The provided documents offer a detailed exploration of SAP FICO (Financial Accounting

and Controlling), SAP S/4HANA Finance, and SAP Fiori, outlining their functionalities,
configuration steps, and the significant innovations introduced with S/4HANA
.
SAP FICO: Foundational Financial and Controlling Modules
SAP FICO is a critical component for managing a company's financial transactions and
internal controlling processes. It is broadly divided into Financial Accounting (FI) and
Controlling (CO)
.
SAP Financial Accounting (FI)
The FI module focuses on external reporting and general ledger accounting, encompassing
various sub-modules for managing different aspects of a company's finances
.
• Enterprise Structure: This is the fundamental organizational setup within SAP FI,
including definition, overview, corporate scenarios, and their usage within the system
.
• Financial Accounting Global Settings: These are essential configurations that govern how
financial transactions are processed. Key settings include:
◦ Fiscal Year Variant: Defines the start and end dates of a fiscal year and the number of
posting periods
.
◦ Posting Period Variant: Controls which posting periods are open for posting
.
◦ Field Status Variant: Determines which fields are mandatory, optional, or suppressed
during data entry
.
◦ Posting Keys: Control debit/credit entries, account types, and field status of line items
.
◦ Tolerance Groups: Define the limits for various financial transactions, such as payment
differences for employees, customers, and vendors
.
◦ Document Types: Classify financial transactions and control the document number range
.
• General Ledger (GL) Accounting: This is the central module where all financial
transactions are recorded. It involves:
◦ Chart of Accounts: A list of all GL accounts used by an organization
.
◦ Account Groups: Group similar GL accounts and define their number ranges and field
status
.
◦ Retained Earning Account: A GL account used to carry forward profit or loss to the
next fiscal year
.
◦ GL Master Records: Detailed information for each GL account
.
◦ Open Item Management: Manages accounts where individual items need to be cleared
against other items (e.g., GR/IR accounts)
.
◦ Line Item Display: Allows viewing of individual line items within GL accounts
.
 ◦ Sort Key: Determines the order in which line items are displayed
.
◦ Features like Automatic Posting, Parking Documents (saving incomplete documents),
Sample Document (templates for common postings), Recurring Document (for periodic
postings), Foreign Currency Translation, and Cross Company Code Transactions are
also managed here
.
• Accounts Payable (AP): Manages all transactions related to vendors and their payments
. This includes:
◦ Vendor Account Groups and their Number Ranges
.
◦ Tolerance groups for Vendors to manage payment differences
.
◦ Vendor Master Records, which contain General Data, Company Code Data, and
Purchase Organizational Data
.
◦ Processing Vendor Advance Posting (down payments to vendors)
.
◦ Defining Payment Terms
.
◦ Configuration of the Automatic Payment Program, including Bank Master Records,
House Bank setup, Cheque Lot Automatic Payment Program, and defining Paying
Company Codes, Payment Methods in Country, Payment Methods in Company Code,
and Bank Determination
.
◦ Vendor also become a Customer functionality for scenarios where a business partner is
both a vendor and a customer
.
• Accounts Receivable (AR): Handles all transactions related to customers and incoming
payments
. Key aspects are:
◦ Customer Account Groups and their Number Ranges
.
◦ Assigning Number Ranges to Customers
.
◦ Tolerance Groups for Customers
.
◦ Customer Master Records, covering General Data, Company Code Data, and Sales
Organization Data
.
◦ Managing Customer Advance Posting (down payments from customers)
.
◦ Defining Payment Terms and assigning them in Customer Master Records
.
◦ Defining automatic posting for Cash Discount
.
◦ Functionalities for Customer also become a Vendor, Bill of Exchange (creation of GL
accounts for Bill of Exchange and Bills Discounting), and Dunning procedures for overdue
payments, which involve defining Dunning Area, Dunning Procedure, and assigning it on
the Customer Master Record
.
• Asset Accounting (AA): This module manages fixed assets throughout their lifecycle, from
acquisition to retirement
. It involves:
◦ Defining Chart of Depreciation and copying reference charts
.
◦ Creating and assigning 0% Purchase & Sales Tax Codes for Non-Taxable
transactions
.
◦ Assigning Company Code to Chart of Account
.
◦ Configuring Depreciation Areas and determining them in Asset Class
.
◦ Defining Account Determination, Screen Layout, and Number ranges for the asset
class
.
◦ Setting up Valuation Methods, Base Method, Multilevel method, and Period Control
Method
.
◦ Defining Depreciation Key
.
◦ Managing Asset Master Record, creating Screen layout for asset master records and
Screen layout for Depreciation (layout) area
.
◦ Defining Document Types for Depreciation Posting
.
◦ Handling Asset End user transactions like Creation of Asset Master Record, Asset
Acquisition/Purchase Posting, using the Asset Explorer, performing Asset Depreciation
Run, and managing the Retirement of Asset with Sale/Scrap
.
• FI – General Topics: Covers broader financial topics such as Foreign Exchange, Cash
Journal, Interest Calculation, and various Taxes, including Tax on Sales/Purchases and
Extended Withholding Taxes
.
SAP Controlling (CO)
The CO module focuses on internal cost and profit management, providing tools for
planning, monitoring, and controlling costs within an organization
.
• Controlling Area/Organizational Structure:
◦ Defining the Controlling Area as the central organizational unit for cost accounting
.
◦ Maintaining Number Ranges for controlling objects
.
◦ Maintaining Plan Versions for different planning scenarios
.
• Cost Element Accounting: Manages the types of costs and revenues.
◦ Primary Cost Elements: Costs originating from FI (e.g., expenses like salaries)
.
