Your comprehensive guide to the Material Ledger in SAP S/4HANA!
What happened to the Controlling Module in S/4HANA?
By now, everyone has heard about some of the major changes that occur in S/4HANA Finance, such as the Universal Journal, New Asset Accounting, mandatory Material Ledger, and so on. A huge difference between S/4HANA Finance and ECC, is the merging of the Financial Accounting (FI) and Controlling (CO) modules (the proverbial “Single Source of Truth”), and most of the Controlling functionalities are now subsumed into the Universal Journal.
Cost Flows in SAP Controlling
One of the most misunderstood aspects in all of SAP is how to analyze production variances. This is partly because SAP’s method of Product Cost Controlling is different from other accounting software systems, in that production costs are passed through the P&L as well as the Balance Sheet. And also, because production activity (Labor, Machine Time, Overhead) is tracked using Secondary Cost Elements, which are not part of your typical Financial Statements. Even some of the most seasoned cost accountants are flummoxed with how the manufacturing information is represented in Financial and Management Accounting, and how to measure price and efficiency variances. To put it simply, Production Variance Analysis involves three steps:
Creating a standard cost estimate, which calculates the expected cost to manufacture an assembly.
Collecting the Actual manufacturing costs on a manufacturing order (production order/process order /product cost collector).
Calculating the Variance, which is the difference between:
actual costs: components, labor, overhead
actual credits: value of finished goods manufactured.
SAP Product Costing Controlling Configuration and Beyond
- Look into the design aspects that are jointly owned by CO, MM and PP teams. (e.g. Resource / Work Center and their Standard Value Keys, Formulae for Activity Types).
- Review options to add freight, other incidental costs in the standard cost estimates and track actuals (e.g. Costing Sheet, Additive Costs, User exit for material valuation, Accrual pricing conditions in Purchase Order, etc.)
- Understand how to investigate and rectify messages encountered during product costing
- Deep dive into movement types and account determination, analyze MM-FI accounting flow
Variance Analysis in SAP Controlling
One of the most misunderstood aspects in all of SAP is how to analyze production variances. This is partly because SAP’s method of Product Cost Controlling is different from other accounting software systems, in that production costs are passed through the P&L as well as the Balance Sheet. And also, because production activity (Labor, Machine Time, Overhead) is tracked using Secondary Cost Elements, which are not part of your typical Financial Statements. Even some of the most seasoned cost accountants are flummoxed with how the manufacturing information is represented in Financial and Management Accounting, and how to measure price and efficiency variances. To put it simply, Production Variance Analysis involves three steps:
Creating a standard cost estimate, which calculates the expected cost to manufacture an assembly.
Collecting the Actual manufacturing costs on a manufacturing order (production order/process order /product cost collector).
Calculating the Variance, which is the difference between:
actual costs: components, labor, overhead
actual credits: value of finished goods manufactured.
Gain better Visibility of Inventory Costs within your ERP System
In the standard ERP system (and even S/4HANA) it is difficult to find reports that give you a multidimensional view of your inventory costs. Many customers download the information to Microsoft Excel or use external reporting tools such as BI to do the analysis. There is nothing wrong with these options, but sometimes they lead to reconciliation errors (in the case of Excel) or realtime update issues (in the case of BI). With the Material Ledger Activated and by utilizing an enhanced report, there are several reporting options that will give you a more granular view of your inventory values.
Q&A: Enable Cost Component Split in G/L Accounts – Before SAP S/4HANA!
The Cost Component Split allows for granularity of the cost drivers in your inventory and cost of goods sold. The cost components can be seen in various reports in Product Cost Planning and Material Ledger. However, this breakdown has not been available in the General Ledger before SAP S/4HANA. By utilizing a Custom Enhancement, the Cost Component Split by G/L Account can be available in the ECC system. This will provide suitable transparency about cost drivers in the General Ledger, particularly for companies that do not plan an S/4 conversion for a few years, and also positions them with a Splitting Structure that is compatible for an eventual S/4 Conversion. This functionality can be used to split cost components for COGS accounts as well as Inventory accounts (which means that you can get transparency into how much material stock or Fixed costs are sitting in inventory). Also, this functionality can be used whether a company uses Material Ledger or not (i.e. it can be used for Standard and/or Actual cost components). Watch this pre-recorded live Q&A with FI/CO expert Rogerio Faleiros to learn:
The things to consider when deciding whether to split COGS in the G/L Accounts.
