In order to post to profit and loss accounts (primary cost element), you have to enter a CO account assignment object. This is assigned to the business area in its master record. Entering the CO account assignment object means that all the profit and loss accounts are updated at business area level.

A problem occurs however if you want to carry out automatic postings. When carrying out the automatic postings, the system cannot always determine which CO account assignment and therefore also which business area the postings should be assigned to. In this case, the system posts to a default object stored in the system (and therefore to a default business area).

In the standard system you can make transfer postings to the business area where the transaction originated for the following profit and loss accounts:

• Discounts

• Exchange rate differences

You can use the profit and loss adjustments to do this. At the end of the period, a report (SAPF181) reads all the items cleared in this period, analyzes the documents belonging to these items, and creates appropriate adjustment postings.

• The profit and loss account adjustment generates summarized transfer postings for each of the categories in question.

• You may only carry out the profit and loss account adjustment once for each posting period.