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SAP S/4HANA – Finance Essentials
Question 1
“What are the important
finance changes to be
expected in
SAP S/4HANA?”
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SAP S/4HANA – Finance Essentials
Executive Summary: Finance-related differences between ERP and SAP S/4HANA
See SAP Notes for more information on the Simplification Items
Secondary Cost Elements
SAP Notes 2270339, 2270419
Business Partner
SAP Notes 2265093, 2713963
SAP Credit Management
SAP Note 2270544
Material Ledger
SAP Notes 2267834
Universal Journal
SAP Notes 2270333, 2344012
Compatibility views
SAP Note 1976487
Margin Analysis
SAP Notes 2349278, 2444746
Profitability characteristics
SAP Note 2439201
New SAP Cash Management
SAP Note 2270400
New Asset Accounting
SAP Notes 2270387, 2270388
New Real Estate
SAP Note 2270550
Global Trade Services
SAP Note 2439201
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SAP S/4HANA – Finance Essentials
Question 2
“What are some of the
important finance data
model changes to be
expected in
SAP S/4HANA?”
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General Ledger
Ledger Company AccountProfit
Center
Amount
1
Amount
2
Amount
3…
Management Accounting
Controlling
Area
Cost
Element
Amount
1
Amount
2
Coding
Block…
Asset Accounting
CompanyFixed
Asset…
Material Ledger
Company Material …
Universal Journal (ACDOCA)General Ledger + Management Accounting + Asset
Accounting + Material Ledger + Profitability
Benefits
➢ One line item table with full detail for all applications –
for instant insight and easy extensibility
➢ Data stored only once: reconciled by design
➢ Fast multi-dimensional reporting without replicating data to
business warehouse (BW)
➢ Secondary cost elements are now G/L accounts
All value flows in one single source
➢ Multi-dimensional G/L
➢ Parallel ledger
➢ FI & CO dimensions and amounts are now in the same line
item, extensible currencies
➢ Consistent parallel valuation (transfer prices)
Profitability Analysis
Operating
Concern
Market
SegmentCustomer Product …
SAP S/4HANA – Finance Essentials
SAP S/4HANA Finance: universal journal
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SAP S/4HANA – Finance Essentials
Question 3
“I have a lot of
customizations. With
the new data model,
how do I protect my
investments?”
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➢ From the perspective of an ABAP
program, nothing changed
(read access)
➢ We provide “compatibility views”
➢ Via these views, the “select” statement
is redirected to the new persistency in
SAP HANA
➢ In the example given, an access to the
table FAGLFLEXA is redirected via the
view FGLV_FAGLFLEXA to the new
universal journal entry
➢ Consequence: Customer ABAP
programs that read “FAGLFLEXA”
directly via select statements continue
to run as before
ABAP/DDIC
Select … from FAGLFLEXA
SAP HANA
Database
Table Defin.
FAGLFLEXA
FAGLFLEXA
SAP S/4HANA – Finance Essentials
Safeguarding customer investments – Compatibility view concept
FGLV_FAGLFLEXA
FGLV_FAGLFLEXA
ACDOCA
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SAP S/4HANA – Finance Essentials
Question 4
“I use costing-based
profitability analysis
today. Can I continue to
use it in SAP S/4HANA?
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Solution Description SAP ERP SAP S/4HANA
On-Premise
SAP S/4HANA
Cloud
Margin Analysis Profitability Analysis within the universal journal
addressing the needs of internal and external
accounting, supporting real-time derivation of
reporting dimensions and embedded analytics.Not available Recommended Mandatory
Costing-based
CO-PA
Groups revenues and costs according to value
fields and applies costing-based valuation
approaches. Data is recorded in a dedicated
persistency apart from external accounting.Available Available Not available
Account-based
CO-PA
Groups revenues and costs according to G/L
accounts. Data is recorded in external accounting
along with a separate persistency of internal
reporting dimensions.Available Not available Not available
SAP S/4HANA – Finance Essentials
Profitability Analysis with SAP S/4HANA – Statement of direction
Overview of Profitability Analysis solutions in accordance with the Product Availability Matrix
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SAP S/4HANA – Finance Essentials
Question 5
“Tell me about Credit
Management options
in SAP S/4HANA.”
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SAP S/4HANA Basic Credit Management
▪ manual processes
▪ credit check of sales orders
▪ documented credit decisions (DCDs)
▪ relationships for business partner
▪ payment behavior key figures
▪ 30+ SAP Fiori solutions
SAP S/4HANA – Finance Essentials
Credit Management options
SAP S/4HANA Cloud for credit integration
▪ Information hub between your SAP Credit Management system and external credit agencies
SAP S/4HANA Advanced Credit Management
▪ all capabilities of Basic Credit Management
plus:
▪ automated processing
▪ flexible credit checks of sales documents
▪ case management for credit limit requests and
DCD processing
▪ credit eventing to initiate workflows
▪ flexible workflow structure
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SAP S/4HANA – Finance Essentials
Question 6
“What are my options
for financial planning?
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SAP BPC
Optimized for
SAP S/4HANA
SAP BPC
Standard Model
SAP BPC
Embedded Model
▪ Flexible,
standalone
planning
solution with
data
replication.
Powerful BPC
planning tools.
SAP Analytics Cloud Integrated with SAP
S/4HANA
SAP S/4HANA ERP
Classic Planning
Transactions
SCP*On-Premise or via Managed Cloud
▪ Flexible,
standalone
planning solution
with data
replication.