How to map the original COGS account to the Cost Component Split Accounts.
A demo of the Cost Component G/L Split program and how to view the General Ledger postings.
The Reports that can be used to display the COGS documents that have been split.
Introducing the Material Ledger in SAP S/4HANA: Functionality and Configuration
Learn the basics of the Material Ledger in SAP S/4HANA! Explore processes such as actual costing, balance sheet valuation, and COGS valuation—and how they’ve changed since SAP ERP.
Q&A: What You Should Know About Converting to Material Ledger
THIS PRESENTATION WITH Paul Ovigele WILL COVER:
How to prepare your system for a Material Ledger conversion.
What questions you need to ask when considering which Material Ledger functionality will be beneficial to your organization.
What criteria you can use to determine whether to convert to Material Ledger before or after an S/4 HANA conversion.
Typical mistakes that occur with a Material Ledger implementation.
What is the recommended point in time in the month/year to convert to Material Ledger?
Speaker:
Paul Ovigele, FI/CO Expert
Watch the prerecorded webcast by pressing play:
Q: Can you activate an additional currencies alongside a Material Ledger conversion?
A: You can activate parallel currencies alongside an ML conversion, but if you want historical data to be populated with the parallel currencies, you will need to do an SLO conversion as well
Q: Can you phase a Material Ledger conversion, for example based on one or more company codes, at different times?• Does Actual Costing work with Split Valuation?
A: Yes, you can phase a Material Ledger conversion, one company code at a time, as long as all plants in that company are converted as well. Note that if you do this, and if you use actual costing, the variances from a "non-ML activated" company will not be transferred to the company that has Ml active. Also note that if you are moving to S/4 HANA you have no choice but to activate all companies.
Q: When you migrate historical data to Material Ledger, does this mean that prior postings are revalued to Actual Cost?
A: No. The migration of historical data only translates Inventory and Purchase Order history into parallel currencies. It does not revalue inventory to Actual Cost retrospectively
Q: Is it better to convert to Material Ledger before or after migrating to S/4 HANA?
A: It depends. If there is a business requirement to have Material Ledger before an S/4 HANA conversion, then it is better to convert beforehand so that you can get used to the functionality.
Q: Does this also include PM orders and other orders not just PP orders?
A: Conversion to ML is for Manufacturing Orders and not PP orders. This is because Manufacturing Orders lead to the creation of inventory (settlement rule type is "MAT") while PP Orders are usually settled to a Cost Center.
Q: By Closed you mean CLSD the Orders?
A: It is better to either archive or set the deletion flag (DLFL) or Deletion Indicator to the production orders, so that they are not considered for an ML Conversion.
Q: Even costing view is changed too when data is converted for ML....correct?
A: Only the Accounting 1 view of the Material master is changed when you convert to Material Ledger. At this point, the Costing View remains the same.
Q: What if RM price control is V? Does this need to be converted to S?
A: If the Raw Material price Control is "V" (Moving Average, it does not need to be changed to "S" (Standard Cost) if you are not doing Actual Costing. However, if the Price Control is "V" then you will not be able to run the Actual Costing program at the end of the month (this is because the Materials with "V" are already at an "Actual Cost". Note that for several reasons (including the timing of Goods Receipts of Raw Materials relative to their consumption in Finished Goods), SAP recommends that if you are using Actual Costing, ALL Materials should have a price control of "S".
Q: This slide of tables old and new applies if ML is already active but transfer to HANA?
A: It depends. If the Old tables begin with "CKML…" or "ML…", then they only relate to companies with ML already active. However, the old tables like MKPF, MSEG, MBEW, QBEW, OBEW, etc. apply to everyone.
Q: What if ML is not active but changing to S4 HANA which has ML? Then how tables from Old ECC tables to New tables?
