Controlling 2026 Topic Highlight: Explore how SAP Business AI, Situation Handling, Advanced Financial Closing, and intelligent automation are helping finance teams close faster, analyze smarter, and work more proactively.
For years, finance and controlling teams have been asked to do more with less. Close the books faster. Deliver deeper insights. Support business decisions in real time. Manage growing data volumes. And now, prepare for artificial intelligence. The good news is that SAP is delivering a new generation of tools designed to help finance organizations move beyond manual processes and reactive reporting. From intelligent automation and workflow orchestration to AI-powered assistants that understand your SAP business data, the future of SAP Controlling is becoming more proactive, automated, and intelligent.
At SAP Controlling 2026, three featured sessions will demonstrate how organizations can leverage SAP Joule, Situation Handling, SAP Build, and Advanced Financial Closing to transform finance operations and improve decision-making.
Automation with SAP Situation Handling and Joule: Transforming Finance Operations
Presented by Raghu Ram Thatavarthy
Many finance teams still rely on users to identify problems manually. Controllers run reports, review variances, search for exceptions, and investigate issues after they occur. SAP Situation Handling changes that model. Instead of waiting for users to find issues, the system continuously monitors business conditions and proactively alerts users when attention is needed. Whether it is unusual cost center spending, open items requiring action, planning exceptions, intercompany discrepancies, or period-end anomalies, SAP can identify situations as they happen.
When combined with SAP Joule, those alerts become even more accessible. Rather than navigating multiple transactions and reports, users can interact with insights through natural language and receive guidance directly within their SAP environment.
- Attendees will learn how organizations are using Situation Handling to reduce manual monitoring, accelerate month-end activities, and create more responsive finance processes.
Expedite Your Financial Close with Intelligent Automation
Presented by Chintan Joshi
Despite decades of technology advancement, month-end close remains one of the most manual and stressful processes in finance. Email chains, spreadsheets, status meetings, manual task tracking, and disconnected workflows often consume valuable time and resources.
This session explores how SAP Advanced Financial Closing, SAP Build, and SAP Business Technology Platform are helping organizations modernize the close process through intelligent automation.
Participants will see how SAP-curated agents and low-code automation tools can:
- Automate repetitive closing activities
- Replace spreadsheet-based task tracking
- Create digital workflows with built-in accountability
- Provide real-time visibility into close progress
- Maintain a complete audit trail of completed activities
Organizations adopting these approaches are reporting dramatic improvements in efficiency, including significantly faster close cycles and thousands of automated finance tasks. For controlling professionals looking to streamline allocations, settlements, accruals, and closing procedures, this session provides practical examples that can be applied immediately.
Demystifying SAP Joule for Controllers
Presented by Orpheus Birch
An Introduction to SAP Business AI and Smarter Cost Analysis.
Artificial intelligence is dominating business conversations, yet many finance professionals are still asking a simple question:
"What does this actually mean for me?"
This session cuts through the hype and explains SAP Joule in practical terms specifically for controllers, cost accountants, and finance leaders.
Unlike general-purpose AI tools, Joule is designed to work directly with SAP business processes and data. By leveraging SAP's Knowledge Graph and business context, Joule can provide answers grounded in actual S/4HANA information rather than generic internet knowledge.
Attendees will learn:
- How Joule differs from public AI tools
- Why data context matters for financial decision-making
- How AI can support variance analysis and cost investigations
- Opportunities for profitability analysis and reporting
- Emerging AI agents that may eventually perform tasks on behalf of finance users
Most importantly, attendees will leave with a realistic understanding of where SAP Business AI delivers value today and where organizations should begin their adoption journey.
The Bigger Picture: The Evolution of SAP Finance
While each of these sessions focuses on a different technology, together they reveal a larger trend shaping the future of finance. Traditional finance systems have largely been transactional. Users enter data, run reports, and investigate issues manually.
The next generation of SAP finance solutions is becoming:
Proactive through Situation Handling
Automated through SAP Build and Advanced Financial Closing
Intelligent through SAP Joule and SAP Business AI
Controllers will spend less time searching for information and more time acting on insights. Finance teams will move from reacting to problems toward preventing them. Month-end close processes will become increasingly automated and transparent. For organizations evaluating SAP Business AI, Joule, finance automation initiatives, or the latest SAP S/4HANA innovations, these three sessions provide a practical roadmap for understanding what is available today and how to begin leveraging it effectively.
Join Us at SAP CONTROLLING 2026
Whether your organization is exploring SAP Business AI, looking to accelerate the financial close, or searching for ways to reduce manual monitoring and reporting activities, these sessions offer real-world guidance from experienced SAP practitioners.
Join fellow SAP finance and controlling professionals this September in San Diego to learn how SAP Joule, AI, and intelligent automation are transforming the future of SAP Controlling.
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