UNIT-4 (PART-1) (FICO) Introduction to CO-Theory

 
Before going into any bit furthur, I would like to show some important macro-financial slide, which describes more than anything that could be discussed here.. Just try to understand what is being done with what components and even if somethings are new here at this stage of tutorials just know about the whole thing described in this slide by Google searching.

This unit in this course includes understanding CO module and how it fits a business orientation and How it takes the features of SAP ERP into an enterprise. This module gives out a clear understanding on the management accounting activities like overhead cost accounting, profit centre accounting, profitability analysis of market segments and other.
OBJECTIVES:

• To create internal Order, post documents to an internal order and get a detailed information on commitment management and settling the costs for a cost centre
• List all the components of CO-PC(product-cost controlling), detail out the product cost planning and how to estimate standard cost.
• Display profit centre, assigning profit centres, how to use profit centres as internal integrated planning component, flow of data to EC-PCA(Profit Centre Accounting) along with understanding its master data, understand the flow of data into CO-PA (Profitability Analysis) and process a CO-PA drilldown report

CONTENT:
Obviously from the objectives you can get the content list

• Management Accounting/CO and Master data in SAP ERP
• Organizational levels
• Cost centre accounting
• Internal order
• Product cost accounting
• Profitability analysis

So, where is profit centre accounting?? And what about cost-of-sales accounting?? Why no one talks about SAP configuration by cost-of-sales accounting??

Businesses can use the modules needed only by them rather than installing all the modules as part of software. In SAP ERP there are many modules which completely divide and maintain the individual departments along with some exceptional case modules like corporate services which takes the accounts of Travel management, Environment management etc.

Enterprise structure is mapped into SAP applications using organizational units Which in turn represent enterprise structure as a legal entity. Company code can have its own reporting capabilities either internal reporting or external reporting depending on the client. Client is the highest level of the company which represents the headquarters of a group or the company itself.
Master Data:

There are 3 Master data in most of the SAP configurations,

• Customer Master data
• Vendor Master data
• Material Master data

For example, Customer master data will contain all the business info on the customer and their details as shown in the pic above, the issue is with the authority to view this data. Sometimes whole data of customer will not be shown and it depends on the authority of the person who is about to view customer master data. There are 2 types of views for each type of information in Customer master data. Like, Payment parameters/ Dunning procedure might be visible only for Accounting head while only company code is visible for Accounting clerks.
Difference in FI Accounting and CO Accounting:

Financial Accounting or FI module accounting in SAP is mostly external. As it is external I mean, the report it generates must comply with the Accounting standards like GAAP or IFRS and Taxation and other similar subjects will start from FI module. While, CO Accounting is purely internal accounting which means it is managerial accounting which is solely used for internal decision making. Like Profit Centre Accounting which is used for understanding the profits from each profit centre and maintain the costs in prescribed/predefined decisions. There are many tools in CO but most of them are used for management understanding and decision-making regarding their operations.
Architecture of Management Accounting/Controlling/CO module:
Lets say Management is trying to reduce the costs of the operations in the company and they can find the following applications provided by SAP to make their decisions.
Cost-Centre Accounting gives out a clear picture on what is the costs being incurred in each particular assigned cost-centre. But, what if there is a project/process/product which involves many cost-centres or departments in the company, in this case of cross-functional costing, Activity-based costing is normally used to view the costs incurred by a particular process/product/project. This is very important as managers cannot make a conclusive limit to costs before funding departments in the company without predicting the costs.

In turn, these costing solutions gives a clear picture on product costing and efficiency of each business area in the company. By the picture, it is clear that what sort of costing or analysis methodology must be used for any specific answer.
We can use Profitability Analysis for how profitable can a new product be in the present market.
We can use profit centre Accounting to get the financial statements of a particular point of operations in company. Like, profit centre can be assigned to a product, group of products, a company, group of company or group of departments. So, Profit centre accounting emerged as a viable way of looking at internal costs pointedly after it was launched in ECC4.7.
FLOW OF VALUES WITHIN MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING:

Before, going into details let us look at the individual components and understand what is the purpose and then lets combine and get what the flow is all about!
Cost center is a organizational unit which u will classify your expenses to. cost center can be department or product etc. cost centre can be decided when ur creating PO(Purchase Order). every expenses in the organization will be attached to some or the other Cost Centre.

Profit center is an organizational unit in controlling to recognise ur profit.

Profit center is attached to material master record in costing view

Each cost centre should have profit centre but it is not other way round.

Internal Order is an instrument used to monitor costs and, in some instances, the revenues of an organization.
Internal orders can be used for the following purposes:

• Monitoring the costs of short-term/long-term jobs
• Monitoring the costs and revenues of a specific service
• Ongoing cost control

Internal orders are of 4 different types till now in SAP:

• Overhead orders - For short-term monitoring of the indirect costs arising from jobs. They can also be used for continuous monitoring of subareas of indirect costs. Overhead orders can collect plan and actual costs independently of organizational cost center structures and business processes, enabling continous cost control in the enterprise.
• Investment orders - Monitor investment costs that can be capitalized and settled to fixed assets.
• Accrual orders - Monitor period-based accrual between expenses posted in Financial Accounting and accrual costs in Controlling.
• Orders with revenues - Monitor the costs and revenues arising from activities for partners outside the organization, or from activities not belonging to the core business of the organization.

Now coming back to the flow of values, we must look deeply into the diagram given above. In each type of Accounting, different set of organizational units are used and it’s the duty of the SAP consultant to bridge them and find the optimum level of information availability to the Client as per his/her business needs and usage of client's operations.
Integration with other ERP Applications:
In Oracle Apps, most of the focus is given to the processes like

• Purchase to pay
• Plan to product
• Order to cash

Which is slightly different and though most of the companies use these processes in their daily operations SAP is designed to make use of even these operations so that a Client will not miss his touché while running his company under SAP. Touche, I mean his/her easiness with such process even after using SAP.

As I said above and shown in the pic Above , the data from other applications will be automatically updated in CO. Like FI where most of the transactions/posting being done will have an impact in CO module too when the logic of transaction asks for it. As shown in figure, any transactions in Expense accounts will have a corresponding update in CO module too as it gets updated in Cost centres, internal orders etc. Even the postings in HR module like costs for training will be updated to CO by the relevant cost centre. When Assets are bought, the transaction in FI will get updated in CO by the relevant Cost Centre or else CO might not be able to trace the costs and there might be error(changes in Finance values) in final reports of FI and CO modules. And if there is a huge difference in CO report and FI report then, its like a huge difference between Senior Managers and Finance Department. Obviously, a head ache. IN same way, Production orders in production planning, purchase orders in Materials Management, etcc will have their own method of updating the CO by relevant Cost objects like Cost centres or  other cost objects assigned/used during configuration. Even in Sales Order Management, When revenue accounts have any transaction it gets updated as per the revenue types configured and track the revenue being generated. All this happens at the moment where transactions happen and 'no work gets stuck for tomorrow' in SAP. As shown in the pic, all the cost centres will have a profit centre and this can completely give out the profitability analysis to analyse the costs and profit-centre accounting to get individual process/product/project financial report, revenues and profits in CO module. Thus, CO module justifies its name Controlling!.

So What impacts CONTROLLING??
CO-PA is used for market and segment reporting. Controlling area which contains units like CO-OM(Cost-Controlling), CO-PC(Product Cost planning), EC-PCA(profit centre accounting) is used for "controlling area reporting" to calculate costs. Company codes are independent units which where accounting is done as FI module. In company code there may be many number of sales organisation, material organisation and other departmental organisations like logistics, procurement etcc which generate a self-auditing and accounting reports if needed.
So, every organisational unit impact the CO module, it must be looked carefully on how the information flow is being designed.

In an single controlling area, there can be many company codes and they can report in different currencies as per their need. All the company codes in a single controlling area must use same operative chart of accounts.

COST-CENTRE ACCOUNTING:
It must be looked on how to segregate costs as per the company needs and as per the SAP elements.
IN Chart of Accounts, Expense accounts are created in class-4 while revenue accounts are created in class-8.

All the costs are posted in FI as primary cost elements as shown above, while the secondary postings are like assessment and analysis postings which are just used in CO module and they don’t have entry in FI. Secondary costs are part of Management controlling and decision making elements.
Before going into any depth let us make a secondary cost element, lets see the respective screens of "Cost Elements" to get intouch with CO Module:.
In SAP menu - Accounting - controlling - Cost centre accounting - master data - cost element - individual processing - create secondary cost element

In this screen as shown above enter the cost element you want to make and the validity of the cost element too. After entering the data, click on 'Master data' button above and then new screen appears as shown below

Don't think of entering the data as I showed in pics, Im just making you familiarize with the screens. In the above screen, 'Basic data' is where basic information is given and as you can see, there is a 'default account assignment' to each cost element. But, just try to find out what is 'CElem Category' field in the above pic?
There is a hierarchy in any controlling area, which is a standard and default hierarchy. This is done to look at the costs in a complete tree structure of authority n the company.

