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 Accrual Objects

Definition

An accrual object contains all the data that is required to accrue a business transaction.The data can be used to control the following processes for this business transaction:

  • Calculating accruals

  • Posting accruals

  • Managing accruals

    Example Example

    An accrual object could be a leasing contract or a rental agreement, for example.

    End of the example.

Structure

An accrual object contains all the data for an individual business transaction. The various accruals can be calculated and posted from this data. The data is in the nature of a contract or contract item, and is composed of the following characteristics:

  • Total amount to be accrued

  • Total quantity to be accrued (as optional additional information, it is not used to calculate the accrual)

  • Life over which the amount is to be accrued

An accrual object category contains a number of accrual objects that depict business transactions of a similar nature. For example, you can use the accrual object category RENT to group together all accrual objects that have been created for the accrual of rental agreements. You define accrual object categories in Customizing for Manual Accruals under Start of the navigation path Basic Settings Next navigation step Technical Settings Next navigation step Accrual Objects Next navigation step Accrual Object Categories Next navigation step Define Accrual Object Categories End of the navigation path .

Note Note

You cannot use accrual object categories to depict hierarchies of accrual objects.

End of the note.
Basic Data of an Accrual Object

An accrual object is composed of the basic data listed below; this data is time-dependent. In a history, the data is saved for the following individual categories:

  • Header data

    The life of an accrual object is defined in the header data.

  • Additional account assignments

    For each accrual object, you can define additional account assignments that can be passed on when you post the accruals, for example, cost center, profit center, and so on.

  • Parameters

    You can define your own parameters for an accrual object and use them in the account determination and in your accrual methods.

  • Item data

    In the item data you split an accrual object into individual accrual items. This means that you split the accruals connected to the accrual object according to topics and define, for example, how the cost and revenue sides of the accruals are to be dealt with, and how the accruals are to be defined according to the different accounting principles. You define a separate accrual item for each combination of accrual type and accounting principle.

    Each item contains the total amount to be accrued, the quantity to be accrued, and the accrual method to be used.

    Caution Caution

    In the Accrual Engine , you differentiate between an accrual object and an accrual sub object. This differentiation is not relevant in Manual Accruals ; here an accrual subobject is the same as an accrual object.

    End of the caution.
Posting Data of an Accrual Object

The following posting data is saved for each accrual object:

  • Line items

    Accrual Engine documents are saved as posted line items.

  • Totals values

    The Accrual Engine documents are summarized at fiscal year level as total values.

  • Header data

    In order to be able to execute the postings for an accrual object, the object must have a specific status. This status is stored in the basic data and in the posting data.