5/15/2022

SAP S/4HANA 2021

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SAP S/4HANA | 2021 Latest

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Accounting and Financial Close

Central Finance

Business Background
With Central Finance you can transition to SAP S/4HANA without disruption to your current system landscape, which can be
made up of a combination of SAP systems of different releases. This allows you to establish a central reporting platform for
nancial accounting (FI) and management accounting (CO) with the option of creating a common reporting structure.
Additionally, selected nancial processes can be performed in the Central Finance system.

Key Features
The following table explains the key features available:

Key Feature Use

Harmonized Financial Reporting Central Finance allows you to map to a common reporting structure with which you can
report on nancial gures originating in different source systems, bene ting from the
new reporting capabilities (leveraging HANA and the new data model) in the Central
Finance system.

Simpli ed Mergers and Acquisitions Using Central Finance, the systems of acquired companies can be integrated more
easily.

Replication of FI and CO Postings Financial accounting (FI) and management accounting (CO) postings are replicated to
the Central Finance system. For SAP ERP source systems, where FI documents and CO
postings are separate documents, they are combined into one document in the Central
Finance system; the universal journal entry. In addition, all cost elements are part of the
chart of accounts.

Replication of Cost Objects Before you replicate CO postings, you need to make sure that accounts are available for
all cost elements in the Central Finance system. You can also replicate certain types of
cost objects (for example, internal orders) to the Central Finance system. These
represent the business transactions in logistics (for example, production, maintenance,
and quality) and may not be at an appropriate granularity in the Central Finance system.
For this reason, you can choose to transfer some cost objects, such as long-living
internal orders, directly to orders and to map other cost objects, such as short-living
production orders, to more long-living cost objects, such as a production cost collector,
in the Central Finance system.

Replication of EC-PCA Postings Internal postings within pro t center accounting (EC-PCA) are replicated to your Central
Finance system.

In the Central Finance system, an EC-PCA posting becomes an FI posting (universal

journal entry) in a dedicated ledger.

Replication of Commitments Commitments and commitment updates are replicated in real time from one or more
source systems to your Central Finance system, allowing you to also report on
committed amounts in your cost object reports.

Replication of Activity Rates You can replicate planned activity rates created in source systems to the Central
Finance system and those created in Central Finance back to your source systems.
Changes to activity rates in one system also trigger updates to the activity rate in the
corresponding source or Central Finance system. If a primary cost component split
exists for a certain activity rate, the cost component split data is replicated together
with the activity rate.

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Key Feature Use

Replication of Material Cost Estimates You can replicate material cost estimates from source systems to the Central Finance
system. For a mixed costing, the material cost estimates are replicated together with
the relevant procurement alternatives.

Mapping of Accounting Entities You can map the various accounting entities in your source systems to one common set
of master data in the Central Finance system.

Error Handling In Central Finance, errors that occur in the replication scenarios are recorded using the
error handling functions of SAP Application Interface Framework (for more information,
see the section of this document entitled Integration and Connectivity).

Account-to-Ledger Solution Central Finance supports the connection of source systems that use parallel accounting
with accounts to a Central Finance system which uses parallel accounting using ledgers,
the standard approach in SAP S/4HANA.

Document Splitting Central Finance supports document splitting for replicated source documents, even if it
is not active in the source system. Document splitting checks can be carried out in both
source and target systems.

Central Payment Central Payment allows you to make centralized payments and perform centralized
clearing activities in the Central Finance system instead of each source system. It
contains the following main features:

Activate central payment by company code.

For company codes that are activated for central payment, new invoices posted
in the source systems are technically cleared. The invoices are replicated to the
Central Finance system and are paid there.

For company codes that are not activated for central payment, the invoices
posted in source systems stay open and are paid in the source systems. The
invoices and payment or clearing documents are replicated to the Central
Finance system for reporting purposes. The replicated invoices are ruled out
from the payment or clearing transactions in the Central Finance system. This
prevents duplicate payments being made for items that should be paid in the
source system.

SEPA Mandate replication between source systems and the Central Finance
system is automated so that SEPA direct debit is supported in the Central
Finance system.

Integration of SD-related down payments into Central Finance, allowing you to

do the following in your Central Finance system, instead of in your source
systems:

Make down payments related to a sales order (condition-based or

request-based)

Carry out clearing activities for down payments and invoices

Integration of MM-related down payments into Central Finance, allowing you to

do the following in your Central Finance system, instead of in your source
systems:

Post down payments with reference to a down payment request

replicated from a source system (request-based)

Carry out clearing activities for down payments and invoices separately

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Key Feature Use

Central Tax Reporting As payments may adjust the indirect taxes calculated when the invoice was posted, it
can become necessary to report indirect taxes from the Central Finance system when
Central Payment is activated.