◦ Revenue Cost Elements: Revenues originating from FI
.
 ◦ Secondary Cost Elements: Used exclusively within CO for internal cost allocation (e.g.,
for assessments or settlements)
.
• Cost Center Accounting: Tracks costs by department, function, or responsibility area
. This includes:
◦ Activate Cost Center Accounting
.
◦ Defining New Field Status for Cost Center Mandatory
.
◦ Managing Master Data of Cost Center
.
◦ Creation of Cost Centers and Cost Center Groups/Cost Center Hierarchy
.
◦ Cost Center Planning, Cost Center Reposting, Cost Center Assessment (allocating
costs from one cost center to others based on allocation keys), and Cost Center Distribution
.
• Internal Orders: Used to plan, collect, and monitor costs for specific short-term or
temporary tasks, projects, or events
. This involves:
◦ Activate Internal Order
.
◦ Defining Internal Order Types
.
◦ Creating New Field Status Variant for Making I/O Mandatory
.
◦ Managing Master Data of Internal Orders
.
◦ Create Internal Orders and Internal Order Groups
.
◦ Internal Order Planning and Internal Order Settlement (settling costs to other
controlling objects or GL accounts)
.
• Profit Center Accounting: Manages profits and losses for internal areas of responsibility,
allowing for internal segment reporting
. It involves:
◦ Set-Controlling area
.
◦ Defining Dummy Profit Center
.
◦ Set-Controlling area Parameters
.
◦ Maintaining Plan Versions
.
◦ Managing Master Records
.
◦ Create Profit Centers and Profit Center Group
.
◦ Assign Profit Center to Cost Centers
.
SAP Integration and Reporting
The system also facilitates crucial integrations and offers various reporting capabilities for
comprehensive financial analysis
.
• Integration Between FI-SD & FI-MM: This ensures seamless data flow and consistency
between Financial Accounting and Sales & Distribution (SD), and Materials Management
(MM) modules, which is vital for procure-to-pay and order-to-cash processes
.
• SAP FICO – Reports: Essential for financial analysis and compliance. These include
Month End Reports, Year End Reports, and customizable Financial Statement Versions
for presenting financial statements
.
SAP S/4HANA Finance and Fiori: New Capabilities and Simplifications
SAP S/4HANA Finance, built on the native SAP HANA database, introduces significant
architectural simplifications and new functionalities, while SAP Fiori provides a modern,
intuitive user experience
.
• Overview and Introduction: The document provides an overview of S/4HANA Finance
and Fiori, highlighting new features and the shift towards real-time processing
.
• Native SAP HANA Capabilities: S/4HANA Finance fully leverages SAP HANA's native
capabilities for both Online Transaction Processing (OLTP) and Online Analytical
Processing (OLAP). This means transactional and analytical processing can occur
simultaneously on the same data, enabling real-time insights and decision-making without
the need for separate data warehousing
.
• Universal Journal (ACDOCA): A cornerstone innovation in S/4HANA Finance is the
Universal Journal (ACDOCA). This single line-item table consolidates data that was
previously spread across multiple tables in traditional ECC systems (e.g., GL, Asset
Accounting, Controlling, Material Ledger). This consolidation leads to significant
simplification of the data model and supports compatibility views for existing reports and
integrations
.
• Ledger Configuration: This aspect has evolved to support flexible reporting. It includes:
◦ Ledger Configuration with Accounting Principles
.
◦ Currency Settings for Company Code
.
◦ Non-leading Ledger Configuration with Accounting Principles
.
◦ Appendix Ledger Configuration with Accounting Principles
.
◦ The document also emphasizes the Benefits of the Ledger Approach and defines the
ledger for version 0 in controlling
.
◦ It also covers the Default Ledger Group for CO Posting
.
• Integration of FI & CO: The integration between Financial Accounting and Controlling is
much tighter in S/4HANA Finance.
◦ GL & Cost Element Master Data are now integrated, meaning cost elements are
created as GL accounts
.
◦ The Reconciliation Ledger is utilized, and Posting CO-documents to FI is supported
directly
.
◦ Handling of Intercompany Clearing Accounts is also detailed
.
• Business Partner (BP): This is a major change from ECC. The Business Partner concept
replaces separate customer and vendor master data in many scenarios.
◦ Certain traditional transactions to create customer and vendor master records are now
obsolete
.
◦ The focus is on Business Partner Master Data for both end-users and configuration
consultants, including how to manage One-Time Customer/Vendor and BP Master and the
direct creation of customer or vendor via the BP transaction
.
◦ New Tables for BP, customer, and Vendor reflect this architectural change
.
• New Asset Accounting: This represents a significant architectural overhaul in S/4HANA
Finance.
◦ Involves the Activation of New Asset Accounting
.
◦ Assigning Accounting Principles to Depreciation Areas
.
◦ Depreciation areas are configured to post immediately to GL (General Ledger),
simplifying reconciliation
.
◦ Includes the Transfer of Acquisition and Production Costs values and Depreciation
Terms
.
◦ Discusses the Assignment of Chart of Accounts to Company Code
.
◦ Introduces Technical Clearing Accounts for Integrated Asset Acquisitions
.
◦ Covers Asset Acquisition Posting with Technical Clearing Accounts (End User),
Depreciation area updated view asset explorer, and notes deleted transactions in Asset
Accounting
.
◦ Details the Depreciation Posting Run Screen and Architectural Changes in Asset
Accounting Tables
.
◦ Supports Loading Asset Data through ABLDT
.
• SAP Fiori Bank Master Data & Cash Management: SAP Fiori plays a key role in
providing modern user interfaces for financial processes.