Business Area 

Definition

Organizational unit of external accounting that corresponds to a specific business segment or area of responsibility in a company. Movements in value entered in Financial Accounting are assigned to business areas.

Financial statements can be created for business areas for internal purposes.

The definition of the business area organizational unit is optional.

Use

Business areas are used in external segment reporting (over and above company codes), based on the significant areas of operation of a company (for example, product lines, branches).

To define business areas, choose the following in Customizing for the Enterprise Structure: Definition ® Financial Accounting ® Define Business Area.

If you have defined business areas, the transaction figures for the G/L accounts are managed separately for internal evaluation purposes. You can therefore create internal financial statements for business areas.

If you want to create financial statements for business areas, you must make sure that the Business area field is ready for input in all the line items. To do this, proceed as follows in Customizing for Financial Accounting: Financial Accounting Global Settings ® Business Area ® Enable Business Area Balance Sheet.

Integration

To post items in a business area, enter the business area when you enter the business transaction. However, the business area can also be derived from other account assignments, such as the cost center. To enable the system to do this, you must define the business area in the cost center master record. For more information, see the SAP Library under Financials ® Controlling ® Organization in Controlling ® Business Area.

If you enter a cross-company code document, you can post to different business areas across all company codes in one document. As a result, any number of combinations of company code and business area are possible.