In the above pic, You can see the way the cost centres are created as part of hierarchy with the numbers of each cost centre. A Cost centre can be assigned to any part/activity of the organisation.

You can also assign the manager responsible for this cost centre, for which cost centre this cost centre must be placed as part of hierarchy in the organisational setup, the department in the company for which this cost centre is assigned to, and also the profit centre field covers the purpose of the cost centre like production, services, sales or administration. There are 2 points which must be kept in mind during configuration..

• If a controlling area has more than one company code, then the linkage between the company code and its cost centres must be specified clearly to avoid any confusion in CO module.
• If Business areas are used in the company code, they must also be specified in the cost centre master record.

These days almost every consultant uses profit centres and business areas in their configuration.
Let us take a look at the cost centre and display it in standard hierarchy.
Goto SAP access menu - Accounting - Controlling - cost centre accounting - master data - standard hierarchy - display
Here, Enter '1000' in the controlling area field

Here you can see the whole Company codes assigned to this control area and all the cost centres in these company codes.
Every company will have many number of activities and the costs of each activity must be determined before allocation and this is why secondary cost elements come into picture.

Secondary cost elements will be updated by the management saying this is the costs/expenses we want to limit for this particular cost centre for which activity is being assigned. This costs allocation to cost centres can be either entered manually or automatically by predefined limits in configuration.
Let us see the way of allocating/planning a price to a cost centre..
Goto sap easy access menu - accounting - controlling - cost centre accounting - master data - activity type - individual processing - create
Then we will create a planner profile in SAP Easy access menu - Accounting - Controlling - Cost centre accounting - planning - set planner profile
Remember this profile must be listed in TA50 table..(know how to view information in a table by google)
Now, to enter the limits for an activity
SAP easy access menu - Accounting - controlling - cost centre accounting - planning - activity output/prices - change

Here You can see the activity limits and when U click the 'Overview' as pointed in above picture after entering the details in this screen a table is displayed where every activities in this activity type is listed and in a column of the table displayed limit of costs can be entered directly and saved..(I am not showing it now as I want to show it clearly during configuration)
In CO, there are some figures/parameters which can be monitored every time when there is transaction which could affect the parameters.

As shown above, there are two types and TYPE -01 is fixed one and cannot be changed unless a new posting is done. Type -02 is a statistical figure which can be changed as per period and it remains same for that period.

All these organisational units of cost centres and profit centre is to control the costs and analyse the revenues being generated. As shown above, personnel costs are planned and entered to cost centre structure of the company along with other cost assessments like Asset depreciations etc.. The main aim of this planning is to create a value (/savings) by controlling the costs through value-chain analysis as per Management subjects and Profitability Analysis as per SAP subjects. IF in any case, there is a need to delimit the costs then planned calculatory costs can be used to delimit the cost in cost centre. There is no limit on activities being used as Activities cannot only be under CO module, they might be under production planning module (PP) and Sales (SD) module. Allocations can be manually entered or automatically derived using different methods. At last, all the costs will be monitored/assessed automatically in CO-PA.
So, What are the objectives of Cost Centre planning ??

• To plan the structure of Organization's future operations for a clear defined time period
• To control business method within current settlement period
• To monitor efficiently after completion of the settlement period using plan/actual or target/actual comparisons and
• To provide a basis for the valuation of organizational activities, independent of random fluctuations

Now lets go to some ground basics…

Whenever, there is a posting being done in FI module along with document number being generated in FI module, the same transaction is recorded in CO module called as management accounting object too with different document number. Being a management object, little more information will be available in the document to ease the understanding like cost element and posted amount.
As we discussed above about statistical objects, we need to find out what sort of objects are allowed for statistics.

Costs/expenses originate from various modules might use different objects to record the costs. IN management Accounting, postings for costs/expenses are recorded as true/real object and statistical objects as shown in the above picture. Look at the picture twice.. Statistical objects are just for information purposes. What is the real object, listed above as 'Network' in the pic above? It is WBS .. Know more about WBS which is a main topic in Project management .
The system has a priority for choosing which CO objects are posted as real or statistical transactions. The difference between real and statistical is quite simple. Real postings are those that form part of the transactional balance in the controlling module. For example, if the only item in a cost center was a real posting of $100, then the balance of that cost center will be $100. Statistical postings on the other hand are those that do not form part of the transactional balance in the controlling module. For example, if the only item in a cost center was a statistical posting of $100, them the balance of that cost center will be $0. However the statistical posting will appear in the cost center reports, but will be for informational purposes only.
Another major difference between real and statistical postings is that real postings can be allocated to other cost objects (for example, by using assessments, distributions or primary cost re-postings) since these values form part of the balance of the controlling object. Statistical postings however, cannot be reallocated. Also, you cannot specify only a statistical object in a posting when a cost element is used, as the system will require you to enter a real object.
When a posting is made to more than one cost object, the system has a priority which it uses to determine which of the objects is treated as real and which is treated as statistical. The below cost objects are listed in order of this priority:

• Profitability Segment
• Sales Order (for Make-to-Order postings)
• WBS Element
• Internal Order
• Cost Center

Note that the term statistical is also confused, because when used in the context of the Sales and Distribution module, it means something entirely different. I have heard people say that a statistical sales condition does not get posted to FI (and CO). However, in the SD sense, the term “statistical” means that the value does not roll into the price charged to the customer. The general ledger account linked to the statistical condition does get posted to the general ledger (and to controlling if there is a CO Object).
From <http://ovigele.com/understanding-real-versus-statistical-objects-in-controlling/>

So as per the above description, the way the system reacts to allocate costs is also dependant on the hierarchy. But, now-a-days SAP consultants wont normally create more than one cost centre for a particular cost/expense to avoid confusion and technical understanding limitability of the end-users.

So, How an FI document becomes a CO document?
FI document cannot become a CO document unless certain settings in configuration is done. First a primary cost element must be created in CO and must be assigned to the corresponding Expense account which is used in FI journal entry also along with this a valid cost centre must be referenced in FI line item during document entry. Line item is the item which is used as exchange in a transaction, it can be money, product, service anything belonging to the company. So, when creating a document for an expense/cost corresponding cost-centre must be referenced in a line item to show that it’s a cost and CO module will save this document by its own document number(which is different from FI document number). So, 2 separate documents will be created which is a FI document and CO document, each one having its own unique number.
So, how to get CO document by FI document??
COBK-REFBN being mindful of the document year and controlling area.
In COBK (header for CO documents) you have REFBN field, which in case that CO document was created from FI, will represent FI document. To know more about this issue see my post 'Transferring documents from FI to CO'
How to post and view an expense of a cost centre??
Here, let us consider that we had assigned a cost account(which is a GL Account) to a cost centre so that all the transactions in this account will be considered as costs of particular branch/unit. So, whenever costs incur we post document to as expenses to this cost-account.
Goto SAP easy access menu - Accounting - Financial Accounting - General Ledger - Document Entry - Enter GL Account Document
If prompted to give a company code give pre-defined company code like 1000 or any company pre-defined one. And then enter the data as shown below

If you see the Above pic clearly and understand the line items, there is a Debit Item and Credit Item. And for the Debit Line item from GL Account 403000, it had asked assignment of CO object as this account was actually assigned to Cost-centre. Tax Jurisdiction code can be used if your company expenses are tracked from many countries but this cost-centre just takes care of costs in a particular jurisdiction. In that case, we had to use tax jurisdiction code for 403000 line item, and enter that tax jurisdiction code in appropriate field which is beside the cost-centre field in above screen. When saved this document will be generated.
To see the costs incurred in a cost centre, goto
SAP easy Access menu - Accounting - Controlling - Cost Centre Accounting - Information system- Reports for cost centre accounting - Plan/Actual Comparisons - Cost Centre: Actual or Plan or Variance

In this screen enter the details as given above and click execute to get the transaction happened in this cost centre upto now

If you double-click on the Debit Account 400300 you will know the actual line items and Amounts being used.

Here, each transaction in cost-centre is listed by Account to Account from where money was being transaction is debited from. If you double-click again on the account number in this transaction then u will get the document of this particular transaction which shows info in more detailed manner.

Posting of Material Management to a cost centre:

The issues here, is How a FI document will be created from MM during expenses transactions, If a FI document is not created then that is a faulty implementation of SAP. ? Transactions such as Goods issued in Material Management Module can be recognised as costs when a cost-centre is assigned. This transaction will create a FI document between accounts Material Consumption to Material Inventory. So Goods are Debited in Material Consumptions and Credited in Material Inventory Account. And MATERIAL CONSUMPTION account(in GL) will be assigned to a cost-centre while configuring SAP to that company . This cost-centre being a part of CO will give out the expense when viewed.

CONTINUED IN UNIT-4 (PART-2)...

UNIT-4 (FICO SUPP) Transferring Documents from FI to CO

Introduction

Controlling provides you with information for management decision-making. It facilitates coordination, monitoring and optimization of all processes in organization. It helps in calculating the variances by comparing actual and plan data. These variance calculations enable you to control business flows.

