Thursday 23 March 2017

Integration of FI-CO

SAP is fully integrated system,therefore knowing the integration points enables  users to understand the modules in a better way


  • The organization units are not only defined in FI (Company Code),It is also defined in Purchasing as Purchasing Organizations, plants and storage location. The SD modules requires the set up of Sales Organizations and Distribution Channels. The Controlling modules requires a Controlling area to be defined.
  • To transfer data between FI(Financial Accounting) and CO (controlling) as well as other modules, a Company Code must be assigned to each of the Modules. 
  • Document postings are automatically posted in the year and periods that you created in the Fiscal Year variant set-ups based on the month, start and end dates to which postings are allowed within a given period as defined.
Integration between FI and CO can be conducted in real time. As a result of real-time integration, all Controlling documents that are relevant for General Ledger Accounting are transferred from Controlling to Financial Accounting in real time. This means that Financial Accounting is always reconciled with Controlling. From ECC 6.0 onwards, you need not activate reconciliation ledgers in controlling.

Through this single integration solution we can avoids any need for separate cost-center ledger, reconciliation-ledger and profit-center ledger. The result is high transparency of data at all times, eliminating data redundancy and faster period-ends closings.

These are the configuration steps for Real time integration of controlling and financial accounting.

1. Define Variants for Real-Time Integration

2. Assign Variants for Real-Time Integration to Company Codes

3. Define Account Determination for Real Time Integration CO

4. Define Account Determination for Real-Time Integration


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Sunday 12 March 2017

SAP Customer Account Groups vs SAP Partners Function


In very broad terms:

       Business partners are all the people or companies involved in a transaction. They may be customers, vendors (such as carriers), employees (such as CSR’s or sales people), contact people.

       When you create a new customer master, you have to select a customer account group [master data]

       Once the customer master is created, you assign them a partner function that identifies their roles and responsibilities within the sales transactions (transaction data)

When you create a new customer master, on the initial screen, you have to select a customer account group.

Typically, there are 4 major customer account groups important in sales

  • 0001 – Sold-to Party
  • 0002 – Ship-to Party or Goods Recipient
  • 0003 – Payer
  • 0004 – Bill-to Party

There may be and are typically more account groups. For example:

  • Sales Person
  • CSR
  • Affiliates 

Customer Account Group----What is it?

Customer account group determines lot of things:

·         The number assigned to it

·         The customer number assigned - internal or external

·         Screens and fields status: Required, Optional or hidden

Partner functions

  • A partner function refers to the rights, roles and responsibilities a business partner can take on in a business transaction. A customer account group is configured to take on one or more partner functions

Examples:

       Sold-to party

       Bill-to party

       Payer

       Ship-to party

       Sales Budget Owner

       Sales Rep

A customer that is created as a Sold-to party (customer account group 0001) can play different roles in a transaction.

       They can act as the Sold-to [SP]

       They can also act as a Ship-to [SH]

       They can also act as a Payer [PY]

       They can also act as a Bill-to [BP]

Partner Functions required to complete a Sales Transaction
Sold-to Party

In SAP this is the master customer. It is typically on the Order, Delivery and Billing document. A lot of data on the order defaults from the sold-to party master. Only 1 sold-to can be on an order.

Ship-to Party / Goods recipient

In SAP this is the main partner for shipping (deliveries, return deliveries, shipments). It determines where the goods will be delivered. Only 1 Ship-to can be on a delivery.

Payer

In SAP this is the main partner for billing (invoices, credit memos,..). It is also the party responsible for paying the bill. So they are important from an AR and credit management perspective. Only 1 Payer can be on an invoice.

Bill-to Party

In SAP, the Bill-to is the address that the invoice is sent to (physical or electronic). So the bill-to is also a main partner for billing. It is typical for the Bill-to to equal the Payer (but does not have to be).

Friday 10 March 2017

Payment term: Explanation on fields


Terms of payment involves the time frame in which we pay to customers and discount rates. The configuration of terms of payments is the same for both AR and AP. The same terms of payment can be used by both Customers and Vendors. Payment terms are created at the client level and can be used across any company code.

The explanation of fields in payment terms new entry screen are as follows:

Payment terms: A four digit alpha-numeric identifier for payment term key.

Sales Text: This is the short text explanation of payment term. The entry is limited to 30 characters.

Day Limit: This field is valid only if the payment terms depend on the day of the month. For Example, The field has numeric 10 added. This means ,any invoice, billed on or before the 10th of the month is due on the 25th of the same month and any invoice billed after the 10th of the month is due on 5th of the next month.

Own Explanation:This field is used for the detailed explanation of the payment terms. This field should be used only if the system generated explanation to be overridden.

Customer: The indicator is selected if the payment term is to be used for Customer accounts (AR Module)

Vendor: The indicator is selected if the payment term is to be used for Vendors accounts (AP module)

Fixed Day: This field is used to override the system generated baseline date. Any calendar day can be added which will overwrite the system generated baseline date and be used as this date as baseline date

Additional Months: This field is used in conjunction of Fixed day field. The field is added with number of additional months to be used with the proposed fixed date as baseline date. The baseline date becomes the combination of the fixed day field and additional months field.

Block key: This field is used when the payment term propose a block key-which blocks goods issue for delivery A/R or A/P

Payment method: The field usage is to specify a specific payment method with this term of payment.

