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Extended Consolidation Functions 

Use

Currency Translation

The audit trail for currency translation is extended and more clearly structured:

Interunit Elimination

The audit trail for interunit elimination has also been improved. It is now possible to display the elimination documents in the list of balances by their context: When you place the cursor on a consolidation unit in the list of balances and choose the function "Display elimination documents", the system displays all documents belonging to the two-sided relationships which are contained in the particular consolidation unit. When you place the cursor on a partner unit and choose the same function, the system displays all documents belonging to the two-sided relationships of the particular partner unit along with the consolidation unit displayed to the left of the partner unit.

Consolidation of Investments

The following functions are available in the consolidation of investments:

The consolidation of investments now also correctly treats investment scenarios in which consolidation units that are consolidated using the mutual stock method own shares in other consolidation units. Therefore, the system now permits consolidation units that are involved in mutual holding relationships.
(The mutual stock method of consolidation as an attractive alternative to the equity method in realm of management consolidation. This method enables elegant adjustments to minority interests in consolidation units, which use the purchase method and belong to pre-consolidated subgroups.)
The improved handling of subitems in the consolidation of investments makes it easier to generate an equity aging report in the area of reporting. If you activate the "equity aging report" function in System Utilization of Consolidation of Investments, you then can choose from the following two variants in the global settings for the consolidation of investments:
In activities without reported equity data (such as step acquisition or partial divestiture) you can specify a subitem for posting the equity and the minority interest. If acquisitions are calculated with group shares, for each activity you can also specify a subitem for posting minority shares to the investments.
The following behavior has not been modified: In activities WITH reported equity data, the system posts the subitems specified in the additional financial data. Furthermore, in first consolidation you can convert the subitems to the acquisition subitems if the corresponding settings have been made. In a total divestiture the system reverses the equity and minority interest using the subitems that were posted in the preceding consolidation of investment activities. These subitems are converted to the assigned divestiture subitems if the corresponding settings have been made.
For each consolidation of investment activity you can specify a subitem for posting the group share, and a subitem for posting the minority share. If this is done, the system generally posts to the equity item with both subitems: the minority interest item is posted with the subitem for the minority share.
As in previous releases, in first consolidation and total divestitures the subitems are also converted to the acquisition or divestiture subitems if the appropriate settings are made.
You can specify the subitems (per activity) in the new IMG step "Maintain Subitems for Equity Aging Report". Prior to that, you must enter the subitem category of the equity items in the global settings for consolidation of investments, under "Equity Aging Report".

Checking investments against equity

Dimension Maintenance now has an indicator called "Check investment against equity". This concerns activities that require the reporting of investment and equity data (first consolidation, increase and reduction in capitalization). This indicator must be activated in order for the system to check that consolidation group being consolidated indeed contains at least one of the upper units that are reported in the activity.

Amortization of new goodwill over the remaining life of the goodwill from first consolidation

If you choose the option "Amortization over remaining life", which is found in the settings for goodwill treatment (Global Settings for Consolidation of Investments, or Maintenance of Consolidation of Investment Methods), the system then amortizes goodwill, which was incurred from step acquisition or increase in indirect share, over the remaining useful life of the goodwill that was recorded during first consolidation. If you do NOT choose the option, the system amortizes the goodwill over the full amortizable life that was specified.

Likewise, there is the option "Reduction over remaining life" to accommodate the periodic reduction of goodwill.

General

The following applies to all posting functions in the data monitor as well as the consolidation monitor:

The functions have a new parameter "Log". If you select this option, a typical list is output. If you unselect this option, the list output only shows messages without any further details. This does not affect the function for saving the last log (see Changes in Data and Consolidation Monitor ). In other words, even if you deactivate the "Log" option, the log is saved as long as this function is activated for the task in question.
Especially in batch processing, speed increases when you suppress the generation of the log by deselecting the option. Messages are still displayed, and if an error occurs, you can still see the entire log if you use the function "Last log" in the monitor.
All functions now feature the parameter "Original List". If selected, the system processes the function as if the consolidation groups or units are not locked in the monitor.
If the option is not selected, which is the default, the consolidation groups or units that are locked by status management are not processed, which means that the system only processes the remaining groups and/or units that have not been locked. In particular, this has the effect that functions that use two-sided posting logic do not process all relationships between pairs of consolidation units that belong to locked consolidation groups. These functions are interunit elimination, elimination of IU profit/loss in inventory, and reclassifications to posting level 20.
When the function is run in update mode, the "Original List" option must be deselected.
This new function enables you to copy number ranges defined for a "To" fiscal year to another "To" fiscal year. This can be done for one or more dimensions. The function is called up in IMG under Environment -> Call up Number Range Objects.
The global system settings for Consolidation include a new option called "Adjustment of carryforward in period 1".
If you select this option, which was previously the default, the system does the following: If a new fiscal year already contains reported data, and then the carryforward function is repeated for the new fiscal year, if applicable the system records adjustments in period 1 for consolidation units that were not recorded with period values, but instead with cumulative values. After the adjustments, the cumulative values of these consolidation units remain unchanged.
If you deselect this option, an adjustment in period 1 does NOT take place when the carryforward is repeated.
SAP urgently recommends that you deselect this option! This option will be disabled in the next release of SAP Consolidation.