Simplifications in SAP S4 HANA Finance 2022

Simplifications in SAP with ACDOCA

With the introduction of the Universal Journal or ACDOCA table, below are some simplifications in SAP Finance & Controlling Business Processes.

• Minimized reconciliation effort is a significant simplification
• Customer-specific requirements can be covered by extension ledgers and special ledgers without breaking up the integration concept of the universal journal.
• The year-end process has been greatly simplified and made more manageable.

Minimized Reconciliations

Universal Journal minimizes the reconciliation work between the different ledgers. The process steps in period-close that performed the settlement between the application are no longer necessary. All applications use the same entities and data structure so they speak the “ same language” in principle. This ensures that the values of the different applications are analyzed together.

Extension Ledger versus Special Ledger

SAP S/4 HANA Finance features a new extension ledger that stores only delta journal entries, especially to the extension ledger. Reporting on the extension ledger is always a reporting of the extension ledger plus the data of the underlying standard ledger.

In the overview of the particular ledger and extension ledger principles, you can see that the special ledger in SAP Business Suite led to high data redundancy.

Every Extension Ledger needs an assignment to a standard ledger, Why?

In the extension ledger scenario, the common journal entry data is provided in the standard ledger. Though, only the adoption postings are done in the extension ledger; assuming that all postings in the underlying standard ledger are also available for reports of the extension ledger.

Therefore, every extension ledger needs an assignment to a standard ledger.

Period-End Close Simplifications in SAP

As you know, day-to-day business keeps the accountant busy. But the critical days are the period-end closing period, no matter whether it’s a month-end, quarter-end or year-end closing.

Tight Schedules

Very tight schedules and high visibility for top management and the financial world characterize this process. SAP S/4 HANA also brings decisive improvements here. 

Speed up & Reconciliation work Simplifications in SAP

The benefits of the architecture and integration concept of SAP S/4 HANA, automatically affect the closing process, which concerns both, the reconciliation work simplification in SAP and the increased speed due to in-memory technology.

Faster long-running batch jobs

Allocation, assessments and other traditionally long-running batch jobs are much faster in SAP S/4 HANA. For example, depreciation is now updated in real-time. You also can see financial statements on the fly throughout the period.

Simplifications in SAP S/4HANA with Financial Closing Cockpit

Another significant improvement affects the visibility and control of the whole process through a new dashboard, called the SAP Financial closing cockpit for SAP S/4 HANA. The following are its key benefits:-

• Supports companies in planning, executing, monitoring and analyzing financial closing tasks not only for a single company or legal entity but also for the entire group of companies.
• Offers error tracking and real-time status updates with automated processes, plan-to-actual comparison, process standardization and easily accessible audit trails.

Management Accounting Integration

Universal Journal leads to an integration of management accounting with financial accounting. However, this does not mean that management accounting has been fully integrated into financial accounting.

Some elements are still in the classic tasks list

SAP menu illustrates the classic tasks of management accounting and controlling. For example, in cost element accounting, cost center accounting or product cost controlling, you still need to perform separately in the system.

The integration concept instead refers to the fact that a consistent database has now been created with the Universal Journal. Whereby this database serves as a common basis for financial accounting and management accounting.

Cost elements are now the GL accounts

You can see this best from the fact that the cost elements are now general ledger accounts and this applies to the primary cost elements as well as to the secondary cost elements.

SAP CO postings posted as Journal Entries

All Management accounting postings such as cost center allocations now you can post as journal entry items in the Universal Journal. This subsequently reflects in the general ledger. Therefore, reporting on secondary management accounting postings you can do with general ledger reporting.

User Interfaces Simplifications in SAP

SAP offers various UI for SAP S/4 HANA. However, we must make a distinction between SAP S/4 HANA Cloud and On-Premise SAP S/4 HANA.

For On-premise SAP S/4 HANA, SAP continues to offer classic access via the SAP GUI which we must install locally on the computer.

SAP Fiori Simplifications in SAP

An important component of SAP S/4 HANA is the completely redesigned user experience with SAP FIORI. This replaces the traditional transaction codes of the SAP GUI with a web-based UI.

Transactional Apps

These apps help us to perform business process transactions or maintain master data. Such as:-

• Post General Journal Entry
• Manage Supplier Invoice
• Manage Cost Center
• Post Activity Allocation

The user-friendly master data transactional apps

These are especially important because they provide a more user-friendly way for reviewing, creating and changing master data by downloading and uploading.

Many approval apps are personalized to the specific user and offer the ability to review, confirm or reject documents when the user has the approver role.

Analytical Apps – for real-time analytics

These apps display real-time analytics on actual and plan data including KPI. We have numerous examples of these apps. Such as:-

• Reporting Dimensions – All universal journal fields are now available as reporting dimensions.
• Downloading reports – You can download report results to Excel and then convert them into graphs for quick visual analysis.
• Report-to-report interface – This allows you to do further detailed analysis with different views.
• SAP Smart Business drill-down apps– This is a kind of analytical app that provides prebuilt KPI reporting.
  • Example, Days Payable Outstanding app – This contains prebuilt analytics, including days payable outstanding by the past 12 months, by the supplier by company code and by top 10 days payable outstanding.

Fact Sheet Apps – For Master Data

These apps display key facts about master data and help to navigate directly to associated master data or business transactions. Fact sheet apps allow you to drill down to display or edit associated master data and relevant business transactions.

Conclusion

Compared to previous SAP ERP, SAP S/4 HANA primarily offers a broader range of deployment scenarios. The concern is the question of whether we can use SAP S/4 HANA Cloud which is fast and economically deployable but offers less room for individual solutions. 

Explore: SAP FICO Training on S/4HANA

On-premise SAP S/4 HANA on the other hand offers flexibility and operating models in the cloud are also possible here. The broader spectrum also includes the UI. SAP S/4HANA still allows traditional and familiar use via SAP GUI transactions. However, SAP FIORI App helped to achieve significant progress. This not only applies to the mobile and personalized use of SAP Fiori but also is much more important in that the analytical apps provide a comprehensive overview of business issues much faster.