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SAP Accounting powered by SAP HANA -Frequently Asked Questionsby Janet Salmon in Controlling 2014

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I’ve spent the last six months working with the first accounting customers to

validate and implement SAP Accounting powered by SAP HANA. I’ve talked with

even more customers about the possibilities of the new solution. SAP Accounting

powered by SAP HANA will be made generally available on 1st August 2014. In

this blog, I’ll explain how the new solution differs from earlier software versions and

discuss some of my learnings.

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discuss some of my learnings.

Is SAP Accounting powered by SAP HANA as simple as Hasso Plattner promises?

If you’ve been following the blogs written by Hasso Plattner, one of SAP’s founders, you’ll know that he

has declared war on aggregates. The rationale is simple: aggregates are yesterday’s technology. In the

past we needed them to provide aggregated data quickly in a report or during a process that operates on

that data, such as an allocation or settlement. With SAP HANA such data can be aggregated from the

line item tables on the fly.

http://www.saphana.com/community/blogs/blog/authors/D000002

Developers in the past knew that cost center managers and project managers would need a report on

their spending at month end and so they built tables that contained the cost center/project/order, the

period, and the various cost elements (the primary and secondary cost tables – COSP and COSS

respectively). The approach worked, but it shaped the way the managers saw their data, seeing their

spending in period chunks. SAP Accounting powered by SAP HANA frees managers up from this kind of

thinking, allowing them to directly query the data in the line item table (COEP) to find out which

suppliers they have been spending most with or which employees have the highest travel expenses.

We’ve all got used to this type of reporting – the cost center reports, project reports, financial

statements, and so on, that build on the aggregates tables. Indeed we’re all so used to this kind of

report that we tend to forget what’s actually in the line item tables. To take one example, think of the line

item table in the general ledger, the BSEG, which contains over 300 fields. By comparison the totals

table for the general ledger (GLT0) contains around ten fields: the main ones being the period, the fiscal

year, the company code, the business area, and the debit/credit indicator. The new general ledger uses

the totals table FAGLFLEXT, which offers more possibilities, including the ability to report additionally by

profit center, segment, functional area, trading partner, but is by no means infinitely extensible.

Developers used the totals tables primarily for performance reasons. Most of the processes in Financials

are designed to read from the period tables, so allocations and settlements are typically reading from

COSP and COSS. A reason to avoid the line item tables is that typically the other fields that are filled

depend on the type of posting, so an asset acquisition will fill different fields from an expense posting or

a receivable item. What we essentially have is a sparsely filled matrix, but with SAP HANA the many

empty cells cease to be an issue as a column store results in only those fields that are filled being read.

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empty cells cease to be an issue as a column store results in only those fields that are filled being read.

SAP Accounting powered by SAP HANA takes the radical step of removing these aggregate tables.

Updating the totals tables can be a bottle neck when you’re trying to post huge amount of data from an

external system or perform complex allocations because each time you write a document you also need

to lock the totals record (cost center, period, cost element) and then release it when the posting is

complete. Take the totals away and your accounting records are created more quickly because the

program only has to update the line items table rather than multiple aggregate tables. This is radically

simpler, but sounds like it will involve a complete rewrite of the existing code, both SAP’s and the many

partner and customer add-ons. In fact the totals tables are gone, but they are replaced by views with the

same name, so a program that previously read from table COSP now selects the relevant line items and

then aggregates them into the period block. SAP’s code and your code will continue to work as before,

as will extractors to SAP BW. Figure 1 shows the view that now replaces table GLT0. This simple trick

ensures that the move to SAP Accounting powered by SAP HANA will be non-disruptive for your existing

code. In the same brush stroke the index tables are gone. When you perform a dunning run or create a

list of open items by vendor or customer you will no longer be reading index tables such as BSIK and

BSID, but instead using the equivalent views.

Figure 1: Replacement View for Table GLT0

Is SAP Accounting powered by SAP HANA just a newer version of the general ledger?

