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 Creating Profit Centers (Individual Processing)

There are two places where you can create a profit center:

  • In the application menu, under Start of the navigation path Master Data Next navigation step Profit End of the navigation path C Start of the navigation path enter Next navigation step Individual Processing Next navigation step Create End of the navigation path

  • In Customizing for Profit Center Accounting, under Start of the navigation path Master Data Next navigation step Profit Center Next navigation step Define Profit Center. End of the navigation path

    Note Note

    Note that, in classic Profit Center Accounting, you must create a dummy profit center in Customizing (see Creating Dummy Profit Centers ).

    For new General Ledger Accounting, see Dummy and Default Profit Centers .

    End of the note.

Process Flow

  1. Enter the name of the profit center that you want to create.

    If you want to copy the new profit center from an existing one, enter the name of the existing profit center in the Copy from box. You can also copy profit centers from a different controlling area.

    Caution Caution

    Note that, when you enter a name for a profit center, the system interprets purely numerical entries as a number and automatically inserts leading zeros. For example, if you create a profit center 333 , the system saves this as 0000000333 . This has the consequence that you cannot search for this profit center by entering 3* in input help. You can prevent this by entering at least one letter somewhere in the profit center name.

    End of the caution.
  2. On the Basic Data tab page, enter the necessary data for the profit center.

    As long as you do not activate the profit center using (see step 7), the status of the profit center remains Inactive: Create: No postings can be made to the profit center while it has this status. You should not activate a profit center until all required entries have been made. In the meantime, you can save the profit center inactively using .

    First enter the entire validity period of the profit center as the analysis period.

    Once you have created the profit center, you can then divide the validity period into multiple analysis periods using the function Changing Profit Centers (Individual Processing) . These analysis periods can be different in the master data.

    Define the profit center manager and the department to which the profit center belongs.

    If you are not using the enterprise organization, assign the profit center to an end node of the standard hierarchy in the hierarchy area .

    Note Note

    The hierarchy area is always valid for the entire period of validity. Consequently, a different hierarchy area cannot be used for different analysis periods.

    If the enterprise organization is active in the controlling area, you are nevertheless obliged initially to enter a hierarchy area. This hierarchy area is then overwritten automatically as soon as the profit center is assigned to another node in the enterprise organization.

    End of the note.

    Note Note

    Enterprise organization assignment and the standard hierarchy derived from this always have priority over manual assignments.

    End of the note.

    If you are using distributed Profit Center Accounting with a decentralized scenario, the system additionally displays the Logical System field. You enter the master system of the profit center in this field. For more information, see Decentralized Profit Center Accounting .

  3. On the Indicators tab page, you can use the lock indicator to lock the profit center against all postings. This lock is only valid for the specified time period. If a posting is made to an object that is assigned to a locked profit center, the system issues an error message. In such cases, the data is not posted in any application.

    On this tab page, you can also see whether a profit center is defined as a dummy profit center. However, you cannot set this indicator when you create a profit center.

    If you use Formula Planning, assign a template to the profit center on this tab page. The system uses this template to calculate plan values for the profit center when you run Formula Planning.

  4. On the Company Codes tab page, the system proposes a default profit center to all company codes within the controlling area. You can exclude certain company codes for the profit center. This setting is checked when postings are made to the profit center.

    With Consolidation, it might be necessary to enter certain company codes. If the profit center is not assigned to a company code, the system issues an error message whenever a posting is made to that profit center.

    Note also that joint venture data can only be assigned to the profit center for the selected company codes.

  5. For analysis purposes, the History tab page contains information on previous changes to the profit centers. This tab page is therefore of no importance to you when creating a profit center.

  6. On the other tab pages, you can enter additional information for the profit center, such as an address, communication data, and so on.

    You only need to enter joint venture data if Joint Venture Processing (as in the Industry Business Solution IS-Oil) is active.

  7. When you have made all required entries, activate the profit center using .

    On the Basic Data tab page, the status of the profit center changes from Inactive: Create to Active . Data can now be posted to the profit center.