Unit 3: Financial Accounting

FI Focuses on:
- G/L
- Processing of Receivables
- Asset Accounting
Major Processes:
A/R O2C Customer
A/P P2P Supplier
Parties and Factors Involved:
- Bank
- Treasury
- FSCM
- Asset Management
- Bank Ledger supports booking of cash flows
Important Tasks of FI:
- Recording of monetary and value flows
- Evaluation of inventories
The General Ledger
- Contains records of all accounting-relevant business transactions via G/L Accounts
in a business perspective
- Is structured according to a Chart of Accounts
o Contains Definitions of all G/L accounts
Account #
G/L Account Designation
Categorization of G/L Accounts as I/S or B/S
- Often contains ONLY collective postings
o Subledgers pass data in compressed form to G/L via Reconciliation Accounts
- Managed at CC level
o B/S & I/S complied from this
- Transactions entered into Subledgers, MM (material stock) and Treasury flow into B/S
in real-time
- The component Treasury (TR) focuses on functions such as:
o Payment means
o Treasury Management (financial means, Forex, derivatives, bonds)
o Loans
o Market Risk Management
- One Leading Ledger in each Client for New G/L Accounting
o Other ledgers can exist within the G/L
SAP FSCM:
- Helps enterprises to optimize their cash flows
- Improvements in invoicing, reconciliation, preventing arrear and process related
delays in payments (printing + sending invoices)
- Represents a major area of process innovation and improvement in a broad range of
industries
Four Key Functionalities:
1. Evaluate the Customer (SAP Credit Management)
2. Helping to contact customers
3. Dispute management

4. Collections
Process Steps in FSCM:
1. Check credit worthiness
2. Issue Invoice
3. Forecast Cash
4. Finance Working Capital
5. Resolve Disputes
6. Collect Cash
7. Settle and Pay
8. Reconcile
FSCM Components:
1. SAP Biller Direct (Electronic Bill Presentment and Payment)
a. Send and receive invoices electronically
b. Customers access info via internet
c. Reduces media fragmentation, allows vendors to interact w/ customers
2. SAP Dispute Management
a. System support for processing payment deductions
b. Cross-departmental resolution of dispute cases
c. Collaboration w/ customers supported by correspondence with them via
internet (using SAP Biller Direct)
d. Improves receivables management and speeds up invoice settlement
3. SAP Collections Management
a. Structure, classify, minimize receivables owed
4. SAP Credit Management
a. Provides companies w/ large customer base the opportunity to monitor total
liabilities of customers, using appropriate credit lines
b. Advantage of centralized and company-wide management of credit lines
c. Eliminates risk of customer exceeding credit limit
d. Different Distribution Channels use same data to check credit worthiness
5. SAP Cash and Liquidity Management
a. Effectively manage liquidity and currency risk
b. Redundant data entry eliminated
c. All corporate sectors operate on unique and consistent database
6. SAP In-House Cash
a. Allows diversified companies to optimize intra-group payment transactions by
opening an in-house bank
b. In-house cash center is a virtual bank within the corporate group
c. Saves on costs of external netting services + gives flexibility when processing
payment netting transactions
7. SAP Treasury and Risk Management
a. Set of functions for managing financial transactions and risk
FI vs. CO
Audience
Objective

FI
External
Legal Reporting

Requirements
Level

Determined by Law
Defined by Law

CO
Internal
Internal Management of
Costs and Revenues
Up to company
Costs and Revenues at a
higher level than FI

*costs and revenues from FI used in CO

FI Organizational Levels

Company Code
- Should create based on tax law, commercial law, other FI criteria
- Usually created based on geographic considerations
- CC key is a 4 digit alphanumeric code
Segment
- Available as of SAP ERP 2004 (ECC 5.0)
- In New G/L, can be used as a dimension for reporting purposes
- Aim is to provide insight into different business activities of a diversified company
and info about the general environment
- Purpose is to provide a better overview of the companys economic performance,
improve forecasting and better anticipate risks and opportunities
- IAS Definition
o Business Segment is a sub-activity of a company, involving manufacture of
product or provision of service, with risks and revenue that differ from other
segments
o Geographical Segment risks and revenues that differ from other geographic
segments in terms of economic or political factors
- US GAAP part of a company that incurs costs, generates revenue, has own financial
data w/ regard to profit + resource consumption
Controlling Area
- Self-contained Organizational Structure for which costs and revenues can be
managed and allocated
- Represents a separate unit of cost accounting
- Assign multiple CCs to carry out Cross-CC cost accounting
o Same operating COA and fiscal year required
General Ledger Accounting
Chart
-

Represents a companys set of books

of Accounts
each G/L set up according to a COA
contains definitions of all G/L accounts in an ordered form
consists of
o Account #
o Account Name
o Type of G/L Account (B/S or I/S)
Can specify an unlimited # of COAs

GL Account Master Record

Comprised of:
- Chart of Accounts Segment
o Description of account
o Type: B/S I/S
o Account Group (controls CC segment fields)
o Consolidation Account #
- Company Code Segment
o Details how specific CC will manage account
Account control
Account management
Bank/financial details
Joint ventures