Some of the arguments for SAP Accounting powered by SAP HANA are not new. I’ve been talking about

a “single version of the truth” for at least ten years. In the context of new General Ledger, this meant the

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a “single version of the truth” for at least ten years. In the context of new General Ledger, this meant the

ability to report not just by company code and business area but also by profit center, functional area,

and trading partner. The FAGLFLEXA table meant that several special ledgers became obsolete and you

could balance e.g. by profit center without waiting for period close to assign your payables and

receivables to the correct profit center. Real-time integration was also a powerful tool allowing SAP to

switch off the reconciliation ledger between CO and FI and update FI in real-time whenever a secondary

posting crossed company codes, profit centers, and so on.

All this functionality is inherited in SAP Accounting powered by SAP HANA but there is more. SAP has

now extended the table structure to link the line items in FI (the entries in the BSEG table) with the line

items in CO (the entries in the COEP table) and the CO-PA characteristics (the entries in the CE4XXXX

table). Figure 2 shows some of the new field in the CO line item table (COEP). The first three, reference

procedure, object key, and logical system, are used to make the connection between the FI line item

and its partner CO line item. This connection used to be made at header level but is now available for

every profit and loss line item that has an equivalent revenue or expense line in Controlling. Going down

the list, you’ll also notice that alongside the CO object field (previous page) we can also see the real

account assignments (cost center, activity type, order number, and so on).

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Figure 2: New fields in the CO line item table

When you took your first training class, you learnt how the P&L accounts have a sister cost element

and how a salary posting to a cost center or a goods issue to an internal order flows into CO. The link

between the tables means that you can now see those cost centers and internal orders from within your

income statement without having to drill-down into a separate report via report-report-interface. Figure 3

shows a simple income statement in the report rows and the associated cost centers in the report

columns. To achieve this sort of report in the past, you would have had to leave the income statement

and drill-down into the relevant cost center reports by passing the relevant selection parameters. The

same is possible for orders/WBS elements and other CO account assignments.

Figure 3: New income statement showing cost centers associated with the accounts

Since the requirements for Segment Reporting were introduced with IFRS 8 and IAS 14, the

requirements for internal and external accounting have come back together and people have been trying

to reconcile their income statement in FI-GL with the income statement in CO-PA. What makes this

reconciliation tricky is that the general ledger is based on accounts whereas costing-based CO-PA is

based on key figures. Much of the CO-PA customizing involves transforming accounts and cost

elements into value fields. SAP Accounting powered by SAP HANA continues to support costing-based

CO-PA but it puts a much stronger emphasis on account-based CO-PA in order to inherit the link by

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account. Figure 4 shows the operating profit line in the income statement, broken out, this time, by

customer. The advantage of account-based CO-PA is that the revenue and cost lines in the income

statement naturally line up.

Figure 4: New income statement showing customers associated with the accounts.

If you aren’t already using account-based CO-PA, beware that there is no migration tool to take you from

costing-based to account-based CO-PA. You can allocate your cost center costs and settle your

order/project costs to account-based CO-PA but you will need to build new assessment cycles since

there is no systematic way to interpret the semantics of your existing value fields. There are also a few

myths out there. I’ve found several sources that claim that you cannot perform top-down distribution

(transaction KE28) in account-based CO-PA. This has been a myth since Release 4.7. In fact moving

top-down distribution to account-based CO-PA has the additional benefit that real-time integration

between CO and FI will result in any postings that cross organizational boundaries triggering an

additional posting in the general ledger.

In the past, there were a couple of places where account-based CO-PA didn’t provide as much detail as

costing-based CO-PA. In SAP Accounting powered by SAP HANA SAP has extended the configuration

to allow you to break out the cost of goods manufactured according to the cost components in the

underlying cost estimates. SAP has introduced new quantities in the COEP table so that you can

convert the logistics quantities in your materials documents (boxes, pallets, and so on) into consistent

quantities for management reporting (tons or kilograms). Where manufacturing customers rejected

account-based CO-PA in the past they are now finding that the main gaps are gone. Functionally, they

effectively have their value fields as accounts, and because SAP HANA is a column store they can

easily select and aggregate along the CO-PA dimensions.

How do I report in SAP Accounting powered by SAP HANA?

