Reconciliation Postings 

Use

You can use reconciliation postings to transfer cross-company code, cross-business area or cross-functional area postings made in CO that are relevant to FI, and to automatically create reconciliation postings there. You can make these reconciliation ledger postings at any time.

Reconciliation postings outside of periods have a different period in which the FI posting is to be made than the period in the selected CO cost flows.

In the information system, you can compare the account balances between CO and FI for a particular period using reconciliation reports. In these reports, the system displays a difference for a reconciliation posting made outside of the period. The cost flow overview report is more suitable for checking reconciliation between CO and FI.

To ensure that all reconciliation postings are transferred, you should only execute reconciliation at period-end, after closing all CO postings. If you execute reconciliation more than once, the SAP R/3 System only updates difference values since the last reconciliation run.

For more information on the internal logic for reconciliation postings, see Posting Logic In The Reconciliation Ledger.

Prerequisites

FI and CO are reconciled before you make any internal CO postings.

To do this, activate the controlling area validation indicator in the control indicator of your controlling area.

If the indicator is active then you ensure that the assigned CO object of an FI posting is in the same company code in which the FI document was created. This ensures that CO has the same account balances as FI.

Integration

You can select reconciliation postings, either by selecting the required reconciliation postings online, or with user-defined rules, which you can store in the Implementation Guide (IMG) for Cost and Revenue Element Accounting. You then execute only those postings that you select interactively or through the user-defined rules. You make the selection based on totals records from the reconciliation ledger.

The SAP R/3 System determines the amounts in cost accounting that have flowed across company codes, functional areas, or business areas due to, for example, activity allocation, assessment, distribution, and reposting of costs. It then executes the reconciliation posting. This information must be transferred to the FI component (which has the organizational units, company code, business area and functional area) because it has a direct effect on the balance sheet and the income statement (for example, activating costs). CO data that flows within one company code, functional area, or business area does not influence the accounts in FI.

If you execute all reconciliation postings, the system selects all cost flows that are cross-company code, cross-business area and cross-functional area.

Rationale:

Each company code in Financial Accounting (FI) represents an independent accounting unit for which a balance sheet must be created. Data flows between company codes must be posted separately so that no information is lost. These boundaries are not relevant for Controlling (CO).

If you want to create business area balance sheets, you must also determine the value flow across business area boundaries and enter the corresponding reconciliation postings in Financial Accounting (FI).

If you use these functional areas to create a profit and loss statement using Cost of Sales Accounting, the CO-internal postings resulting in a change of the functional area must also be included in FI.

There is no substitution of the functional area for reconciliation postings (see: The Functional Area). A substitution would lead to errors in the value flow for Controlling. The system would then not be able to take this into account in Financial Accounting.

If you are using fixed prices for profit center valuations in the Project System (see: Fixed Prices In The Project), then the fixed price postings for receiver and sender take place on different cost elements. This can mean that following the reconciliation posting, the balances on the cost elements, with which fixed price allocation occurred, are different in Financial Accounting (FI) and Controlling (CO). To check in the information system whether fixed price allocations are causing the difference in the balances, define your own cost elements for fixed prices.

Prerequisites

For the SAP R/3 System to automatically use the adjustment accounts for the reconciliation postings in Financial Accounting (FI), you first need to create these accounts within FI.

In Cost Element Accounting you assign these accounts to business transactions, object classes, or a combination of both, whereby you can specify accounts for debit and credit postings (see Account Determination).

You can also determine adjustment accounts for the reconciliation postings using substitution if the account determination methods are insufficiently detailed. See also the Implementation Guide (IMG) for Cost Element Accounting under Reconciliation Ledger -> Maintain Adjustment Accounts for Reconciliation Postings

The reconciliation postings are then posted on the adjustment accounts in the FI component. As well as adjustment accounts, you must also define posting keys for the reconciliation postings.

To generate an FI document in Financial Accounting from the reconciliation ledger document, corresponding clearing accounts must exist for the offsetting account assignment.