Posting Levels for Classifying Journal Entries
Posting levels classify journal entries in the consolidation system.
Posting levels distinguish between the following types of entries (among others):
Adjustments to reported financial data
Standardizing entries
Entries for interunit elimination and the elimination of interunit profit/loss in transferred inventory
Consolidation group-dependent entries
Consolidation-group-specific entries
There is also a separate posting level for reported financial data.
You typically assign a document type to journal entries. The document type determines the posting level of the entry. When reported financial data is collected, the system uses a separate posting level; however, it does not post any documents.
When entries are posted, the system writes the posting level to the totals record and to the journal entry.
The classification of journal entries with posting levels serves as an aid to the user for selecting data by posting level, and is also utilized by the system:
By specifying posting levels when selecting data, you can evaluate individual steps of the consolidation process in your consolidation reports.
ExampleYou can analyze the standardized financial data of a consolidation unit by selecting that unit’s data with posting levels 00, 01, and 10.
End of the example.The system uses the posting level:
For internal consistency checks of the data
For the selection of data to be processed
ExampleFor interunit elimination, the system selects all data (of the consolidation units to be eliminated) with posting levels less than or equal to 20.
End of the example.
Structure
The available posting levels are predefined in the system. The following posting levels exist:
Posting Level |
Use |
|---|---|
00 |
Reported financial data No postings with documents exist for reported financial data. |
01 |
Adjustments to reported financial data If, after collecting the reported data of the consolidation units, you want to centrally make changes to the data, we recommend doing this by posting adjustment entries with posting level 01. This has the benefit that your changes are documented. |
02 |
Reported data: consolidation group changes (See explanations below.) |
10 |
Standardizing entries You may need to standardize the reported data of consolidation units to comply with corporate policies or valuation rules.
In data records with posting levels less than or equal to 10, the system posts only to the consolidation unit – not to the consolidation group. Reporting takes into account the data records for all consolidation groups. End of the note. |
12 |
Standardizing entries: consolidation group changes (See explanations below.) |
20 |
Two-sided elimination entries Interunit elimination, the elimination of interunit profit/loss in inventory, and reclassification are examples of two-sided elimination entries. Here, both the consolidation unit and the partner unit are recorded in the data records. Reporting takes into account the data records for all consolidation groups in which both the consolidation unit and the partner unit are posted. |
22 |
Two-sided elimination entries: consolidation group changes (See explanations below.) |
30 |
Consolidation group-dependent entries The consolidation unit, partner unit, and consolidation group are recorded in the data records for consolidation of investments entries, and in the entries for elimination of interunit profit/loss in transferred inventory that have this posting level. Reporting only takes into account the data records with the assigned consolidation group and the higher-level consolidation groups. |
32 |
Consolidation group-dependent entries: consolidation group changes (See explanations below.) |
35 |
Consolidation-group-specific entries You can use posting level 35 to make group-specific manual postings that relate to management consolidation only and are not included in external consolidation. For more information, see Consolidation-Group-Specific Postings. |
Explanations for Posting Levels Used for Consolidation Group Changes (02, 12, and 22)
Preparatory Entries for Consolidation Group Changes
When a consolidation group purchases or sells consolidation units, or when the accounting technique changes, you post preparatory entries for consolidation group changes to ensure the correct disclosure of the reported data (02), the standardized data (12), or the consolidated data (22). This is a preparatory measure before the first consolidation or divestiture is posted in consolidation of investments.
These preparatory entries adjust the data of the following posting levels:
Adjusted Posting Level |
Posting Level of Preparatory Entries |
|---|---|
00, 01 |
02 |
10 |
12 |
20 |
22 |
30 |
32 |
Both the consolidation unit as well as the consolidation group are recorded in the data records – in posting level 22, the partner unit is also recorded. Reporting only takes into account data records in the assigned consolidation group and in all consolidation groups that have ownership in the assigned consolidation group. For posting level 35, there is no posting level for preparatory entries.
Reclassifications for Proportional Consolidation
You use the reclassification function to model the proportional consolidation in the system.
If you choose the business application Proportional Consolidation
in the document type, the reclassification tasks include the data to be apportioned as follows:
Selected Posting Levels |
Posting Level Used for Reclassification Task |
|---|---|
≤02 |
02 |
≤12 |
12 |
≤22 |
22 |
Note
Proportional consolidation is not supported for posting level 32.
Reporting only takes into account data records in the assigned consolidation group and in all consolidation groups that have ownership in the assigned consolidation group.