> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.vortexiq.ai/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Manual Journals (FB50/FB60) as % of Total, SAP > Manual Journals (FB50/FB60) as % of Total tracks the share of GL postings keyed by hand rather than generated by automation. A high manual share is a controls and automation gap that auditors flag. **Card class:** [Non-Hero](/nerve-centre/overview#card-classes-explained) • **Category:** [GL Health](/nerve-centre/connectors#connectors-by-type) > A gauge of how much of the General Ledger is keyed by hand instead of posted by automation. ## At a glance > Manual journal entries are the ones a person types directly into the GL: FB50 for a general ledger document, FB60 for a vendor invoice posting, and their close relatives. They are necessary for accruals, corrections, and reclassifications, but every manual posting carries higher error risk, higher override risk, and a heavier audit burden than an automated, integration-driven one. This card expresses manual postings as a percentage of all postings over the last 30 days and gauges it against a threshold. A low share is a sign of a healthy, automated finance function. A share above roughly a quarter of all postings is a controls and automation gap that SOX-style auditors flag. | | | | ---------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | **What it measures** | Manual journal entries (FB50 general ledger documents, FB60 vendor invoices, and equivalent hand-keyed postings) as a percentage of total journal entries over the trailing 30 days. | | **Why it matters** | Manual postings bypass the automated controls baked into integration-driven postings. A high share means more entries that depend on a person being right, more segregation-of-duties exposure, and more for auditors to test. | | **Data source** | SAP S/4HANA Cloud Universal Journal (`ACDOCA` / `BKPF`), reading the transaction code and entry origin to separate hand-keyed documents from automated ones. | | **Company Code scope** | Respects the selected Company Code filter; rolls up every Company Code visible to the connected SAP business user / API role by default. | | **Real-time vs batch** | Aggregated over the rolling 30-day window and refreshed on each connector poll. | | **Time window** | `30D` (trailing 30 days) | | **Alert trigger** | `>25%` | | **Roles** | owner, finance | ## Calculation Calculated automatically from your SAP data. See the At a glance summary above for what the metric tracks and the worked example below for a typical reading. ## Worked example A commerce business running SAP S/4HANA Cloud reviews its manual-posting share over a 30-day window ending 31 May 26. The GL recorded 12,000 journal entries in the period. | Posting type | Count | Share | In scope as manual? | | ----------------------------------------------------- | --------- | --------- | ------------------- | | Automated SD billing postings | 7,300 | 60.8% | No | | Automated MM goods-movement / vendor-invoice postings | 2,500 | 20.8% | No | | FB50 manual GL documents | 1,400 | 11.7% | Yes | | FB60 manual vendor invoices | 600 | 5.0% | Yes | | Other automated (PP, AA) | 200 | 1.7% | No | | **Manual share (FB50 + FB60)** | **2,000** | **16.7%** | | Four things to notice: 1. **The manual share is 16.7%, comfortably under the 25% threshold.** Two thousand of twelve thousand postings were hand-keyed. The gauge sits in the healthy band and the Nerve Centre stays quiet. This is the shape you want: the bulk of postings flow from automated SD and MM processes, and manual entries are reserved for the accruals, corrections, and reclassifications that genuinely need a human. 2. **Crossing 25% is the trigger to investigate, not to panic.** If the manual count had been 3,200 (26.7%), the gauge would breach. That does not automatically mean fraud or error; it means a quarter of the ledger now depends on people being right, which is worth understanding. The usual causes are an integration that broke (so staff key entries to compensate), a new process that was never automated, or a one-off close with heavy manual accruals. 3. **FB50 and FB60 are the two big manual buckets.** FB50 is a direct GL document (reclassifications, accruals, corrections) and FB60 is a vendor invoice keyed by hand rather than flowing through logistics invoice verification. A spike in FB60 specifically can mean the procure-to-pay automation is being bypassed, which is a distinct controls concern from a spike in FB50. 4. **The audit angle is the real cost.** Manual postings are where auditors look first for segregation-of-duties breaks, missing approvals, and management override. A persistently high manual share lengthens every audit and raises the control-deficiency risk. It also lengthens the period close, because manual entries are slower to prepare and review. Reading this card alongside the close-timeliness cards shows whether a manual-heavy ledger is also a slow-to-close one. ## Sibling cards merchants should reference together Manual share is a controls gauge; it gains meaning when read against the automation and close-health cards. Pair it with these. | Card | Why pair it with Manual Journals as % of Total | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | [Journals by Source Module](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/sap/journals-by-source-module) | The full mix behind this gauge. The FI slice there is the manual share here, in context with SD, MM, and PP. | | [Journal Imbalances (debit != credit)](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/sap/journal-imbalances-debit-credit) | Manual postings are a common source of imbalances when a user mistypes a line. High manual share raises imbalance risk. | | [Accrual Reversals (last close)](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/sap/accrual-reversals-last-close) | Heavy accrual-and-reversal cycles inflate the manual share at period-end. This card shows the accrual activity behind it. | | [Open / Unposted Journal Entries](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/sap/open-unposted-journal-entries) | Manual postings often sit parked awaiting approval. A backlog here tracks with a rising manual share. | | [Period Close On-Time Rate (12mo)](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/sap/period-close-on-time-rate-12mo) | A manual-heavy ledger is slower to close. The two trends often move together. | | [SAP S/4HANA Health Score](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/sap/sap-s4hana-health-score) | The composite roll-up. A high manual share pulls the controls component of the score down. | ## Reconciling against SAP **Where to look in S/4HANA Cloud:** The closest native equivalents inside the SAP Fiori launchpad are: > **Manage Journal Entries / Display Journal Entries** filtered by the transaction code or entry origin to isolate FB50 and FB60 documents > **Post General Journal Entries** (the Fiori successor to FB50) and **Create Incoming Invoices** (the FB60 equivalent) to see what counts as a manual document > **Journal Entry Analyzer** for the share of manual vs automated postings over the period > **Embedded Analytics**: the journal-line query grouped by transaction code / entry origin over the 30-day range Direct link template: `https://my{tenant}.s4hana.cloud.sap/sap/bc/ui2/flp#JournalEntry-manage` To reproduce the gauge, run the journal-entry list for the same 30-day posting-date range, count the documents whose transaction or entry origin marks them as hand-keyed (FB50, FB60, and equivalents), and divide by total documents. The result should agree with the card within rounding and any difference in which transaction codes you classify as manual. The key judgement is the boundary: park-and-post manual entries and uploaded spreadsheet journals are usually counted as manual; automated accrual engines and recurring-entry runs usually are not. Common mistakes when comparing against SAP's own reports: * **Counting recurring-entry runs as manual.** A recurring journal set up once and posted automatically each period is an automated posting even though a person defined it. Counting the runs as manual overstates the share. * **Missing the Fiori-app equivalents of FB50 / FB60.** S/4HANA Cloud users post through Post General Journal Entries and Create Incoming Invoices rather than the classic transaction codes. Filtering only on the old codes misses them. * **Counting by value instead of by document count.** The gauge is a count share. A few large manual accruals can dominate by value while being a tiny share by count. **Why our number may differ from SAP's reports:** | Reason | Direction | Why | | ----------------------------------- | ----------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Transaction-code classification** | Either | Which transaction codes and entry origins count as manual is a judgement. Broader inclusion raises the share. | | **Recurring-entry treatment** | Card lower | The card treats recurring-entry runs as automated. A report that counts them as manual shows a higher share. | | **Fiori vs classic codes** | Card higher | The card includes the Fiori-app manual postings. A report filtered only on classic FB50 / FB60 codes shows fewer. | | **Count vs value weighting** | Either | The card weights by document count. A value-weighted report shifts with a few large manual entries. | ## Known limitations / merchant FAQs **Why is a high manual share a problem if manual postings are sometimes necessary?** Because manual postings carry risks that automated ones do not. They depend on a person entering the right accounts and amounts, they are the prime target for segregation-of-duties and management-override testing in an audit, and they are slower to prepare and review, which lengthens the close. A few manual entries for genuine accruals and corrections are healthy. A large and growing share means the ledger increasingly depends on people being right, which is exactly the dependency automation exists to remove. **What counts as a manual journal here?** Hand-keyed documents: FB50 general ledger postings, FB60 vendor invoices keyed directly, and their Fiori-app equivalents (Post General Journal Entries, Create Incoming Invoices), plus uploaded spreadsheet journals. Automated postings from SD billing, MM goods movements and logistics invoice verification, PP confirmations, and recurring-entry runs are not counted as manual even though a person may have configured them once. **Why is the threshold set at a quarter of postings?** Because beyond roughly 25% the manual share starts to signal a structural automation or controls gap rather than normal accrual and correction activity. It is a practical line that flags ledgers where manual work has grown beyond what genuine adjustments require. The exact right level varies by business, so treat a breach as a prompt to investigate the cause, not as a verdict. **The share jumped this month. What are the usual causes?** An integration that broke, so staff key entries by hand to compensate (check the IDoc and failed-posting cards), a new process or acquisition that was never automated, a heavy close with many manual accruals (check the accrual-reversals card), or a one-off project of reclassifications. The first of these is the worrying one because it means automated revenue or cost has stopped flowing and is being papered over manually. **Does a spike in FB60 specifically mean something different from FB50?** Yes. FB60 is a vendor invoice keyed by hand rather than flowing through logistics invoice verification, so a spike there suggests the procure-to-pay automation is being bypassed, which is a distinct controls concern. FB50 spikes are usually accruals, reclassifications, and corrections. Looking at which bucket grew tells you which process to examine. **Is this card the same as the FI slice on Journals by Source Module?** Closely related but not identical. The FI slice on the source-module donut includes all FI-origin postings, some of which are automated (recurring entries, system clearings). This card narrows to the hand-keyed subset and puts a threshold on it. Read the donut for the full mix and this gauge for the specific controls signal. *** ### Tracked live in Vortex IQ Nerve Centre *Manual Journals (FB50/FB60) as % of Total* is one of hundreds of KPI pulses Vortex IQ tracks across SAP and 70+ other ecommerce connectors. Nerve Centre runs the detection layer; Vortex Mind investigates the cause when something moves; Ask Viq lets you interrogate any number in plain English. [Start for free](https://app.vortexiq.ai/login) or [book a demo](https://www.vortexiq.ai/contact-us) to see this metric running on your own data.