Strategic Business Units (Business Area) (Bibliothèque R/3 - Enterprise Modelling

Strategic Business Units (Business Area)

Strategic business units in business area scenarios are represented using business areas, which can be defined across company codes.

In Sapo the example enterprise there are three areas of responsibility, portrayed using the three business areas PCs, printers, and monitors. You could refine the structure further by defining business areas for printed circuit boards and casings. This would allow you to create reports specifically for these two products. However, you will not be defining these additional business areas in this example, since the enterprise structure would then become too complicated.

Sapo Czech Republic supplies German manufacturing facilities with printed circuit boards for PCs and monitors. However, it does not produce printed circuit boards for monitors, nor does it perform any other activity (such as procurement or sales) in this business unit.

If you intend to generate internal business unit financial statements using the standard financial statement report in G/L accounting, you should note the following:

All the company codes to which a specific business area is assigned must use the same operational chart of accounts. The operational chart of accounts specify the structure of the G/L accounts of a given company code, along with the cost element structure of the controlling area to which that company code is assigned.

Country-specific requirements (for the chart of accounts and for the report structure for external rendering of accounts) can be fulfilled using the country-specific chart of accounts. That is, Sapo Ireland, Sapo Germany, and Sapo Czech Republic use the same operational chart of accounts but differing country-specific charts of accounts.

Value flows needed for consolidation purposes are not permitted between companies in the same business unit. For Sapo the example enterprise this means that the delivery of printed circuit boards and casings can only be valued at the cost of goods manufactured. Transfer prices that differed from the cost of goods manufactured would lead to distortions in the internal business unit financial statements. You can perform profitability analyses for the supplier companies Sapo Czech Republic and Sapo Ireland only if you have also created a profit center scenario.