Data Collection (SAP Library - Consolidation (EC-CS))

Data Collection

Purpose

Consolidated financial statements are created on the basis of financial data reported by individual consolidation units, and sometimes so-called additional financial data reported as well by said consolidation units. This data must therefore be collected in the consolidation application.

You require additional financial data if you want to carry out the functions consolidation of investments or elimination of interunit profit and loss in inventory.

This component contains the functions for collecting the data.

Features

You execute the task of "data collection" in the Data Monitor. The task features the following activities:

Collection of reported financial data

Manual posting

Collection of additional financial data

The following illustration shows an example of the selection screen, which appears after starting the task Data Collection for the consolidation unit Pharma 1:

This graphic is explained in the accompanying text

Collection of Reported Financial Data

In Customizing you assign a method for collecting the reported financial data to each consolidation unit (data transfer method).

The following data transfer methods are available:

· Online data entry in the SAP System

· Offline data entry on the basis of Microsoft Access, with the option of using the Interactive Excel interface

· Integrated data collection

- Realtime update

- Periodic extract

- Rollup

· Flexible upload from a non-SAP system

The procedure for collecting reported financial data depends on the methods you assign to the consolidation units. The following overview shows when each method can be used, and how each method is started in the monitor:

Data transfer methods for data collection

Method	Use	Execution in the Monitor
Online data entry	Manual data entry using data entry layouts is available for any consolidation scenario. Special consideration: You can use online data entry even if a different method is assigned to the consolidation unit in its master record.	With this method you only run data collection for a single consolidation unit. You only start the online data entry for a group, when the consolidation group itself is ascertainable. The selection screen lets you choose all relevant data entry layouts.
Offline data entry, flexible upload	You use these methods if one or more units do not use integration, but keep their financial data on a PC.	This method allows you to run data collection for a single unit as well as an entire group.
Realtime update	You can use this method for integrated data collection if one or more units keep their financial data in the same SAP system and client. Restriction: You cannot use this method for profit center consolidation.	There is no need to run a task in the monitor because the G/L-related postings are updated in the Consolidation system in "realtime".
Periodic extract	You can use this method for integrated data collection if one or more units keep their financial data in any SAP system. The data collection takes place with an extract from the consolidation staging ledger. Restriction: You cannot use this method for profit center consolidation. In addition you cannot copy the functional area, as this field is not contained in the totals table of the consolidation staging ledger.	This method allows you to run data collection for a single unit as well as an entire group.
Rollup	With this data collection method, you can transfer the reported financial data from any ledger into Consolidation. Note: You can transfer the reported financial data for integrated profit center consolidation per rollup from the profit center ledger.

Manual Posting

The data collection task features an option for manually posting entries. These must use document types that:

have a posting level less than 20
are defined for manual postings
are not assigned to any tasks

For example, the standard SAP system includes a document type for posting adjustments to reported financial data.

Collection of Additional Financial Data

Additional financial data can be:

entered manually
collected using the flexible upload method

As an alternative, for certain additional financial data of consolidation of investments you can go to Customizing and determine that the data is to be gathered directly from the totals database.

Before you collect the additional financial data, customize the additional financial data in the Implementation Guide for Consolidation for the areas:

Elimination of Interunit Profit/Loss in Transferred Inventory

Consolidation of Investments

You can collect the additional financial data for a single consolidation unit or for an entire consolidation group.

Special consideration

Status management lets you collect additional financial data even if the data collection task is already blocked. At the time of the collection of reported financial data it is often unclear which additional financial data will be needed. However, subsequent collection of additional financial data can cause the system to unblock tasks that have already been carried out.

Case in point 1: Additional financial data for the consolidation of investments

Say, you collect additional financial data for the consolidation of investments after the tasks in the data monitor have been completed, or even after the consolidation of investments task has been run. Then the system unblocks the task for validating the standardized financial data as well as all of the tasks that follow.

Case in point 2: Additional financial data for the consolidation of investments, currency translation with key 3 and 4

Same as case 1. In addition, assume that the equity and investment values are translated historically using the additional financial data. Then the system unblocks the currency translation task along with all tasks that follow.

Case in point 3: Additional financial data for the elimination of interunit profit and loss in inventory

Same as case 1.

Recommendation

Hence, SAP recommends that you collect the additional financial data directly after the collection of the reported financial data.