Cost Object Mapping
When moving to Central Finance, you must consider what data needs to be harmonized in the central system and how best to approach how you want to harmonize the data. The best approach to take depends on the type of data, for example, long-living master data, which is stable and only needs to be harmonized once or short-living master data (or short-living cost objects), which is generated frequently similar to transactional data.
Cost object mapping allows you to map your short-living cost objects such as production orders or internal orders, using the cost object mapping framework.
With the cost object mapping framework, cost objects in the source system can be mapped to a cost object in central system and you can customize how you want the cost objects to be mapped. The mapping information between the cost objects in the source system and the central system is stored in the central system.
Integration
SAP Simple Finance, on premise edition can be used in conjunction with SAP Landscape Transformation Replication Server (SAP LT Replication Server) and SAP Master Data Governance (SAP MDG). If you integrate SAP MDG with the SAP Simple Finance, then you can use SAP MDG to harmonize the master data from the source system to the Central Finance system.
The figure below shows how the systems integrate with each other and is followed by an explanation:
To replicate cost objects, such as production orders and financial documents, from source systems (either SAP source systems or non-SAP source system) to Central Finance, you must use the SAP LT Replication Server. The SAP LT Replication Server collects data written to databases in the source systems and feeds this data into the corresponding Central Finance accounting interface. If you are mapping master data, SAP suggests you use SAP MDG. If you are mapping short-living cost objects, you should use SAP MDG in conjunction with the cost object mapping framework.
After the data is mapped, the system uses SAP Application Interface Framework (SAP AIF) to log the details of any errors encountered. You can choose to make corrections and repost the item or process the item again after, for example, you correct the mapping rule or adjust incorrect values in the document.
The internal accounting interface posts the Financial Accounting (FI)/Management Accounting (CO) document to SAP HANA as a universal journal entry.
Features
Production orders, internal orders, and service orders, for example, can be short-living cost objects often existing for less than a day in the system. For these cost objects, you can use the cost object mapping framework to map the objects from the source systems to the Central Finance system.
With the cost object mapping framework, cost objects in the source system can be mapped to a cost object in central system and you can customize how you want the cost objects to be mapped. The mapping information between the cost objects in the source system and the central system is stored in the central system.
After you have harmonized your master data, you can replicate primary financial accounting (FI) and management accounting (CO) postings including secondary CO postings in real time. While doing FI/CO document replication, the cost object in the source document is automatically replaced by a corresponding cost object in the central system. If necessary, the system creates a new cost object in the central system.
For primary cost postings (so for cost-relevant business transactions), the FI documents and CO documents are automatically generated together. For secondary cost postings (so for CO internal processes such as distribution and allocation), the CO document is replicated separately. Both the FI document and the CO document result in universal journal entries.
Example
Production orders of the same order type behave as cost objects in the source system. However, in the Central Finance system each individual production order is not treated as a cost object. Instead, using the cost object mapping framework you can map similar production orders to a central cost object, known as a product cost collector. Later when you are posting your costs, the central system uses this product cost collector to collect costs from the production orders. The product cost collector captures both FI documents for raw material usage and the delivery of the finished goods and CO documents for activity confirmations, overhead calculations, and settlement.