Processing Incomplete Assets (SAP Library - Asset Accounting (FI-AA))

Processing Incomplete Assets

Use

Incomplete assets are assets that have been entered in the system, but in which important master data was not entered (primarily account assignment information and required entries). This kind of asset could have been entered under one of these circumstances:

When an investment measure is created, the system automatically creates an asset under construction. For some reason, the system could not automatically supply all the necessary default values for the asset under construction (refer to: Investment Management).

When creating an asset from another component, either from within a purchase order or from the settlement rules of orders or WBS elements, assets were not entered with all of the necessary information.

The incomplete asset was entered using an asset view that allows only limited access to asset master records (see Master Data Maintenance with Asset Views).

Degree of Completeness

An asset can be considered complete to the degree listed below. The possible levels of completeness are:

The asset is complete (all required fields defined in the screen layout are maintained).

The asset is incomplete, but can be posted (all account assignment information is complete).

The asset is incomplete and cannot be posted.

Limitations on Incomplete Assets

You must complete any incomplete assets. Incomplete assets are therefore subject to these limitations:

You cannot retire an incomplete asset (retirement posting is not possible).

You cannot close the fiscal year in Asset Accounting for the company code in which incomplete assets are found.

The system does not post depreciation for incomplete assets.

You can post acquisitions to incomplete assets. However, either the business area must have been entered in the asset, or else your enterprise does not create business area balance sheets (according to the definition in the FI General Ledger).

You can define your own checks for posting to incomplete assets by using validations (see Validation).

Process Flow

If you are using the R/3 Workflow component, the system automatically creates a worklist of incomplete assets. This worklist is sent to the R/3 Mailbox of the responsible user. For more information, see Workflow Scenarios in Applications.

As an alternative, you can use a special report (under Tools ® Problem analysis) for selecting incomplete assets. This report lists all incomplete assets, in any number of company codes, and provides detailed information about why they are incomplete. In this way, the report helps you to determine the reason the asset is incomplete, and to make needed corrections. There could be assets for which the reason for their being incomplete no longer exists (for instance, because their screen layout control has changed). There is a function on the report display that allows you to indicate that these assets are now complete.