Assignment of Accounting Techniques and C/I Methods

Use

This function enables you to assign the following attributes to consolidation units:

Prerequisites

You need to have at least one hierarchy of consolidation units.

If you want to assign consolidation of investments methods, you must first define these methods in Customizing for consolidation of investments in the section Method .

Features

Group Dependency

Assignments to consolidation units are dependent on groups, which means that a consolidation unit can have different attribute values in different consolidation groups. To reduce maintenance effort, the system employs inheritance logic in which attribute values in hierarchies are passed either up or down:

  • Bottom-up: If you assign an attribute value to a consolidation unit in a specific consolidation group, the system passes the attribute value upwards to all higher-level consolidation groups of that consolidation unit. Exception: The parent indicator is not passed upwards.

  • Top-down: If you assign an attribute value to a consolidation group, the system passes the attribute value downwards to all consolidation units that belong to that consolidation group, regardless of whether the ownership is direct or indirect.

Inheritance uses the following priorities:

  • Entries made by the user have the highest priority.

  • If the user makes no entry, the values are passed upwards.

  • If bottom-up inheritance fails due to a missing value, the values are passed downwards.

Inheritance conflicts can occur in cases where a consolidation unit is explicitly assigned to several consolidation groups. If this happens, a red traffic light is displayed and the user must enter the value.

A symbol indicates that an attribute has been inherited. The detail screen shows from which consolidation group the attribute was inherited.

Time Dependency

Attribute assignments can vary from one period to another. If the accounting technique or method changes in a certain period, you enter a change of accounting technique .

The Change at Beginning of Period indicator determines whether the change occurs at the beginning or at the end (the default setting) of a period.

The parent indicator cannot be changed in later periods.

Display Options

There are several ways you can display hierarchies:

  • View Complete: All non-empty hierarchies are shown in their entirety. If a consolidation unit has different attributes in different consolidation groups, that consolidation unit appears in all of these consolidation groups.

    This means that this hierarchy may be displayed differently than in the master data shown in the left section of the consolidation workbench.

  • View Consolidation Group: This displays the selected consolidation group with all of its consolidation units (including any indirect ones). In this view, you can modify the inherited attributes so that they reflect the appropriate values for the selected consolidation group.

  • View Consolidation Unit: This displays the selected consolidation unit with all of the consolidation groups and hierarchies in which it is contained. If the consolidation unit has different attributes in different consolidation groups, that consolidation unit appears in all of these consolidation groups.

Matrix Consolidation (Multidimensionality)

Consolidation functions work with combinations of consolidation units and consolidation groups, not with individual characteristics. The system, therefore, internally combines the assignments of all characteristic dimensions using the following approaches:

  • The system uses the accounting technique and method of the dimension in which they were defined by the user. If there is a conflict between the assignments in different dimensions, the system displays an error message. For this reason, you should maintain accounting techniques and methods in one dimension only.

  • If the parent indicator is maintained in one dimension only, then consolidation of investments treats as parents all combinations in which the parent indicator has been set for one or more consolidation unit characteristics.

  • If the parent indicator is maintained in both dimensions, then consolidation of investments treats as parents only those combinations in which the parent indicator has been set for all consolidation unit characteristics.

Accounting Technique

When a consolidation of investments method is assigned, the system automatically uses the accounting technique of that method. You can only enter an accounting technique explicitly if no method is assigned.

Activities

  • Decide which consolidation unit dimensions you are going to make the assignments to, especially with regards to the parent indicator.

  • If you do not use consolidation of investments, you only need to specify accounting techniques.

  • We recommend that you use top-down inheritance for as many assignments as possible.

  • If you use consolidation of investments, each consolidation group requires at least one parent unit in one or more consolidation unit dimensions. You can make sure this has been done by using the View Consolidation Group display option.