SAP Simple Finance 1503 - FAQ's

By Janet Salmon

Our SAP Controlling Community gathered June 2015, for a webinar presented by Janet Salmon on the latest changes to accounting and controlling in SAP Simple Finance 1503. The webinar was a a sneak peek of Janet's SAP Controlling Conference Session.

The webinar explored how changes in SAP Simple Finance will affect SAP Controlling including how accounts and cost elements will merge, what you can expect to see in Reporting and Planning, and how account-based CO-PA has been enhanced to provide better Profitability Reporting with Margin Analysis. Keep reading for a list of frequently asked questions that came up during the webinar on SAP Simple Finance 1503.

Do you still have the number of characteristics limitation to 50 in COPA?

Some of the interfaces in CO-PA still check that you are not sending more than 50 characteristics, so SAP still recommends that you limit your operating concern to 50 characteristics. Nevertheless since each of the characteristics becomes a field in the Universal Journal when you come to build reports you can use attribute views to determine additional fields for example, the material.

Do we need to have the HANA Live installed for these reports?

Your classic reports (Report Writer, Drill-Down, ABAP List Viewer) will run as before using compatibility views to select the relevant data from the universal journal. For the modern reports such as the multi-dimensional trial balance, line item browser or income statement are using a combination of HANA views and operational data providers or virtual infoproviders to feed the queries.

Can you explain how Secondary Cost Elements are merged with GL?

During migration a G/L account will be created automatically for every secondary cost element and fields such as cost element category transferred from the cost element. The segregation of the secondary cost elements takes place via the cost element category - assessment, settlement, activity allocation, overhead calculation, etc.

Is the Universal Journal updated after document splitting?

The BSEG entries for payables and receivables won’t be split, but the split will happen in the universal journal ACDOCA based on the splitting rules.

Is it also unified in addition to universal journal and who is the D000002 user?

User D000002 is Hasso Plattner, one of the founders of SAP and still an active blogger. As to unified vs universal, we started the project talking about the need to unify our structures, but ended up with the universal journal.

Is costing based COPA document different from new Universal document?

Yes, the costing-based CO-PA document will be as before a combination of CE1XXXX for the transactions and CE4XXXX for the characteristics. In the universal journal you will have fields for each characteristic in CE4XXXX and a link to CE4XXXX via the PAOBJNR for reasons of backwards compatibility.

In Column table view is SAP BW SID concept moving to ERP?

SAP BW SIDs are for the master data

In SAP Simple Finance, can I have a new field based on business need which can link with logistics?

For example, a team field which will drive from Sales Order which will flow to GL posting?

You can add a field to the Universal Journal easily but you will have to create a derivation logic to fill it and as with any derivation the more complex you make the logic to fill it, the more you’ll impact performance during posting.

If we can expand the profit center structure by using the new field can I do KP26 cost center activity type with functional area planning as well?

You can’t do this using transaction KP26 since this hasn’t been enabled to derive the functional area. IF you want to fill all the dimensions during planning, then investigate Integrated Business Planning for Finance.

Watch a recording of Get up to speed on the latest changes to accounting and controlling in SAP Simple Finance 1503.

Download the slides: CON2015_Salmon_Simple_Finance_Webinar.pdf

Janet Salmon is the Chief Product Owner for Management Accounting at SAP SE. Janet is known to many SAP Financials professionals for her writings on Controlling and related subjects in SAP Financials Expert. She is the author of Controlling with SAP – Practical Guide, Accelerated Financial Closing with SAP, and SAP HANA for ERP Financials 2nd Edition. Janet has overseen many SAP Controlling functionality product developments both as a Product and Solution Manager. Most recently she spearheaded changes to the user interfaces within Controlling and data transfer from Controlling to SAP HANA. Learn more about Janet's sessions at Controlling 2015.