Figures 3 and 4 showed one option for reporting – we’re effectively using a HANA view to combine the

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Figures 3 and 4 showed one option for reporting – we’re effectively using a HANA view to combine the

BSEG, COEP, and CE4 tables. To use this option, you’ll need to install the SAP HANA live content

alongside the traditional ABAP components. Besides SAP Business Objects Analysis for Microsoft

Excel you can run the same reports as queries in web dynpro. Figure 5 shows a sample financial

statement in web dynpro.

Figure 5: Financial Statement in Web Dynpro

While you’re thinking about reporting, it’s worth considering where you were working with aggregates in

the past. In CO, we didn’t just use the totals tables (COSP and COSS) but also summarization levels in

CO-PA and summarization objects in CO-PC. As you move to SAP Accounting powered by SAP HANA

you can revisit every drill-down report and switch them to read on each navigation step rather than

reading pre-filled aggregates. This is potentially game-changing in that you will no longer be working with

summarization levels for each dimension in the CO-PA report but navigating freely through up to 50

characteristics in CO-PA.

You can also revisit your period close processes and remove the data collection runs in CO-PC that

created summarization levels to allow you to aggregate the costs on your orders, projects, and sales

orders. You’ll still need to create a summarization hierarchy to determine the characteristics according

to which you want to select your orders. Figure 6 shows a sample summarization hierarchy that

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to which you want to select your orders. Figure 6 shows a sample summarization hierarchy that

aggregates by plant and material. In the past the data collection run would write additional data records

for each plant and material in the list – these are CO objects beginning with VD – and the summarization

reports would read these records from the totals tables. With SAP Accounting powered by SAP HANA,

the figures per plant and material are aggregated on the fly.

Figure 6: Sample Summarization Hierarchy

Of course, if you want to carry on using a data warehouse, the existing extractors will continue to pull

data from SAP Accounting powered by SAP HANA into SAP BW.

What are the deployment options for SAP Accounting powered by SAP HANA?

If you want to move to SAP Accounting powered by SAP HANA you have two main options. The first is

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to migrate to SAP HANA (unless you’re already running SAP Business Suite powered by SAP HANA)

and then run an application migration to remove the aggregate tables, link the FI and CO line items, and

so on. If this sounds like a step too far, another option is to deploy SAP Accounting powered by SAP

HANA on a dedicated HANA system and then feed data into this box from your existing systems.

Before you embark on such a journey, read the documentation. You can access all release notes,

installation and upgrade information via the SAP Library documentation in the link below.

http://help.sap.com/sfin100

If you’re considering the migration path, then bear in mind that the application migration includes a

migration to the new GL tables and to new Asset Accounting. The migration to the new GL will give you

real-time integration between CO and FI and activate the profit center, segment, cost of goods sold, and

consolidation preparation scenarios. At the time of writing migration programs are not yet available for

document splitting or parallel ledgers, so if you aren’t already running the new GL you might consider

performing this migration in the classic ERP world before embarking on the HANA migration.

Migration to SAP Accounting powered by SAP HANA also involves a migration to new Asset

Accounting. This was introduced as a business function in SAP Enhancement Package 7 for SAP ERP

6.0 with a view to improving parallel accounting by making it possible to assign accounting principles,

ledgers and charts of depreciation cleanly. There are new transactions to allow ledger-specific postings

(for example where freight costs are handled differently depending on the GAAP) and the ability to make

one-sided postings where an asset isn’t considered an asset in all GAAPs.

Figure 7 shows the implementation guide that will walk you through the various steps of the application

migration, beginning with the migration to the new General Ledger, then migrating any custom ledgers

you may have created before moving on to the generation of the CDS views that we saw in Figure 1 that

represent the former totals and index tables and linking the FI and CO line items.

Beyond the obvious project management aspects of such a migration, there are a few additional aspects

to consider in association with your existing data. The balance carried forward for each fiscal year was

traditionally stored in the totals tables. With SAP Accounting powered by SAP HANA a document will

be written to the line item table FAGLFLEXA to record this balance. It’s also common for customers to

archive their line items early while keeping the equivalent data in the totals records or index tables.

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archive their line items early while keeping the equivalent data in the totals records or index tables.