Data relevant to cost flows automatically from Financial Accounting to Controlling. To flow the data, the system assigns the costs and revenues to different CO account assignment objects, such as cost centers, projects or orders.

Objective

The objective of this article is to explain step by step process of how you can create CO document rather FI document does not contain CO object at the time of posting.

Business Requirement

Knowing the financial condition of the organization is not sufficient to make important decision cost aspects are always considered. To know the cost aspects CO module is implemented by business.

Data flows from FI to CO, which reflects in the reports and helps management to take decisions. These reports are used to compare FI data with CO data, this analysis may discover mistakes made in the system, thus improve the performance of the organization. CO document generation in following business situation:-

Scenario I.

1. FI document was posted with G/L account without CO object.
2. Later Business created cost element with reference to existing G/L account for which documents were already posted.
3. Business wants to reverse the posted FI document.

Business will not be able to reverse the FI document as CO document was not generated.

Scenario II.

1. Implemented FI Module and posted FI documents.
2. Later implemented CO Module.

Let us try to understand the above scenario with an example.

Scenario I.

1. FI Document 122000737 was posted in company code 2200 without passing cost center. In Fiscal Year 2009.

In G/L account 401121(Salary) no CO object assigned i.e. cost center

1. As per the business requirement later on Cost element created with reference to G/L account 401121

1. After the creation of cost element business wants to reverse previously posted documments.At the time of reversal Error “ Account XXXX requires an assignment to CO object” occurred.

Solution

Step 1:-

Assign cost center to the cost element.(one of the below option)

In Cost element master data (T.code - KA02) (shown below with screen shot)

In Default account assignment (T.code - OKB9)

This configuration is required as at the time of creation of the CO document automatically cost

Input parameters:

Company code

Fiscal year

Document number (FI document number)

Processing options: List posted document, Write batch job log

This will help to avoid any variation or error.

Result

Enter the document number, company code and Fiscal year

Click on „Environment> Accounting documents‟ option from menu bar.

Scenario II.

As FI Documents are already posted and controlling module is implemented by organization later on.

Organization needs to assign cost center to cost element master data and generate CO document with reference to FI document by 3 steps mentioned in scenario I.

UNIT -3 (FICO) DOCUMENT CONTROL AND POSTING

Each transaction in SAP system is saved as document and it remains as complete unit until archived. Every company will be having a different set of transactions like customer/sales transactions, vendor transactions, etc. And this brings the need to define different set of unique document types for each transaction so that they can be picked up easily by the internal auditors to authorise and plan the expenses. Also, the uniqueness is needed between documents as various transaction require different set of data to be entered in the document like vendor transactions and sales transactions are completely different type and also there might be changes in tax for each transaction. Some data might be optional in a transaction while in other transaction the same data will be required and mandatory. All these reasons will ask for different document types.
Unique fields on document are

• Document number (Which will be in a Number Range)
• Company code
• Fiscal year

Each document will contain

• Document Header: Info which segregates the data in entire document
• Line items which specify what is being transferred between the accounts. First, posting is done using Accounting(AC) interface which represent the applications like sales order mgmt, purchasing mgmt etc. So, when a document is posted then system generates an accounting document(invoice, receipt, memo etc) which will have some fields(mostly identical) and more importantly items.

The document is controlled by

• Document type: which is internally a Document header
• Posting Key: needed for line items

As discussed above, at least one document will be generated for every business transaction along with a document number. Normally, this number is assigned by the system (if Internal) or user(if external setting are used).
If goods arrive from a vendor, then material document will be generated as part of inventory management and then financial document will be generated to give financial relevant data in GL account and amounts. So, for every transaction atleast one document will be generated. In this way, every transaction in any part of SAP system will be reflected financially by a Financial-document in each transaction.
Use RFBELJ00 to create a document journal in system. Most important data can be saved as a table for selected documents by using document headers and line items. Use reports RFBUEB00 and RFBUEB01 to find document in system
As discussed above, the different types of document types are

• S - GL document
• A - Fixed Asset
• M - Material
• D - Customer
• K - Vendor

Document types will define the

• set of number ranges that must be used externally(or will be used internally) for each document and
• The Account types the posting is done into, like in a customer transaction, vendor accounts will not be touched unless required.

There are couple of fields in Document-Header called as 'Document Header Text' and 'Reference Number' which can be made optional/required for each type of document. Document type will also define how the net procedure is calculated as every transaction is not same, there might be some difference in taxation, foreign exchange, business deals, how to store the document etc..
Storage of documents is a tough issue after having a long list of transactions in the company. Normally document type controls the storage issue. Always documents are recommended to store under the number of system document. Sometimes by using external document number( manually entered numbers) for documents the original document in the system(so that system can understand the posting) itself will become external document after a fiscal year. Then external number of original document will be used as 'Reference number' field of system document. As we know 'Reference number' is a part of 'Document header'. And then we will note the number of system document in original document. So, what we do in other words is we will bridge the System document using original document number by linking their numbers.
Every business transaction posted is a document generated at company code level. So, what are the document types in account level??

• KA - Internal transaction of Vendor A/c
• DA - Internal transaction of Customer A/C
• AF - Depreciation of Fixed Assets
• AA - Asset sale, purchase and transfer
• ZP - Automatic postings(payments)
• Z - payments
• R - Invoices
• AB - All-purpose documents(allows posting to all account types)
• DG - posting to Customer(D) and GL accounts(S) only..
• RV - Sales order mgmt billing document(customer invoice) which is used to transfer billing
• RE - Material mgmt (Vendor invoice) which is also used to transfer billing
• DR & KR is used when invoice is directly posted in FI module(extra-service transactions etc).
• And many more depending type of transaction and situation…

When internal numbering is used, system assigns new number to each document in FI, while in external number assignment, system transfers the billing document number to accounting document(provided this billing document number is not used before) to connect the invoice/receipt and document.
Now, lets go deep into Document Number ranges..
Document Number range: It’s the range of numbers that can be used for each document type in account level and must not overlap in any situation. If Internal Numbering is used, then automatically system takes the last document number from Current number field and assigns the next document number in number range.
If External Numbering is used, User must enter the number or number can be transferred from other system. Here, there might not be any continuous sequence while extra-facility provided for external numbering is that they can be alpha-numeric. Which is why many companies follow external numbering.
How long the document number range can be used?
There are 2 features regarding the time-usage of number range

• TO A FISCAL YEAR IN THE FUTURE : Here, number range will not stop even though new fiscal year arrives. Which means, in that particular number range, numbering goes on continuously into next fiscal year too.
• FOR EVERY FISCAL YEAR: Here, at beginning of every new fiscal year the numbering shifts to the first number of the range. This helps to ensure that number range is sufficient.

In New GL Accounting, Different ledgers can use different fiscal year variants in some rare cases and then special settings must be used during customization.

Ledger Solution is an important concept after New GL is being released as part of EHP4.7. With new GL, different accounting practices can be achieved in a single shot rather than going through hard task of other methods. Lets say You have one Company which reports its statements using US GAAP accounting principles and now to make a financial report according to IFRS accounting principles, it will be difficult. And normally, in SAP dual reporting is achieved by using dual accounts(or parallel account approach) before new GL came out. After, new GL came out things became easy.

A ledger group can be assigned to a company code as part of 'Ledger approach' shown above, and in this ledger group multiple ledger can be assigned. Ledgers are divided in to a Leading Ledger and Non-leading ledger. In any ledger group there will be one leading ledger and many non-leading ledgers. Company code when assigned to a ledger group will have leading ledger as its GL. Like,

SAP has defined two types of ledgers

Leading Ledger

Denoted as 0L in the standard system, all company codes in a client are to be assigned to this ledger, it is used to portray the group-valuation view. You can also assign one or two additional local currencies that can serve as the parallel currencies apart from the first local currency or global-company currency. You have to assign the book depreciation area (01) of asset accounting to the leading ledger, besides integrating the Controlling (CO) as well (only the values from the leading ledger are sent to CO).

Non-Leading Ledger

These are additional ledgers that you can define in addition to the leading ledger. Defined for each company code, you can assign different characteristics values and fiscal-year definitions to these ledgers and use them for different purposes, such as parallel accounting and management reporting. You can use one or more currencies of the leading ledger as the currency of the additional ledgers. For example lets say you used USD for the first currency and Euro, INR as the second and third currencies you would not be allowed to use GBP for your non-leading ledgers, basically the currency for a non-leading ledger must be defined in the leading ledger.

