Ledger 

Definition

A ledger is a section of a database table. A ledger only contains those dimensions of the totals table that the ledger is based on and that are required for reporting.

Use

In General Ledger Accounting, you can use several ledgers in parallel. This allows you to produce financial statements according to different accounting principles, for example. You create a ledger for each of the general ledgers you need.

A ledger uses several dimensions from the totals table it is based on. Each dimension of the totals table represents a subset of the coding block. You can also include customer fields in your ledgers. To do this, you have to add the customer field to the coding block and then include this field in the totals table that the ledger is based on. For more information, see Customer Fields.

You define your ledgers in Customizing for Financial Accounting (New) under Financial Accounting Global Settings (New) →  Ledgers → Ledgers. When you create a ledger, the system automatically creates a ledger group with the same name.

Structure

You must designate one ledger as the leading ledger.

Parallel ledgers:

●      Leading ledger

The leading ledger is based on the same accounting principle as that of the consolidated financial statements.

If you use the account approach for parallel accounting, you post all data to the leading ledger.

This leading ledger is integrated with all subsidiary ledgers and is updated in all company codes. This means that it is automatically assigned to all company codes.

In each company code, the leading ledger receives exactly the same settings that apply to that company code: the currencies, the fiscal year variant, and the variant of the posting periods. You can define a second and third parallel currency for your leading ledger for each company code. In Customizing for Financial Accounting (New), choose Financial Accounting Global Settings (New) → Ledgers → Ledgers → Define Currencies of Leading Ledger.

●      Non-leading ledger

The non-leading ledgers are parallel ledgers to the leading ledger. They can be based on a local accounting principle, for example. You have to activate a non-leading ledger for the individual company codes.

Posting procedures with subledger or G/L accounts managed on an open item basis always affect all ledgers. This means that you cannot perform ledger-specific postings to subledger or G/L accounts managed on an open item basis. If you manage G/L accounts on an open item basis to monitor accounting aspects such as reserve allocations and reversals, you need to take additional measures in your internal controls system.

Non-leading ledgers can have different fiscal year variants and different posting period variants per company code to the leading ledger of this company code. The second and third currency of the non-leading ledger must be a currency that is managed as second or third currency in the respective company code. However, you do not have to have a second and third currency in the parallel ledgers; these are optional. Alternative currencies are not possible.

For more information about parallel currencies, see Parallel Currencies in Parallel Ledgers.

If you want to implement an additional non-leading ledger (to implement an additional accounting principle, for example) and you want to build the necessary data, you need to use the General Ledger Migration Cockpit with scenario 7. For more information, see Subsequent Implementation of Ledgers (Scenarios 7 and 8) and Subsequent Implementation of an Additional Ledger (Scenario 7).

Rollup ledgers:

In addition to your parallel ledgers, you can also define a rollup ledger for special reporting purposes. In a rollup ledger, you can combine summarized data from other ledgers in General Ledger Accounting. This enables you to compile cumulated reports on different ledgers.

Day ledgers:

You use a day ledger to create a day ledger if you want to create reports for average balances (reports for displaying average daily balances). You can activate the day ledger for drilldown reporting.

You may not define day ledgers as the leading ledger or as the representative ledger in a ledger group.

Example

You create your consolidated financial statements in accordance with the IAS accounting principles. Your individual company codes apply the local accounting principles US GAAP or German HGB to produce their financial statements. You therefore create three ledgers:

●      Ledger LL (leading ledger) that is managed according to the group accounting principle

●      Ledger L1 (non-leading ledger) that you activate for all company codes that apply US GAAP

●      Ledger L2 (non-leading ledger) that you activate for all company codes that apply HGB