Component documentationDocument Splitting

 

You can use document splitting to automatically split line items for selected dimensions (such as receivable lines by profit center) or to effect a zero balance setting in the document for selected dimensions. In document splitting, the system creates additional clearing lines.

Document splitting enables you to draw up complete financial statements for the following dimensions at any time:

  • Segments

  • Profit centers

  • Business areas

  • Funds

  • Receivables

  • Customer-defined dimension (customer field)

You can, for example, create a segmented display of a (partial) balance sheet according to a set of legal requirements (for example, IAS or US GAAP) or according to areas of responsibility (such as profit centers).

In addition, you can allocate at the time of posting additional costs (such as realized or valuated exchange rate differences) to the CO-relevant account assignment objects to which the costs relate. You can also subsequently capitalize fixed assets at the time of posting.

Implementation Considerations

The implementation of document splitting requires careful analysis of your business processes, identification of the relevant business transactions, and in many cases the adaptation of document types. For more information, see Migration to New General Ledger Accounting and Migration with Document Splitting.

If you have upgraded the SAP system, classic Financial Accounting is still active and continues to function as before. Furthermore, if you would like to migrate to new General Ledger Accounting, consult SAP Note 812919Information published on SAP site.

If you already use new General Ledger Accounting in your production system and now want to implement document splitting subsequently, you need to use the General Ledger Migration Cockpit with scenario 6. For more information, see Subsequent Implementation of Document Splitting.

If you want to make subsequent changes to document splitting, consult SAP Note 891144Information published on SAP site.

Integration

Document splitting is a function of new General Ledger Accounting (as of SAP ERP 5.0). It is comparable with document splitting for special purpose ledgers (FI-SL).

Document splitting uses document splitting characteristics as account assignment objects to portray the dimensions.

Document splitting has an effect on subsequent processes, such as closing operations, and on processes in Controlling (CO).

The following figure shows the data flow of documents when document splitting is applied:

For more information on the Accounting interface, see Interfaces to Accounting (AC).

Features

Document splitting is based on the unique assignment of document types to predefined, non-modifiable business transactions (or their attributes in a business transaction variant) as well as on the assignment of accounts to predefined, non-modifiable item categories. The item categories are used to define document splitting rules, which, depending on the business transaction, determine which items of a document the system splits and how. A document splitting rule is assigned to a document splitting method. To activate document splitting, assign a document splitting method. A document splitting method contains the document splitting rules that the system uses to split documents.

The standard delivery contains a standard document method that you can use in most cases unchanged. However, you can also define your own document splitting rules and methods so as to adapt the standard document method to meet your requirements. For more information, see Document Splitting Method.

Document Splitting Process

Document splitting runs as follows:

  1. When making a posting, the system determines from the document type the underlying business transaction, assigns the item category to the individual items within the document, and checks whether the item categories are permitted for that business transaction.

  2. The system creates a reference to preceding documents (such as clearing and invoice reference). The system applies the account assignments that you have defined as document splitting characteristics for General Ledger Accounting. For more information, see Passive Document Splitting.

  3. Depending on the classification of the document, the system applies the related document splitting rule for the document in which it is specified how the document is split and for which line items. For more information, see Active Document Splitting.

  4. If the system cannot determine the account assignments of the document splitting characteristics for individual line items, it can determine the account assignments either by inheritance or by using a standard account assignment. This can be necessary if the required information is not yet available when the posting occurs. You can use account assignment inheritance or standard account assignment to simplify document splitting. For more information, see Enhancement Logic.

  5. For individual document splitting characteristics for General Ledger Accounting, you can define that the line items for these document splitting characteristics must be assigned to an account (required entry field). The system then checks whether the line items for these document splitting characteristics have an account assignment. If not, the system rejects the posting and issues an error message. For more information, see Validation of the Document Splitting Characteristics for General Ledger Accounting.

  6. If the document does not produce a balance of zero for balancing dimensions, the system creates additional clearing items that ensure that the balancing dimensions in the document do produce a balance of zero. For additional information, see Creation of the Zero Balance Setting for Each Document.

For an example of the document splitting process, see Overview of Document Splitting Process.

Subsequent Processes

You can use the split line items in all other application components for subsequent processes and transfer them to other programs or interfaces, such as for the following processes:

  • Realized Exchange Rate Differences

    You can also use the CO-relevant account assignments relating to the costs to post realized exchange rate differences with clearing or partial payments.

  • Closing Operations

    You can perform closing operations, such as foreign currency valuation of open items, for the document splitting characteristics defined.

For more information, see Subsequent Processes.

Simulation of Document Splitting

During document entry, you can simulate the resulting postings. From the simulation in the general ledger view, you can call the expert mode. In the expert mode, you obtain detailed information about the split document as well as about the document splitting rules applied. Furthermore, the expert mode allows you to view the Customizing settings for document splitting specific to the business transaction.

For more information, see Simulating Documents in the General Ledger View.

Displaying the Split Document

You can display a document in Financial Accounting as follows:

  • In the entry view

  • From the view of a ledger in the general ledger view and with the clearing lines generated by document splitting

    How the document is displayed in the general ledger view depends on whether the ledger to which you want to post contains the document splitting characteristics that the system uses to split the document.

For more information, see Document Display.

Constraints

You can only use document splitting for documents that you can uniquely assign to a business process. The relevant relationship is unclear when there are multiple business processes within one document (see also Active Document Splitting).

Example

The following examples show a unique business process with document splitting:

Example 1: Invoice

A vendor invoice is entered with the following items:

Vendor Invoice During Entry

Posting Key

Account

Segment

Amount

31

Vendor

100.00

40

Expense

0001

40.00

40

Expense

0002

60.00

Document splitting then creates the following document in the general ledger view:

Document in General Ledger View

Posting Key

Account

Segment

Amount

31

Payables

0001

40.00

31

Payables

0002

60.00

40

Expense

0001

40.00

40

Expense

0002

60.00

Example 2: Payment

The payment for the above vendor invoice then contains the following items when entered:

Payment During Entry

Posting Key

Account

Segment

Amount

50

Bank

95.00-

25

Vendor

100.00

50

Cash discount received

0001

2.00-

50

Cash discount received

0002

3.00-

Document splitting then creates the following document in the general ledger view:

Document in General Ledger View

Posting Key

Account

Segment

Amount

50

Bank

0001

38.00-

50

Bank

0002

57.00-

25

Payables

0001

40.00

25

Payables

0002

60.00

50

Cash discount received

0001

2.00-

50

Cash discount received

0002

3.00-