FI-SL Master Data: Companies 

A company code is normally defined as a balanced set of legal books. In certain environments, a company could be a subset or division of a legal entity.

For special purpose ledgers, the requirement of a balanced set of books is not mandatory.

You cannot use the prefix SAP at the beginning of your global company code

You can use the global company code 001SAP, but you cannot use SAP001 as a global company code.

If your system currently contains companies defined with the prefix SAP, please contact your SAP consultant for assistance.

The FI-SL System uses two types of company codes:

Local Company Codes

These four-digit company codes are defined in the FI System and are the most commonly used company codes in the FI-SL System. You can set up your system so that a local company code directly updates a local ledger, or you can assign a local company code to a global company code so that the local company code updates a global ledger.

For more information, see the Corporate Structure Implementation Guide (under Definition ® Financial accounting ® Maintain company code).

Global Company Codes

These six-digit company codes are defined in the FI-SL System, and allow you to consolidate information in a one-to-one relationship with the company code.

Your company is a tax entity and is different from the legal company, and you also want to store more detailed information for the tax entity as for the legal company. You would then define the legal company (company code) in your system that would post to the tax entity (global company code). It is also possible for additional information to post to the tax entity.

You can also use a global company code when you want to eliminate generated revenue for a partner company.

When setting up a global company in the FI-SL System, you:

  1. Define the global companies, which are to be included in your FI-SL System, using a six-digit code.
  2. Assign an SAP four-digit company code to the global company code, if desired.
  3. Assign the global company to your global ledger.

For more information, see the Maintain Global Companies step in the Implementation Guide (IMG) for Special Purpose Ledger.

Since the FI-SL System uses global company codes, you can combine local company codes within one global company code.

Multiple Companies

The six-digit global company code is a subdivision within a client and is usually defined as a balancing set of books. You can maintain any number of companies within an FI-SL client.

Normally, the company codes in other SAP applications are transferred into FI-SL on a one-to-one basis - for each local company code there can be a global company. If no data has been posted in the system, it is possible to reorganize and combine local company codes within a global company, for example, if you have many companies within one company.