Distribution, assessment, and process assessment allocate costs collected on a cost center or business process during the accounting period to receivers according to pre-defined keys. Indirect activity allocation assigns activity quantities. These procedures are called indirect allocation methods because the exchanges of activities are not the basis for allocating costs/quantities, but rather the user-defined tracing factors such as percentage rates, flat amounts, statistical key figures, or posted amounts.

These procedures make the allocations more manageable; the keys as well as the sender and receiver relationships are normally defined once.

The most powerful tool for activity quantity calculations is template allocations. This method uses custom formulas and functions from an operational environment of the SAP System to determine the quantities for allocation dynamically.

Distribution, assessment, and process assessment are best suited for cost centers and business processes where direct activity allocation is not possible because the business transactions are so varied that it is impossible or difficult to define all the activity types.

Allocations are carried out during period-end closing and draw upon the pre-defined parameters (keys, sender-receiver relationships).