Application Link Enabling (ALE) in Funds Management 

Purpose

You can use Application Link Enabling (ALE) to build distributed applications and monitor them. ALE guarantees a distributed yet integrated SAP installation. This comprises a business-controlled message exchange with consistent data retention in the application systems. The application integration occurs via synchronous and asynchronous communication, and not via a central database.

ALE consists of three levels:

●      Application services

●      Distribution services

●      Communication services

Features

Posting Transactions

You can post all documents except payments in the decentral system. The Funds Management documents resulting from this and the original Financial Accounting documents have to be distributed via ALE to the central system.

Payments must always be entered in the central system.

Other original documents do not have to be distributed. You can only make document changes in the original system. The distribution of the original Financial Accounting documents cannot be performed using FI IDoc FIDCMT01.

Master data and Customizing must be the same in all the affected systems. To achieve this, we recommend that you maintain both objects in the central system only and then distribute the data from there.

Reporting of Original Documents

Not all original documents are distributed to the central system by the above-mentioned system settings. However, you can display this data using the Data Retention Tool (DART) after dismantling a decentral system.

Funds Management Master Data

You make the assignment of an FM account assignment to the central or decentral system using the funds center. There are therefore a number of funds centers for each system that can only be posted to in the respective system.

Customers should make sure this rule is adhered to by installing bespoke organizational measures. This procedure is especially important for budgeting.

Budgeting and Availability Control

For budgeting you must use the Budget Control System (BCS). You cannot use former budgeting.

The budget is provided in the central system and distributed to the decentral system. The budget is placed at a higher-level budget address with this, which is normally the reserve of the decentral system. In the decentral system you can distribute budget as you wish. The availability control takes place in the decentral system.

The assigned values in the central system are adjusted with postings, but no messages are issued if the budget is exceeded. The commitment carryforward is executed in the central or decentral system depending on the document. For more information on this, refer to Reassignment.

The budget fiscal year change takes place in the central system. Before the budget carryforward, you must post the budget to the central budget address in the decentral system using transaction Preclosing: Post Residual Budget (FMMPPCLO). After the budget carryforward and the provision of a new budget, you must distribute this again.

The above-mentioned process is depicted in the following figure.

Payment Updates

The payment update in FM occurs in the central system via three possible options:

●      Online payment update

●      Original function for payment selection

●      Enhanced function for payment selection

For more information, see Payment Update.

Some restrictions apply to this that are caused by the distribution of financial accounting data. These affect cross-company code documents, the automatic clearings of sent documents and reversals.

Cross-Company Code Documents

Cross-company code documents can no longer be recognized as such once they have been distributed to the central system in Financial Accounting. This causes difficulties with the payment selection as the business content of the document can no longer be determined. You  are therefore not allowed to distribute cross-company code postings. However, some customers may post payments in one central company code for business reasons and thereby create cross-company code documents. This is no problem as long as these documents are not distributed.

For more information, see SAP note 114814, point 3.

Automatic Clearing of Sent Documents

You can clear distributed documents that are to be converted by the payment selection automatically in the decentral system.

For more information, see SAP note 114814, point 6.

Reversals

Reversals can no longer be recognized as such in Financial Accounting after their distribution. After the clearing in the central system, they are converted by the payment selection like a credit memo.

For more information, see SAP note 114814, point 15.

Reassignments and Fiscal Year Change in Funds Management

Documents must always be reassigned in their original system, so in the system where they were originally posted. The exception to this in invoices that are always reassigned in the central system. The following documents must always be reassigned in their original system or undergo a fiscal year change. These documents are updated in table FMIOI. This includes:

●      Purchase requisitions

●      Purchase orders

●      Funds commitments

●      Down payments

●      Down payment requests

●      Parked documents

If you want to reassign invoices, you must always do this in the central system. In the decentral system, you can only use the report Selection for Supplements (RFFMCHAN) without adjusting the FM data.

You must always maintain the reassignment strategy or fiscal year change in the central and decentral system as the documents can be reversed centrally and decentrally. The same applies to the fiscal year change for FI documents.

Reconstructing Documents

You always reconstruct FI documents in the central system. You always reconstruct commitment documents in their original system.

Closing the Decentral System

Before you dismantle the decentral system, you must close all open transactions by posting date-based. This is important as you can no longer reference posted documents after the dismantling. You can then neither change the original document nor reference it to the invoice.

This means that for purchase orders, for example, the documents in the central system cannot be reduced and are therefore entered each year with the fiscal year change. If you then post the corresponding invoice, the budget would be available twice.

If the decentral system then had to be dismantled prematurely, you would have to delete open commitment documents and then post them into a suitable system.

Invoices are excluded from this: The payment for these can take place in the central system.

Adjusting FI Reference in the FM Document

After the ALE distribution, the reference to the FI document in the FM document is usually no longer correct. You can correct this by using report ALE Distribution: Adjusting the FI Reference in the FM Document (RFFMS_SET_NUMBER).

You must always start this report before the payment selection of newly distributed documents.

Changes to FI Document

Changes to the FI document in the decentral system are not transferred to the FM document.