Table of Contents

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Foreword
15
Preface
17
Objective of This Book
17
How to Read This Book
18
Introduction
19
The Universal Journal: Designing a Steering Model for the Business
19
Local and Global Controlling: Changing Organizational Structures to Satisfy Various Sets of Requirements
20
From Products to Services: Unifying Approaches to Controlling and Financial Operations
20
Financial Process Optimization: Standardizing and Automating Processes
20
SAP Fiori and Live Data: Merging Transactional and Analytical Data
21
Key Figures for Operational Reporting: Measuring Financial Performance
21
Real-Time Financial Close: Providing Timely Information
21
Predictive Accounting: Providing Forward-Looking Insights
21
Unified Planning Model: Moving from Financial Budgeting to Driver-Based Forecasting
22
Asset Accounting: Making Real-Time Postings for Multiple Accounting Principles
22
Inventory Accounting: Simplifying Material Valuation, Production Cost Analysis, and Actual Costing
22
Group Reporting: Producing Consolidated Financial Statements
22
Cash Management: Improving Cash Operations
23
Tax and Legal Reporting: Ensuring Compliance with Key Requirements
23
Cloud Extensions and Connectivity: Looking beyond the Core
23
Looking Ahead with SAP S/4HANA
23
Acknowledgments
23
Introduction
25
The Changing Role of Finance
26
Finance as a Strategic Business Partner
26
System-Savvy CFOs
30
Mobile Finance
35
Finance with SAP
37
SAP R/2, SAP R/3, and SAP ERP
38
SAP S/4HANA
44
Summary
48
1 The Universal Journal: Designing a Steering Model for the Business
49
1.1 Designing a Steering Model for Your Business
50
1.1.1 From Legacy Accounting Models to Multidimensional Steering
50
1.1.2 The Structure of the Data Model in SAP ERP
51
1.1.3 Toward a Multidimensional Steering Model
53
1.2 The Universal Journal
55
1.2.1 Reporting Dimensions
55
1.2.2 Measures and Reports
57
1.2.3 Measures for Actuals and Other Values
59
1.2.4 The Universal Journal and Items in Table BSEG
59
1.3 Reporting Dimensions in Detail
61
1.3.1 Accounts and Cost Elements
62
1.3.2 Legal Entities and Trading Partners
66
1.3.3 Cost Centers, Internal Orders, and Projects
67
1.3.4 Profit Centers, Segments, and Functional Areas
68
1.3.5 Profitability Analysis
71
1.3.6 Reviewing the Steering Model
77
1.4 Extending the Steering Model
79
1.4.1 Financial Dimensions in Logistics
80
1.4.2 Adding Your Own Dimensions
81
1.5 Changing the Steering Model
83
1.5.1 Finding the Connections
84
1.5.2 Realigning Profitability Analysis Data
85
1.5.3 Reorganizing Profit Centers
86
1.6 Summary
87
2 Local and Global Accounting: Changing Organizational Structures to Satisfy Various Requirements
89
2.1 Controlling and Global Business Management
91
2.1.1 The Single Controlling Area
91
2.1.2 The Single Operating Concern
101
2.1.3 Profit Centers for Divisional Reporting
102
2.2 Accounting and Local Business Management
104
2.2.1 Multiple Accounting Principles
104
2.2.2 Multiple Currencies
106
2.2.3 Multiple Reporting Calendars
107
2.3 Global Value Chains and Local Reporting
108
2.3.1 Group Reporting and Intercompany Transfer Prices
109
2.3.2 Keeping Track of Stock in Transit
116
2.4 Summary
117
3 From Products to Services: Unifying Approaches to Controlling and Financial Operations
119
3.1 Industry Solutions and SAP S/4HANA
120
3.2 Controlling
122
3.2.1 Product-Related Industries
123
3.2.2 Service-Related Industries
125
3.2.3 Products and Services
128
3.3 Financial Operations
131
3.3.1 Customer/Vendor Integration
131
3.3.2 Receivables Management
138
3.3.3 Contract Accounting
144
3.4 Summary
147
4 Financial Process Optimization: Standardizing and Automating Processes
149
4.1 Rethinking Business Processes
150
4.1.1 Simplification, Automation, Guidance, and Collaboration
150
4.1.2 Centralization
155
4.1.3 Standardization
161
4.1.4 Machine Learning
161
4.2 Automating Finance Processes
163
4.2.1 SAP Cash Application with Machine Learning
163
4.2.2 Goods and Invoice Receipt Reconciliation
166
4.2.3 Accruals Management
169
4.2.4 Smart Alerting
171
4.3 Redesigning Applications
174
4.3.1 Universal Allocations
175
4.3.2 Intercompany Reconciliation
180
4.4 Summary
182
5 SAP Fiori and Live Data: Merging Transactional and Analytics Data
183
5.1 What Is SAP Fiori?
184
5.1.1 Characteristics
185
5.1.2 Kinds of Applications
186
5.2 First Steps in SAP Fiori
187
5.2.1 Cash Management
188
5.2.2 Financial Operations
196
5.2.3 Accounting and Controlling
201
5.3 Using a Virtual Data Model to Access Live Data
203
5.3.1 What Is a Column-Based Database?
207
5.3.2 Embedded Analytics
208
5.3.3 Hierarchies in Financials
213
5.4 SAP Fiori and the Intelligent Enterprise
219