 Note
Calculation of taxes from your SAP S/4HANA Central Finance system and any
reporting based on this calculation covers a certain scope and may not meet all of
the reporting requirements in your jurisdiction.

You must check with your accounting or tax experts in order to make sure that the
results generated by Central Tax Reporting are fully compliant with your relevant
jurisdictions’ speci c tax reporting requirements.

For information on which tax reports are supported in Central Tax Reporting, see the
documentation on the SAP Help Portal.

Central Statutory Reporting Central Finance supports certain country/region-speci c statutory reports.

Central Projects (WBS) The Central Projects (WBS) - Reporting scenario allows you to subsequently post FI
documents (journal entries) and CO documents with the account assignment to a work
breakdown structure (WBS) element and use the project reporting on costs and
revenues posted to WBS elements in the Central Finance system.

The Central Projects (WBS) - Asset Settlement scenario allows you to settle costs
posted to a work breakdown structure (WBS) element in a source system to an asset
under construction (AuC) and nally to a xed asset within the Central Finance system.

Central Budgeting In a Central Finance scenario, Central Budgeting for Internal Orders as well as for
Projects allows you to take a centralized approach and manage budget, tolerance limits
and availability control in the Central Finance system. Budget which is typically
consumed in a process carried out in the source system is checked against the budget
and budget-related Customizing de ned in the Central Finance system.

Central Accruals Management The Accrual Engine on the Central Finance system calculates and posts the purchase
order accruals in the Central Finance system. Relevant purchase order information is
replicated in real time from your source systems to the Central Finance system.

Navigation There are possibilities to navigate from the Central Finance system to the
corresponding source system(s) and vice versa. Such capabilities are applicable on
selected SAP Fiori apps and transactions in SAP GUI.

Cross System Process Control (CSPC) Cross System Process Control allows the smooth and consistent ow of business
processes that are distributed across different systems. These business processes
involve the journal entries that have been replicated between the systems within your
Central Finance scenario. It ensures that a process is not permitted in one system if it
con icts with a process being carried out in another system.

With the activation of Central Payment, certain business processes, such as payments
and clearings, are distributed across systems. Cross System Process Control prevents,
for example, an invoice from being reversed in the source system if the corresponding
journal entry has already been cleared in the Central Finance system.

Con guration Consistency Checks You can use this report to check whether con guration settings in the source system are
compatible with the con guration settings in the Central Finance system.

Related Features
It is also possible to connect SAP S/4HANA Cloud editions as a source system. For additional information about connecting the
SAP S/4HANA Cloud system, contact SAP.

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For the connection of third-party source systems, you can use the third-party system interface. To simplify the integration of
third-party source systems, there are also the following solution extensions available:

SAP Central Finance Transaction Replication by Magnitude

SAP Central Finance Data Harmonization by Magnitude

Joint Venture Accounting

Business Background
Companies typically form joint venture partnerships to minimize risks involved in capital intensive operations that demand a
long payback period. A joint venture partnership consists of an operating partner (operator) and one or more non-operating
partners who combine monetary or personnel resources to share a project’s expenses. The operator manages the venture,
arranges venture activities, and maintains accounting records to generate accurate partner billing documents. The operator
remits venture expenses and distributes these to the partners, according to their ownership shares. SAP JVA is a complete
accounting system for joint ventures and captures all expenditures and other joint venture transactions by using functions from
Financial Accounting (SAP FI), Controlling (SAP CO), Asset Management (SAP AM), Materials Management (SAP MM), Asset
Accounting (SAP AA), and Enterprise Portfolio and Project Management (SAP EPPM).

Key Features
The following table explains the key features available:

Key Feature Use

Master Data Maintenance As operator you maintain the joint venture master data and ensure
the accurate processing according to the joint operating agreement
(JOA). Venture, joint operating agreement, joint venture partner
master data, and venture attributes de ned in the con guration
ensure the proper integration with SAP Finance cost objects and
accounts. The con gured venture attributes de ne the working
interest and billable and non-billable costs.