During the migration the system works with back up tables, such as BSIS_BCK. In this case, any

partially archived documents will be read from BSIS_BCK instead of from the line items. In the case of

the totals records, there is not only a back-up table such as KNC1_BCK but also a difference table

KNC1_DIF that is filled where differences occur between KNC1_BCK and BKPF/BSEG.

Figure 7: Implementation Guide for the Migration to SAP Accounting powered by SAP HANA

Instead of taking the migration path, another option is set up a separate HANA box and deploy SAP

Accounting powered by SAP HANA on this box. This second box may seem expensive in the war

against redundancy but it allows customers to build the financials system that they want going forward

using the new GL features, account-based CO-PA, and so on while their existing systems remain on

their current release with their current implementation approach. The transfer of data to this central

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journal is made using SLT (software landscape transformation tools) which allow significant mapping. In

the central system customers can use new GL, account-based CO-PA, and so on and map to a central

chart of accounts, central profit center hierarchy, central operating concern, and so on, though clearly

significant thought is needed to decide how master data will be handled in such a constellation.

What about the cloud?

If you followed the announcements at Sapphire, SAP Simple Finance is a suite of finance applications

for the cloud. The Financials Add-On for SAP Business Suite powered by SAP HANA (of which SAP

Accounting powered by SAP HANA is a part, along with SAP Cash Management and Integrated

Business Planning) can be deployed on premise and in the cloud. We’re all familiar with what on

premise means, but there are many variants of cloud implementations. At the time of writing “cloud”

means SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud and SAP offers a hosting service to customers who choose to run

their financials processes in this cloud environment.

Why does all this matter?

After one of my presentations a customer surprised me by announcing that SAP Accounting powered by

SAP HANA was the biggest innovation in Finance since R/2. To understand the impact, I’ve found

myself back in my early SAP R/3 slides, talking tables more than I’ve done for years.

It’s easy to be misled by the “powered by SAP HANA” label, but don’t let the conversation about the new

accounting solution be an entirely technical discussion. Remember that the technology is an enabler. It

can be about pure speed as when we have to get the result of a query back to a mobile device before the

connection times out. More often it’s about revisiting what we already do or asking what we can do

differently. SAP has just rewritten parts of the settlement programs, the WIP calculation programs and

the variance calculation programs so that instead of preparing an order list and then working sequentially

down the list, an SQL statement selects the orders and the associated costs, then joins in the

customizing tables to bring these costs into the correct aggregation (e.g. line IDs for WIP calculation)

and then passes the results back to ABAP for posting. The UI and period close procedure for these

transactions are virtually unchanged but the performance change is significant.

In my conversations, I’m starting to see customers working with their controllers to see how they can do

things differently. Now that they have their material ledger data in flat tables (FCML_MAT and

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things differently. Now that they have their material ledger data in flat tables (FCML_MAT and

FCML_REP) they are starting to simulate what happens if they use this data as a basis for forecasting

and simulating their product costs. Gradually the conversation is moving from a technical conversation

(table size, memory footprint) to a business conversation (how can I get more insight out of the

information I’m collecting?) and that makes SAP Accounting powered by SAP HANA very exciting

indeed.

For our German-speak ing readers:

Ulrich Schlueter and Janet Salmon recently updated SAP HANA for ERP Financials to include new

content about SAP HANA Live and SAP Accounting powered by SAP HANA. The book is available in

printed form and as an e-book and explains the impact of SAP HANA on Financials for an accounting

audience. Learn more!

The English versions will be released shortly – we’ll keep you posted.

Controlling 2014 Controlling 2014 Speaker Janet Salmon SAP Accounting pow ered by SAP HANA

SAP Simple Finance

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Speaker Profile: Janet Salmon, Chief Product Owner for Management Accounting at SAP - Controlling 2013

Have you heard the buzz around SAP Simple Finance? - SAP HANA

SAP Controlling Holiday Weekend Reading List - Controlling 2014

July and August 2014 Webinars - Don't Miss SAP Simple Finance Content - Controlling 2014

What is SAP Simple Finance? - Webinar Recording Now Available - Controlling 2014

Janet Salmon

Janet Salmon is the Chief Product Owner for Management Accounting at SAP AG.