5.4.1 Business Rules
221
5.4.2 Machine Learning
221
5.5 Summary
221
6 Key Figures for Operational Reporting: Measuring Financial Performance
223
6.1 Driving Insight to Action
224
6.1.1 Financial Control on Projects
226
6.1.2 General Ledger
228
6.1.3 Cash Management
230
6.2 Using Semantic Tags to Link Accounts with Key Figures
231
6.2.1 Profitability Reporting for Products and Projects
232
6.2.2 Cash Flow Statement
236
6.3 Redesigning for 360-Degree Reporting
238
6.3.1 Assigning Profit Centers Using Document Splitting
241
6.3.2 Work in Process by Profitability Segment
243
6.3.3 Improved Project Reporting
245
6.4 Summary
246
7 Real-Time Financial Close: Providing Timely Information
247
7.1 Improving the Hard Close
248
7.1.1 Entity Close
249
7.1.2 Group Close
251
7.1.3 Orchestrating Close
253
7.2 New Approaches for a Soft Close
258
7.2.1 Accelerating Closing Steps
259
7.2.2 Eliminating Closing Steps
260
7.3 Summary
280
8 Predictive Accounting: Providing Forward-Looking Insights
281
8.1 Accounting for Incoming Sales Orders
285
8.1.1 Including Incoming Sales Orders in Product Profitability
286
8.1.2 Journal Entries for Predictive Accounting
290
8.2 Accounting for Statistical Sales Conditions
295
8.3 Commitment Accounting for Purchase Orders
299
8.4 Summary
301
9 Unified Planning Model: Moving from Financial Budgeting to Driver-Based Forecasting
303
9.1 Moving toward a Unified Planning Model
306
9.2 SAP Analytics Cloud for Planning
313
9.3 SAP BPC for SAP S/4HANA
319
9.3.1 Working with a Single Planning Model
320
9.3.2 Simple Profitability Simulation
323
9.4 Planning for the Operational Processes
327
9.4.1 Planning Commercial Projects
329
9.4.2 Planning and Budgeting for Capital Expenses
333
9.4.3 Providing a Target for Production Orders
337
9.5 Summary
341
10 Asset Accounting: Making Real-Time Postings for Multiple Accounting Principles
343
10.1 New Data Structure in Asset Accounting
344
10.1.1 Asset Accounting in the Universal Journal
344
10.1.2 Depreciation with Multiple Accounting Principles and Currencies
347
10.2 Key Figures for Asset Accounting
355
10.3 Asset Accounting and Controlling
357
10.3.1 Assets under Construction
358
10.3.2 Maintenance Orders
362
10.4 Summary
363
11 Inventory Accounting: Simplifying Material Valuation, Production Cost Analysis, and Actual Costing
365
11.1 New Data Structure in Inventory Accounting
366
11.1.1 Inventory Accounting in the Universal Journal
367
11.1.2 Compulsory Use of the Material Ledger
373
11.1.3 Handling Multiple Accounting Principles
377
11.2 Production Cost Analysis
379
11.2.1 Production Orders, Process Orders, and Product Cost Collectors
380
11.2.2 Work Centers
386
11.3 New Data Structure in Actual Costing
388
11.4 Summary
393
12 Group Reporting: Producing Consolidated Financial Statements
395
12.1 Consolidation Solutions
396
12.1.1 Classic Consolidation
397
12.1.2 Group Reporting
398
12.2 Group Reporting Dimensions
405
12.2.1 Trading Partners and Group Accounts
408
12.2.2 Currencies
409
12.2.3 Intercompany Information
409
12.3 Consolidation Data Sources
410
12.3.1 Data Collection Application
411
12.3.2 Deployment Using Central Finance
412
12.4 Summary
413
13 Cash Management: Improving Cash Operations
415
13.1 Bank Account Management
417
13.1.1 Bank Accounts
417
13.1.2 Approval Workflows
419
13.2 Cash Operations
420
13.2.1 Bank Statement Management
421
13.2.2 Cash Position Analysis
421
13.2.3 Cash Transactions
425
13.3 Liquidity Management
427
13.3.1 Cash Flow Analysis
428
13.3.2 Liquidity Forecasting
429
13.3.3 Liquidity Planning
430
13.4 Summary
435
14 Tax and Legal Reporting: Ensuring Compliance with Key Requirements
437
14.1 Legal Reporting with SAP S/4HANA for Advanced Compliance Reporting
440
14.1.1 Legal Reporting
440
14.1.2 Extensions
444
14.2 Indirect Tax Compliance with SAP Localization Hub, Tax Service
446
14.2.1 Tax Service
447
14.2.2 Partner Tax Applications
449
14.3 Summary
450
15 Cloud Extensions and Connectivity: Looking Beyond the Core
453
15.1 Finance Solutions
455
15.1.1 SAP Product Lifecycle Costing
455
15.1.2 SAP Profitability and Performance Management
460
15.1.3 SAP Customer Profitability Analytics
465
15.2 Finance Extensions
468
15.2.1 Analytics
468
15.2.2 Finance Operations
473
15.3 Summary
478
Looking Ahead with SAP S/4HANA
479
Recent Innovations
479
Planned and Future Innovations
481
The Universal Journal
482
Local and Group Controlling
483
Unified Controlling and Financial Operations
483
Financial Process Optimization
483
SAP Fiori
484
Real-Time Financial Close
484
Predictive Accounting
484
Financial Planning
485
Group Reporting
485
Cash Management
485
Tax and Legal Reporting
486
Additional Resources
486
Postscript
487
The Authors
489
Index
491