If any ledger is not represented as leading ledger in ledger group then, a non-leading ledger will be automatically selected by the system as shown in above picture. Now, If you assigned a Ledger group to a company the daily postings are posted to all the Ledgers in ledger group. If Different Fiscal year variants are used by Ledgers in a ledger group, then only Fiscal year variant of Leading ledger is verified during postings.
Why Ledger group is needed?
Lets go back to the requirements, For a company which is generating financial reports in US GAAP accounting structure, could be very tough and head ache to give out reports in IFRS accounting standard too. This can be achieved using the non-leading ledgers in the ledger group. First assign the ledger group consisting of a leading ledger which follows US gaap and also a non-leading ledger which follows IFRS to a company code. Daily postings and transactions will be updated in all the ledgers of Ledger group when assigned to a company code. leading ledger which follows US GAAP accounting policies will generate Accounting report as per GAAP. As company code is assigned to ledger group which contains non-leading ledger, if this non-leading ledger follows other accounting practice like IFRS or IAS then it will generate the report in IFRS or IAS accounting format. This was the main advantage of using Parallel Accounting feature in New GL. Need of re-posting the transaction into other account as part of parallel accounts approach/process to generate reporting in other standard(s) is not preferred after NEW GL is released, which was hefty work.

So, What are the advantages of New GL?
All the advantages are shown in the below pic, and it is recommended to google all of them to understand more.

As we understood, in parallel ledger approach daily postings are done in all ledgers of ledger group. But, the problem is with the view. Yes, when viewing all the postings it will be difficult to find out which posting is done to which ledger.
What are the types of View?
Entry View :
You can display the line items for one or more G/L accounts. G/L account line items are line items that have been posted to a specific G/L account. Unlike other line items, a G/L account line item only contains the information that is relevant from the account view.
You can display the following G/L account line items:
●  Open items
●  Cleared items
●  All items
●  Noted items
●  Parked items
Fromhttp://help.sap.com/saphelp_erp60_sp/helpdata/EN/42/fd9d7728985158e10000000a1553f7/content.htm

GL View:
In the general ledger view, you can display the line items together with the general ledger account assignments (General Ledger Line Items) and G/L account line items or document data for one or more G/L accounts.
You can display the following line items in the general ledger view:
·  Open items
·  Cleared items
·  All items

In the general ledger view, you cannot display any documents that are noted or parked because there are no general ledger line items for these documents.
In addition to the general functions for displaying line items (see Line Item Display), the general ledger view also offers the following functions:
·  You can specify the ledger for which you want to display the line items. The line items displayed are combined from the documents in the entry view and the general ledger view.
·  With the custom selections, you can also make selections using general ledger account assignments (General Ledger Line Items).
From http://help.sap.com/saphelp_erp60_sp/helpdata/EN/42/fd9e6c28985158e10000000a1553f7/content.htm

Coming back to Number ranges, one number range can be assigned to several document types or copy the number range from one company code to another. And also number range can be copied from one fiscal year to another too.
Use report RFBNUM00 to find gaps in document number assignments.
Posting Keys:
Each line item in document will say what is being transferred but to make it clear whether item is going outside or coming inside, posting keys are used. This clearly says, whether line item is a Debit or Credit. And, it clearly gives out where the line item is going into and from where.
Posting Keys can identify if a line item is connected to payment transaction. This info can give out payment history so we can analyze them and create payment notices.
Sometimes, in sales-relevant postings the sales figure of the account must be updated by the transaction and this can be done by specifying the posting keys.
Some of the posting keys are,

1. For GL Account posting, 'Debit' is posting key 40, 'credit' is posting key 50
2. For customer invoices, 'Debit' is posting key 01, 'credit' is posting key 50
3. For vendor invoices, 'Debit' is posting key 40, 'Credit' is posting key 31
4. For Customer receipts, 'Debit' is posting key 40, 'Credit' is posting key 15
5. For Vendor payments, 'Debit' is posting key 25, 'Credit' is posting key 50
6. For fixed assets, 'Debit' in posting key 70, 'Credit' is posting key 75

DOCUMENT ENTRY FIELDS:
Up to now We have Account group field status, transaction specific field status and Company code specific field status.
Ex: When expenses are being posted, tax data and costs centre must be specified in document while cost centre data might not be needed when posting cash. So, what information is displayed and needed is controlled by field status.
THE MOST GENERAL RULE IS, ACCOUNT-DEPENDANT FIELD STAUS IS DEFINED FOR GL ACCOUNTS IN CUSTOMIZING. FOR CUSTOMER AND VENDOR DATA, POSTING-KEY DEPENDANT FIELD STATUS IN CUSTOMIZATION IS DEFINED.
For fields in GL accounts, Fields with highest priority is shown in document entry unless there is exceptions like

• When business areas are used, Business area field must be used as input and this business areas must be activated in company code. But, Business area field will not check whether Business areas are defined and activated in company code or not. Its just a field to define a status of required / optional entry.
• Tax field entries are only possible if the relevant account of GL which is being used in Document is relevant to tax.

Hide field cannot be combined with required entry which causes error.
Field Status Groups:
General Ledger Accounts must behave in the way they are supposed to be used/define. You cannot use expense accounts without deciding what fields in this account must appear in document entry. You cannot use Cash accounts unless you decide what fields of this account must mandatory/optional in document entry. When a document is posted to a GL Account, should cost centre field is required? Or should it be hidden??
This info is given using Field status Groups(FSG) of each GL Accounts. For each GL Account ,FSG gives critical info on account's usage. This Fiscal Status Groups are summarized into Field Status Variants(FSV). FSV must be defined and assigned to company code(s) or else posting cannot be made. Normally same FSV is assigned to all of company codes to keep information similar across company codes.
It's better to copy the standard FSG and modify as necessary. When a document is posted to a sub-ledger account then FSG must be defined for its reconciliation account.
Standard posting keys can be used and defined to create new posting keys. But if new posting keys are defined, then tables containing the reference of the keys must be updated. Posting keys of Assets and Materials can be used in transaction unless these components are installed. By changing the definitions of posting keys and FSG, FS of transaction-specific and Account-dependant can be changed. So FSG, posting keys, Account-dependant and transaction-dependant fields are completely interlinked.
Sub-ledgers do not have FSG, this gives heavy emphasis on different posting keys defined to meet all the requirements of sub-ledger. This is why sub-ledger have many posting keys.
While, posting in GL accounts is mostly differentiated using different FSGs. Therefore only 2 posting keys (40 and 50) are used for GL account posting.
There are some 'Document-splitting' objects which are mandatory for some objects like 'Segments' and 'Profit Centre'. This will be discussed in detail later in 'Document Splitting' chapter.

Practise:
Task -1: Customer's Accounting Manage wants:

• Document types to be used for grouping document into categories in the system
• Internal number assignment to be used
• Document number ranges lie in the number ranges given below

DOC	Type	No	Range
SA	GL AC Document	01	0100000000 - 0199999999
DG	Customer Credit Memo	16	1600000000 - 1699999999
FG	Vendor Credit Memo	17	1700000000 - 1799999999
DR	Customer Invoice	18	1800000000 - 1899999999
KR	Vendor Invoice	19	1900000000 - 1999999999

Check that they are created and assigned to corresponding document types..
Goto IMG - FA (NEW) - FA Global Setting(NEW) - Document - Document number range - Documents in Entry View - Define Document Number ranges for entry view

Field name	Value
CO-code	GEM

Interval -> Change

Now check whether the number ranges are same as define above.
Here, in Document number ranges screen, I found that there are lot of number ranges which had been copied fro yeas and years.. I will show you a screen shot of 'Customer Credit Memo whose no = 16 in above table

And now we, must check that in Document types screen, 16 must be assigned to 'DG' Document type
So goto,
IMG - FA(NEW) - FA GLOBAL SETINGS (NEW) - Document - Document types - Define document types for entry view
Here, as we are just checking for DG = Document type, I double clicked on DG and I can see 16 assigned to it as shown in pic below

In the similar way its better to check that correct number is assigned to document types given above in table or else things might get confusing later.
Task -2 :)
Create document type ## for authorized expenses, reverse document type is AB. It should be possible to make posting to vendor master records and GL Accounts
Assign document number range 85 (85000000000 - 8599999999) to this document type with internal number assignment for currecnt fiscal year. Reference field in the document must be a required entry field.
Sol) To create a number range got
IMG - FA(NEW) - FA GLOBAL SETINGS (NEW) - Documents - document number ranges - documents in entyr view - define document number ranges for entry view

Field name	Value
Cocode	GEM

Internval -> change then EDIT -> Insert Interval

Field name	Values
No	85
Year	2014/current year
From number	8500000000
To Number	8599999999
Current number	0
Ext	Blank

Press Enter and then save..
Confirm the dialog box 'Transport number range intervals' with pressing Enter

Now goto
IMG - FA(NEW) _ FA GLOBAL SETTINGS(NEW) - Documents - Document types - Define Document types for Entry view
Here click on 'New entries' and enter the following info

Field names	Values
Document type	##
Number rage	85
Reverse document type	AB
Account types allowed:	-
Assets	Do not select
Customer	DO no select
Vendor	Tick
Material	Donot select
GL Account	Tick
Required during Document Entry:	-
Reference number	Tick

Choose save
Go back and give descriptions for '##' as 'Authorized expenses'
Save

Task -3:
Now to make posting available for the new document type later on this tutorials, we must make one more critical settings in customization in new GL accounting. We must prepare this document type for document splitting.
To know more about document splitting, I recommend you to just google it, we will discuss it in next UNIT more briefly and in detail.
To make document splitting available for the new document type ##, goto
IMG - FA(NEW) - GL Accounting(NEW) - Business transaction - Document splitting - Classify document type for document splitting.
Enter the following details for document type ##