Actual Processes Based on the integration with SAP Finance, the document split of
the original nance document (cost assignment line) by venture
and equity group ensures the correct capturing of all venture-
related costs on venture and equity group level. As operator you
execute cash call processes to request a down payment from your
partners for future expenses in the operational month. The non-
operator invoice posting and mapping unctionality supports the
correct assignment and posting of billable expenditures in the non-
operator's nancial books.

Month-End Processes As operator you calculate JVA overheads on top of the month-end
allocation results. You use the equity change and equity group
adjustment process to assign the correct and valid partner working
interest for the current period when the equity group was changed.
You use the cutback process to allocate the billable venture
expenses according to the current equity group and working
interest to the non-operating partner. The joint venture funding
reimbursement process ensures the correct capturing and clearing
of inter-venture liablities.

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Key Feature Use

Partner Billing and Reporting As operator you produce accurate billing documents for speci c
periods, ventures, equity groups, and partners. The document
consists of invoice, expenditure details, and billing statement
hardcopy. The various reports are providing information on master
data and transaction data. It includes billable and non-billable
expense information on line item or total level by gross and net
venture partners.

Integration with Central Finance

Joint Venture Accounting is integrated in Central Finance. Thus it is possible to collect Joint Venture Accounting data in one
central S/4HANA system and to use this data for consolidated reporting. In detail this means that you can perform initial load of
historic data (documents and master data), replicate the main JVA master data (joint operating agreements, ventures, equity
groups, venture partners), integrate the JVA split results in the FI document replication, replicate internal JVA documents
posted by several JVA month-end processes, and compare documents and master data between source and Central Finance
system via report to validate whether data is replicated correctly.

Financial Closing Cockpit for Entity Close

Business Background
The Financial Closing cockpit supports you in planning, executing, monitoring, and analyzing nancial closing tasks for the
entities of your group. You can perform local close for the companies of your group on a monthly, quarterly, or yearly basis (or at
other intervals) with a freely de nable range of closing operations. Local accounting principles and/or principles applied by the
group can be taken into account.

More generally you can use the Financial Closing cockpit in the following cases:

Activities recur periodically.

Multiple responsible agents are involved.

Activities are performed within a process that has a xed chronological sequence or is determined by dependencies.

The status of all periodic activities needs to be documented and made transparent and available for everyone involved.

Key Features
The Financial Closing cockpit comprises the following features to facilitate the optimization of your entire closing process:

Event-driven organization of closing activities

Process overview and monitoring options

Analysis tools

Closing operations include the following tasks:

Maintain exchange rates

Execute recurring entries

Clear open items

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Perform inventory and post inventory differences

Reclassify clearing account for goods receipt/invoice receipt

Value inventory

Perform closing operations in the subsidiary ledgers

Perform foreign currency valuation

Reclassify receivables and payables

Use functions for tax on sales/purchases

Perform reconciliation between affiliated companies; these intercompany reconciliations are used in preparation for
consolidation.

Close accounting period and open new period

Display nancial statements

Carry forward balances

Evaluate nancial statements

Corporate Close
Group Reporting

Business Background
The group reporting solution provides functions for group accounting and management reporting by supporting process control,
data collection, data quality control, consolidation, and reporting. It is tightly integrated with SAP S/4HANA Finance and can
directly access legal and management accounting from the universal journal. The granularity of data in group reports can be
increased so that operational accounting data is exposed to the corporate group level. Drilling down from reports to the
operational accounting journal is also supported.

Key Features
The following table explains the key features available:

Key Feature Use

Master data Consolidation objects come with master data maintenance apps or Customizing
activities.
The main objects are the consolidation chart of accounts and the consolidation units
and groups that represent organizational entities. Consolidation units are the smallest
consolidation relevant organizational units and are grouped into consolidation groups.

Data collection You can collect nancial statement related data from SAP systems as well as non-SAP
systems. Various procedures are available for doing this, for example, with direct
integration to the accounting module that resides on the same system tenant.

Data preparation You can check the consistency of reported nancial data by using validation rules.

You can check the quality of your intercompany data by using intercompany matching
and reconciliation.

The reported nancial data can be translated into the group currency.

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Key Feature Use

Consolidation Consolidation rules can be applied for interunit eliminations and consolidation of
investments and executed on the reported data.

Validations can be used to check the consistency of the consolidated nancial data.

Reporting SAP Fiori analytics can be used for basic nancial reporting and data analysis.

Reporting rules can be applied at report run-time.