Janet is known to many SAP Financials professionals for her writings on Controlling

and related subjects in SAP Financials Expert. She recently published her first book

for SAP PRESS Controlling with SAP – Practical Guide. Janet has overseen many SAP Controlling

functionality product developments both as a Product and Solution Manager. Most recently she

spearheaded changes to the user interfaces within Controlling and data transfer from Controlling to SAP

HANA.

Janet Salmon is a featured speaker at Controlling 2015. Learn more about her sessions:

Ask Janet

Controlling 2014 Speaker Profile: Thomas Bauer Controlling 2014 Silver Sponsor - Kern Americas

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Deepak Shirpurkar Friday, 08 August 2014

This is too good Article. Cleared my doubts.

This document shows impact on transaction processing. However I am sure in future it will have impact on front end

and simplification of SAP screens.

Janet Salmon Saturday, 09 August 2014

Hi Deepak,

I showed SAPGui and WebDynpro screens in the article, but of course there is additional work going on under the

SAP Fiori umbrella to update the look of some of the screens. I should have included apps like Net Margin Results

and Profit Analysis to illustrate how account-based Profitability Analysis will look in the future.

Giuseppe Bo Friday, 05 September 2014

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Reply

Reply

Hi

one simple question.

Will also line items or total tables created within Special Purpose Ledger be available for in memory reporting in SAP

Accounting powered by SAP HANA?

I mean, in case you do not migrate to New GL because you have already ledgers with Profit Center split, can you

take advantage from SAP Accounting powered by SAP HANA?

Thanks a lot in advance for your answer.

Janet Salmon Friday, 05 September 2014

There are already side-car scenarios that read the SL line items and aggregate them on the fly in SAP HANA. These

are also available in SAP Business Suite on SAP HANA, so you actually have a benefit from in memory reporting

even before you consider a move to SAP Accounting powered by SAP HANA. I should have added that special

ledgers continue to exist in SAP Accounting powered by SAP HANA. There are a lot of them out rhere!

Pankaj Thakker Monday, 06 October 2014

Hi Janet,

This is really nice document.

is there any change in planning table FAGLFLEXP, as this is not mentioned in SAP Help or any other source?

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Reply

Reply

Regards,

Pankaj

Janet Salmon Tuesday, 07 October 2014

Hi Pankaj,

We have rebuilt the planning applications completely (you'll find details in the external slide decks and SAP Help

under "Integrated Business Planning"). The new planning approach builds on the same idea as the single document

for the actual costs: as a cost center manager plans his wages and salaries, depreciation, etc, the system

automatically assigns these items to the correct functional area, profit center, company code and so on. The same

as a project manager plans... Then there are planning applications for the P&L as a whole that allow you to enter

data by company code and view the way the bottom up plans created by the various managers are coming together.

In technical terms we no longer write to FAGLFLEXP but store our data in embedded BW cubes. We aren't

functionally complete yet (we are still building allocations, activity price calculation, and so on). For this reason you

can retract the data planned in Integrated Business Planning back to the ERP tables for the interim.

Hope this helps! Janet

SAP Course in Chennai Sunday, 16 November 2014

I have read your blog, it shows impact on transaction processing..Its really good article and I gathered some

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I have read your blog, it shows impact on transaction processing..Its really good article and I gathered some

information..Thanks for sharing..Keep posting.

Makesh Subramaniam Friday, 19 December 2014

Janet this is an excellent document. Thanks for this Blog....

Don Hardaway Sunday, 11 January 2015

Does anyone know how many customers of SAP have moved to HANA out of the total?

gilles deguillaume Wednesday, 28 January 2015

very intresting article.

Chiranjit Seal Monday, 16 February 2015

Hi Janet,

This is a very good document. Many thanks.

Just wanted to understand about the myth, you are referring to about Top down distribution in account based COPA.

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The initial screen of top down distribution has " Reference base" and the possible inputs to it can be "single value

field" or "value fields".

Can this work in account based COPA.