A: In that case the old ECC tables affected will be the xBEW(H) tables as well as the MKPF, MSEG and PO History tables will populate their respective ML Tables
Q: If Std. Cost (VPRS) is used for COPA , then how Actual cost is linked to COPA?
A: If you are in the ECC system (or use Costing Based CO-PA in S/4 HANA) there are configuration steps which can link the Actual Cost to COPA value fields. Note that these steps do not depend on the Sales Condition. Basically, they take the Actual Cost per unit and multiply by the quantity shipped. Transaction KE27 is then run to populate the respective Value fields. For Account Based CO-PA in S/4 HANA, the Cost of Sales Account (or Cost Component Accounts) are revalued by their proportional variances in Material Ledger.
Q: We have multiple controlling areas (one controlling area per company code) as per old SAP design. Do we need to first convert to single controlling area before activating Material Ledger. We are on ECC 6 EHP8.
A: It is technically possible to activate Material Ledger, even if you have multiple controlling areas. However, SAP is moving customers towards consolidating their Controlling Areas (either by using Central Finance or via a Greenfield implementation) so it is better to convert to a single Controlling Area first. Also, with multiple Controlling Areas, any transfers between companies in different controlling areas will not lead to a revaluation of cost in the receiving Controlling Area.
Q: How can FIFO be used with the Material Ledger and Actual Costing?
A: FIFO can be used with or without Material Ledger. There are several configuration steps for this. However, with Material Ledger, the FIFO layers will be based on Actual Cost.
Q: Where to switch off Statistical MAP in ECC?
A: This is done in S/4 HANA with the program "SAPRCKM_NO_EXCLUSIVELY_LOCKING"
Q: Our client wants to convert to actual costing in S4 but they want to know if it is possible to change standard price for materials and activities within the period instead of during month end?
A: Yes, you can change the standard price mid-month in S/4 HANA. Note however, that this leads to mid-month revaluation of inventory which will be adjusted when the Actual Cost is run.
Q: If you don't have actual activity prices until the end of the year, could we go back through and post actual activity prices retroactively for periods 1-12 and use this cumulative AVR to rerun actual costing where it would take these actual activity price differences from the prior periods into account to calculate actual costs as of 12/31.
A: I have not tried this before, but it is possible in theory. The Alternative Valuation Run (AVR) can cumulate the costs from previous months and apply its own logic to the cost calculation. The thing you need to use Parallel COGM to calculate the new Activity price, or if you can use the same ledger for this purpose.
WHAT IS "ASK A FIXER" WEBCAST SERIES?
Ask a Fixer is a live ASUG-hosted Q&A session with one of ERPfixers’ top-rated SAP experts (“Fixers”) in a specific module or topic. In this real-time discussion session, you have the opportunity to pose your specific questions to a Fixer, who will provide an immediate answer during the forum. This is a great way to get quick answers to your pressing issues, as well as learn from questions posted by other users during the forum.
Ask A Fixer: What You Should Know About Converting to Material Ledger
EXCLUSIVELY FOR ASUG MEMBERS!
Start: Wednesday, October 31st, 2018 12:00 PM (CT), 1:00 PM (ET), 11:00 AM (MT), 10:00 AM (PT)
End: Wednesday, October 31st, 2018 1:00 PM (CT), 2:00 PM (ET), 12:00 PM (MT), 11:00 AM (PT)
There are many benefits from implementing Material Ledger, such as better accuracy of Cost Reporting, more granularity of Cost of Sales, ability to view inventory in multiple currencies and valuation views, and so on. This is one of the reasons that over percent of SAP customers are using Material Ledger and why it is now required in S/4 HANA. Having said that, there are still a lot of companies that are nervous about transitioning to Material Ledger because of the potential workload of converting the data from their current tables to the Material Ledger tables. Attend with webcast with Material Ledger expert, and author of the book “Introducing the Material Ledger in SAP S/4HANA” Paul Ovigele to learn the following:
How to prepare your system for a Material Ledger conversion.
What questions you need to ask when considering which Material Ledger functionality will be beneficial to your organization.
