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Extended
Consolidation Functions
Use
Currency
Translation
The audit trail for currency translation is
extended and more clearly structured:
- "Translation" now displays all financial
statement items (including those that are not assigned in the translation
entry) along with their consolidated value prior to the posting of translation
and rounding differences.
- "Differences" now displays all changes caused
by the posting of translation and rounding differences.
New is the disclosure of translation differences that were posted to the
triggering item, and the disclosure of all items relevant to the posting of
balancing translation differences in the income statement.
The rounding items are now subclassified by the number of the rounding entry
to better explain effects that result from multiple uses of a rounding
item.
- "Overall" shows all items and their group
value by the postings of translation and rounding differences.
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:
- Upper-level units consolidated using the
mutual stock method
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.
- Test run with original list
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.
- Copying of document number ranges
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.
- Repetition of Carryforwards
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.