by Dr. Marco Sisfontes-Monge, Managing Partner, Arellius Enterprises Inc The evolution of SAP technologies since SAP S/4HANA came into the picture has been dramatic, bringing with it the ability to process larger volumes of data at faster speeds, enhance and improve previous technological platforms such as SAP ECC, SAP CO-PA, and utilize new tools such as SAP Fiori and the improvement of SAP Business Analytics, and more. Specifically, for financial consolidation, the most known tool has been SAP Business Objects Planning and Consolidation (BPC) for many iterations with the Microsoft and NetWeaver versions for both planning and consolidation functionality. Other tools that were released to support the consolidation requirements were Real-Time Consolidation (RTC), the older ECCS, and Financial Consolidation (FC). However, the integration with the source data with SAP S/4HANA has always been a concern for business users, the smoothness of the monthly close, and flexibility to ever changing business environments keep pushing the boundaries In functionality. SAP S/4HANA Finance for group reporting was released in an SAP S/4HANA environment 1809 for general release in September 2019 as a complete new tool with new functionality and directed to address the SAP S/4HANA integration concerns and requirements from business users. As any new generation of tools and functionality, the improvement has been gradual, and as always SAP has provided direct development assistance for early adopters and has improved the solution in the latest release 1909. In this document we will provide an initial overview of what is SAP Group Reporting and how the SAP consolidation process has been changed and improved in release 1909.
What is SAP S/4HANA Finance for Group Reporting?
SAP S/4HANA Finance for
group reporting is SAP’s next generation software for financial consolidation and close with two available versions on-premise and on the cloud. Similarly, to most products, SAP also released a set of pre-delivered business content in a scope item called
1SG. It is recommended as a best practice to use and reuse these objects in order to reduce the development and implementation cycle. In addition, for the latest update for 1909, there are a lot of pre-configured templates, HANA views, queries, info-cubes, that also support the integration with SAP Fiori and Analysis for Office. A quick summary of functionality is presented as follows, as a reference from the T-code SPRO for the menu tabs to give you a quick overview:
- Global Settings: To check the starting year for using line items from the universal journal table (ACDOCA) and the other settings that apply throughout the system, such as if online data entry is based on universal journal line items, and if selections are used in reclassification, currency translation, and breakdown categories.
- Master Data: To make supplement settings related to master data in addition to those available from SAP Fiori launchpad, such as consolidation ledger, version, master data fields, subitem categories, breakdown categories, document types, and selections.
- Financial Statement (FS) Items: To define FS item attributes and attributes values and specify the selected FS items for automatic posting (annual net income and deferred taxes) and the FS items or G/L accounts to be carried forward.
- Data Collection: To define manual posting tasks and their document types, other tasks in Data Monitor, and period categories.
- Currency Translation: To make currency translation settings, such as translation methods and their exchange rate types, and the specific exchange rates in certain effective periods.
- Reclassification: To define automatic posting tasks like interunit eliminations or rule-based consolidation of investments in Consolidation Monitor and their assigned reclassification methods.
- Preparation for Consolidation Group Changes: To define the document types and tasks for Preparation for Consolidation Group Changes.
- Consolidation of Investments: To define consolidation of investments-relevant settings.
- Consolidation Processing: To define task groups for Data Monitor and Consolidation Monitor and assign them to versions and effective periods.
- Plan Consolidation: To define consolidation cycles and assign them to versions and effective periods.
In summary, SAP S/4HANA Finance for group reporting has a configuration using a web-based interface and a GUI based interface that complement each other. As shown in
Figure 1, the web-based environment is available in an app-like environment using tiles that can be accessed using the T-code
/UI2/FLP. Just to be clear, both interfaces complement each other. As shown In Figure 1, you can access the SAP Fiori Launchpad, and the basic three menus are available:
Group Reporting Data Collection, Consolidation Settings, and Consolidation Master Data. 
Figure 1—SAP S/4HANA Finance for group reporting web-based environment In addition, as shown in
Figure 2, on SAP S/4HANA 1909 deployment also brings an enhancement to allow ad-hoc reporting using the tile Group Data Analysis App that allows you to build fast reports with drag and drop for quick data visualization and data analysis. If you want customized report formats in MS Excel you still have the enhancement and integration with business content available in 1909 that was significantly limited in the previous 1809.