Powerful BPC
and BW-IP
planning tools.
SAP HANA
in-memory
acceleration
▪ Flexible,
SAP S/4HANA
integrated
planning solution
without data
replication.
▪ Browser-based
application to
model planning
scenarios,
capture plan data
and planning
functions.
▪ Proven stable but
rigid planning
solutions. Partially
integrated
SAP BPC11.x on
SAP BW/4HANA
▪ Combination of
SAP
BW/4HANA
and BPC
planning
functionality.
▪ Runs as
standalone
solution only.
Not recommended for new SAP S/4HANA implementations
Recommended
only for real-time
planning
scenarios with
SAP S/4HANA
Recommended
for on-premise
requirements
Recommended
and preferred for
all SAP S/4HANA
deployments
*SAP Cloud Platform
SAP S/4HANA – Finance Essentials
Financial Planning options
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SAP S/4HANA – Finance Essentials
Question 7
“What critical decisions
should my team
consider today before
implementing a Finance
solution in
SAP S/4HANA?”
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▪ Historical data archiving
− Offload historical data to simplify consistency checks
▪ Customer Vendor Integration (CVI) conversion
− Move to a business partner-centric model in preparation for SAP S/4HANA
▪ New G/L
− Consider migrating to New G/L in current system to familiarize users with new capabilities
▪ Advanced Financial Options
− Decide on the need for advanced options such as document splitting, parallel ledgers, and additional currency
valuations
▪ SAP Fiori Implementation
− SAP Fiori content is a significant pathway for SAP to deliver new analytic content. Plan to establish a footprint to
allow exploration of the vast content available to all SAP S/4HANA users
▪ Explore Enhanced Functionality Options
− Credit Management
− Cash Management & Bank Account Management
− Margin analysis (account-based) vs. costing-based profitability analysis
▪ Evaluate Financial Planning Options
− BPC vs SAC
SAP S/4HANA – Finance Essentials
Critical design decisions
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SAP S/4HANA – Finance Essentials
Question 8
“What are some of the newest
innovations in Finance that
may be considered in our
SAP S/4HANA journey to
allow our company to achieve
maximum innovation
potential?”
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SAP S/4HANA – Finance Essentials
Contract Management
Launchpad search supportOptimized contract management
Overview:
▪ A new version of revenue
accounting contract management
is introduced in parallel with the
existing contract management.
Key Capabilities:
▪ Performance optimization
▪ Day-based contract modifications
▪ Existing database table design and
processes remain stable between
the optimized and classic contract
management.
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SAP S/4HANA – Finance Essentials
Intercompany Matching and Reconciliation (ICMR)
Overview:
Intercompany Matching and Reconciliation (ICMR) is introduced in SAP S/4HANA1909 to speed up your intercompany reconciliation process
from company close to corporate close.
Key Capabilities:
▪ In-app collaboration
▪ Workflow features
▪ Unifies all classic ICR processes into one process
▪ Dedicated reports with the drill-through capability
Launchpad search supportIntercompany Matching and Reconciliation (ICMR)
▪ Supports multi-dimension reconciliation
▪ One data source for both company and corporate reconciliation views
▪ Powerful and easy-to-use matching rule definition
▪ User-friendly SAP Fiori apps
1. Collect Data2. Match
Documents
3. Solve
Discrepancy
4. Check
Reconciliation
Balances
Read data directly from
accounting and
consolidation journal
tables
Run matching on
aggregation or line-item
levels based on flexible
rules
Bring transparency on
reasons and solutions
for solving data
discrepancy
Multi-dimensional
reports based on
context-oriented
reconciliation cases
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SAP S/4HANA – Finance Essentials
Accruals Management
Launchpad search support
Launchpad search supportNew SAP S/4HANA Accrual Engine
Group certain
purchase
order
Automatically
accrue POs
depending on
confidence level
Historical purchase
order data
Historical accruals
Accruals
Overview:
The (new) SAP S/4HANA Accrual Engine creates purchase order sourced accruals by accessing the required data from the Materials
Management component, transferring the data to the Accrual Engine, and then automatically calculating the amounts to be accrued and the
accrual item postings in the universal journal.
Key Capabilities:
▪ Review purchase order accruals
▪ View the details of purchase order accruals
▪ Schedule accruals jobs using provided templates
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SAP S/4HANA – Finance Essentials
SAP Intelligent Robotic Process Automation (Intelligent RPA) solutions
Upload data through various
connectors e.g. Excel, pdf,
external apps, Web sites, 3rd party
apps, and enter in a finance
system
Log in to 15 SAP instances,
collect purchase requisitions
and distribute to SSC teams
Check ticket inbox in a
shared service center and
route to bots
Download various reports,
collate and save in shared
drive
Search invoices by reference
number in various ERP
instances
TYPICAL INTELLIGENT RPA ACTIVITIES
Launchpad search supportSAP Intelligent RPA solutions automate repetitive tasks traditionally performed by humans without modifying the business systems
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▪ Update your finance strategy
▪ Start your learning journey sooner rather than later
▪ Understand the options within your scope
▪ Recognize that some changes can be implemented
before a transformation to SAP S/4HANA
▪ Recognize innovation potentials
▪ Prepare for change management
SAP S/4HANA – Finance Essentials
Key takeaways
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