Field name	Value
Transaction	0300(vendor invoice)
Variant	0001

Save..
Task - 4:
We want to track the cars that are rented and so we want to make a required text field for line item sof Sports car rental expense account.. So create a new field status group FS## with descriptions Authorised expenses##
To create a new FSG with name FS## we must check the FSV assigned to our company code… FSG can be made by copying the FSG G001 in FSV 1000
Goto IMG - FA(NEW) - FA Global Settings(NEW) - Global Parameters for company code - Enter Global Parameters
(or alternatively You can go to
IMG - FA(NEW) - FA Global Settings(NEW) - Ledgers - Fields - Assign Company code to FSV
Here, double click on company code and record the FSV assigned to our company code
For me its 1000 as shown in pic below

Now, GOTO
IMG - FA(NEW) - FA Global Settings(NEW) - Ledgers - Fields - Define Field Status Variants
Here select the FSV assigned to your company code, in my case its 1000 and then double click on 'Field Status Groups'
Select G001,
Click 'Copy as' and give the following details

Field name	Values
FSG	FS##
Text	Authorised Expenses##

Press Enter and save (FS## appears in FSG list as shown below)

Now, without pressing back or exiting to any screen, let us think back on requirements
We want to make 'TEXT' a required entry and for that double click on FS## in the list and double click on 'General Data'
And here, make 'Text' field a required entry as shown below

Save…
Now we need to assign the FSD we had to create new GL Account Sports Car rental Expense AE02##
For that goto
Easy access menu - Accounting - FA - GL - Master data - GL Accounts - Individual processing - in company code
Or just type FS00 transaction code..
Enter the following fields

Field name	Values
GL Account	AE02##
Cocode	GEM

Press 'Change' and select 'Create/Bank/Interest' tab page
Enter FS## in FSG field as shown below

Save
So, upto now You had created a new FSG and assigned it to a GL Account
 
POSTING PERIODS:
What are closing periods?
In Sap system, you can't make transaction in every year before. In SAP system, a fiscal year must be defined so that SAP system can allow to post different types of documents to different accounts. In general terms Posting periods can be said as "Timing" limitation to posting so that previous year transaction cannot be changed for malpractice purposes. Most of the subledgers will be closed at end of closing periods by the accounting department but main ledger/GL Accounts will be opened for longer periods so that any miscalculations or reconciled transaction can be checked again as per real situations/values. I said situation as some transactions will not be closed with in a year and so sometimes, it must be closed as part of yearly transaction to be included in an year.
Every year will be divided in to periods and transactions will be recorded as part of Accounting periodically called as posting periods. It depends on What and how a company wants to do periodically. Normally in countries like India, US, UK etc.. A fiscal year is from April - Marc and at the start of April company must give their financial reports to Stocks controller like SEC in US and SEBI in India. It is a regulatory condition to do business in their stock markets. Consolidated companies whose parent/headquarters are in other country is allowed to report as per the headquarters' fiscal year decision. Like in Vodafone India, whose fiscal year is same as their headquarters in UK. So, Vodafone India give out annual reports as fiscal year from August - September. Here, one must look that actually fiscal year regulation in UK is also same as India i.e, from April- March but Vodafone gives out their Financial reports as fiscal year from August -September of each year. UK law allows that and Indian law also allows that but per a fiscal year accounting reports must be given as per needed. To segregate Accounting on fiscal year basis, company must record each type of transaction for each year to create a live balance sheet and P&L stmt. It reduces burden for internal reporting as decisions by top level management can be takes easily using the reports. So, IN SAP SYSTEM one fiscal year is divided into 16 periods and in these 16 periods 12 are normal periods and 4 are special periods.
Lets take a look at how and what happens in Accounting department to make a final report.
Let us take a company following April-March fiscal year policy and they have internal auditor as part of Accounts department. In March, Accounting department will be busy in finalising transaction so that reports must be generated. First, Internal Auditor will finalise all the transaction that happened in past April - March fiscal year and try to bring out a conclusion in transaction which are open/troubled due to management decision/strategy. This can be considered as first special period in SAP. After Accountant finalises his report, he will be in touch with senior Management of the firm to get the real values in open/troubles transaction or for any errors. This can be considered as second special period in SAP. After senior management accepts the report, external auditor must check out the whole report from the internal auditor and unless external auditor accepts and signs the report it will not be accepted by the Financial regulator or controller like SEC/SEBI. This stage which includes work of external auditor can be said as 3rd special period in SAP system. After, internal and external auditor finalises and accepts a report It will be submitted to stock market showing the financial condition and strategy of the company. Now, in last para, I said in SAP SYStem fiscal year comprises of 12 normal periods and 4 special periods. I gave the utilisation of special periods just by an example. Here, Normal periods are normal months and so, 1 normal periods gives out 12 months but special periods are not months and they can be expanded.
SAP SYSTEM WILL normally close the transaction for a month/period if month ends but, it can be opened if transactions are still unfinished by end of a month. It is not possible to post transaction of last fiscal year in SAP unless there is an open transactions. OPEN transaction is nothing but a transaction which is not finalised or the order in of that transaction is still being manufactured. It might take couple of years to finalise transactions in Airplane Manufacturing and Delivery. Sometimes, to prevent any malfunctioning while storing a transaction periods will be closed wontedly. For Ex, Accountant might decide that some people in his Accounts department are actually making some transaction which are not really happening and to prevent this, he might close some transactions belonging to Assets and just open transactions belonging to customer for this period/month. This prevents documents being posted to incorrect posting periods and to incorrect accounts.
As we know a fiscal year = 12 months = 12 periods. Special Period comes only in last period so in 12th-period/12th-month there will be 4 special periods. But big difference in special posing period is they don’t have any start/end dates just like normal periods have for each month. So, when posting a transaction in special period the date of posting must fall in last posting period and special period must be opened along with last posting period.
In customization, SAP provided enormous variety of setting needed for different types of companies. Some companies might not have a 12 month fiscal year, they might just operate for 6 months. Some companies might not follow yearly dependant period policy, I mean when I said above 1 period = 1 month then normally we assume that each period starts at 1st date of each month but, some companies might have a very different period starting dates like from 15th of each month and SAP gives us a complete flexibility even on the start & end dates of each period. So, all the settings like yearly dependant/ independent, Half-yearly/shortened fiscal year or a complete yearly functional fiscal year etc.. Will be defined as a fiscal year variant. As, we know Variant means something that can be used by any company as part of it. So, we will define the fiscal year settings and save them as a variant called as Fiscal year Variant(FYV). Later, we assign this FYV to our company code. Posting Period Variant(PPV) is nothing but variant of controlling the posting in periods so like controlling the type of transactions allowed to post in a period and the timing of the period!
AGAIN GOING BACK TO QUESTION, WHAT ARE THE CLOSING PERIODS??

You define posting periods in your fiscal year variants. You can open and close these posting periods for posting. As many periods as you require can be open for posting simultaneously.
Usually, only the current posting period is open for posting, all other posting periods are closed. At the end of this posting period, the period is closed, and the next posting period is opened.
Special periods can be open for closing postings(WHAT IS THIS?) during the period-end closing.

What is Closing posting?

Closing posting is nothing but closing the transactions by internal auditor to finalise the transactions values and make reports. So, Closing Periods are nothing but Special Periods.

From http://help.sap.com/saphelp_erp60_sp/helpdata/en/96/8b300943ce11d189ee0000e81ddfac/content.htm

What are the account types associated to FYV control?
As discussed above in this UNIT , the different types of document types are

• S - GL document
• A - Fixed Asset
• M - Material
• D - Customer
• K - Vendor

These are the account types which are controlled for posting by PPV. Now, another setting(denoted by '+') is also given by SAP so that you don’t need to specify each and every account. This '+' will post document to any type of account(i.e., ALL ACCOUNTS) as given above. So, for any posting period variant at least one line with entry '+' is mandatory.
What must be considered when posting to a special period?

When posting to special periods, you must take the following into consideration:

• The posting date must fall within the last regular posting period.
• You have to enter the special periods in the document header in the Period field, since the special periods cannot be determined automatically by the system.

