Enterprise Controlling 
Definition
The enterprise process area, Enterprise Controlling, aims to manage the enterprise as a unit in order to achieve the goals that have been set.
Essentially, three functions are required:
- Data sources
from various sources are accessed (internal and external, from all departments, from various systems etc.). This results in a homogenous information basis which can be reported on. The organization must determine how the data basis is to be defined, and also how its compilation logic is to be defined (in front-end systems or in the interface).
- After the data is compiled, it can be processed or reported on. Simple cross-structure evaluations (for example, company comparisons and customer evaluations) are required just as calculations (consolidated financial statements, group costing) are needed for special functions. These special functions include elimination of interunit sales and profits, consolidation of investments, elimination of interunit payables and receivables, currency translation etc.
The users of this reporting are the Controllers and the enterprise management. The reporting should be able to handle both ad-hoc queries and enterprise-specific form-based reports.
- Enterprise Planning
establishes the strategic and operational goals of an enterprise. Variances are identified by comparing actual and planning data. These variances serve as control signals that trigger corrective intervention in the process flow.
In addition, internal profitability can be determined for profit centers. Enterprise Planning, therefore, supports internal evaluation of enterprise units or subunits.
Use
Consolidation
The subcomponent Consolidation consists of general consolidation functions. You can use it for both internal and external reporting. Besides the legally required consolidated financial statements at company level, other integrated application areas include a business area consolidation, a profit center consolidation or also a consolidation based on data from a group-wide product profitability analysis. The advantage is in a rule-based reconciliation between the values of an internal and an external consolidation.
Business Planning
You can use business planning for both strategic and operational planning:
- Strategic Business Planning
The goal of strategic business planning is to determine medium and long-term (1 to 5 years) preliminary planning data on the development of the enterprise. Operational business planning is carried out periodically – usually in one-year intervals – on the basis of strategic business planning.
- Operational Business Planning
Operational business planning provides a flexible guide to planned (output and consumption) quantities and other values derived from these quantities. Operational business plans cover defined periods (usually one year).
The enterprise planning values proposed and the measurement of success are negotiated with the people responsible. Their participation in enterprise planning is needed to ensure that business activities and cost efficiency in the various enterprise areas are under effective control.
Operational enterprise planning begins with the sales plan, which defines what quantities should be sold in the planning period, or with the sales information system.
The planned sales quantities are passed on to production planning. Operational business planning is affected by financial planning, which can also have a restrictive impact on production planning and cost center planning.
Executive Information System
In the Executive Information System, you can define enterprise-specific data structures based on multidimensional evaluation views. Data collection programs are available for most of the R/3 and R/2 components. You can also transfer data from non-SAP systems. You can use numerous functions to process the data and thus homogenize it (see Definition above). A complete graphical interface is available for presenting the data to management. Hierarchy processing and elimination functions enable easy-to-use consolidation functions.