What criteria you can use to determine whether to convert to Material Ledger before or after an S/4 HANA conversion.
Typical mistakes that occur with a Material Ledger implementation.
What is the recommended point in time in the month/year to convert to Material Ledger?
Speaker(s):
Paul Ovigele, FI/CO Expert, ERPfixers
WHAT IS "ASK A FIXER" WEBCAST SERIES?
Ask a Fixer is a live ASUG-hosted Q&A session with one of ERPfixers’ top-rated SAP experts (“Fixers”) in a specific module or topic. In this real-time discussion session, you have the opportunity to pose your specific questions to a Fixer, who will provide an immediate answer during the forum. This is a great way to get quick answers to your pressing issues, as well as learn from questions posted by other users during the forum.
If you cannot attend: The webcast will be recorded. The link to the recording is HERE and is also emailed to all registrants.
Q&A: What’s New in Transfer Pricing and Actual Costing in S/4 HANA
GET ANSWERS TO THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS AND MANY MORE IN THIS CO-HOSTED ASUG WEBCAST.
This presentation with Janet Salmon, Chief Product Owner Management Accounting at SAP, will cover:
What are the latest changes to Transfer Pricing and Actual Costing in S/4 HANA?
How is Material Ledger Connected with the Universal Journal?
What are the Currency and Valuation options for Material Ledger in S/4 HANA?
What is the difference between Single Valuation and Multi Valuation Ledgers
What Fiori reports can be utilized for Actual Costing and Transfer Pricing?
Watch the prerecorded webcast by pressing play:
Q&A questions answered by Janet Salmon.
Q: Do we need to convert to ML before moving to S/4 HANA?
A: No you do not. The conversion to ML will take place automatically as you convert to S/4HANA. However, if you want to add valuation views (such as introducing group valuation) you should do that prior to converting to S/4HANA.
Q: When we move to S/4 HANA, and we have custom reports will we need to modify the reports to map to the new tablets or are there new compatibility views?
A: No Compatibility views for Actual Costing.
Q: If we move to S/4 HANA and we want to activate group valuation, do we need to do an SLO beforehand or can we convert automatically when we go to S/4 HANA?
A: It is best to do the SLO conversion in your local system and then migrate. It is on the roadmap to activate Group Valuation when you convert to S/4 HANA, but there is not yet a scheduled delivery date for such tools.
Q: Since there are now 8 currencies in the Universal Journal, does that mean that we can combine each of these currencies with any of the valuation views?
A: In principle, yes. You have always had the choice of keeping group valuation in group currency (31) or local currency (11) and some customers are looking at keeping group valuation in functional area currency. Beware however that Actual Costing currently only handles three currencies and any additional currencies will be converted on the fly at the time of the posting run.
Q: Will the Actual Costing have the availability to integrate FIFO valuation via using an alternative valuation method thru config using the "Key Figure Scheme" defining an External ending Inventory Valuation ....using FIFO.
A: You can set up an alternative valuation run that reads FIFO values or enter values for valuation in table CKMLPR_EB.
Q: Do we have information by storage location?
A: "In the Material tables you do, but no, Actual Costing does not split by storage location, only by Procurement alternative, and type of stock.
Q: Can we turn on Transfer Pricing & Multiple Valuations AFTER an S/4 Conversion / Migration?
A: At the moment, no. We get a lot of questions about this, but right now you need to do the SLO first and then migrate
Q: Please repeat OSS note numbers again.
A: You can always find OSS notes relating to the S/4 conversion by searching S4TWL. See https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/2267834, https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/2332591, https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/2354768 and https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/2337383
Q: As ML will be active for all company codes, will CKM3N be available for units without actual cost?
A: If units do not have actual cost, the Information will exist in CKM3N but you will not have the cost component split and no quantity structure being updated.
Q: Having calculated the IC Profit does SAP provide any support for deferred tax calculation on Profit in Transfer Price till the goods are sold to 3rd party.
A: If units do not have actual cost, the Information will exist in CKM3N but you will not have the cost component split and no quantity structure being updated.
Q: I assume the IC profit can only be eliminated if the affiliate entities are on the same instance of SAP, correct?