From <http://help.sap.com/saphelp_470/helpdata/en/96/8b2fef43ce11d189ee0000e81ddfac/content.htm>

WHAT ARE INTERVALS?
In SAP System, let us assume that you are in 12th normal period and in 2nd special period. So, now you want to make some corrections for transaction belonging to normal period 4 and period 5. You can open them as an interval and make the corrections. At any instant, you can have 2 intervals though you can correct the transactions in any period of fiscal year. In the 2 intervals one must stick with special period at any instant.
Ex, If you want you can keep all the periods open at the same time or you can open only a specific period say period 03 to period 04 at a time (one interval)

Example 1,
you can have 2 period ranges (intervals) open at a time -
Range : 11/2008 to 12/2008 and 04/2009 to 05/2009
here you have totally 4 periods opened.
Example 2
Range: 01/2008 to 12/2008 and 02/2009 to 05/2009
No. of Periods open - 16 periods
From <https://scn.sap.com/thread/1343218>

IN New GL, third period interval is also allowed and much more customization is being allowed in new GL. Ex, It is possible to post to only one profit centre 1000 while the person who is in control of profit centre 2000 doesn't want to permit the postings any more.
SAP permits past/future dated transactions unless the concerned posting period remains open. While in document view, the posting date, posting period and fiscal year are displayed along with transaction figures.
Now, we talked too much about FYV lets do some practice.
Practise:
Task -1:
Create a Posting period variant 'PP##' with name 'posting periods GEM'. As per requirements of the accounting department, subledgers are opened for only curent month while GL is open for both current month and previous month. Assign this PPV to your company code
Sol)
Goto IMG - FA(NEW) - FA Global Setings(NEW) - Ledgers - Fiscal year and posting periods - Posting periods - Define Variants for open posting periods
Click 'New Entries'

Field name	Value
Variant	PP##
Name	Posting periods for GEM

Save..
Now to define the periods in the PPV
Goto IMG - FA(NEW) - FA Global Settins(NEW) - Ledgers - Fiscal year and posting periods - Posting periods - Open and close posting periods
Click 'New Entries'

Fieldname	Values
1st item
Var	PP##
A/c types	+ valid for all accounts
From Account	Blank
TO Account	Blank
From Period 1	Previous Month
Year	Previous Month's year
To period 1	Current month
Year	Current year

Field Name	Value
2nd item
Var	Pp##
A/c type	D
From Account	Empty
To Account	Zzzzzzzzzz
From period 1	Current month
Year	Current year
To period 1	Current month
Year	Current year

Field name	Values
3rd item
Var	Pp##
A/c type	K
From Account	Empty
To account	Zzzzzzzzzz
From period 1	Current month
Year	Current fiscal year
To period 1	Current month
Year	Current year

Save

To copy an existing interval(Which we are not doing in this as we created a new one):
IMG - FA(NEW) - FA Global Setting(NEW) - Ledgers - Fiscal year and posting period - Posint periods - Open and close posting periods
Select account types for 0001 posting period and click 'copy as' and then overwrite the 'var' field with 'pp##' and save,…
Now assign 'pp##' to GEM
Goto IMG - FA(NEW) - FL Global Setting(NEW) - Ledgers - Fiscal year and posting periods - Posting periods - Assign Variants to company code
Here, for company code 'GEM' assign 'pp##' in its variant field.

Save…
Remember: There is an authorization group which applies to first period interval. If an Accountant think that some changes must be made in transactions only by some people in Accounts department.
POSTING AUTHORIZATIONS:
Sometimes authorizations are needed even to post high amount transactions so that such transactions are double checked by correct authority and given approval. This maximum amounts can be defined as part of 'Tolerance group' which also controls the payment differences. Most of the times, money at the end of payment might not be the exact amount specified in the invoice, this differences can be checked and a error limit or payment differences limit can be specified so that transactions which exceed the this differences limit will be asked for authorization or can be rejected automatically.
What sort of upper limits can be specified in tolerance groups?

• Total amount per document
• Amount per customer/vendor item
• Cash discount offered or granted with a particular tolerance group for a user.
• You can also specify upper limit per payment differences
• Upper limit for open /closing item
• Limits can be specified even on different currencies.

Even though a blank is given in tolerance field for any customer, there will be default tolerance group assigned. But for any employee who have high and low limits, a special tolerance group must be created and assigned to user IDs.
There are 3 types of tolerance groups(TG) available in FI

• GL A/c TG which contains upper limit for transaction
• Customer/vendor TG which contains the payment differences for each customer/vendor
• Employee TG which contains upper limit for payment differences for posted amounts so that a high difference in payment differences can be

Ex, If a payment difference occurs when a user is entering a transaction of an employee then both the employee TG and customer TG will come into force automatically to check payment differences and the authority for user to enter the amount of transaction like if the amount is higher than the limit for that user or not.
Practise:
Task -1: I
nternal auditors have requested the following maximum authorizations for accounting department

• Account clerks:
  • 500000 units of local currency per document
  • 100000 units of local currency per open item
  • 5% discount in cash
• Accounting manager
  • 5000000 units of local currency per document
  • 800000 units of local currency per open item
  • 10% cash discount

Sol) Here as mentioned in the business scenario we will create 2 TGs one is 'blank' TG for accounting clersk and other 'SUPV' for accounting supervisor/manager
For 'Blank' TG goto
IMG - FA(NEW) - FA Global Settings (NEW) - Document - TGs - Define Tolerance groups for employees
Here double click on 'GEM' and give the following details

Field name	Values
Amount per document	500,000
Amount per open item	100,000
Cash discount per line item	5%

Save.. And in same way create a new TG with 'SUPV' by copying the above done blank TG
Go back, select the 'blank' TG we created above and click 'copy as' and overwrite the below info as given

Field	Value
Group	SUPV
Co code	GEM
Amount per document	5000000
Amount per open item in account item	800000
Cash discount per line item	10%

Save..
Task-2:
Now we need to give the new created TG to the accountant supervisor]
To assign this new TG SUPV goto
IMG _ FA(NEW) - FA Global setting (NEW) - Document - TG - Assign User/tolerances groups
Click 'New entries'

Field name	Values
Username	Your username
TG	SUPV

Save

SIMPLE DOCUMENTS IN FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING
Here let us look at ENJOY transaction. By this way a user can post simple documents.
In SAP System, Financial Accounting component uses one posting transaction for several different posting like

• GL Account postings
• Customer invoice postings
• Customer credit memo postings
• Vendor invoice postings
• Vendor credit memo postings

Normally in Enjoy posting screen, user must enter a Header and 1st line item. There is a general data section with in the document header where invoice and posting date, text and so on are entered. Normally to enter invoice and credit memos received, a type of document can be defined for each transaction which will after appears as default value for each of such type of transaction. This can be overwritten too for any purpose needed by the client company, this becomes default because the way of entering invoice or credit memo is commonly same in most of the companies. If a document type is not defined then the default type from the system is automatically selected like KR for Vendor invoices.
There are tab pages where important and non-important fields are given so that user who gets used to the data entering will slowly become aware of what is needed in what tab page for each type of transaction.
Sometimes we must clear open items(so that the present transaction will not be calculated to any open item of that particular vendor/customer etc.) and this to happen, system must know what are the open items available for each customer/vendor. So, when entering customer/vendor invoices the business partner data will be displayed along with account name, address and bank details. To get a display of open items , a button is provided which when pressed will open the open item list.
In transaction entry screen, along with header and line item data, there is also an information area which displays the balance.
Whenever a transaction is being entered, the date on the document(or document date) is taken from the supporting documents like a customer invoice or credit memo. This might be different from the date of posting(means the user entering the transaction into SAP) and so document will take the date from the supporting documents. But, if any of such documents are not provided then still transaction can be entered but the document date will be the posting date.
There are lot of customizations available to the document entry screen. You can change the orientation of the fields and columns by their size or sequence. You can see some settings like park, hold, or post, to complete the document entry once transaction balance reaches zero.
There will be some complex postings which require some experience. Complex posting transaction can be accessed via menu and this transaction is a series of screens. Once a user enters complex posting then he/she cannot return to initial screen.
Explanatory text field can be used for each line item and this gives some understanding. This line text can be used for external or internal purposes. For using externally for example for dunning notices, advice notes etc.. '*' is used in front of the text. This way a transaction can be understood outside the transaction data.
You can save line text as a key(four digit key template) and when a transaction is being posted a relevant key can be used directly in the text field rather than entering whole line item text.
Practice:
Task -1:
Post a simple document to test the customization work.

• 5000 units of local currency cash is being withdrawn from the bank account to petty cash. Post this transaction(cash account: 100000; Account bank position: 113100 each with profit centre: 1000)

HINT: select 'TREE OFF' so that document entry screen fills the whole windows
Remember SUPV Tolerance group and it might come into effect s we post.

• Vendor Invoice:

Accounting manager rented a car and went for a out of town conference. Post vendor invoice for 110,000 units of local currency to vendor account which ws created earlier(Vendor##). Choose to 'calculate tax' with 'tax code 11'(10% tax) Enter the authorization number A## that you receive from the accounting manager in reference. Then post the whole expense into 'Sports car rental expense' AE02## account which was created before along with profit centre PR##. Use document type ## and enter description 'Conference##' as required 'text' field in line item

• Vendor Invoice:

During conference, accounting manager toolk clients to dinner and so post an additional invoice of 330,000 units of local currency to 'Entertainment Expense account' AE01## using the same criteria of previous exercise.

• Customer Invoice:

Post a customer invoice from 220,000 units of local currency to a customer account. Choose 'calculate tax' with 'tax code 10'(10% output tax) post to revenue account 800200
HINT: select 'TREE OFF'

• Customer Credit Memo:

Post a customer credit memo of 5500 units of local curency to customer account created earlier. Use 'tax code 10' and revenue account 800200
HINT: Select 'TREEOFF'

• Display the customer's or vendor's line items to check the postings which are done::..

