SAP Process Orders v Production Orders

By John Jordan

Learn more about ERPCorp SAP Coaching & Consulting: Click here now

What's the difference between production orders and process orders in SAP?

 SAP process orders provide you with extra functionality compared to production orders, including phases and process instructions for process industries.

When you use production orders, a routing and a bill of material (BOM) are transferred to the master data of the order header. When you manufacture with process orders, the master recipe and associated materials list are transferred. The difference occurs because process industries manufacture in phases, converting initial liquid batches into consumable batches, which are then bottled and packaged.

Never tried SAP templates because you think they are too complex? Watch this demo from the Controlling 2016 conference on templates in SAP.

This demo covers how to:

• Create a template
  
  
• Execute a template
  
  
• Check the results

SAP Exchange Rate Updates With Parallel Valuation

By Rosana Fonseca

Currency amounts from stock valuation, invoice verification, material cost estimates, and order settlement are translated into the other currencies in the respective areas and updated in SAP Material Ledger as shown below.

Fundamentals of SAP MM-FI Account Determination

by Ashish Sampat

Colleagues often ask me about the integration of Materials Management (MM) & Financial Accounting (FI):

• How do postings from MM flow into FI
  
  
• How do we find out what occurs behind-the-scenes
  
  
• Is there a way to change the posting to a different GL Account
  
  
• How do we identify which movement types point to a specific GL Account
  
  
• How do you create a new movement type and assign it to a specific GL Account

Many SAP practitioners, IT and business alike, do not know where to start on MM-FI data flow and reconciliation. This blog clarifies the fundamentals of MM-FI account determination.

Configuration Transaction OBYC forms the core of the integration between the MM, FI, and Controlling (CO) modules in an SAP ERP system.

Curious what SAP Controlling 2016 attendees thought of the annual conference for SAP Controlling professionals? Find out in this video blog post. 

Thank you to the Controlling 2017 event sponsors and exhibitors -- the event wouldn't be possible without you!

Reserve your place now for a webinar on SAP S/4HANA Finance – From Batch to Real-Time presented by Janet Salmon and Birgit Oettinger, SAP SE.

June 29 at 9:00 AM PST/12:00 PM EST

On June 35 members of the SAP Controlling Community gathered for a webinar on SAP S/4HANA Finance – From Batch to Real-Time presented by Janet Salmon and Birgit Oettinger, SAP SE.

 ERP Corp, a leading provider of SAP Financials S/4HANA consulting and training services, recently announced the winners of the 2017 SAP Controlling Community Awards.

Join teams from Tyson Foods, Honda, Kohler, CHS, and Bosch  (and many more!) at Controlling 2017. Here are just a few of the reasons why your SAP FI/CO team needs to be at Controlling 2017:

On June 29 members of the SAP Controlling Community gathered for a webinar on SAP S/4HANA Finance – From Batch to Real-Time presented by Janet Salmon and Birgit Oettinger, SAP SE. In this blog post, Janet Salmon addresses frequently asked questions from the webinar.

Free Book Sample: Product Cost Controlling with SAP

By John Jordan

Read this sample chapter from Product Cost Controlling with SAP by John Jordan to learn more about settlement configuration and period-end processing, from settlement profiles and the allocation structure to parameters and processing types. It also examines the new settlement-related transactions available with SAP S/4HANA.

SAP Activity Postings 7: Category 5 Activity Types

By Tom King

Activity type posting with category 5 (Target=actual allocation) works similarly to the category 2 activity type, but does not require an indirect activity allocation cycle in order to post the activity.

Prev Blog: SAP Activity Postings 6: Category 4 Activity Types and Posting

SAP Activity Postings 6: Category 4 Activity Types

By Tom King

Category 4 activity types do not allow any sort of allocation. They are manually posted like category 1 and category 3 activity types. The activity stays in the cost center. Why have an activity type that cannot allocate costs between cost objects? Isn’t that the main purpose of the activity type?

Next Blog: SAP Activity Postings 7: Category 5 Activity Types and Posting

Prev Blog: SAP Activity Postings 5: Category 3 Activity Types and Posting

SAP Activity Postings 4: Category 2 Activity Types – Part 2

By Tom King

In previous blogs, we examined how to automate activity type postings with the indirect activity allocation cycle and category 2 activity types. We posted a statistical key figure to receiver cost centers to calculate the sender activity type quantities. This required some manual postings for the statistical key figure, but the calculation of the activity type quantity and the actual postings were automatic.

Next Blog: SAP Activity Postings 5: Category 3 Activity Types and Posting

Prev Blog: SAP Activity Postings 3: Category 2 Activity Types and Posting

SAP Activity Postings 3: Category 2 Activity Types

By Tom King

Category 2 activity types are for indirect determination and indirect allocation.

SAP S/4HANA Finance Frequently Asked Questions

by Janet Salmon

Is merging of actuals & plan into ACDOCA versus ACDOCP?

Is the planning data going to go to ACDOCA or ACDOCP? 

If we copy actual to plan for each monthly forecast version, will the P table end up with 12 times the records of the A table?

Planning data will update to ACDOCP. In your copy function you would have to decide at what aggregation you updated ACDOCP (1:1 or roll-up e.g. production orders to not have quite so much data in your forecast). 

Tip 100 from 100 Things You Should Know About Controlling with SAP (2nd Ed) by John Jordan:

You can reference SAP Note 552486 for answers to frequently asked questions about Product Cost Controlling (CO-PC). Process orders provide you with extra functionality, such as phases and process instructions for process industries. 

The Online Service System (OSS) contains a database of useful information and advice on fixes for SAP system issues, consulting notes, and frequently asked questions. OSS Note 552486 contains advice on 14 SAP Controlling frequently asked questions. In this tip, we'll discuss how to access OSS Note 552486 adn we'll go over the note's first couple of questions and answers. 

Over the last seven weeks expert Tom King has shared detailed information on SAP activity types . This blog post provides a recap and link to each post in the series.

Finance professionals and Controllers traditionally face increased workloads at the end of every period, and especially at year-end. Batch jobs need to be started and results monitored and analyzed. Reliable information showing the complete picture is only available after the period close process is completed. For companies with high work in process, this can mean that there are thousands of dollars sitting on projects awaiting settlement.