MM Scenario - Period Close (SAP Library

MM Scenario - Period Close

Scenarios

Case 1

A global company may have materials that are maintained in many locations within the same system. Each month the previous posting period is closed and a new posting period is opened. The period close program requires that no changes be made to material records – including goods movements. Since a period close program in the evening in one location may conflict with goods movements during the day in another, a workable procedure for this transaction must be developed.

Case 2

There can also be problems when the local posting date is not in an open period or it is posted in the previous period when it should probably be posted in the current period.

Either case may occur when time zone differences exist between the central period close location and distributed plant locations.

Process Flow

Case 1

Determine whether a period close in one location may conflict with normal business processes in another (for example, a US company with a distribution center in Australia or Europe). Period close is run by company code but the standard system locks all materials when doing the period close. SAPNet - R/3 Frontend notes exist for improving this situation if necessary (see Tips below).

Attempt to find a time that will be acceptable to both the central plant doing the period close and the plants that are located remotely. The runtime could be several hours depending on the number of material masters, so it is very important that a convenient time can be determined.

Through release 4.5, the period close must be run which blocks material movements for the duration of the run. The only way to minimize the locking is to use a note so that the locking is done by one company code at a time (see Tips).

Case 2

Use the Time Zone function so that material/financial postings are always made in the local date/time.

Set the system time to the local time with the greatest number of users. This ensures that the transaction date/time for most users will be correct and that conflicts in time differences will be minimized.

Run the period close program based on the earliest local time. Make sure that SAP is configured to allow postings into at least one prior period.

Tips

See OSS messages for help about period close (search on transaction MMPV). Notes 72976, 24948, and 25024 provide guidance on how to make the period close program run more quickly and independently.

You can use a system message to alert users that a period close is about to be executed. In the event that all materials cannot be locked, the last resort is to delete the locked entries. (Since this can create material posting errors, it is not recommend.)

Additionally, you can use authorizations to limit who may be able to run the period close program.

See also

FI Scenario - Period End Procedures