How to change currency in a purchase order after accrual postings are done

[Alice_Ying]

This blog is a continuation of the one titled "How do I handle 'inconsistent currency' errors in purchase order accruals" and addresses an 'inconsistent currency' issue when you have posted accruals for the purchase order. 

You might occasionally find that you get the ‘inconsistent currency’ error after posting purchase order accruals. This means that the currency was changed in the purchase order after the conversion to accrual objects and accrual posting had all been done. Sometimes the currency change takes place months after the initial accrual posting is done.

Issue 

Let's take a look at an example. Suppose the currency of a purchase order is USD (US Dollars), and all the relevant data has been transferred to the Accrual Engine for calculation and periodic accrual postings. When you get to the 6th periodic posting, you’re told that the currency of the purchase order is a mistake, and it should be corrected to EUR (Euros). This comes as an unpleasant surprise, because you’re pretty sure this won’t be a quick fix, not to mention the integration with the Accrual Engine and the previous 6 postings!

Is it still possible to change the currency in the purchase order and redo the accrual object conversion and postings? Yes, it is, but you need to follow a number of steps to do it. But before we get to that, let’s take a quick look at how your configuration affects and when you get the error message.  

The system reports the currency inconsistency in two ways. If you’ve set up the online integration with the Accrual Engine, the error message pops up when you try to save the changed purchase order. If you havn’t configured the online integration, the error message arrives later, when you do the manual conversion from purchase orders to accrual objects.  

Analysis 

The root cause of the error lies in the accrual postings.  You have to reverse the postings before you make the currency change in the purchase order. After you successfully reverse all postings related to the purchase order, you can change the currency to EUR and start the conversion to accrual objects, just like if you were doing it for the first time. 

Procedure 

1. Set the purchase order to finished by doing the following in the Manage Purchase Orders app:
   
   
   
   • If the purchase order items require goods receipts, specify Yes for the Delivery Completed field. 
   
   
   • If the purchase order items require invoices, specify Yes for the Final Invoice field.
     Note: You need to make the changes for all items of a purchase order. 
   
   
   
   


2. Transfer the purchase order to the Accrual Engine.
   Optional: This step can be skipped if you’ve configured the online integration with Accrual Engine.
   Note: The new status of the purchase order results in a balance of zero in the accrual postings.


3. Run the Propose Periodic Accruals and Post Periodic Accruals Jobs. This step is meant to reverse the postings relevant to the purchase order with the USD currency. 


4. Change the currency to EUR in the purchase order, but don’t save it just yet.


5. Before you save the purchase order, reverse the changes you make in Step 1 in the purchase order items. In other words, you change Yes back to No for the Delivery Completed and the Final Invoice fields. 


6. Manually transfer or automatically transfer the purchase order to accrual objects and post accruals. 

Now you have taken the necessary steps to solve the inconsistent currency issue. 

Please note: 

• This workaround works for the scenario where you have one or more accrual postings. If postings have not been made and you want to change the currency in the purchase order, please follow the solutions described in the blog: This blog is a continuation of the one titled. 


• This workaround works for S/4HANA Cloud only.