Closing Cockpit

Presented by

Ganesh Shankar, MBA,CPA

 

 Agenda

• Over view of Closing cockpit

• Comparison of closing cockpit with

Schedule manager

• Configuration of closing cockpit

• Execution of closing cockpit ( Demo)

• Q & A

 

Closing Cockpit

• One common status tracking mechanism

• Common templates and guidelines that

every one can use

•  Ability to assign roles and responsibilities

for each task

• Dependency information related to closing

process

 

 Availability of Closing Cockpit

• ECC 5.0

• ECC 6.0

• Not available in earlier versions of R/3

• Migration from Schedule Manager to Closing

Cockpit possible, although there is no SAP

standard available for such migration

• SAP supports both Schedule Manager and

Closing Cockpit as of now. Future direction

towards Closing Cockpit.

 

Schedule Manager Vs Closing

Cockpit• Schedule Manager is also available in R/3, while Closing

Cockpit is available in ERP 2005 and Net Weaver 7.1onwards.

• Closing Cockpit is more attuned to the present day ERPclosing process per se and is an extension of theschedule manager

• Closing Cockpit is based on the concept of CentralProcess Scheduler (CPS)

• Closing Cockpit is the latest functionality introduced inSAP ERP 2005 and similar to Process Chain in Netweaver.

• Schedule Manager is client based, while Closing Cockpitcan be used across multiple instances.

• Closing Cockpit can also be used for Planning, whilesuch facility is not available in SM.

 

Month-End Closing Processes

• Opening of new posting period by vendor, customer,assets and GL.

• Final goods issue

• Final invoice posting

• Depreciation run

• Settlement of assets under construction (AuC) to assets

• Cost assessments and distributions

•  Accruals and provisions.

• Salary journals

• Currency Revaluation

• Reconcile ledgers

• Consolidation activities

• Budgetary cycle administration.

 

Configuring Closing Cockpit:

Process Flow

 

Components of Closing Cockpit

• Organizational Hierarchies (Company Codes,Controlling Area, Operating Concern, etc)

• Task List template (Preconfigured templatesavailable)

• Task Lists: Derived from template and extremelycrucial for successful definition of the month-endclose.

• Dependencies between the tasks

• Monitor

• Detailed information

 

5 steps for setting-up Closing

Cockpit

• Conduct Planning and Research

• Create the basic template data

• Build the closing template hierarchy

structure

• Configure individual tasks

• Change the template to an executable

task list

 

Step 1: Conduct Planning and

Research

• Understanding the existing closing process from

start to end

 –  Tasks to be performed

 –  The order of performing the tasks

 –  Who owns the task

 –  Who executes the task

 –  Who reviews and approves the results after the task

is completed

 –  How long the task takes to complete (run time)

 –  The post-close audit requirements

 

Step 2: Create a basic template

data• Provides formal structure for the organizational

hierarchy, closing tasks in the form of lists, andownership of the task by identifying theindividual task owners.

• Controlling the order of precedence or sequenceof the individual task execution.

• By configuring the Closing Cockpit template, youset up the basic closing model that the systemcopies to a date-specific task list during theclosing process.

• Configuration T.code: CLOCOC

 

Step 3. Build the closing template

hierarchy structure

• Starts with the construction of a hierarchy

of task folders

• Then assign organizational structures to

the created task folders.

 

Step 4. Configure individual tasks

• Initial decisions to consider the nature of tasks, who is responsible,and what organizational structures the task affects.

• If a task is required that affects all organizational structures within aclient, you should configure it and attach it to a folder in whichyou’ve assigned all controlling areas. 

• Finally, consider those tasks that are relevant only for the individualcompany codes. Configure and assign tasks to the individual foldersin which you have formally assigned individual company codes.

• The first section of the task configuration screen requires the namesof the task (text entry), task owner (responsible block), andresponsible party who executes the actual task.

• Identify the actual type of task. Within this option, you need to setindividual tasks as actual programs with no variant assigned,programs with job variants assigned, transaction codes, memoentries, flow definitions, or remote tasks using CPS.

 

Differences between various task

types

• Program without variant

• Program plus a job variant assigned

• Transaction

• Remote task using CPS

 

Step 5. Change the template to an

executable task list1. Now that you have completed the template you can copy the

template into an executable form or a date-specific task list.

2. You also need to identify the Closing Type (in this example

monthly [M]), Posting Period (11), Fiscal Year (2008), task list

Status (Released), and the person responsible for the task list. 3. After you copy the template to a date-specific task list and set the

status to Released, it becomes executable and the system

schedules the individual task to exact calendar days and day-

specific time frames.

 

Note

•  Although it is possible to set up multiple task liststied to different dates, the status setting controlswhen the task list becomes executable. You canonly execute the task list after the task list ownerchanges the status to Released. If you chooseto set up multiple task lists for an entire year,you would only set the single task list that youwould use for a particular month to Released.You could review all other date-specific tasklists, but could not execute them. Other task liststatus settings are: Not Released, Released,Active, and Closed.

 

Differences Between Templates

and Task Lists• Templates allow for configuration of various tasks but

cannot execute any task. The task list is not configurablebut allows for the execution of the various tasks.

• Task lists are copies of single cockpit templates. Youshould configure cockpit templates to allow for repeateduse, with little or no changes from period to period.

• You configure tasks within the template and cannotchange them within the task list

• You initially schedule tasks within the template, but youcan reschedule them within the task list if required

• It is possible to create sequences of date-specific tasklists by selecting the menu option Create Task Lists.This is useful if you wish to create an entire year’s worthof task lists at one time.

 

Notes

• For delivering the Closing Cockpit

successfully, you need to have a clear

understanding of the current closing

routines, the required tasks, who is

responsible for each task, which tasks

when executed should affect which level of

the organization, and finally a clear

process for review and documentation.