A: At the moment, the requirement for multilevel Actual Costing is that all entities are on the same instance. Central Finance can be used, to bring the financials into a single instance, but at the moment, you cannot eliminate IC profit if the entities are on different instances.
Q: When converting to S4 Hana, only the current year, plus the previous year, plus Dec of the year before that is migrated to S4, why only those periods?
A: That sounds like a Central Finance conversion, where only data from the most recent years is included in the initial load. If it is a Universal Journal conversion it should convert all the history (every document on the system).
Q: If my consolidation tool is BPC where the elimination occurs, can the group currency in S/4 incorporate these eliminations from BPC?
A: Elimination will happen in the consolidation tool. Going forward SAP working out what you can do locally versus in the consolidation tool. There is movement in this area to determine where you can do consolidation. The difference between a value chain consolidation and a typical legal consolidation is that with Group Valuation you are looking at elimination on a very granular material by material level.
Q: Is there any tool today or on the roadmap that helps drive transfer pricing determination?
A: For the actual calculation for transfer prices, at the moment there is no tool on the Roadmap. You would need to use a separate tool for this. Things might change but not at the moment.
Q: We produce aircraft, we activated ML-ACT but company is thinking on deactivate ACT because of the complexity, specifically on the accounting side. What is your recommendation? Is going to be less complex on HANA?
A: We would need to look at the situation specifically as it requires a little more information to understand the requirement better. It is hard to make a generalization without understanding the business. It should be easier because everything is on one table, but we need more information.
Q: Has any move been made to make inventory issued to vendor or inventory issued to customer non-plant specific?
A: Not that I know of. But we may need more background of the requirement.
Q: Is GAAP conversion inbuilt (i.e. IFRS/ Global GAAP vs Local GAAP views)?
A: You can add additional ledgers retrospectively now (subsequent implementation of an additional accounting principle).
Q&A: What You Should Know About Material Ledger in S/4 HANA
GET ANSWERS TO THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS AND MANY MORE IN THIS CO-HOSTED ASUG WEBCAST.
This presentation by Paul Ovigele and Rogerio Faleiros will cover:
Why Material Ledger is Mandatory with S/4 HANA
The difference between using Material ledger for Actual Costing and Parallel Valuation
The improvements that have been made to the Actual Costing closing cockpit
The improved reporting that exists for Material ledger within SAP S/4HANA
Migrating to Material Ledger in S/4 HANA
Watch the prerecorded webcast by pressing play:
Q&A questions answered by ERPfixers expert Fixers Rogerio Faleiros & Paul Ovigele.
Q: So any MB type transaction where a BDC is used will need to be reworked then correct?
A: Yes, any transactions that began with MB… (e.g. MB1C, MB1A, etc.) are now replaced with MIGO, and therefore any BDC sessions would need to be updated accordingly. It is better to transfer this transaction to a BADI or BAPI
Q: Can we use material ledger with different fiscal year variant than core ledger (FI) ?
A: There is no concept of a Fiscal year variant in Material Ledger itself. Fiscal year variants are based on Ledgers in the Universal Journal. If you use Multi-valuation Ledger, then your Fiscal Year variant of the leading ledger will be the same in all Valuations of material ledger. If you use Single Valuation Ledger, then you should be able to have different Fiscal Year variants for the different ledgers (which represent separate valuation views in the Material ledger).
Q: Another question is do we need to close actual costing before we start posting in new period?
A: No. In both S/4 HANA and ECC, you will normally be closing actual costing after the new period has been opened. One of the reasons for this is that the Actual Costing “Post Closing” step reversed the inventory postings with a posting date of the beginning of the new period, therefore this new period needs to be open.
Q: Does ML in S/4 HANA allow negative inventory?
A: ML in S/4 HANA allows negative inventory, however, this needs to be specified in the Material Master and MM Period opening program.
Q: Is it easier to change Material Type or Valuation Classes than in ECC6?
A: As far as I know, there is no difference with the process of changing Material Type or Valuation classes, as with in ECC 6.0.
Q: The same question about actual material ledger activated and Transfer Price, any point for attention?
