Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Table of contents..................................................................................................................1
SEM BCS: KEY DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS FOR INTEGRATION POINTS............2
I. Enterprise Structure:.........................................................................................................2
II. Company ID and Trading Partner...................................................................................2
III. Group Chart of Accounts and mapping to GL Accounts...............................................4
IV. Financial Statement versions:........................................................................................4
V. Legal and Management Reporting (New GL ECC 6.0)..................................................5
VI. Functional area...............................................................................................................6
VII. Group Currency / Parallel currency..............................................................................7
VIII. Tax, Local GAAP vs. US GAAP requirements...........................................................8
IX. Asset Accounting...........................................................................................................8
X. Depreciation Areas and GAAP requirements ................................................................9
XI. Transaction Types..........................................................................................................9
XII. AP/AR Account Group/Trading Partner for Inter-company vendors/customers........10
XIII. Controlling:...............................................................................................................11
XIV. Allocations and Secondary Cost Element design......................................................11
XV. Functional area derivation..........................................................................................12
XVI. Profit Center Accounting..........................................................................................13
-1-
SEM BCS: KEY DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS FOR INTEGRATION
POINTS
I. Enterprise Structure:
• Company Code
Key Integration Points:
- Company Code is mapped to a company ID which is the legal unit used for
Consolidation. i.e., Company Code is used as part of the Consolidation Unit.
Consolidation Unit:
-Normally, there is a 1:1 relationship between company code and Consolidation ID (unit).
Key Design Considerations:
- Company code is the legal structure from which auditable financial statements are
generated.
- The following attributes of the Company code definition is also used as attributes in
Consolidation Unit:
1. Currency (required in Consolidation Unit)
2. Fiscal Year (required in Consolidation Unit)
3. Country (required)
4. Address (optional)
- If parallel currency is activated, that amount can flow into SEM-BCS as Group
Currency.
- The assigned value for company code will be the same value used for Consolidation
Unit e.g., company code 1000 is XYZ Corp, 1000 will also be the Consolidation Unit.
Questions:
- Is company code used to define legal entities?
- Have all the companies been identified?
- How many companies will use SAP ECC?
- How many companies will not use SAP ECC?
- How many are operational companies? How many will be trial balance companies?
Recommendations:
- Define legal entities as company codes.
- Assign a code for all companies within the firm whether it will be an SAP ECC or non-
SAP ECC company. That will be the unique code assigned for that company and the same
code that will be used for SEM-BCS as well.
- Assign company ID/trading partner for all company codes. (IMG > Enterprise Structure
> Assignment > Financial Accounting > Assign company code to company)
-2-
Key Integration Points:
- Company ID is the smallest element in a corporate group structure that can be used as a
basis for consolidation. Company Id is also called “Trading Partner”.
- Company ID or Trading Partner is VERY, VERY important in SEM-BCS because that
will be key for defining inter-company transactions and elimination of inter-company
transactions.
Key Design Considerations:
- All SAP ECC companies MUST be assigned a Trading Partner/Company ID.
- Non-SAP ECC companies can be defined as Company ID/Trading Partner.
- Company ID is a 6-digit field as opposed to Company code which is a 4-digit field.
- Trading Partner can be derived from company code assignment, inter-company
vendor/customer assignment.
- New in ECC 6.0: Rule-based assignments. You can set-up rules that will automatically
assign inter-company documents based on rules e.g., comparing contents of certain fields.
Also, for inter-company postings, documents that could not be assigned to each other or
that contain posting errors are presented in a user-interface geared towards finding the
reasons for inter-company differences and supporting the communications between
accountants involved in the reconciliation process.
Questions:
- Have company IDs been configured?
- Have you identified which GL accounts are inter-company accounts?
- Have cross-company configurations been made? Did you use GL or customer/vendor
accounts for cross-company configuration?
- Will rule-based assignments be used for non-SAP ECC companies to determine the
trading partner?
Recommendations:
- As much as possible, use the same ID for Company ID/Trading Partner and Company
Code. E.g., 1000 ABC Corp is assigned to Company ID Trading Partner
- Use separate GL reconciliation account for inter-company sub-ledgers i.e., separate
from third party AR or AP reconciliation account. This is to facilitate mapping this
account to a separate FS Item (Group Account) in SEM-BCS where trading partner will
be a mandatory field.
- As much as possible, use separate (non-reconciliation) GL accounts for inter-unit
postings and eliminations e.g., Inter-company Sales/Revenue account different normal
third Party Sales/Revenue Account. This is to facilitate making the trading partner as a
mandatory field. Validations are normally created to ensure that trading partner field is
populated for these inter-company accounts.
