Hi Raghu
I will try to explain here. Lets take the case of bad debts in which case an alternative recon account is always used.
Say your client policy is that if a customer is overdue for 90 days, it is treated as bad debt. For 90-180 days, you need a provision of 50% and more than 180 days, you write off as bad debt.
Suppose customer A has an overdue of 90 days for an amount. The amount is lying as Debit customer in the normal recon account as open item. Once 90 days limit is reached and it has become a doubtful receivable, you run F103 transaction which clears the open item from the normal recon account and posts the same amount as open item to the SPL G/L recon account. It is only once this transfer happens that F104 run can make the 50% provision needed. Hence, we always run F103 before F104.
In simple terms, Spl G/L recon account is nothing but an easier way to seperate your normal receivables which are in the normal recon accounts from the doubtful receivables which are in your spl G/L recon accounts. So, when you look at your spl G/L recon account you know exactly which receivables are doubtful. Please remember that there is no difference in the treatment on balance sheet i.e. both the type of recon accounts appear on the same side when you report.
Regards
Sowmya