The Profit Center and Segment fields are included in the asset master record. (In the asset master record, you find these fields on the Time-Dependent tab page). The fields are initially empty (and consequently inconsistent); before postings can be made to these fields, they need to be filled (see below).

In Customizing for Asset Accounting under  Integration with General Ledger Accounting Additional Account Assignment Objects Activate Account Assignment Objects , the system automatically sets the following indicators for Profit Center and Segment:

In Customizing for Asset Accounting under  Integration with General Ledger Accounting Additional Account Assignment Objects Specify Account Assignment Types for Account Assignment Objects , the system automatically defines the account assignment types for the account assignment objects Profit Center and Segment.

In Customizing for Asset Accounting under  Preparing for Production Startup Authorization Management Process Asset Views , the system automatically enters the standard authorizations for the master record fields Profit Center and Segment.

When the asset master data is being created and changed as well as when it is being posted, the system checks whether the asset master records have been maintained consistently. It must be possible to derive the profit center and the segment uniquely from the CO account assignments and from the asset master records.

If no profit center (or segment) can be derived automatically, you can also specify one manually.

You can perform reporting at the profit center and segment levels.

Indirectly using various cost objects (cost center, internal order, WBS element, and real estate key), or

Directly in the asset master data

If there is a cost object in the asset master record, the system automatically derives any profit center stored there.

If there are multiple cost objects in the asset master record, it must be possible to uniquely derive one profit center.

You fill existing asset master data from which a unique profit center can be derived in Customizing for Asset Accounting under  Integration with General Ledger Accounting Segment Reporting Fill Master Data for Segment Reporting . For this, the system selects all active fixed assets with a CO object in their master data. It checks whether data can be derived consistently.

For the named activity, you can combine the single change with the mass change for master data.

If you have assigned one or more cost objects, the profit center or segment is derived in the individual maintenance of fixed assets (provided that a unique profit center or segment can be derived). Otherwise, you can specify a profit center or segment (which also has to be unique).

Exception: If investment measures are concerned, the profit center can be derived from the investment measure specified in the asset master record in the origin data. In such cases, the derived profit center of the cost objects stored in the asset master record does not have to match the profit center from the investment measure in the origin data. If the system issues error messages claiming that the profit center is not unique (messages AIST 016 and AIST 017), you need to convert them into warning messages. You do this in Customizing for Asset Accounting using the activity Maintain Message Types under Transactions.

Furthermore, you need to use the field status of the reconciliation account of the asset under construction to ensure that the posting uses the profit center from the order or WBS element and not the profit center from the cost center. For this, suppress any cost center information (such as cost center or activity type) in the field status.