- Review which document types will be used for inter-company and cross-company
postings. (IMG > Financial Accounting > Financial Accounting Global Settings >
Document > Document Header > Define Document Types). Change those document
types to allow for cross-company postings (activate “Inter-company postings) or for
manual trading partner input (activate “Enter Trading Partner”).
- In order to automatically derive trading partner for cross-company configurations (IMG
> Financial Accounting > General Ledger Accounting > Business Transactions > Prepare
Cross-Company Code Transactions):
-3-
1. Use posting key 01 for Receivables, 31 for Payables to activate
customers/vendors.
2. Use actual inter-company customer number for receivables and inter-company
vendors for payables, instead of using normal GL account.
3. This way, the trading partner from these master data will be automatically derived
when there are cross-company postings.
-4-
- Financial Statement Versions for Group Chart of Accounts will be used as basis for
building the FS Item Hierarchy in SEM-BCS.
- This is very useful in reconciling data between SAP ECC and SEM-BCS.
Key Design Considerations:
- New in 6.0: Financial Statement Version are now stored in transparent tables. It has the
following advantages:
1. FS Versions can now be transported using Business configurations
2. 20 hierarchy levels are available (previously 10)
3. 1000 sub-items per item (previously 99)
4. Fixed Item for Financial Statement notes
- FS version is used to run standard trial balance in SAP ECC per company (RFBILA00).
- Trial balance can be run in local currency or in Group Currency.
Questions:
- How many FS versions will be created for:
§ Operational Chart of Accounts
§ Group Chart of Accounts
Recommendations:
- Build at least one Financial Statement Version for Operational Chart of Account.
- Build at least one Financial Statement version for Group Account.
- If there are more than one Financial Statement versions, this will be created as alternate
hierarchy in SEM-BCS.
- As much as possible, create the FS items (at certain level) consistent between
Operational Chart of Accounts and Group COA. This will facilitate reconciliation
between Operational trial balance and Group.
- Ensure the names/description used for each level reflect names required in Consolidated
Balance Sheet and Income Statement.
- Ensure the calculated P&L Revenue and Expense item is part of the Retained Earnings
section.
-5-
Recommendations:
- Check dimensions required for Consolidation (Legal and Management).
- Use parallel ledgers for multiple GAAP requirements. Use Lead Ledger for US GAAP.
Use other ledgers for local GAAP requirements.
-6-
3. If cost element or cost object derivation does not work, use substitution rules for
derivation of functional area.
4. Use user-exits for complex derivation of functional area.
-7-
- Where will currency translation be done?
Recommendations:
- Revaluation is always done in SAP ECC.
- SEM-BCS has robust functionality for Currency translation. However, if management
reporting is part of Consolidation reporting, take into consideration the consistency of
data between SAP ECC and SEM-BCS. If currency translation is done in SEM-BCS, it is
NOT pulled back to SAP ECC.
Asset Classes
Key Integration Points:
- GL Account assignment is defined per Asset Class.
- GL Accounts are assigned to FS Items.
- FS item is the lowest level from which Consolidation can report on.
- It is important to check the level of reporting required in Consolidation report and
ensure that the enough details are tied to the GL account and Asset Class.
- If Assets require different GL accounts, then it needs to be broken down to appropriate
Asset Class.
Key Design Considerations:
- Asset Classes are assigned to a set of GL accounts (Asset acquisition, Depreciation,
Accumulated Depreciation etc).
- Asset Classes can be defined to the same set of GL accounts.
-8-
- If Assets require different GL accounts, then it needs to be broken down into appropriate
Asset Class.
Questions:
- For Fixed Assets, what is the level of detail required for reporting?
- Are there enough Asset Classes defined to break down this level?
Recommendations:
1. Create separate Asset Classes for different GL account assignment requirements.
2. Check mapping of these GL Accounts to Group Accounts against the
Consolidated Balance Sheet and P&L Reports to ensure that requirements are met.
-9-
- Fixed Asset transaction types are assigned to Consolidation transaction types.
Key Design Considerations:
- Fixed Asset transaction types are assigned to SEM-BCS transaction types.
- Any new Fixed Asset transaction type must be assigned to Consolidation transaction
type.
Questions:
- Are there plans to create new Asset transaction types? If so, ensure that all asset
transaction types are mapped to the Consolidation transaction type.
Recommendations:
1. Check which asset transaction types to be used.
2. Ensure that all asset transaction types (especially new ones) are mapped to the
Consolidation transaction type. (IMG > Enterprise Controlling > Consolidation >
Integration: Preparation for Consolidation > Preparations Related to All Consolidation
Types > Transaction Type Account Assignment > Assign Asset Transaction
Types)>Accounts Payable / Accounts Receivable
- 10 -
to the inter-company vendor/customer. Therefore, recommend to use an external number
range for inter-company customer/vendors from 000001 to ZZZZZZ.
