Deciding between Orders and Projects
Use
The advantage of using internal orders or WBS elements as investment measures is that you have the full functionality of Overhead Cost Controlling - Overhead Orders (CO-OM-OPA) and Project System (PS) at your disposal.
Features
Some of the fundamental functions of these two objects are outlined below. For more detailed information, see the documentation for the two components
CO-OM-OPA - Internal Orders and
PS - Project System.
Overhead Cost Orders
Overhead cost orders assist in planning, collecting and settling the costs of relatively uncomplicated internal activity. The system enables you to manage overhead cost orders throughout their life – starting when they are created, through planning and posting of all actual costs, to the final settlement.
The master data maintenance functions assist you in making assignments of overhead cost orders within your enterprise.
Status management makes it possible to control the different accounting transactions that can be carried out on the order during each phase of its life.
Integrated planning functions enable you to make rough cost estimates before the order goes into affect, and to make exact calculations afterward. You can choose between several planning approaches, in order to compare the profitability of various methods of implementation.
You can check the planned and assigned costs of the order in reporting during each phase.
Projects
Projects are activities with special features. For example, they:
Projects are generally part of the internal processes of a company. To be able to control all tasks in project execution, you need an organizational form that is specific to the project and which is shared by all departments involved.
To be able to carry out a project in its entirety, the project goals must be precisely described and the project activities to be carried out must be structured. A clearly and unambiguously structured project is the basis for its planning, monitoring, control and success. A project is structured:
This planning is represented in the Project System by the work breakdown structure and the work breakdown structure (WBS) elements.
This planning is represented in the system by a network.
An asset under construction is assigned at the level of the WBS element, not at the level of the project as a whole. Therefore, you can create a single project that has WBS elements of both types: those that will primarily be capitalized and have an accompanying asset under construction, and those that do not have an assigned asset under construction.
An asset under construction can be created at any level of the work breakdown structure. SAP recommends that you manage assets under construction at the same level in the work breakdown structure at which you later expect to show your completed assets, when the project is completed. Placing your assets under construction at this level makes it considerably more simple to settle the WBS elements at their completion (full settlement) (refer to
Deciding between Orders and Projects
In order to determine whether you should use orders or projects to manage your capital investments, you should consider some of the differences between them: