and written into Excel row by row using a custom script.
- Finally, the workbook is saved and the Excel application is closed.
Write Log Files
- The process reads and sorts the processed input data.
- Each record is evaluated based on the defined conditions.
- The processed results are then written into structured log files for execution tracking and monitoring.
With this, the first automation flow concludes after preparing the supplier invoice data in Excel and generating the required execution logs for further processing.
Excel Data
The generated Excel output is then used in the second automation flow to execute the recurring Journal Entry Voucher creation through UI automation.
2. Screen Recording
The second automation flow is responsible for executing the recurring Journal Entry Voucher creation process through UI automation using the generated Excel data.
Flow Diagram 2
How the Screen Capture Process Was Configured
As part of the Screen Recording automation flow, SAP Build Process Automation screen capturing was configured to identify application screens and perform the required UI-based actions during the recurring Journal Entry Voucher creation process.
The following steps were used to configure the screen capturing process:
Step 1: In the Overview section, select Create and choose Application.
Step 2: Enter the application name, identifier, and description, then create the application.
Step 3: In the Detected Screens section, all currently open browser screens are displayed. Select the required screen to capture.
Step 5: The screen recording process is initiated.
Step 6: Perform the required actions within the application and wait for the corresponding screen responses while the recording is in progress.
Step 7: Once the required screen is captured, the recorded screen becomes available for further configuration. The recording process is then stopped.
Step 8: Open the captured screen and configure the required data fields and screen-specific criteria.
Step 9: Select the appropriate Recognition Criteria for the screen. The selected criteria must be unique to ensure accurate screen identification during automation execution.
The Screen Recording automation flow consists of the following steps:
Read the Excel Template from Local
- The process begins by reading the generated Excel files from the local storage location.
- The file collection is retrieved from local storage.
- The required file is validated, opened, and the range row indexes are identified.
- All values from the used range are retrieved and iterated for further screen processing.
Once the Excel data is retrieved, the automation proceeds with the UI execution process for Journal Entry Voucher creation.
Wherever necessary the UI Automation steps are modified with parameters to be filled by the data from the excel dynamically.
With this, the recurring Journal Entry Vouchers are created through the automated UI execution flow.
Created Recurring JEV
Benefits of the Solution
- Reduced manual effort involved in recurring Journal Entry Voucher processing.
- Faster and more structured handling of supplier invoice postings through automation.
- Improved consistency and accuracy in financial entry creation.
- Better execution tracking and posting management through Excel-driven automation and logging.
Conclusion
The implemented solution successfully automated the recurring Journal Entry Voucher process for supplier invoice and goods receipt transactions using SAP Build Process Automation. By integrating web service-based data retrieval with UI automation, the organization was able to eliminate repetitive manual activities involved in monthly financial postings.
The automation not only improved process consistency and execution efficiency but also enabled a more structured and reliable approach to recurring financial operations. Running the complete process in unattended mode helped reduce manual dependency, simplify recurring transaction management, and support a more scalable financial processing framework for the business.