The business area is another organizational criterion for General Ledger Accounting, in addition to the company code.

If you specify in Customizing for the General Ledger that business area balance sheets should be created for a company code, the system requires that assets be assigned to a business area during master record maintenance. The business area can also be adopted automatically from the cost center that you entered. As long as a fixed asset is assigned to a business area, the system makes account assignment of all postings to this asset to this business area, including depreciation and gain or loss postings on asset retirement.

If you want to assign a fixed asset, which has already been posted, to another business area, you have to transfer the fixed asset to a new asset master record. The posting becomes effective at the same time in the General Ledger. If you do not create business area balance sheets, you can change the business area in the time-dependent assignments in the asset master record.