Ledgers

Use

In General Ledger Accounting, you can use several ledgers in parallel. This allows you to produce financial statements according to different accounting principles, for example. You create a ledger for each of the general ledgers you need.

You define your ledgers in Customizing for Financial Accounting (New) under Financial Accounting Global Settings (New) → Ledgers → Ledger. When you create a ledger, the system automatically creates a ledger group with the same name.

Structure

These are the types of ledger:

  • Leading Ledger

    You must designate one ledger as the leading ledger. In the standard system, the leading ledger is 0L. This ledger is updated in all company codes, that is, it's assigned to all company codes. The document numbers assigned in this ledger apply for all dependent ledgers. The leading ledger contains the complete set of document items in table ACDOCA.

    In each company code, the leading ledger receives exactly the same settings that apply to that company code: the currencies, the fiscal year variant, and the variant of the posting periods. You can define a second and third parallel currency for your leading ledger for each company code. To do so, in Customizing for Financial Accounting (New) choose Financial Accounting Global Settings (New) → Ledgers → Ledger → Define Currencies of Leading Ledger.

    The leading ledger is integrated with Controlling (CO) and therefore forms the basis for CO actual data. That means that the CO actual version VERSN 0 is essentially the same as the leading ledger.

  • Non-Leading Ledgers

    Along with the leading ledger, you can have other non-leading ledgers or extension ledgers. The non-leading ledgers are parallel ledgers to the leading ledger. They can be based on a local accounting principle, for example. You have to activate a non-leading ledger for the individual company codes. Non-leading ledgers also contain the complete set of document items in table ACDOCA.

    Note Note

    Posting procedures with subledger or G/L accounts managed on an open item basis always affect all ledgers. This means that you cannot perform ledger-specific postings to subledger or G/L accounts managed on an open item basis. If you manage G/L accounts on an open item basis to monitor accounting aspects such as reserve allocations and reversals, you need to take additional measures in your internal controls system.

    End of the note.

    Non-leading ledgers can have different fiscal year variants and different posting period variants in each company code than the leading ledger of this company code. The second and third currency of the non-leading ledger must be a currency that is managed as second or third currency in the respective company code. However, you do not have to have a second and third currency in non-leading ledgers; these are optional. Alternative currencies are not possible.

  • Extension Ledgers

    Extension ledgers are created based on an underlying ledger. The postings to the underlying ledger also apply for the extension ledger, without a need for redundant data storage. When you run reports for an extension ledger, the data of the underlying ledger is also called. Therefore, only the manual postings made directly in the extension ledger are stored physically on the database. (Automatic postings are not possible.) You can assign a separate company code and a separate posting period variant to the extension ledger. However, currency settings and the fiscal year variant are not allowed to differ from the underlying ledger.

    You can create different extension ledgers that are based on the same underlying ledger. However, you are not allowed to define an extension ledger based on another extension ledger.

    Extension ledgers are useful, for example, for providing information from a management viewpoint, without the need for touching the data of the underlying ledger.

  • Day Ledgers

    You use a day ledger if you want to create reports for average balances (reports for displaying average daily balances). You can activate the day ledger for drilldown reporting.

    You are not allowed to define day ledgers as the leading ledger or use them as the representative ledger in a ledger group.

Note Note

If you use the account approach for parallel accounting, you only need one ledger. That is is automatically the leading ledger.

End of the note.

Example

You create your consolidated financial statements in accordance with the IAS accounting principles. Your individual company codes apply the local accounting principles US GAAP or German HGB to produce their financial statements. You therefore create three ledgers:

Ledger 0L (leading ledger) that is managed according to the group accounting principle

Ledger L1 (non-leading ledger) that you activate for all company codes that apply US GAAP

Ledger L2 (non-leading ledger) that you activate for all company codes that apply HGB