Since release 2202, you can benefit from a tighter integration of accounting with SAP S/4HANA for group reporting via the introduction of new group reporting preparation ledgers at accounting level. With the Group Reporting Preparation Ledger, you can turn an existing accounting ledger into a group reporting preparation ledger. Group reporting fields such as consolidation unit, financial statement item, partner unit or subitem are added to the accounting universal journal. The field values are being derived in real-time during accounting posting and can be displayed in the group reporting preparation ledger view of the journal.
In this blog, we'd like to highlight the key new features of the accounting integration with the Group Reporting Preparation Ledger, as well as its key benefits, the new analytical capabilities it brings and how data quality is ensured. To learn more, you can download the document Integration with Group Reporting Preparation Ledger, created by our SAP Product Engineering colleague Dirk Degrell.
---
Group Reporting Preparation Ledger - Key benefits
---
The fundamental difference between the “classic” accounting integration and the accounting integration with Group Reporting Preparation Ledger is the following:
- In the “classic” accounting integration the accounting data in the universal journal (ACDOCA) does not contain group reporting specific information such as consolidation unit, partner unit, financial statement item, subitem category or subitem. This information must be derived during data release and is persisted in the group journal (ACDOCU) only.
- In the accounting integration with Group Reporting Preparation Ledger, the before mentioned group reporting specific information is derived via a set of SAP defined and customer defined substitution rules during the posting in accounting and is persisted in the posting data in the universal journal (ACDOCA). During data release this information is only copied to the group journal (ACDOCU), no derivation of this information is needed any longer during data release.
The main differences between the "classic" accounting integration and the accounting integration with Group Reporting Preparation Ledger (GRPL) are depicted in the diagram below:
The integration with group reporting preparation ledger has several advantages and is the basis for functionality which is not available and not possible in the “classic” accounting integration. For example:
- As the derivation of group reporting specific information is happening for individual postings in accounting and not based on the aggregated data during data release the full context of the posting can be leveraged for the substitution. The substitution framework which is used provides a very powerful toolset to define customer substitution rules for consolidation units, partner units, financial statement items, and subitems.
- Using the flexible derivation of consolidation units, it is possible to split up transaction data from companies / company codes to several consolidation units, e.g. to perform a fully-fledged segment consolidation.
- Using the field mapping for data release task, it is possible to transfer additional transaction data information from the universal journal to the group journal. This covers additional accounting standard fields such as asset class, business transaction type, accounting document type, source ledger, etc. as well as custom fields, e.g. from business context “Accounting: Market Segment” or “Accounting: Journal Entry Item”. For S/4HANA on premise customers also CO-PA generated fields are supported.
---
Group Reporting Preparation Ledger - New analytical capabilities
---
The tighter accounting integration with Group Reporting Preparation Ledger goes hand in hand with additional information and analytical capabilities. First, the derived group reporting specific information can directly be seen in the “Manage Journal Entries” app at line item level (see below).
The group reporting fields can also be used in particular accounting reports, for example the “Trial Balance” report (see below).
And there is more to come. As part of our roadmap, a new review booklet app is currently in development, and plans to provide you with an analytical group view on unreleased accounting data. The objective of this planned new app is to analyze data in a group view directly on accounting data in a new financial review booklet for the following scenarios:
- Any-time reporting on accounting data in a group view reflecting the latest posting documents from accounting (This can be combined with prediction and transactional consolidation ledgers from accounting to offer forward-looking consolidated management views based on the latest accounting data.)
- Analysis reporting for companies submitting their data to group reporting (for example, checking for unreleased data and analyzing the impact on reports like P&L of their next data release to group reporting)
---
Group Reporting Preparation Ledger - Ensuring data quality
---
To ensure data quality when using Group Reporting Preparation Ledger for accounting integration, you can use two new features: the line item validation, and the realignment function (see below).
--
The line item validation executes breakdown checks and customer defined validation rules with a comprehensive task log for analyzing occurring warnings and errors (see the screenshot below).
In case substitution rules were changed (e.g. substitution rules were modified, enhanced, added, deactivated, etc., or lookup tables were modified) after the accounting postings took place, or in case group reporting master data or configuration influencing the result of the substitution was changed (e.g. the assignment of companies to consolidation units, or the assignment of breakdown category to financial statement item was changed), the realignment function offers a possibility to re-process the derivation of group reporting relevant fields and to post adjustments on a special group reporting reclassification document type (see the screenshot below).
---
Download the "Integration with Group Reporting Preparation Ledger" document
---
For more information about the required configuration settings for integration with group reporting preparation ledger, as well as the various aspects and topics mentioned above, you can download the document Integration with Group Reporting Preparation Ledger, created by our SAP Product Engineering colleague Dirk Degrell. This document describes the following topics: integration with Group Reporting Preparation Ledger, flexible derivation of consolidation units, field mapping for data release task and an outlook on group view on accounting.
—
Interact with SAP Product Engineering
—
You can interact online with the SAP Product Engineering team by joining our Customer Influence Platform and following our Community.
—
- SAP Managed Tags:
8 Comments