XIII. Controlling:
- 11 -
- Infoobject 0ACCOUNT is extracted from SAP ECC. This includes both GL accounts
and secondary cost elements. It also includes the mapping for Group Accounts which is
normally used as FS Items in SEM-BCS.
- Secondary Cost Elements will have to be mapped to FS items.
Questions:
- Are there plans in the future to see Consolidated Management reporting in SEM-BCS?
- If so, how are secondary cost elements designed?
- Are allocations done across companies? Will FI/CO reconciliation be used to
synchronize FI and CO?
Recommendations:
1. Check to see that the secondary cost element design meets future reporting
requirements in Consolidation.
2. Check to make sure that secondary cost elements can be mapped to Group
Accounts/FS items (Note: mapping done in BW infoobject 0ACCOUNT and not in SAP
ECC)
3. Allocations across companies generates inter-company postings in FI when FI/CO
Reconciliation is performed.
4. Use a separate document type for FI/CO Reconciliation Ensure document type
allows for inter-company and cross-company postings. (IMG > Financial Accounting >
Financial Accounting Global Settings > Document > Document Header > Define
Document Types). Change those document types to allow for cross-company postings
(activate “Inter-company postings) or for manual trading partner input (activate “Enter
Trading Partner”).
- 12 -
1. If Internal Order/Project is real, then functional area is derived from Internal
Order/Project.
2. If Internal/Project is statistical, then functional area is derived from real object
e.g., Cost Center or WBS.
3. PA segment is a real object.
4. Profit Center is always a statistical object and does not have functional area.
Questions:
- Will functional area be required in the Consolidation Reports or Management reporting?
- Please provide list of functional areas.
Recommendations:
- Determine if functional area is required for Consolidation reporting.
- If yes, ensure that the functional area field is populated in the relevant P&L line items
by using any of the following:
1. If there’s only one functional area to be used for the cost element, default
functional area in GL (which will be taken over cost element). Otherwise leave functional
area field in the Cost Element master blank.
2. For cost elements that can be used across functional areas, default the functional
area from the cost object. Ensure that the functional area is made mandatory for the cost
object e.g., cost center.
3. If cost element or cost object derivation does not work, use substitution rules for
derivation of functional area.
4. Use user-exits for complex derivation of functional area.
Profit centers
Key Integration Points:
- SEM-BCS handles both legal and management Consolidation.
- For management consolidation reporting, normally data from Profit center is captured
as either:
1. Part of Consolidation Unit
2. As a sub-assignment
- In order to have full profit center reporting, Cost objects such as Cost Center needs to be
assigned to a Profit Center.
Key Design Considerations:
- New in ECC 6.0:
1. The new GL can fulfill requirements for both legal and management reporting.
2. PCA functions are now integrated in the new GL (except for transfer pricing).
3. Segment reporting for IAS and US GAAP is now possible.
4. Contains functional area dimension
5. Realtime integration with CO – no need for reconciliation ledger.
- The following objects can be mapped to a Profit Center:
1. Materials
- 13 -
2. Fixed Assets
3. Cost Centers
4. Internal Orders
5. Projects
- Normally, profit center is a derived field. Profit Center derivation for cost objects is
determined from the real object. For instance,
1. If Internal Order/Project is real, then profit center is derived from Internal
Order/Project.
2. If Internal/Project is statistical, then profit center is derived from real object e.g.,
Cost Center or WBS.
3. PA segment is a real object.
4. Profit Center is always a statistical object i.e., it is not a real cost object.
- There are certain Balance Sheet accounts that can be mapped to a Profit Center
(determined through period-end processing)
1. Accounts Receivable
2. Accounts Payable
- A default Profit center can be defined for Profit center
- Elimination of internal business volume using Partner Profit Center is not currently
available in ECC 6.0 but planned for future release.
Questions:
- How is profit center designed? How many profit centers are there?
- Please provide standard Profit Center Hierarchy design and list of profit centers.
- Is profit center required for Consolidation reporting?
- Is profit center reporting required for Balance Sheet as well? If so, is it full Balance
Sheet or only certain Balance Sheet accounts?
- Will allocations be done in Profit Center?
Recommendations:
- Determine if profit center is required for Consolidation reporting. If so, ensure that the
design meets the required level of reporting.
- Check if full trial balance or only P&L data is required for Profit Center reporting.
- If full trial balance,
1. Run period end processing to determine profit centers for certain balance sheet
accounts such as Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, Fixed assets.
2. For all other Balance Sheet accounts, default a common (not dummy) profit
center.
3. Ensure that there are no postings to dummy profit center.
- 14 -