Business Consolidation

Background
Business Consolidation enables you to periodically schedule, generate, and monitor your consolidated nancial statements. This
is possible for subgroups or the consolidated group, speci cally under legal aspects or for the purpose of consolidated
Management Reporting. This process offers a high degree of exibility with regard to the timing of closings as well as the
con guration of different accounting principles. You can automate the necessary consolidation steps to a considerable extent
and supplement them with manual closing tasks.

Key Features
The following features are available to you as a corporate accountant:

Key Feature Use

Master data
Versioning helps you run different consolidations in parallel
using different criteria, for example:

For actual, plan and target data

For parallel nancial accounting (for example, U.S.

GAAP, IFRS)

For simulations

The smallest element of the corporate structure in

consolidation is the consolidation unit. A consolidation unit
can represent a company, a pro t center, a business area,
or a plant.

You use consolidation groups to combine a desired number

of consolidation units for purposes of consolidation and
reporting.

You use nancial statement items to enter, post and

evaluate monetary values.

Data collection You can collect individual nancial statement data from SAP
systems as well as non-SAP systems. Various procedures are
available for doing this.

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Key Feature Use

Consolidation tasks Consolidation tasks enable you to translate the nancial data that
is collected from each local currency into the group currency. You
can also eliminate the nancial statement imbalances that result
from group-internal relationships. For example, the following
consolidation tasks can be automated:

Currency translation

Interunit elimination (including elimination of IU payables

and receivables, elimination of IU revenue and expense,
and elimination of investment income)

Elimination of interunit pro t and loss in transferred

inventory

Consolidation of investments

Reclassi cation

Execution and monitoring of the consolidation process You use the consolidation monitor to run the consolidation tasks
and to monitor the entire consolidation process.

Reporting Once the consolidation tasks have been completed, you can
analyze the data in reports.

Document and Reporting Compliance

Business Background
You use document and reporting compliance features to create, process, and monitor electronic documents and statutory
reports. The document and reporting compliance features are listed below.

Please note that not all features are provided for each and every country/region. For more information about the available
features for a country/region, please check the country/region-speci c documentation on the SAP Help Portal.

Key Features
The following table explains the available key features:

Key Feature Use

Extensive process orchestration, automation, For outgoing documents, such as customer invoices, the system processes steps
and error handling required by each business scenario and applies corresponding statuses to the
electronic documents in an automated way.

You can display noti cations and errors that occur throughout the entire end-to-end
process.

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Key Feature Use

Additional reporting activities Additionally to report generation, you can execute additional manual reporting activities
that are relevant for your reporting process.

You can make changes to document data after the document has been generated.

You can move one or more tax items between the reporting periods by changing the tax
reporting date.

You can validate your legal reports within the organization before submitting them to the
tax authorities using work ow for approval.

You can perform data compliance checks in the overall reporting process.

Monitoring of document/report history and You can monitor all process steps that a document/report has been through and view
audit trail the statuses throughout the entire end-to-end process of an electronic document or
report.

A full audit trail is provided.

Analytics You can perform embedded analytics for compliance reports using data analysis.

You can track the items considered for reporting under a speci c report's version for the
supported reports. This tracking helps you to analyze and audit these documents.

You can transfer data to an analytics system for detailed business data analysis to get
an overview of the entire reporting status across all countries/regions.

Easy-to-use preview You can visualize and interpret output formats in a user-friendly and consistent way.
Report elds are labeled and translated into the logon language.

Link to source document From each electronic document or report, you can trace back to the source document(s)
it refers to in the original applications.

Incoming documents You can process incoming electronic documents (for example, receive, validate,
acknowledge, accept and/or reject them) for Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Chile,
China, Colombia, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand,
Norway, Poland, Singapore, Sweden, and Turkey.

E-mail integration In the following countries/regions, you can con gure the system to send electronic
documents to your business partners via e-mail: Brazil, Chile, Germany, Italy, Mexico,
Peru, and Turkey.

Independent of the country/region, for the reported period of a statutory report, you can
send the correspondence via e-mail to the business partner with whom the transactions
are done.

Process of electronic documents under When there are issues with the communication of electronic documents or reports to
contingency external systems, you can switch to a contingency process to proceed with your
business transactions without disruption. This feature is available for Brazil, Chile,
Colombia, and Peru.

Extensibility You can use a reference report, an electronic document, and a process de nition to
extend an existing report, electronic document, or process or copy it.

You can create your own reports, electronic documents, or process de nitions. You can
reuse existing report categories by creating report categories with reference.

In some scenarios (such as for Brazil), integration with external sources or APIs for
partner integration is available.

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