Central Finance

 

With Central Finance, customers can connect their distributed system landscape, to a centralized SAP S/4HANA Finance system. This can be made up of a combination of SAP systems of different releases and non-SAP systems. Financial Accounting (FI) and Management Accounting (CO) postings can be replicated into this Central Finance system.

Central Finance allows you to create a common reporting structure. To prepare for this common structure, you must map your different accounting entities (for example, account, profit center, or cost center) in your source systems to one common set of master data in the Central Finance system. You can then replicate financial accounting (FI) and management accounting (CO) postings.

Financial accounting (FI) and management accounting (CO) postings are replicated to the Central Finance system. There, FI documents and CO postings are combined into one document – the universal journal entry. In addition, all cost elements are part of the chart of accounts. Before you replicate CO postings to the Central Finance system, you need to make sure that accounts are available for all cost elements.

Note Note

If you use the new general ledger (GL) in the local system, you are not updating postings under the accounts for real-time integration but instead you are updating postings under the secondary cost elements/accounts used to record the postings in CO.

End of the note.

You can also replicate cost objects (for example, production orders) to the Central Finance system. These represent the business transactions in logistics (for example, production, maintenance, and quality) and may not be at an appropriate granularity in the Central Finance system. For this reason, you can choose to transfer some cost objects, such as long-living internal orders, directly to orders in the Central Finance system and to map other cost objects, such as short-living production orders, to more long-living cost objects, such as a production cost collector in the central system.

Recommendation Recommendation

To avoid reporting taxes twice, SAP recommend that tax reporting should only be done from your source systems rather than the Central Finance system.

End of the recommendation.

Integration

The figure below shows how the systems integrate with each other and is followed by an explanation:

SAP S/4HANA Finance can be used in conjunction with SAP Landscape Transformation Replication Server (SAP LT Replication Server) and SAP Master Data Governance (SAP MDG). If you integrate SAP MDG with your SAP S/4HANA Finance system, you can use SAP MDG to harmonize the master data from the source system to the Central Finance system.

The SAP LT Replication Server collects data written to databases in the source systems and feeds this data into the corresponding Central Finance accounting interface. If you are mapping master data, SAP suggests you use SAP MDG. If you are mapping short-living cost objects, you should use SAP MDG in conjunction with the cost object mapping framework.

After the data is mapped, the system uses error handling to log the details of any errors encountered. You can choose to make corrections and repost the item or process the item again after, for example, you correct the mapping rule or adjust incorrect values in the document.

The internal accounting interface posts the Financial Accounting (FI)/Management Accounting (CO) document to SAP HANA as a universal journal entry.

Prerequisites

  • SAP ERP Releases

    Central Finance can be used out-of-the box with all SAP ERP releases that are still in maintenance starting from SAP ERP 6.0. Instructions on how to implement Central Finance with these systems are available either as SAP Notes or are contained in the support packages for these systems. For releases SAP R/3 4.6C to SAP ERP 5, contact SAP Product Management by creating an incident on the component FI-CF.

  • Source Systems with a 3rd-Party Database with a Runtime License

    If you want to replicate your data from a system that uses a 3rd-party database with a runtime license, SAP strongly recommends that you use the Central Finance – Business Integration Scenario. For more information, see SAP Note 2223621Information published on SAP site.

  • Replication from non-SAP ERP Systems using SAP System Landscape Transformation Server (SLT)

    SAP System Landscape Transformation Server (SLT) can be used to replicate data from most databases of non-SAP ERP systems. The field and structure mapping that is necessary to enable Central Finance interfaces to be filled can be carried out directly in SLT.

  • Licensing - Required Software

    You must have a license for the following:

    • Central Finance

      Contact your SAP Account Executive to verify if you need to purchase this license.

    • SAP Landscape Transformation Replication Server

      The add-on DMIS 2011_1_700 (or higher depending on the release of the system) is installed in all involved systems. This requires the purchase of the SAP LT Replication Server license.

      Note Note

      The minimum support package (SP) level for the steps described in this document is SP08.

      End of the note.

  • Optional Software

    • External Tax Calculation Engine

      If you are using an external tax calculation engine in your source system, you should connect the same external tax calculate engine to your Central Finance system. This is because after tax calculation, tax checks are carried out in both systems.

    • SAP BusinessObjects Analysis, edition for Microsoft Office

      In addition to classic SAP ERP reports such as financial statements, cash flow, or profitability reports, you can use SAP BusinessObjects Analysis, edition for Microsoft Office for reporting. SAP BusinessObjects Analysis, edition for Microsoft Office integrates with Microsoft Excel and helps you to gain insight into business data and make intelligent decisions that impact corporate performance.

      Contact your SAP Account Executive to verify if you need to purchase a license.

  • Business Functions

    • You have activated the Central Finance (FINS_CFIN) business function.

  • You have made the required settings for Central Finance in Customizing under Financial Accounting (New).

  • You have installed SAP LT Replication Server. Contact your SAP Account Executive to verify if you need to purchase a license.