A: The configuration for activating Material Ledger is the same as in ECC. One difference is that you need to specify the FI currency types that you want to use in ML. this is because FI now has eight extra currency types, while ML has only three. Transfer Pricing has been much more streamlined with S/4 HANA and you now have the option of having a separate ledger for each valuation view.
Q: Can you explain the differences from ECC to 1709 for how to setup LIFO or other balance sheet valuations? Any thoughts on how to automate LIFO calculations?
A: To calculate LIFO you will need to define an accounting principle and assign LIFO method to it, and this assinged to material ledger.
Q: Everything was shown using the classic GUI. Are there Fiori apps to process material ledger yet?
A: There are a few Fiori apps such as “Material Inventory Values” which can be used to view the data in the ML tables, however, there isn’t a Fiori App to process Material Ledger as of yet.
Q: Are the MBEW EBEW tables going to be maintained as "views" in S/4Hana, or are they deleted?
A: Yes, the MBEW, EBEW, etc. tables will be maintained as compatibility views so that they can still be read with custom programs.
Q: Similar question, are the old ML tables MLHD, MLIT CKMLPP maintained as "views so that old programs & reports still work in S/4Hana?
A: Yes, these old ML tables are also maintained as compatibility views in S/4 HANA.
Q: Do we have to do new ML config before we execute the Migration steps?
A: yes, you at least need to reconfigure the currency type, if you used 0000. Also there is a new account modification PRL which is to be set up as the offset account key that is used for cost center credit posting (GBB-AUI).
Q: Is it mandatory to activate ML if I don't have it in my company?
Yes, it is mandatory to activate ML when you move to S/4 HANA even if you did not have it in ECC. Remember however, that Material Ledger is replacing the tables that were used in ECC for Inventory Valuation, therefore there probably is already relevant data in your current system for Material Ledger, even if you do not have it activated. Material Ledger is now the new subledger for inventory valuation but you do not have to activate Actual Costing, if it is not needed.
Q: What is the impact of activating ML in ECC before moving to S/4 if you don't have ML activated for materials?
A: If you want to activate ML in ECC before moving to S/4, you will need to perform a conversion of Inventory Valuation and Purchase Order history tables to Material Ledger tables. Note that, this this will need to be done anyway when you eventually move to S/4 HANA. The difference is that converting before hand gives the business some time to get used to material Ledger functionality, fosters user adoption, and provides historical information that can be accessed when you move to S/4 HANA. Note that if you Activate Actual Costing in ECC, the Actual Costing Run (CKMLCP) will be revamped when you move to S/4 HANA.
Q: What are steps we need to do before migrating ML from ECC to S4 Hana?
A: ML is now part of the conversion steps for S/4 HANA, so the ML activation will be included in the migration process. What is more important is that you understand how you can leverage Material Ledger functionality, and plan and design your S/4 HANA migration accordingly. You can take advantage of the Multi-valuation or Single valuation ledger approach; Company Code transfer pricing; Profit Center Transfer Pricing; Alternative Valuation Run to cumulate prices over several periods; Revaluing Inventory according to FIFO, LIFO, or NRV prices; and much more. Once you come up with the functionalities that will be beneficial to your business, you can then set up the system accordingly.
Q: Do we have view to old tables?
A: You can view the old Inventory and ML tables because the custom programs which accessed these tables will be able to access the compatibility views of these tables so that there is no disruption. However, you will not be able to write new data to these old tables.
Q: We use FIFO calculation and are there any steps we need to take care during Migration?
A: No it is the same process as a company that does not use FIFO.
Q: We are moving to Hana Enterprise Cloud first just o get to more current platform than our old ECC6. will upgrade of material ledger come along with that, or not until we do the upgrade to S/4 Hana which will follow this system upgrade?
A: The new functionality of Material Ledger is only available with S/4 HANA. Even if you have HEC, this will only enable faster processing and reporting in the current ECC system but not add any extra functionality.
Q: Hi - Does the COGS split happen for the COGS variances also since ML has the variances data for this?
