Financial Statement Item 

Definition

The basis for entering, posting, and analyzing amounts and quantities in consolidation.

The financial statement item is the central account assignment object in consolidation. It is equivalent to an “account” in general ledger accounting.

A financial statement item is valid only for the consolidation chart of accounts in which it was created.

Use

A financial statement item cannot only be used for accounting-related amounts or quantities in the balance sheet or the income statement, but can also be used to post statistical amounts and key figures/ratios.

Structure

You define financial statement items in the process view of the workbench at Master Data ® Items ® Item.

Item Properties from Consolidation

On the Item tab, you define the properties of an item with regards to data entry, the item type, and the breakdown category.

Data Entry

Debit/Credit Sign

You define a fixed debit/credit sign so that item values can be entered without the need for specifying the debit/credit sign (for example, in manual data entry or in flexible upload).

·         You enter a debit (plus/+) sign for asset items and expense items.

·         You enter a credit (minus/-) sign for equity and liability items and revenue items.

When you enter item values, you only enter absolute amounts or quantities. When the values are written to the database, the system multiplies each entered value by the debit/credit sign of the item (and when applicable, by the debit/credit sign of the item's subassignment).

Block Data Entry

When you block data entry, values cannot be entered to the item in periods that follow the first data entry period. (The first data entry period is an attribute of the consolidation unit.)

Item Type

The following item types exist:

·        Balance sheet

·        Income statement

·        Statistical: balance

·        Statistical: flow

Breakdown Category

See the section on breakdown categories.

Item Properties from Business Information Warehouse

BW has additional item properties you can set. When you customize items in the Consolidation System, you can view (but not modify) these additional properties on the tab Other Attributes.