    SAP LT Replication Server is a database-oriented tool that can be installed as a separate system, or on top of any of the source systems or the Central Finance system. For more information, see the guides for the SAP LT Replication Server on the SAP HELP Portal at Start of the navigation path http://help.sap.comInformation published on SAP site Next navigation step SAP In-Memory Computing Next navigation step SAP HANA Next navigation step SAP HANA Options Next navigation step SAP HANA Real-Time Replication End of the navigation path.

  • SAP Notes

    You have installed the relevant SAP notes in your source and Central Finance systems. For a complete list of SAP notes that are relevant for Central Finance, see the Administrator’s Guide for Central Finance in the SAP Help Portal.

  • Authorizations

    • The authorization SAP_IUUC_REPL_REMOTE has been assigned to the RFC user in the source system.

    • The following authorizations have been assigned to the configuration user in the SAP LT Replication Server system:

      • SAP_IUUC_REPL_ADMIN

      • SAP_MWB_PROJECT_MANAGER

Features

Central Accounting Interface

You can use the central accounting interface to harmonize master data and replicate postings.

You can map master data from several source systems to harmonized master data in the Central Finance system either manually or using SAP MDG.

In order to enable the transfer of data between your source systems and Central Finance, you must maintain mapping, which defines the relationships between data in the source systems and data in Central Finance. The system uses this mapping during the initial load of data from your source systems and when transferring transactional data to Central Finance, that is, when new postings are made in the source system.

Different types of master data are mapped in different ways:

  • Master data such as company codes and company IDs, must be either mapped manually as part of your Customizing or using SAP MDG. For more information, see Mapping in Central Finance.

  • Master data relating to cost objects, such as production orders and internal orders, is mapped using the cost object mapping framework. For more information, see Cost Object Mapping.

Using SAP LT Replication Server, you can replicate FI and CO postings from several source systems to the Central Finance system. SAP LT Replication Server collects the posting data from the source systems and feeds it into the corresponding interface in Central Finance.

For more information on the interfaces for Central Finance, see Harmonized Financial Reporting.

Note Note

In addition, when a document line item is posted with a profitability segment in the source system, the attributes of the profitability segment are transferred to the Central Finance system. You can also map the attributes of the profitability segment.

The Central Finance system creates a new profitability segment number and stores the profitability segment in the account-based profitability analysis (CO-PA) component and the universal journal entry.

End of the note.
Intercompany Reconciliation with Central Finance

As receivables and payables are replicated into Central Finance, intercompany reconciliation (ICR) can access these receivables and payables directly in the Central Finance system without having to run long batch jobs for loading the receivables and payables into Central Finance.

Document Relationship Browser

Using the document relationship browser, you can see the document flow of an FI document. For example, you can navigate back from an FI document to the original sales order.

You can also search for the reposted FI document using the company code, original document number, or fiscal year from the source system.

Note Note

All business documents related to a transaction are available in the document relationship browser, provided the source system is an SAP system.

End of the note.

Using the Document Relationship Browser

To navigate to the document relationship browser, you can use the following transactions:

  • Controlling Documents: Actual (KSB5), then choose Start of the navigation path Environment Next navigation step Relationship Browser End of the navigation path

  • Display Document (FB03), then choose Start of the navigation path Environment Next navigation step Document Environment Next navigation step Relationship Browser End of the navigation path

Harmonized Financial Reporting

Central Finance reporting provides harmonized financial reporting allowing you to report on financial figures that originate in different source systems.

For more information, see Harmonized Financial Reporting.

SAP BusinessObjects Analysis, edition for Microsoft Office

In addition to classic SAP ERP reports such as financial statements, cash flow, or profitability reports, you can use SAP BusinessObjects Analysis, edition for Microsoft Office for reporting. SAP BusinessObjects Analysis (edition for Microsoft Office) integrates with Microsoft Excel and helps you to gain insight into business data and make intelligent decisions that impact corporate performance.

For more information about SAP BusinessObjects Analysis, see SAP HELP Portal at Start of the navigation path http://help.sap.comInformation published on SAP site Next navigation step Analytics Next navigation step Business Intelligence Next navigation step Analysis End of the navigation path.

Note Note

Contact your SAP Account Executive to verify if you need to purchase a license.

End of the note.
Initial Load and Online Replication of Data

The initial load is used to transfer postings from a particular period, for example the current fiscal year, from your source systems to your Central Finance system. After the initial load of data has taken place, new postings are transferred to the Central Finance system via online replication.

Note Note

Even if you do not want to transfer postings from a previous period, (for example, if you are carrying out a proof-of-concept), you must still execute an “empty” initial load in order to activate online replication in the source system.

End of the note.

The following types of postings are not transferred as part of the initial load and online replication:

  • Postings to CO-FI reconciliation ledger (GL Reconciliation Postings)

    Note Note

    For the initial load only you should note that, if you have enabled replication of CO postings, postings to CO-FI reconciliation ledger (GL reconciliation postings) will be transferred via CO.

    End of the note.

  • Year-end closing postings where the reference transaction (AWTYP) is GLYEC.

  • Clearings

  • Clearing resets

  • Recurring entries

  • Sample documents

  • Noted items

  • Parked documents

  • Balance carryforward items

  • Closing operations (These comprise processes and functions performed at the end of the fiscal year in certain countries.)

For more information, see Initial Load: Execution and Monitoring.