Figure 2—SAP S/4HANA for Finance group reporting data analysis app reporting capabilities In addition, as in other SAP modules, there is a configuration menu as shown in
Figure 3 that provides the access to configure, change, manage, and deploy methods, objects, master data, hierarchies, and more.
Figure 3—SAP S/4HANA for Finance group reporting SPRO menu Architecture and Data Flow
SAP S/4HANA for Finance group reporting module is a complete change and integration of the finance functionality to the core of the transaction system while adding an additional table to the traditional SAP S/4HANA architecture:
ACDOCU. As shown in
Figure 4, SAP S/4HANA and SAP Analytics Cloud are closely integrated for reporting, master data, and transaction data. It is important to notice that BOTH ACDOCA (Actuals) and ACDOCP (Plan data) will communicate with ACDOCU for consolidation mappings and transfer using a new object called Financial Statement Items (FS Item) instead of the SAP G/L Account. In this new architecture, FS items are part of the Group Chart of Accounts, and the traditional SAP G/L Account will be the Operational Chart of Accounts.
Figure 4—SAP S/4HANA for Finance group reporting architecture For consolidation and reporting purposes, the FS items and its hierarchies would be the language how Group Reporting will manage SAP data, which is NOT real-time, but with a closer integration with the transactional database using also two new monitors, similar to the Business Process Flows from BPC tool that are called:
Data Monitor and Consolidation Monitor. Also, FS items are the new object to manage and report transactional data within the SAP Group Reporting, and thus elimination, consolidation of investments, reclassifications, currency translation, and more use this object as the main driver for calculations and selections.
Updates for SAP Group Reporting from 1809 to 1909
Table 1 provides a generic view of the SAP Group Reporting capabilities, the key ones:
- A lot of business content pre-delivered that supports MS Excel/AO reporting is now available in 1909, with a lot of HANA views and BEx queries.
- Similarly to BPC, there is an intercompany matching stand-alone functionality. However, still the SAP BPC intercompany booking functionality is not yet available, and the SAP Group Reporting functionality does not affect the data In ACDOCU. It is just for pure validation and review, and thus fixing the transactional data must still be done either In ACDOCA or ACDOCP (the source table) or with Journal Entries posted directly In ACDOCU.
- Time Dependent hierarchies are now available in 1909, which are key for business analysts.
- Better integration with SAP Cloud Analytics.
- A major improvement in 1909 is Matrix Consolidation, not only the traditional Legal Consolidation. Basically, Matrix Consolidation is highly driven by US financial practices in order to consolidate using a Profit Center or Segment for example, not only driven by the Company Code (Consolidation Unit In SAP Group Reporting).
- Several new apps have been added such as Group Data Analysis, and Group Structure Apps that control hierarchies and applications to Consolidation of Investments.
- Still in the cloud SAP Group Reporting is managed by activity and not rule based, with slight differences in flat file upload capabilities.
- Also in release 1909, new apps have been delivered to extract, transform, and load data from any source system into SAP S/4HANA Finance for group reporting consolidated data (ACDOCU) limited to *.csv files and the destination is ACDOCU. These mappings can be created using MS Excel, and then uploaded in the Data Mapping definition tile, and these mapping files will be used to transform data and import it into SAP S/4HANA, using the Run Data Mapping tile.
Table 1—Comparisons between SAP S/4HANA 1809 vs 1909 upgrade Summary
SAP has released a great new product. SAP Group Reporting clearly shows the changes and integration that the business community constantly demands. Of course, there are no upgrade paths from BPC, RTC, ECCS, and FC, and certainly a new implementation will require a new review of reports and processes. Another important element is that Group Reporting is FREE and included in your SAP S/4HANA 1909 set up, which differs from products such as SAP BPC, which requires additional licenses. The limitations still on the reporting side within the web-based environment are also supported with the most traditional reports using SAP MS Excel Analysis for Office with the new set of business content delivered in 1909 that were not present on the initial release of 1809. From an implementation point of view, it provides further flexibility and simplifies functionality that otherwise would require a customized BADI or a lot of code to provide It using SAP BPC for example. SAP S/4HANA for Finance group reporting is recommended to be implemented If you are pursuing your SAP S/4HANA migration, otherwise, keep using the other tools available that have support for a few more years. The creation of a new paradigm requires compromise from a business and technological perspective to address the basic needs of accuracy and functionality from business users, auditors, and developers while creating a very accessible, easy-to-use, and user-friendly functionality.
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