Information for New Users and Users of Classic RE 

What Is New in Flexible Real Estate Management?

The Flexible Real Estate Management (RE-FX) component supports the following processes in master data management and contract management:

·         Supervision of real estate you use yourself (corporate use)

·         Management of commercially-used real estate

 

Through optimization of contract management and significantly enhanced master data management, the following areas were created or improved:

·         Spaces can be freely defined as rental objects (rental spaces) without mandatory assignment to specific rental units (especially useful for commercial rental, since objects can belong to different buildings or business entities).

·         The pooled space is the superior rental object out of which rental spaces of one or more predetermined usage type (such as single office, shared office) can be extracted for rental (see above).

·         Multiple objects with different usage types can be assigned to one and the same contract (for instance a real estate contract of the “commercial rental” category with 200 m² retail space, 300²m office space, 1000m² storage space and a caretaker’s apartment).

·         Option to calculate or assign conditions based on fixtures and fittings characteristics, for example, or measurements, (for instance, lease-out of an office with special furnishings).

·         Option to assign rooms, spaces and other objects directly to cost centers, orders or projects in the architectural view (especially for own usage).

·         Master data objects can be created with time dependency (assignment of measurements, conditions, posting terms, partners to the rental object or contract for clearly defined periods). For more information, see Management of Time Slots.

·         Display of real estate from a structural perspective (Master Data in the Architectural View) using architectural object types you define to suit your needs, with the option of linking to an external CAD system.

·         Central SAP business partner management and central address management.

 

Processing of your real estate objects is simplified by having one central point of entry and navigation function:

·         RE Navigator
You can edit all master data objects, contracts and settlement units from this hierarchy view. From this view you can easily navigate to different objects. Further editing functions, such as Resubmission and Information System, are available in the initial screen.

 

Flexible Real Estate Management incorporates the following processes:

·         Contract management
Using the Real Estate Contract , you can manage all types of contracts related to real estate management, regardless of whether you are leasing out or leasing in, or if you are dealing with customer or vendor contracts. You can assign any number of rental objects from different business entities, buildings or company codes to one contract. When defining conditions and other contract terms, you can group the assigned objects together into object groups.

You can define dependent conditions that relate to conditions or condition groups of other contracts or rental objects (for example, by entering a percentage rate).

In Classic RE (up to and including 4.6C), certain entries that you made in the contract applied to the contract as a whole. In Flexible Real Estate Management, since you can assign more than one real estate object to a contract, you can specify this kind of information for the individual objects. It is not necessary to enter this information separately for each real estate object. Instead, you can group entries together in the form of terms (for example, see the Posting Parameters tab page).

·         Master data management
Master data management is split into the architectural view and the usage view, which provides you with a space and room management in which architectural and technical structures can be considered separately from usage and business aspects. You can extract rental spaces from pooled spaces when creating a contract and assign them to that contract. In addition, data exchange with (external) graphic systems allows you to visually represent your real estate objects.

·        Posting
Flexible Real Estate Management provides the accustomed integration with the Financial Accounting (FI) component, linking you to subledger accounts and to the general ledger.
The following accounting functions are also available:

o        Accruals and deferrals lets you record revenues and costs in the correct periods in financial accounting. Accruals and deferrals in Flexible Real Estate Management are managed with the SAP tool Accrual Engine.

o        Input tax distribution lets you distribute tax based on the option rate that is determined for each real estate object.

·        Sales-based rent settlement
You can define any number of sales-based rent arrangements in one contract. These arrangements contain rules for how sales-based rent is determined (sales rules), and may also include reporting rules for sales.
The system supports you in all of this with functions for editing contract data, entering sales reports, and settling sales-based rent. In addition, we provide the reporting functions you need for sales-based rent, along with correspondence templates to simplify communication between you and your tenants (and landlords).

·         Service charge settlement

New features in service charge settlement:

¡        Settlement in steps with the option to start again after each step

¡        Simulation of settlements with all related reports

¡        Storage of results without posting

·         Adjustment of conditions
Since you can now use the real estate contract in Flexible Real Estate Management to map service contracts (not related to “rent”) as well as the classic lease-in and lease-out processes, the term “rent adjustment” has been replaced with “adjustment of conditions”.
Real Estate Management supports the following adjustment methods:

                            a.      Free adjustment

                            b.      Index-linked rent

Along with the main program that controls selections for the adjustment and its processing, you benefit from correspondence templates that simplify communication between you and your tenants.

·        Resubmission
This function is available for all real estate objects.

·         Correspondence
All mass correspondence is created using SAP Smart Forms. For single letters, you can continue to use Microsoft® Word. The correspondence function is available for all master data objects, and not just for the contract as in Classic RE.

Unlike the previously used SAPscript technology, Smart Forms allow you to create your forms much more easily, and you can modify them to your own specifications without difficulty. Another advantage is that you can output Smart Forms to e-mail and fax.

You will find more information on the correspondence functions in Flexible Real Estate Management here.

·         Information system
You can run reports on data related to occupancy, measurements and conditions (of master data and in service charge settlement) using reports in the R/3 System. For reporting on plan and actual values from the Controlling (CO) component, extractors are available in R/3 and are supplemented by InfoCubes, queries und workbooks in the SAP Business Information Warehouse (SAP BW). It is now possible to select by partners and real estate objects when running reports on contracts.

·        Data transfer
You can use BAPIs for legacy data transfer from non-SAP systems. These BAPIs are linked with the Data Transfer Workbench (SXDA).

·         Archiving
Real estate documents and the cash flow can be archived. In addition to the general archiving functions, a simple deletion function is provided. The deletion function lets you delete incorrect master data as long as the given object is not used in any dependent structures.