Globally, the technology space is changing fast and as such, the business enterprise systems are under immense pressure not only to keep up with these advances in technology but also the agile needs of business organizations and their desire to improve efficiency while simplifying business processes. It is with this regard that SAP embarked on a journey in 2015 to offer its customers new improved best practices, a simple and intuitive user interface coupled with faster processing speeds and embedded analytics powered by SAP S/4HANA. SAP, therefore, announced in 2015 that all its customers that the support for the SAP ERP will be ending by the close of 2025. According to a survey carried out by a market research firm IDC, 73 percent of surveyed businesses were planning to migrate into SAP S/4HANA, 18 percent currently deploying and 54 percent of SAP customers were planning to migrate in the next 3 years. Whether this is a sale strategy by SAP or not, we seek to evaluate what this migration means to the existing SAP customers and the expected changes.
Planning Your Finance Migration From SAP ECC to SAP S/4HANA
To help organizations through the SAP ECC to SAP S/4HANA journey, ERPFIXERS and Winshuttle have joined forces for a webinar to discuss our views on the tools, tricks, and processes that can help companies.
Watch this webinar to understand the complex challenges and choices involved in making the finance transition from ECC to S/4HANA as smooth as possible.
Journal Entry Fiori Upload
The purpose of JE posting is to take a batch, validate it for consistency, and create FI documents and post those entries in various line item accounts needed for subsequent business processing.
JE Posting is a process that with a few exceptions runs "behind the scenes" (without user dialog) and is the heart of Journal Entry. It receives journal entry data (representing financial transactions) from the PRA modules (Valuation, Revenue Distribution, etc.), and summarizes them in batches and posts them to the PRA JE line item tables and to SAP FI. JE Posting is the link between the journal entries coming from PRA applications and the FI documents and JE line item table items that are created.
The JE Posting Module is automatically called by the various PRA application areas. For example, whenever you create a Valuation, Revenue Distribution, Checkwrite, Check Input, Tax and Royalty, Owner Suspense, or Accounts Receivable document, the JE Posting Process is automatically triggered, but the standard postings limited in such a way that it can’t handle mass upload of the JE records for various business needs like periodically post entire leasing documents and costs associated to it into SAP FI . Also, the standard SAP JE backend upload program provides the ability to rejected / errored out entries corrected online and it is a manual and tedious effort. This can be simplified by using this JE Fiori upload application by mass upload of the rejected records by downloading, correcting and uploading again
The need is to have an JE Fiori upload application so that the end users can validate, park / post the various financial records into SAP FI with ease , simplified and with great user experience.
Accelerated Accounting Close Can Fix So Many Problems!
The year-end close process is one of the important activities of companies. End users spend most of the time on reconciliations, collecting and validating the data from different components of the same company code or multiple company codes reconciling intercompany activities, reconciling accounts, and making necessary adjustments, finally producing the financial statements. Even today many companies are following outdated & poor closing processes using excel sheets. This paper is aimed to provide an overview on closing processes in SAP S/4 HANA, so companies can shorten the Accounting close and helps faster decision making
Data Migration in S/4 HANA Finance
Learn step by step how to migrate data in SAP S/4 HANA, and take advantage of reliable migration approaches built in.
Lessons Learned: Addition of New Depreciation Areas - Opening of Prior Fiscal Years
Needing to introduce new depreciation areas in SAP Asset Accounting? Not specifying a date interval for depreciation parameters can have far-reaching consequences. Learn why from one of our SAP experts!
Fiori Advancements in Financial Closing Cockpit in S/4HANA
Period end closing is always a critical and high visibility item in any ERP. The timely and effective monitoring and control of period end closing is top most need for the finance department. For this purpose, you must process a sequence of interdependent steps diligently in a specific and well-defined order. Entities use various tools for this, ranging from excel to more sophisticated tools like SAP Financial Closing Cockpit, Blackline’s Runbook etc.
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.
Ask A Fixer: Enable Cost Component Split in G/L Accounts – Before SAP S/4HANA!