A: As of now, the COGS split (or Cost Component Split for Cost of Sales) does not happen with COGS variances. Instead, the Variance Categories (Input Price, Input Quantity, Resource Usage, etc.) can now be mapped to separate accounts in the Universal Journal.
Q: Will there be new functionality on non-distributed items?
A: Due to the revamped processing logic in Material Ledger on S/4 HANA, the “Not Distributed” items have been seriously reduced.
Q: Can we have material ledger activate for variant material (variant configuration active)?
A: Yes, you can have Material Ledger active along with Variant Configuration, in both ECC and S/4 HANA.
Q: We are currently on SAP ECC 6.0 on HANA with material ledger active. Will we have any disruption if we migrate to S/4?
A: No, there should not be any problem with migrating to ML on S/4 when you are already on the HANA database. You may not see much of a difference with the processing speed, since you already have the fast database, but you will go through the S/4 migration as normal and be able to leverage the new functionalities.
Q: We are on SAP ECC 6.0 on HANA with Material Ledger and Split Valuation active. Any anything we need to worry?
A: There should be no negative impact of having Material ledger and Split valuation when you move to S/4 HANA.
Q: Does ML or Actual costing support LIFO calc?
A: Yes, this is based on accounting principle.
Q: Does ML have capability to have LIFO valuation in parallel with FIFO valuation?
A: You have the option to have one material ledger run (e.g. CKMLCP) as FIFO and a second one using alternative valuation run (e.g. CKMLCPAVR) as LIFO.
Q: In ECC, the customer is able to choose whether the revolution will be done inside or outside ML. Is that option available in ML S/4 HANA?
A: If you use Actual Costing with S/4 HANA, you will need to run the Actual Costing program every month in ML. You can choose whether you want to revalue inventory with the actual cost or not. If however, you do not want to revalue inventory within ML (but say, in another system) then this will need to be a separate customized process.
Q: In ECC, the customer is able to use one single PRD Account. 3 or 4 slides before the end of the presentation, there is a slide with some hints about variances accounts and I am wondering whether in S/4 HANA we would be able to configure more than one single PRD Account. Is that possible? For instance: Price Variance, Freight Variance, etc...
A: At the moment, there is still no distinction between the cost components of a Price Variance Account. The COGS accounts can be split into different accounts by Cost Components, but this logic does not yet apply to inventory variance accounts. The slide being referred to is about the combining of single and multilevel price and exchange rate variances, and thereby not needing account keys PRV and KDV.
Q: I am presuming there is a package of transactions for conversion from ECC to S/4 HANA. Is that correct? Any information about it?
A: Yes , with the S/4 HANA migration there is a specific cockpit for Material ledger. This can be found in SAP Notes 2694618 and 2352383
Q&A questions answered by ERPfixers expert Fixers Rogerio Faleiros & Paul Ovigele.
Author: Rogerio Faleiros
Rogerio is an independent SAP consultant specializing in controlling functionality. He has worked with SAP technology for more than 10 years, implementing controlling solutions in the food processing, chemical, construction and agribusiness industries. Roger has been working with IFRS and integration with product costing and material ledger minimizing the impact of the changes in SAP for companies in different locations.He has participated in rollouts in several countries such as United States, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Turkey, UK, France, Spain, Egypt, UAE, India Sweden and Finland. Rogerio has an MBA in IT from Getulio Vargas Foundation and is a frequent presenter providing training for new consultants in Brazil. Rogerio is the author of Configuring Controlling in SAP ERP.
Purchase Paul’s latest book, “Material Ledger in SAP S/4HANA: Functionality and Configuration”.
Explanation of FI Line Item Texts created by Material Ledger
If you use Material Ledger’s Actual Costing, then you would know that the Post Closing Step creates accounting documents depending on how the variances for the Material have been distributed. For example, a material with a price (or exchange rate) difference of $100 could be sold, scrapped, used in a production order that is complete, used in a production order that is not complete, transferred to another plant, or left in inventory. And this only refers to the differences that are created on the material itself (single-level), and not the differences that are transferred from other materials (multilevel) which have their own slew of Material Ledger postings.