Default for Baseline Date: Select the radio button that corresponds to the baseline date we want to use when using this term of payment. You can choose between No Default, Document date, Posting date(the date that the document posts in the system, it can vary from document date or can be same),or Entry Date(The system prompts you for the baseline date when the document is entered)

Percentage: The percentage rate that is used for discount

No. Of days: Enter the number of days out from the baseline date for which the percentage discount is valid.

Fixed Date: Enter the day of the month the discount ends if the baseline date is not used

Additional Month: If we want to add month to the baseline date month to determine the length of time the discount is valid

Explanations: The system defaults an explanation of the payment term in this field based on the percentage discount and length of time the discount is valid. An entry in the Own Explanation field overwrites the system derived explanation.

Wednesday 8 March 2017

GRIR account -Why it is needed

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**Shared as Read **
 
The GR/IR – the goods receipt/Invoice Receipt account is used to post to whenever goods that are not yet invoiced have been received or when invoices arrive before the delivery of goods.
During the time between the invoice being created and delivery of goods, there can be a timing difference, in order to accommodate this timing difference, a GR/IR account
is maintained temporarily to record the flow .
The GR/IR clearing account is usually cleared at the end of a period or fiscal year for those order items that no further goods receipts or invoices are expected for.


Choose Logistics- Materials Management - Logistics Invoice
Verification - GR/IR Account Maintenance -Maintain GR/IR
Clearing Account
.


Enter data as required on this screen in the Document header
data frame. The Automatic clearance function is intended for processing
in the background .the individual purchase order items that have quantity
variances and match your selection are now listed. Select the order items that you want to clear.
Clear the GR/IR clearing account for the selected purchase orders by choosing List - Post clearing.
The offsetting entry to clear the GR/IR account is the same as the posting made when you enter an invoice for a purchase order.
The GR/IR account is cleared against the stock account, unless no stock coverage exists. If the material stock is smaller than the quantity to be cleared, only the actual stock quantity is debited or credited proportionally. The remaining amount is posted to a price difference account.
The offsetting entry is posted to a price difference account. The offsetting entry is made to the cost or fixed asset account shown in the account assignments in the purchase order.
 

Monday 6 March 2017

Financial Statement Version-configuration

Financial statement versions group together related accounts into Balance Sheet and Income Statement format for financial purposes.SAP uses the FSV assigned to the Company Code statement reports in the system. FSV items are similar to hierarchy nodes.

There are 4 main configuration settings that can be grouped under the heading general specification.  They are as follows

Maint. Language :The maintenance language determines the language in which FSV is kept

Item keys Auto.: This indicator specifies whether item keys are assigned automatically or manually.it is recommended that this indicator is set so that item keys are assigned automatically.

Chart of Account:Enter the Chart of Account to which this FSV relates to.

Group account number: we shall set this indicator if we wish to assign numbers from group chart of accounts instead of operating Chart of Account . Group chart of accounts are part of consolidation function. This setting is only valid if you are using the consolidation functionality of SAP.

The IMG Path for the creation of FSV is given below:
Financial Accounting->General Ledger Accounting->Business Transactions-> Closing->Documents->Define Financial Statement Versions

Transaction code : OB58


Rules for creating the financial statement version

  1. The following special items (highlighted in red in the structure maintenance) have to be assigned on the second hierarchy level (directly below the root node with the description of the financial statement version):
     o  Assets
     o  Liabilities
     o  Not assigned


2. The following special items  have to be assigned below the special item Liabilities in the hierarchy:
    o  Net result: loss
    o  Net result: profit

3.The special item P+L result  can be assigned as required. However, it must not be assigned as a subnode of another special item


 

Wednesday 1 March 2017

Explaination of General ledger fields:Part 2

Field Status Group: The Field Status group controls the account assignments that are made to the account. It also controls postings to cost centres , internal orders, are required, not allowed or optional.
 
Post Automatically Only: This field indicator is selected if we don’t want users posting manually to this account. When the indicator is selected, the system can only post the transactions based on configuration in the account assignment tables. Once the posting is made to this account, we need to avoid deselecting this account. If you deselect it on your inventory accounts, it could cause your G/L account to become out of balance with the material ledger.
 
 
Supplement Auto. Postings: With this indicator selected, the account assignments for line items that are generated automatically by the system  will be manually updated.
 
Rec. Acct. Ready for Input: This field denotes that recon account is ready for posting when you’re creating a document. The indicator is used for Fixed Asset reconciliation accounts.
 
Planning Level: The Planning level indicator is used in displaying the cash management position in the Treasury sub module.
 
Relevant to Cash Flow: This indicator tells the system that the account affects cash flow(receives incoming payments or sends outgoing payments)
 
House Bank: If you are creating G/L accounts for a bank account select the house bank that the G/L Account  belong to in this field.
 
Account ID: If the house bank is selected in the preceding field, the account id for the house bank to which GL belongs to is selected in this field
 
Interest indicator: If we want to calculate interest on the G/L account, select the indicator ID for the interest calculation
 
Interest Calculator Freq.: Select the ID for the interval at which the interest calculation should be run.
 
 
Key Date of Last Int.Calc.:The system updates this field with the date at which the last interest calculation was run.
 
Date of last Interest Run: The system stores the last date that interest was posted to this account.