Attend this 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: Setting Up Transfer Pricing Between Plants
Transfer pricing is a widely used functionality which sets a price between affiliated entities. It is typically setup for cross border transactions and need to conform with the tax laws in the respective countries. However, in SAP Transfer Pricing can also be set up between profit centers (and plants). In this regard it is used as an internal mechanism that treats every transfer between profit centers as a sale and helps facilitate full management reporting by a plant, or group of plants.
Attend this live Q&A with FI/CO expert Paul Ovigele, to learn the following:
What needs to be set up for Transfer Pricing between Profit Centers?
How is standard cost calculated for Profit center Transfer Pricing?
How does a Transfer Pricing Posting look in the profit center View?
What are the options to convert to Profit Center Transfer Pricing in S/4 HANA?
S/4HANA Cloud (S4HC) Implementation: Key Watch-Outs For a Seasoned On-Premise Consultant
With SAP being a 46+ year old company, most of the SAP consultants are seasoned in on-premise world having deep knowledge and expertise in configuring systems, designing SAP according to business needs and following various implementation approaches. Now S/4HANA cloud version is gaining popularity and very useful in various scenarios, like professional services, affiliates of larger enterprises as two-tier implementation etc., so learning how it is different from on-premise world is useful. (Also refer blog “Critical insight into S/4HANA Cloud compared to S/4HANA On Premise” showing some differences in S/4HANA cloud vs S/4HANA on-premise.)
Let’s observe some key watch-outs in a S4HC implementation:
Ask A Fixer: Setting Up Transfer Pricing Between Plants
EXCLUSIVELY FOR ASUG MEMBERS!
Start: Wednesday, February 20th, 2018 12:00 PM (CT), 1:00 PM (ET), 11:00 AM (MT), 10:00 AM (PT)
End: Wednesday, February 20th, 2018 1:00 PM (CT), 2:00 PM (ET), 12:00 PM (MT), 11:00 AM (PT)
Transfer pricing is a widely used functionality which sets a price between affiliated entities. It is typically setup for cross border transactions and need to conform with the tax laws in the respective countries. However, in SAP Transfer Pricing can also be set up between profit centers (and plants). In this regard it is used as an internal mechanism that treats every transfer between profit centers as a sale and helps facilitate full management reporting by a plant, or group of plants.
Attend this live Q&A with FI/CO expert Paul Ovigele, to learn the following:
What needs to be set up for Transfer Pricing between Profit Centers?
How is standard cost calculated for Profit center Transfer Pricing?
How does a Transfer Pricing Posting look in the profit center View?
What are the options to convert to Profit Center Transfer Pricing in S/4 HANA?
Speaker:
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 will be posted here and emailed to all registrants.
Q&A: Deep Dive into the Universal Journal
By now, everyone has heard about the Universal Journal. It is a revolutionary change of the table structures in the Financials modules. Although the conceptual understanding is widely spread, how about the practical aspects of it? How can you get better, more integrated Realtime reports across the various modules such as Financial Accounting, Controlling, Material ledger and Profitability Analysis among others?
Watch this prerecorded Webcast Q&A with FI/CO expert Paul Ovigele, to learn the following:
How does the Universal Journal replace previous FI/CO reporting?
What reporting options do you have with the Universal Journal Table ACDOCA ?
What are the new functionalities of S/4 HANA that can be viewed in the Universal Journal?
What are the Multidimensional Capabilities of the Universal Journal?
Ask A Fixer: Deep Dive into the Universal Journal
EXCLUSIVELY FOR ASUG MEMBERS!
Start: Thursday, January 31st, 2018 12:00 PM (CT), 1:00 PM (ET), 11:00 AM (MT), 10:00 AM (PT)
End: Thursday, January 31st, 2018 1:00 PM (CT), 2:00 PM (ET), 12:00 PM (MT), 11:00 AM (PT)
By now, everyone has heard about the Universal Journal. It is a revolutionary change of the table structures in the Financials modules. Although the conceptual understanding is widely spread, how about the practical aspects of it? How can you get better, more integrated Realtime reports across the various modules such as Financial Accounting, Controlling, Material ledger and Profitability Analysis among others?
Attend this live Q&A with FI/CO expert Paul Ovigele, to learn the following:
How does the Universal Journal replace previous FI/CO reporting?