Interest calculation
Document control

Account Groups
- Classify G/L accounts into user defined segments
(cash/asset/material/PL/liabilities,etc)
- Determine # range of accounts that will fall into those segments
- Field status (Supress/Required/Display/Optional)
Reconciliation Accounts and Subledgers
- Ensures real-time integration of subledger accounts with G/L
Financial Statement versions
- Helps to meet various reporting requirements
- Define exactly which accounts appear in which line items of the financial statements
Profit Centers (previously CO only, a profit area of responsibility]
- Like CCs, function as a dimension for reporting
o Financial statements can be created for PCs
- Can represent:
o An organizational unit (plant)
o A line of business
o A geographical location
- Since SAP ERP 2004 (ECC 5.0), are now an integral part of G/L
- Still considered master data
G/L Account Posting page 68
Posting Key
- Used for internal control
- Account type/Debit or Credit/Field Status
Accounts Payable (P2P)
PO GR IV Payment
Vendor Master Record
- Contains data that controls how transaction data is posted and processed
- Includes all info about a vendor needed to do business w/ them
- Client Level
o Vendor specific info
o Name, address, etc
o any CC will have access to Vendor General Info
- Company Code
- Purchasing Organization
o Data specific to purchasing in VMR must be entered before suppliers master
record can be used
Document Splitting
- Used because corporate groups are required to create a B/S at segment level

Vendor Payment

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Select Payment Method and Bank

Select items for payment
Calculate payment amount, take account of cash discount periods
Post payment document
Print payment medium

If Automatic
1. Post payment document
2. Clear open items
3. Prepare data for printing
Purchase to Pay Process (Accounting View)
- Purchasing organization MUST create purchase specific data in VMR before that can
use Supplier Master record
PO
- No accounting documents generated
GR
- System checks quantity of goods received vs. Order quantity
- Material document created to update stock
- At the same time, FI Document created (Debit Materials, Credit GR/IR)
IV
- Invoice received in Logistics invoice verification
- Vendor invoice checked for correctness
- Vendor invoice posted (PO history updated)
- At the same time, FI document generated (Debit GR/IR, Credit A/P)
Payment
- Debit A/P, Credit Bank Reconciliation when payment made
- Once payment verified, Debit Bank Reconciliation, Credit Bank Account
Accounts Receivable (O2C)
SO Delivery Billing Payment
Customer Master Data
- Client
- CC
- Sales Area (Sales Org + Distribution Channel + Division)
o Sales area-specific settings
o Must be defined before it can do business
Credit Management (SAP Credit Management)
- Accounts are processed on the basis of Credit Segment in the CMR
o Credit segment data contains all data required for checking credit when sales
order is accepted and for resulting order-related credit decisions
o Data updated from Sales and FI
SD Sales Order outbound delivery (ECC 6.0) Billing Document
FI Transferred in report UKM_TRANSFER_ITEMS
- Maintained in a separate data basis in SAP Credit Management
- Includes all information about business partner required for monitoring credit risk
- Credit Profile
o Contains data related to scoring, limit calculations [Role UKM00 (Credit Mgt
Bus Post) used to maintain data]
SO
- Sales Order Created (No FI document)
Delivery

- Outbound delivery document created (SD)

- Goods delivered posted as Goods Issue (MM)
- At the same time, FI Goods Issue (COGS Debit/Inventory Credit)
Billing
- SD Billing document created, invoice sent to customer
- At the same time, FI Invoice (A/R Customer Debit/Revenue Credit) *Revenue
Recognized
Payment
- FI (Credit A/R customer/Debit Bank)
Service O2C
- Expenses incurred when services procured outside company and provided internally
- External services posted without, internal services posted with an account
assignment to Cost Center performing activity (personnel expenses)
Customer Payments
- Maximum amount that constitutes a minor payment difference is defined in tolerance
group settings
- Any larger deal with manually
o Partial payment item doesnt clear
o Residual Item open invoice cleared
o New open item (Residual Item) in amount of payment difference is created
Fixed Asset Accounting
Allows
-

organizations to:
Manage asset info
Post transactions during life of an asset
Calculate asset depletion

Asset Master Record

- Each asset belongs to a Company Code and Business Area (postings made for
asset change both)
- Can also assign assets to CO Objects (Cost Center/Internal Order/Activity
Type/Logistics Org. Units)
- Assets Business Area = 1 1 // Business Area Assets = 1 many
Asset Class
- Each asset MUST be assigned to one
- Costs that dont appear on same line item of B/S have to be assigned to different
ones
- At least 1 special asset class for assets under construction and low value assets
(4000, 5000)
- Can also create for intangible and leased assets
- Application Component PM (Plant Maintenance) used for technical management of
assets
- Application Component TR (Treasury) used for managing Financial Assets
Asset Transactions (acquisitions, retirements)
- Can be posted in various ways:
o w/o a vendor or PO offsetting entry made to a G/L clearing account
o to a vendor, w/o reference to a PO
o Via MM using MM functions (PO, GR, Invoice Receipt)

Transaction Type
- An addition to Posting Keys
70(debit) and 75(credit)
- Must be included when
posting to an asset account
- Necessary, because it
specifies exactly where the
asset posting is listed in the
asset history sheet
- Details the distinguishing
characteristics of various
asset postings which include:
o Buying and Selling
o Credit Memos
o Acquisition from
Internal Production
o Adjustment Postings
o Retirement w/o Revenue
o Depreciation and
Appreciation

Asset Explorer
- Offers overview of activity for an
asset
- Can drill down details to FI
transactions
- Possible to branch master data,
cost objects, perform simulations

Depreciation Areas
- Often asset balances need to
be valuated differently for
various purposes
- To keep more than one
valuation basis, depreciation
areas are kept in SAP
- Data stored in Asset Master
Record

Depreciation Run

Depreciation only posted into asset accounting and G/L after depreciation run
Posted to corresponding depreciation accounts in G/L and to assigned CO Cost object
assigned to Asset Master
Can be run in direct or batch mode