Thanks & Best Regards

Chiranjit

Janet Salmon Monday, 16 February 2015

Hi Chiranjit,

When you use costing-based CO-PA, the reference data on which you base your top-down distribution are the value

fields in CO-PA. When you switch to account-based CO-PA then the reference data for your top-down distribution

appears more limited on the initial screen (you only have full value, fixed part, quantity,...). However, what you

actually do is to combine e.g. the full value in controlling area currency with the relevant cost elements to determine

your "value fields" (ie all values for revenue accounts, all values for cost of goods sold accounts, all values for

production variances, etc). It's a little bit more fiddly than directly accessing one of the 200 value fields but you can

definitely set up a selection logic to pick up the reference data you need to make the distribution.

Chiranjit Seal Tuesday, 17 February 2015

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Hi Janet,

Thanks for your update. But if you check the first input screen for top down distribution, you will see there are

broadly:

Actual Data

Reference Data

Reference Base

Options

For the reference base, there are 2 options:

a)Single value field

b)By value fields.

In account based COPA, value fields itself would not have exist at all, hence how will this work.

If you can share your mail, I can send the screenshot also ( could not find that option here).

Thanks & Best Regards

Chiranjit

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Chiranjit Seal Wednesday, 18 February 2015

Hi Janet,

If you check the input screen for top down distribution ( KE28), the 3rd field is " Reference base".

There are only 2 option available namely " single vaue fields " multiple value fields".

In account based, this cannot work. Can you please suggest.

Thanks & Best Regards

Chiranjit

Shripad patil Wednesday, 18 February 2015

Do we need to do additional customization to get WIP line item details in GL Report?

If yes, I could not find that customization node in Simple finance add on 1.0.

Janet Salmon Wednesday, 18 February 2015

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Hi Shripad,

The customizing for WIP is as before - you use transaction OKG8 to set up rules to determine which accounts

will be updated for WIP, reserves, and so on. The new report that you see in some of the slide decks is based

on the assignment field in the FI document. To build that report we read the WIP accounts, select the relevant

orders/work breakdown structure elements from the assignment field and then read the cost elements on the

order/WBS element that drove that WIP. You should not need to change your configuration to make this work.

Regards,

Janet

Janet Salmon Wednesday, 18 February 2015

Hi Chiranjit,

The value fields in costing-based CO-PA are what you define in customizing (sales revenue, sales deductions, cost

of goods sold, production variances, overhead, etc). In account-based CO-PA you don't find them in the customizing

since they are hard-wired amount fields. The value fields are value in object currency, value in CO area currency and

quantity (plus the new quantity fields that you will only see in a Simple Finance system). This means that when you

define your top-down references you can't just pick a value field, but you must pick e.g. value in object currency and

then combine it with the cost elements that store e.g. your revenues in order to make your distribution.

Regards, Janet

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Chiranjit Seal Thursday, 19 February 2015

Hi Janet,

Many thanks for the information. In SFIN, system should give us the SFIN delivered operating concern "SFIN".

However currently we are doing a migration for SFIN and then we are unable to find SAP delivered operating concern

"SFIN' in the system. The SAP delivered operating concern S001 is available.

We would be using the same operating concern as we had been using prior to migration.

There is OSS 2042464 which states steps for logical mdocument view, if operating concern other than SFIN is used.

Will this applicable for instance where migration is done, or it would necessary for complete new implementation with

SFIN?

Appreciate your advice

Janet Salmon Thursday, 19 February 2015

Hi Chiranjit,

The idea with the SFIN operating concern is that it allows SAP to deliver HANA views for reporting that will run

out of the box. There is a SAP Note that explains how to fill SFIN (you essentially copy the characteristics from

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out of the box. There is a SAP Note that explains how to fill SFIN (you essentially copy the characteristics from

S_GO). Alternatively if you want to use a different operating concern you will have to adapt the delivered HANA

views. This process is explained in SAP Note 2042464.

Regards, Janet

Chiranjit Seal Thursday, 19 February 2015

Hi Janet,

Thanks for the update. Actually what we have done is as follows:

Already we had our active operatinal operating concern concern in our ECC system. Over that, we have put on SFIN,

i.e we did a migration and then followed the post migration step.

As a result, the SAP delivered operating concern SFIN is not available.

In this case, I suppose the note 2042464 is not relevant.

What do you suggest?

Thanks & Best Regards

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