What reporting options do you have with the Universal Journal Table ACDOCA ?
What are the new functionalities of S/4 HANA that can be viewed in the Universal Journal?
What are the Multidimensional Capabilities of the Universal Journal?
Speaker:
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 will be posted here and emailed to all registrants.
Securing SAP Fiori
This article is an excerpt from Securing SAP S/4HANA, courtesy of Espresso Tutorials.
Securing Fiori
SAP Fiori is a new user experience (UX) for SAP software and applications. It provides a set of applications that are used in regular business functions such as work approvals, financial apps, calculation apps, and various self-service apps. The SAP user interface, or SAP GUI as we know it today, was first introduced in 1992 together with the official release of SAP R/3. SAP R/3, the client server edition, was the successor to the SAP R/2 release, the mainframe edition. Although SAP has made several attempts to modernize SAP GUI, an end user from the time it was introduced would still find their way around today. Many transactions and screens have remained the same or changed very little. Since the initial release of SAP GUI, SAP has released several alternative user interfaces such as the SAP Workplace (which was part of the mySAP.com offering), the SAP Enterprise Portal, and the NetWeaver Business Client or NWBC. None were as successful as SAP GUI except, perhaps, for the NetWeaver Business Client. The NetWeaver Business Client is, however, an extension to the SAP GUI. The conclusion of all this is that although many people complained about the old-fashioned look of SAP GUI, they kept using it and will probably continue to do so in the future. But there is no denying the fact that the user community is changing fast. The SAP users of tomorrow are the youngsters of today, who are used to accessing data from their mobile devices. To them, SAP GUI is a relic from the dark ages. This shift is not limited to youngsters—many end users want data access from any device, from any place, at any time. SAP released SAP Fiori to respond to this demand. SAP Fiori is built using modern design principles you might expect from applications designed for smartphones and tablets. There are already more than 500 role-based Fiori applications such as for HR, Finance, and Business Intelligence. An SAP Fiori application is always limited to a specific task or activity. The design is responsive and deployable on multiple platforms. There are three types of SAP Fiori applications: transactional apps, fact sheets, and analytical apps. SECURING FIORI 46
Transactional or task-based applications
The transactional SAP Fiori applications are limited to specific tasks such as entering a holiday request or expense note. They give end users fast access to data and represent a simplified view of an existing business process or workflow.
Fact sheets
Fact sheets have far more capabilities than transactional applications. From a fact sheet, you can drill down into the details. You can even navigate from one fact sheet to another or jump to the related transactional applications. For fact sheets, the underlying database must be SAP HANA. An example of a fact sheet is an application that shows the overview and details of a piece of equipment and its maintenance schedule.
Analytical applications
Analytical applications build on business intelligence using the capabilities of SAP HANA. They allow you to monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) of your business operations and to react immediately as changes occur. An example is the sales orders application, which immediately shows your sales representative the sales history from his customer, allowing him to take discount decisions immediately.