(PHEW, I know it is a hell of practise now)
 
Sol 1) Simple document posting to GL account
Goto sap easy access menu - Accountng - Financial accounting - GL - Document entry - Enter GL Account document -
Choose GEM and press enter..

Field name	Value
Basic data
Document date	Current date
Posting date	Current date
First item
GL account	100000
D/C	Debit
Amount in doc.curr	5000
Profit centre	1000
Second item
GL Account	113100
D?C	Credit
Amount in document currency	5000
Profit centre	1000

Document -> simulate
Here, check the document and double click on line item to display or change the data.
Choose 'POST' to save the document and not he document number.
HERE: I GOT AN ERROR MESSAGE F5275 saying in G1 Fiscal year variant, the present posting date doesn’t come in any period:

I overcame this error by going to ob29, selected the FYV which was given to our company 'GEM' which was 'G1' and then I double clicked on periods to see the periods specified in this FYV. If the table here is empty then it periods must be assigned as shown in the above figure. By assigning the periods we are specifying when does a period starts and when does it ends with exact date, To get more understanding on shifting-periods look in the periods of 'V3' FYV. Here, 3 periods will be shifted because V3 resembles April-march Fiscal year.
After doing the above step, the error disappeared and document overview appears to give details about the posting items and info regarding the document.

Now after you get the document overview screen you can change data if needed by double-clicking a line item . click 'POST' to post the document and note the document number.
After completing the whole inner processes(it takes time first time), the system will post the document and will give the document number (I was given 100000000 because We had specified the document number range with the starting number 100000000)

Task 2: a) VENDOR INVOICE:
Post vendor invoice of 110,000 units of local currency to vendor account 'Vendor##' . Choose to 'calculate tax' and use tax code11. Enter authorization number A## in reference field which was received from the accounting manager. Post the expense to 'sport'scar rental expense' AE02## which was created and profit centre PR##.. Use document type ## and enter a description ('Conference ##') in required entry field 'TEXT' in the line item.
So, GOTO SAP easy access menu - Accounting - FA - Account Payable - Document Entry- Invoice
Here:: Sometimes you may not be able to enter the document type and in that situation, click on 'Editing options' when entering a document and choose 'Entry with Short name' from the dropdown list ..

Field name	Values
Basic data
Vendor	Vendor##
Invoice date	Current Date
Reference	A##
Posting Date	Current Date
Document TYpe	Authorized Expenses## ( If you can't see the document type ready for input then click on 'Editing Options' and select 'Entry with Short Name' in the drodown list.
Amount	110000
Currency	Company Code Currency
Calculate Tax	Tick
Tac-code	11(Input tax -10%)
ITEMS
GL ACCOUNT	AE02##
D/C	Debit
Amount in Doc. Curr	110000
Taxcode	11
Text	Conference##
Profit Centre	PGEM (we created PGEM and CGEM in last UNIT)

Document -> simulate
Click 'post' to save the document and note the document number.
Here, I faced hell of problem to find out the prescribed tax code-11 and tax code-10 as given in the configuration guide of SAP. But, to my problem I found out that in SAP TFIN50 nothing is given about any taxes and External Financial Accounting Basics must be covered to get to know how to integrate taxes, banking and other external accounting issues to our company. They can be configured but SAP TFIN will not give any sort of configuration and Here, I got stuck.. Well, its not completely stuck its more of a breakpoint to reach and study for completely new thing breaking the flow of the present topic.
Here, to create a new tax code with 10% input tax and also a tax code with 10% output tax GOTO FTXP and check the tax codes available for 'Great Britain' Country. In the description of all the codes available as shown in the pic below there are input tax codes and output tax codes(some with VAT).

Coming to tax codes we have 3 things: direct input/output taxes, deduction in taxes like VAT or Service and levying them on the customer transactions and then we have withholding tax concept. For now we will stick with simple method of taxing: I.e, direct input/output tax. As in above pic there is no 10% input tax code and 10% output tax code, lets create both the tax codes in GB. TO know more about the types of tax processing available in SAP please goto OBCN to get the complete view of different types of taxes.
Now, goto OBQ3 and select the tax procedure of the country respective to your company, as our company is 'GEM' in Britain, I selected 'TAXGB' and click on 'Control' Folder as shown in the below pic

This is where things get little interesting!! And be patience..All I showed to you upto now is just the information about TAX procedure. To create a new tax code with 10% input tax and 10% output tax I decided to name them both as "tax code-11" and "tax code-10" respectively. Goto
FTXP
Here, If you see the questions in Exercises, above. They asked output tax rate of 10% as 'TAX CODE 10' while 10% input tax rate as 'TAX CODE 11'. So, lets make these tax codes by copying the standard tax codes and change their percentages and description.
In FTXP screen as shown below

Click 'COPY' button above after entering 'V6', Enter the details and then click 'tick' mark. In the next screen enter the details as shown in the pic..Change input tax to 10% by entering '10,000' in its field and then click 'Properties' and change the description to '10%' as shown below

SAVE.. And similarly create an another 'Tax code -10' as output tax at 10% in same way as above from FTXP and copying output tax codes available…But, this time '10,000' will be entered in output tax field, change description in properties and SAVE… a status bar as shown below must appear saying that Tax code -10 is created.

Now, we need to assign these tax codes to the tax accounts in the GL of our company. So, now we will make new tax accounts and then assign these tax codes so that whenever we use these tax codes again, no need to worry about the document issues related with taxes. I am creating new Tax accounts so that I don't wanna study all about the present GL for which my company is assigned to and it is much better way to know all transactions have gone to accounts you know.
Now, to make new tax accounts we need to find out what are the available accounts for input tax and output tax. In FS00, I found input tax account and output tax accounts as in the list of all accounts available given in pic below.

On SAP Help Site, there is the following info about Tax configuration
Prerequisites
You have made all the relevant settings in IS-M/AM and FI.
IS-M/AM

Prerequisite	Menu Path
Define tax indicators and account keys for conditions	Logistics → Advertising Management → Master Data → Conditions

FI

Prerequisite	Menu Path
Pricing procedure (tax determination procedure), condition types and access sequences	Financial Accounting → Financial Accounting Global Settings→ Tax on Sales/Purchases → Basic Settings→ Check calculation procedure
Assign calculation procedure to country	Financial Accounting → Financial Accounting Global Settings→ Tax on Sales/Purchases → Basic Settings→ Assign country to calculation procedure
Define transaction key/account key	Financial Accounting → Financial Accounting Global Settings→ Tax on Sales/Purchases → Basic Settings→ Check and change settings for tax processing
Define sales tax indicators	Financial Accounting → Financial Accounting Global Settings → Tax on Sales/Purchases → Calculation→ Define tax codes for sales and purchases
Assign tax accounts	Financial Accounting → Financial Accounting Global Settings → Tax on Sales/Purchases → Posting →Define tax accounts

Revenue recognition for debit-side documents is a non-taxable transaction that is defined in Financial Accounting(FI) using the output tax Code for non-taxable transactions. You have defined this tax code for each company code in the Customizing settings for Financial Accounting under Financial Accounting Global Settings → Tax on Sales/Purchases → Posting → Assign Tax Codes for Non-Taxable Transactions.
Revenue recognition for the sales agent settlement credit-side transaction is an expense recognition, which is defined using the input tax code for non-taxable transactions. You have also defined this tax code for each company code in the Customizing settings for Financial Accounting under Financial Accounting Global Settings→ Tax on Sales/Purchases → Posting → Assign Tax Codes for Non-Taxable Transactions.
See also:
FI documentation → General Ledger Accounting → Cross Application Topics → Taxes → Calculation Procedure
FI documentation  → General Ledger Accounting → Cross Application Topics → Taxes → Tax Indicators
From http://help.sap.com/saphelp_erp60_sp/helpdata/en/08/2e3165480611d396dd006094b92c6a/content.htm

In FS00, click on the small help button next to specified GL Account and which is red-squared in the below pic as shown. This will open another screen/window which asks what u want to search in the GL(General Ledger).

In the search window, goto 2nd tab with title 'G/L account description in COA' and type "*input*"(without quotes) as shown above ..we are using this tab to get the list of accounts in GL which has description 'input' in or at as any word. Once we press tick mark or enter we will get the list of all accounts which has 'input' word in their description as given below.

Now select the GL Account with 'input tax' as its description as given above using red-arrow. We will use this account for our 10% input tax code. Select an input tax account and press enter

REMEMBER: AS WE ARE USING DIRECT GL ACCOUNTS AS TAX ACCOUNTS RATHER THAN A COPY, DON'T CHANGE THE ACCOUNT NAME BUT CHANGE ITS DESCRIPTION AS PER OUR NEED. BECAUSE CHANGING ACCOUNT NAME MIGHT RESULT IN SOME HEAVY CHANGES INSIDE AND NOT RECOMMENDED.