Because of this, it is easy to be overwhelmed by the volume of postings that are created by the Material Ledger’s closing entry and what they mean. Some companies choose to label the General ledger accounts appropriately to indicate what the posting is for, but if you do not understand the posting, it is easy to incorrectly label the General Ledger account. Also, you may not need a separate general ledger account for each scenario as that may lead to more General Ledger accounts than you need, and may create even more confusion.
Believe it or not, SAP does try to provide guidance on what each Material Ledger posting is for. It does so by inserting texts into each line item posting to indicate what it is (as described in SAP Note 2397606). The problem, is that these text explanations are sometimes cryptic and do not provide much clarity on what the posting is for. Also, there is very little information (online or elsewhere) that gives a more meaningful explanation for these text descriptions.
In the table below, I will try to explain (as best as I can) what texts are shown in the FI line items created by Material Ledger and what they mean.
Actual Cost Component Split for Multiple Materials
Cost Component Split allows you to view a breakdown of your cost according to its building blocks such as Raw Materials, Labor, Overhead, Freight, etc. This functionality is even more powerful if you use Material Ledger’s Actual costing functionality. With Material Ledger activated, you can get a really transparent view of your actual costs across the supply chain and easily analyze the variances between standard and actual cost.
SAP provides a few reports (such as CKM3 and MLCCSPD) that show you the cost components per material. The problem with these reports is that they only show the cost components for one material at a time. This is very inconvenient when you are trying to do an analysis of all the materials in a plant or company. The only other option is to use BI/BW. The problem here is that not every company uses this application, and even those that do, still prefer the reports to be realtime and within the ECC system.
With an enhanced report provided by ERPfixers and our partners RFERP, you can see standard and actual cost components for multiple materials, as well as several different dimensions such as:
Cost Components, by Material group, Material Type, Plant, Profit Center, Company Code, and many more.
Comparison between Standard Cost Component and Actual Cost Component for multiple materials;
Cost Components for multiple materials for multiple periods;
Cost Components for different currency types/valuations;
Beginning and Ending Inventory quantities and values for multiple dimensions;
Released standard and actual cost components by multiple materials
Easy reconciliation back to standard SAP reports
This is a flexible drilldown report which a user can easily “Slice and Dice” according to their requirements, without the need for extra IT help or external consulting.
Take a look at the below video to see some features of the report:
If you have any questions about pricing or further features, please email us at info@erpfixers.com.
Q&A: So, What's the Deal with Material Ledger?
If there is any SAP topic that sends shivers down the spines of end users and experts alike, it is Material Ledger. There seems to be a lot of confusion around what is does, when you should use it and how to interpret its results. What's more, Material Ledger has integration points with several modules such as Financial Accounting, Profitability Analysis, Materials Management, Sales and Distribution and Production Planning, and therefore, it has a pervasive impact on the system.
View the Live Q&A with two Material Ledger experts, Paul Ovigele and Rogerio Faleiros, where you can see some of the most pressing questions such as:
- What is the best way to get Material Ledger reports out of the system?
- Is Material Ledger needed in order to move to S/4 HANA?
- How long does a Material Ledger project take?
- Does material ledger work with materials valued at moving average price?
- Why does Material Ledger not distribute some variances?
- Can we use Material Ledger without Actual Costing
Ask a Fixer: So, What's the Deal with Material Ledger?
Attend this live Q&A with two Material Ledger experts, Paul Ovigele and Rogerio Faleiros, where you can ask your most pressing questions such as:
- What is the best way to get Material Ledger reports out of the system?
- Is Material Ledger needed in order to move to S/4 HANA?
- How long does a Material Ledger project take?
- Does material ledger work with materials valued at moving average price?
- Why does Material Ledger not distribute some variances?
- Can we use Material Ledger without Actual Costing
Specifications for Actual Cost Components Report in Material Ledger
We need to create a specification for a programmer to create a report in Material Ledger. Get the solution to this SAP question by visiting the ERPfixers blog.
Material Ledger with Purchase Account Management
Typically Purchase Accounting is required for legal reporting in certain countries where companies need to present a purchase register to statutory reporting.