Deployment options
SAP Fiori apps consist of front-end components, which provide the user interface and the connection to the back end, and back-end components, which provide the data. The front-end components and the back-end components are delivered in separate products and must be installed in a system landscape that is enabled for SAP Fiori. There are multiple deployment options for the SAP Fiori components, each with their respective advantages and disadvantages. SAP Fiori applications are accessed through the SAP NetWeaver Gateway. The gateway consists of two components: SAP Gateway Foundation (SAP_GWFND) and User Interface Technology (SAP_UI). Both components are add-ons, which from NetWeaver version 7.4, are part of the SAP NetWeaver ABAP Stack. With NetWeaver 7.31, the components had to be deployed separately. This means that any system built on SAP NetWeaver, such as SAP ERP or SAP CRM, can be used to deploy SAP Fiori applications. SECURING FIORI 47 The following deployment options exist: central hub deployment, the embedded scenario and the cloud edition (see Figure 2.1). Figure 2.1: SAP Fiori deployment options
Figure 2.1: SAP Fiori deployment options
Central hub deployment
The central hub deployment is the preferred option. Here, SAP NetWeaver Gateway is installed as a separate system. The Fiori applications are deployed here and access the data on the back-end business systems, such as SAP ERP or SAP CRM. Although this option implies an extra system, thus a higher total cost of ownership (TCO), it enables a multi-back-end system scenario while ensuring a consistent look and feel for the different applications. The central hub can be considered a single point of access for all mobile applications. In addition, installing SAP NetWeaver Gateway on a separate system allows you to move the system behind or in front of the firewall depending on your current network topology and security requirements. SECURING FIORI 48
Embedded scenario
SAP NetWeaver is the basis of all ABAP-based SAP applications, regardless of whether you are talking about SAP ERP, SAP BW, or any of the others. As the gateway is an add-on for SAP NetWeaver, it is available on every ABAP-based business application. This means that it can be activated and that Fiori applications can be deployed on any system. This makes an extra system unnecessary. However, we do not recommend the embedded scenario as, in contrast to the central hub deployment, it results in Fiori applications being installed all over the place— negating the advantage of the single point of access for all mobile applications. The embedded scenario should only be considered during a proof of concept or when the deployment of mobile applications is going to be limited to a single SAP application such as SAP ERP. 2.1.3
Cloud edition
The SAP Fiori cloud edition is a ready-to-use infrastructure which can serve as a front end while leaving the back-end systems on premise. The connection to the SAP Fiori Cloud is realized via SAP Cloud Connector, which must be installed on premise. The back-end components still have to be installed on the back-end systems.
Comparison of the deployment options
Table 2.1 compares the different deployment options. Every deployment option has its respective advantages and disadvantages. The importance of the pros and cons differ in every customer situation. We strongly recommend the central hub deployment option as it enables a single point of access to your mobile applications for SAP ERP, SAP BW, and many others, while at the same time ensuring the same look and feel. Due to its limitations and dependencies, the embedded scenario should only be considered in a proof-of-concept scenario.
Table 2.1: Comparison of the deployment options
Q&A: Transitioning from Costing to Account Based CO-PA
THIS PRESENTATION WITH Paul Ovigele WILL COVER:
What is the difference between Costing and Account Based CO-PA?
What are the advantages and disadvantages of Costing vs. Account Based CO-PA?
What are the implications of activating both types of CO-PA?
What are the steps to transition from one type of CO-PA to the other?
Speaker:
Paul Ovigele, FI/CO Expert
Watch the prerecorded webcast by pressing play:
Get answers to the following questions asked in our Q&A:
Q: If you have BW based on Costing Based CO-PA, will this work for Account Based CO-PA?
Q: Can you still use Costing Based COPA in S/4 HANA?
Q: Is there an advantage of going to Account Based COPA before S/4?
Q: Comment on the 1809 release and the sort of merge of account based and cost based COPA
Q: Why activation of actual costing is optional in S4 HANA and can you provide a specific example?
Q: Did I hear you say there is no quantity from SD billing in universal journal in account based PA?
Q: Costing based COPA allows for than one UoM per transaction. (e.g. 25 bottles or 2500ml) In ECC6 it seems account based Copa allows only one UoM per transaction. How about S4Hana?
Q: If we currently have Costing Based COPA, and if we will shift to dual Costing+Account Based, how will historical data be migrated?
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: Transitioning from Costing to Account Based CO-PA
EXCLUSIVELY FOR ASUG MEMBERS!
Start: Friday, November 16th, 2018 12:00 PM (CT), 1:00 PM (ET), 11:00 AM (MT), 10:00 AM (PT)
End: Friday, November 16th, 2018 1:00 PM (CT), 2:00 PM (ET), 12:00 PM (MT), 11:00 AM (PT)
Controlling Profitability Analysis (CO-PA) is a great tool for analyzing financial information according to different dimensions which affect an organization’s profitability. There are 2 major types of CO-PA, Costing based and Account Based. There is also a lot of confusion about which one to use and the pros and cons of using one over the other and which type of CO-PA is compatible with the Universal Journal in S/4 HANA. Account based CO-PA has been improved in S/4HANA to offer more information in real time than ever available in the history of SAP. The Universal Journal now contains all account-based CO-PA data to meet most all reporting requirements.
Attend this live Q&A with FI/CO expert Paul Ovigele, to learn the following:
What is the difference between Costing and Account Based CO-PA?