After, you press enter as directed in above para, U will see the below screen. Add '10%' in the description to know that this account is for 10% input tax click on 'Control data' tab and

Make the changes as shown below. Select 'Posting without tax allowed' and enter the tax code '11' in the 'Tax Category' Field.

Now save and see that there are no Errors. If there are no errors then GO FS00 and make a same tax account for output tax of 10%. We know that in previous step we had created an output tax code -10 for 10% output tax. So, similarly assign the 10% output tax code to an output tax account in the GL. After you save the output tax account, it must look similar like below.

(If you see the above pic clearly, I didn't select 'Posting without tax allowed'.. And I wontedly did that for output tax account to see what could happen, will there be an error? Or whether the tax amount will change and how this effects? TO learn that I didn't select it)
Now, as we had tax accounts assigned to the needed 10% tax codes(input and output) lets create the vendor invoice where we left off in practise. Goto
SAP easy Access menu - Accounting - Financial Accounting - Accounts Payable - Document entry - Invoice
Enter the following info

Field name	Values
Basic data
Vendor	Vendor##
Invoice date	Current date
Reference	A##
Posting date	Current date
Document type	Authorized expenses##(If you can't see the document type ready for input then click on 'editing options' and select 'Entry with short name' in the dropdown list
Amount	110000
Currency	Company code currency
Caluclate tax	Tick
Tax code	11(input tax - 10%)
In Items
GL Account	AE02##
D/C	Debit
Amount in doc. Curr	110000
Tax code	11
Text	Conference ##
Profit centre	PR## ( in our configuration Profit centre is PGEM as practised in the previous chapter and not PR##)

Document -> simulate

YAHoooOOOO!! We did Something which is not there in SAP Configuration guide. And tax issues are normally dealt in real-time issues but we made IT!!
Now, lets finish the invoice posting!!To finish the posting there from the above screen, click on 'Complete' button(4th from left) and then u must see that document is saved status as shown below.

Oh-shit!! I parked it(status is saying I parked it), now we must retrieve it and post it. OK, double-work !!
Goto FBV0 and a screen appears asking the parked document details as shown below

We, know what document number is as it was there in the status when document got parked. Press Enter and You will land in a normal invoice-entry screen to make any more changes to the parked document. Like amount, tax code etc.. But here we won't do any of such changes and it will be similar to screen showed below

And here, click shift + F11 or click 'POST' button 2nd from left as shown in screen above. It will take small amount of time and document number will be generated as shown in the pic below.

Congratz for posting first vendor Invoice !!!!

Please note that PARKED DOCUMENT WILL NOT BE POSTED, if:
1. Debit and Credit totals are not tallied.
2. Your Controlling is activated, but you have not given real CO Object for expenses accounts. (where you have created cost elements)
3. Not filled some of the mandatory fields.
From http://scn.sap.com/thread/1217180>

Know the Difference of FBV0, FV60 and FV70 transaction codes..

--____--____--____-ϦΓƸẪĶ-____--____--____
Configuration for Tax Code steps are
1. Maintain the Tax Procedure OBQ1
2. Maintain the Tax Processing in Accounting OBCN
3.Change View of procedure & go to control OBQ3
4. Maintain the Tax Code FTXP
5. Changing in GL Master for assign TAX Code FS00
6. GL assign to Maintain Configuration for automatic posting OB40
7. Make your posting with Tax Code.

So, TASK -1 (B) finished .
TASK- 2(b) Another Vendor Invoice
While at a conference, the Accounting Manager took clients out to dinner. Post an additional invoice for 330,000 units of local currency to the 'Entertainment Expense Account' AE01##, using the same criteria as in the previous task.
Record the new document number by repeating the same steps to post this new transaction. Let us look at the entries we made previously and change the input as per the specs in this task.

Field name	Values
Basic data
Vendor	Vendor##
Invoice date	Current date
Reference	A##
Posting date	Current date
Document type	Authorized expenses##(If you can't see the document type ready for input then click on 'editing options' and select Entertainment Expense Account AE01##' in the dropdown list
Amount	330000
Currency	Company code currency
Caluclate tax	Tick
Tax code	11(input tax - 10%)
Line Items
GL Account	AE01##
D/C	Debit
Amount in doc. Curr	330000
Tax code	11
Text	Conference- Dinner##
Profit centre	PR## ( in our configuration Profit centre is PGEM as practised in the previous chapter and not PR##)

So again goto
SAP easy Access menu - Accounting - Financial Accounting - Accounts Payable - Document entry - Invoice
Fill the details as given in below pic!!

After clicking Document -> Simulate
Check the data and then save(ctrl + S) to get the document number.

Task -3(a) Customer Invoice:
Post Customer invoice for 220,000 units of local currency to you customer account. Choose the 'Calculate tax' options and use the tax code - 10% output tax. Post to the revenue account 800200. Make note of the document number.
Goto SAP easy Access menu - Accounting - Financial Accounting - Accounts payable - Document Entry - Invoice
If prompted to enter a company code - Choose 'GEM' and then press 'Enter'
I was unable to get to know the customers defined for GEM so I looked all the available customers for GEM and found RUBY ITALY which we had created in previous chapter. And so we will be using Ruby Italy.

Field name	Values
Basic data
Customer	Ruby Italy
Invoice date	Current date
Reference	There is no reference for this customer
Posting date	Current date
Document type	**It will select automatically**
Amount	220000
Currency	Company code currency
Caluclate tax	Tick
Tax code	10(output tax - 10%)
In Items
GL Account	800200
D/C	Credit
Amount in doc. Curr	220000
Tax code	10
Text	First Order by Ruby Italy
Profit centre	PR## ( in our configuration Profit centre is PGEM as practised in the previous chapter and not PR##)

When I pressed Document -> Simulate , I got an error (Message-F5118) as shown below!!

And so, I should look back at this output tax-10% tax code and look at the account under this tax-code!!
GOTO FS00 and when I checked the output tax account for 10% tax. I found no error in the whole account specifications. Its same as what I did in put tax code.

So, I went back to FTXP to look at tax-code-10 (output tax -10%) Properties and found that Tax-Account is not assigned before and so I added 175000 GL account in INT Chart of Account in Tax-Account tab as shown below

And when I came back and simulated the Customer Invoice screen, VOILA!!

To post the document click 'SAVE' or 'Ctrl+s' to get document being saved confirmation as shown below at bottom of screen.

TASK -3(b) Customer Credit Memo
Post a customer credit memo for 5,500 units of local currency o the customer account we created earlier. Use tax code-10(output tax 10%) and revenue account 800200
Goto SAP Easy Access Menu -> Accounting -> Financial Accounting -> Accounts Receivable -> Document Entry -> Credit Memo
Here, Enter the following details

Field name	Values
Basic data
Customer	Ruby Italy
Invoice date	Current date
Reference	No reference for this customer
Posting date	Current date
Document type	** It creates automatically**
Amount	5500
Currency	Company code currency
Caluclate tax	Tick
Tax code	10(output tax - 10%)
In Items
GL Account	800200
D/C	Debit
Amount in doc. Curr	5500
Tax code	10
Text	First credit memo to ruby italy
Profit centre	PR## ( in our configuration Profit centre is PGEM as practised in the previous chapter and not PR##)

As shown below

Now click Document -> Simulate

And then to save click 'Ctrl + s' to get document number after being saved at bottom of screen as below

TASK -4: List of postings made
Now lets get the display of customer's and Vendor's line items to check the postings we have made till now
Goto SAP EASY Access Menu -> Accounting - Financial Accounting - Accounts receivables (or) Accounts Payables -> Account - Display/Change Line items

Field name	Values
Customer (or) Vendor Account	Enter Customer (or) Vendor Number
Company code	GEM

In Display/Change Line Items in Accounts Payable, it will ask the vendor and so I entered VENDOR## as shown below and then click EXECUTE

Then the complete transaction list for this vendor will be displayed as below

Here, it is clear that we made 2 transactions for amounts 110,000 EUR and 330,000 EUR respectively along with total balance below.
Now, let us check the Customer side Display/Change Line Items in Accounts Receivables of Easy Access menu

Here, 2 line items are displayed as per the transactions we did before. As we had done a credit memo of 550 EUR in one transaction, the outstanding amount is subtraction of the two transactions as shown above.
By This UNIT, you must know

• Classifying and displaying accounting Documents
• Open and Closing Posting Periods
• Open and close posting periods for different account types
• Limitation on the amounts that can be posted and 'not posted' with and without allowance of Accounting clerks
• Assigning users to higher amount tolerance groups
• Post simple documents

As We completed introduction to posting, SAP CONSULTANT must know two things

• What is all this for in CO? so, I will give out a brief introduction in CO module and its internal components in next chapter to give complete perspective on why CO is important and how can it create a smooth Business Management???How FI module aids on functioning of CO module??.
• SAP is all about Big and heavy Data, so We will look at how to manage big data using LSMW in different scenarios and other methods on huge data and then we will come to FI back to configuration.