What are the advantages and disadvantages of Costing vs. Account Based CO-PA?
What are the implications of activating both types of CO-PA?
What are the steps to transition from one type of CO-PA to the other?
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 will be posted here and emailed to all registrants.
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.
Migrating Costing Based COPA (CBCOPA) from ECC to Account Based COPA (ABCOPA) in S/4HANA
As you are probably aware, S/4HANA has brought in various innovations in profitability analysis when it is account based COPA, like integrating ABCOPA into universal journal (Table ACDOCA) resulting in single source of truth, various Fiori reportings based on ABCOPA, automatic reconciliation of legal/management accounting with profitability analysis, drilldown from income statement to COPA characteristics, real-time splitting of COGS etc. Even from S/4HANA 1809, statistical pricing conditions in sales can also be transferred to accounting in extension ledgers.
So, there is a clear motivation for organizations to move to ABCOPA, but how to do that if client is converting their existing ECC system to S/4HANA? SAP does not offer any out of box solution for migration of CBCOPA to ABCOPA. I am listing here on what considerations business should check to do such CBCOPA to ABCOPA migration:
Determine the various flows relevant to COPA in your existing system
There can be different data sources in your system which are posting to CBCOPA, e.g.
Value flow from billing documents
For billing flow need to be analyzed to map the condition record/value field settings in pricing procedure of billing documents along with revenue account settings from VKOA account determination to target G/L account in ABCOPA.
Value flow from FI direct postings
Value field mapping in PA transfer structure for direct postings should be mapped to target G/L account in ABCOPA
Value flow from Orders/ Project Settlements
Value field mapping in PA transfer structure for Settlements should be mapped to target G/L account in ABCOPA
Value flow from internal allocations
Here the assessment cycle need to be read for various segments and then value field to target G/L account in ABCOPA to be mapped.
Value flow from production order variances
Here the mapping of value fields from relevant valuation strategy of cost component structure to target G/L account in ABCOPA need to be done.
For reading these objects, the controlling area can be derived from the company code and operating concern from the controlling area.
Define the Migration Settings
Separate document type for COPA migration
You can define a separate document type to segregate this COPA migration postings from others for easy identification, analysis and troubleshooting if needed.
GL Accounts/ Cost Elements for COPA Migration
Creation of migration G/L Accounts for each value field (There can be M:M relationship between value fields in CBCOPA and G/L accounts for ABCOPA):
GL with cost element to post nullifying impact to CBCOPA using value fields
Migration GL without cost element for contra posting to ABCOPA using cost elements
Perform Migration
Entries from CE1XXXX table line items need to be migrated by making postings as below:
Cost Element GL DR/CR (Posting to CBCOPA)
Migration GL DR/CR (Posting to ABCOPA)
In such postings, the characteristics definition can be leveraged from the profitability segment definition from CE4XXXX matching profitability segment from CE1XXXX line item. Here the BDC recording/ BAPI based custom program should be developed and used to make migration postings in mass in controlled manner.
Due to heavy volume nature of the migration, the execution can be done company code wise to limit the volume and to have better control over execution. For many organizations we have seem millions of records in COPA, so identification of sub-set of COPA tables is critical for effective migration and subsequently for reconciliation.
The FI period should also be open as on the migration transfer date, as it will make the postings in financial accounting also.
Perform reconciliation between CBCOPA and migrated ABCOPA
After all relevant line items have been migrated, the sanity check should be done by comparing the various reports, like:
S_PL0_86000030 (G/L Account Balances (New)) for balances matching
Any client specific report created in KE30
KE91 report for line items
Such report extracts should be taken before execution of migration and after execution of migration for reconciliation and audit purpose.
As you might have guessed till now, that migration from CBCOPA to ABCOPA is not very straight forward and need business involvement for mapping confirmation, heavy development for identification of flows, reposting and reconciliation. Infosys Limited has developed a tool ABCD (Account Based COPA Designer) which can automate these steps with little interventions form business for mapping decisions, and Infosys provides this tool to all its’ S/4HANA customers interested to do CBCOPA to ABCOPA migration as part of S/4HANA project.