Jun 8, 2021
•1 minute read
SAP Financial Consolidation
Financial consolidation is a critical capability for multinational organizations that need to aggregate results from multiple entities, eliminate intercompany transactions and produce compliant group financial statements. SAP Financial Consolidation, delivered through SAP Group Reporting embedded in SAP S/4HANA, enables real-time close and consolidation on a single platform. SAPinsider covers SAP Group Reporting implementation, migration from SAP BPC and financial consolidation best practices.
What is SAP Financial Consolidation?
SAP Financial Consolidation refers primarily to SAP Group Reporting, the consolidation application embedded natively within SAP S/4HANA Finance. It replaces the need for a standalone consolidation tool by using the Universal Journal as the source of financial data, enabling real-time or near-real-time consolidation without data extraction. SAP Group Reporting supports legal and management consolidation, intercompany elimination, currency translation, investment consolidation and group reporting under IFRS and local GAAP standards, with results available in SAP Analytics Cloud for presentation and analysis.
What use cases does SAP Financial Consolidation address?
- Legal entity and group reporting: SAP Group Reporting consolidates financial data across legal entities in real time, producing statutory group financial statements and supporting audit readiness under IFRS and US GAAP.
- Intercompany elimination: Automated intercompany matching and elimination reduces the manual effort required to reconcile and eliminate transactions between group entities during the consolidation close cycle.
- Currency translation and revaluation: SAP Financial Consolidation handles group currency translation, foreign exchange revaluation and reporting in multiple currencies, enabling accurate consolidation across multinational organizations.
- Migration from SAP BPC: Organizations moving from SAP Business Planning and Consolidation to SAP Group Reporting use the consolidation module to modernize their close process, reducing reliance on separate consolidation tools and custom mapping tables.
- Management and segment reporting: Beyond statutory close, SAP Group Reporting supports internal management consolidation by profit center or segment, enabling consistent external and internal financial reporting from a single source.
What does SAPinsider research say about SAP Financial Consolidation?
SAPinsider research and practitioner content highlights SAP Group Reporting as the preferred consolidation path for organizations migrating to SAP S/4HANA. Finance teams are accelerating consolidation modernization by retiring SAP BPC and BCS in favor of the embedded Group Reporting solution, which reduces system footprint and eliminates data latency in the close process. Explore SAP Financial Consolidation resources and case studies at SAP Financial Consolidation.
Exercise control and shrink SAP reporting cycles by up to 50%Would you like to automate your SAP reporting process and free up more time for data analysis? Are you struggling with inflexible data and time-consuming manual processes that limit your ability to make informed business decisions, fast? In this session, we will demonstrate how you can exercise control over your SAP reporting processes and significantly reduce time spent generating reports by:
- Connecting directly to your SAP data, thus eliminating error-prone, manual data dumps
- Putting reporting ownership into the hands of Finance, not IT
- Automatically create and distribute real-time reports across different departments with drill down to line item and document-level detail capabilities
What you need to know about SAP S/4HANA Cloud for advanced financial closingThe entity close is a key milestone in every company's record to report process. Get a detailed overview of SAP’s new Cloud service for close orchestration that can help your company streamline the close for improved efficiency and compliance. Attend this session to:
- See the solution in action
- Learn how SAP S/4HANA Cloud for advanced financial closing can be deployed in days - and how companies can benefit from best practice content
- Understand the future product direction and the SAP strategy for the intelligent financial close
Jun 8, 2021
•1 minute read
What you need to know about SAP S/4HANA Cloud for advanced financial closingThe entity close is a key milestone in every company's record to report process. Get a detailed overview of SAP’s new Cloud service for close orchestration that can help your company streamline the close for improved efficiency and compliance. Attend this session to:
- See the solution in action
- Learn how SAP S/4HANA Cloud for advanced financial closing can be deployed in days - and how companies can benefit from best practice content
- Understand the future product direction and the SAP strategy for the intelligent financial close
Jun 8, 2021
•1 minute read
SAP S/4HANA group reporting as part of a modern finance platformSAP S/4HANA for group reporting is SAP’s strategic consolidation solution. Learn how it not only provides integration with underlying S/4HANA local accounting but also integration with intercompany, planning, analytics and disclosure. Attend this session to find out more about these integration touchpoints which establish S/4HANA for group reporting as one cornerstone within SAP’s modern finance platform. In addition, this session will include an update on recent functionality. You will:
- Get a detailed recap of SAP’s strategy for consolidation and what it means to you
- Understand important Integrational aspects of SAP S/4HANA for group reporting
- Explore the latest features of SAP S/4HANA group reporting and the potential value they bring to your consolidation process
Jun 8, 2021
•1 minute read
SAP S/4HANA group reporting as part of a modern finance platformSAP S/4HANA for group reporting is SAP’s strategic consolidation solution. Learn how it not only provides integration with underlying S/4HANA local accounting but also integration with intercompany, planning, analytics and disclosure. Attend this session to find out more about these integration touchpoints which establish S/4HANA for group reporting as one cornerstone within SAP’s modern finance platform. In addition, this session will include an update on recent functionality. You will:
- Get a detailed recap of SAP’s strategy for consolidation and what it means to you
- Understand important Integrational aspects of SAP S/4HANA for group reporting
- Explore the latest features of SAP S/4HANA group reporting and the potential value they bring to your consolidation process
Jun 8, 2021
•1 minute read
Navigating SAP solutions for record-to-reportSAP has a host of solutions that can support various parts of the record to report process from group reporting and consolidations to end-to-end close. This session will clarify how SAP’s solutions fit together for an end-to-end process, provide a roadmap, as well as illustrate how they are using third party and solution extensions to extend their overall capabilities. You will learn:
- How solutions such SAP S/4HANA, SAP S/4HANA for group reporting, SAP S/4HANA cloud for advanced financial closing, and BlackLine solutions come together to bolster SAP’s portfolio
- Key decision criteria so that you make the right decision about what solutions to use for specific scenarios
- What the roadmap is for these solutions and how they work together
- Key pre-requisites and requirements for deployment
Jun 7, 2021
•1 minute read
Navigating SAP solutions for record-to-reportSAP has a host of solutions that can support various parts of the record to report process from group reporting and consolidations to end-to-end close. This session will clarify how SAP’s solutions fit together for an end-to-end process, provide a roadmap, as well as illustrate how they are using third party and solution extensions to extend their overall capabilities. You will learn:
- How solutions such SAP S/4HANA, SAP S/4HANA for group reporting, SAP S/4HANA cloud for advanced financial closing, and BlackLine solutions come together to bolster SAP’s portfolio
- Key decision criteria so that you make the right decision about what solutions to use for specific scenarios
- What the roadmap is for these solutions and how they work together
- Key pre-requisites and requirements for deployment
Jun 7, 2021
•1 minute read
Key implementation considerations for Group ReportingSAP S/4HANA for Group Reporting is one of the key SAP solutions for consolidations and financial close. This session will help you understand where this solution may fit into your plans and offer a real-world perspective on how to evaluate and implement for optimal gain. You will:
- Understand the key business requirements which need to be identified in order to most effectively support implementation
- Learn about key considerations in the design/implementation of the underlying SAP S/4HANA and/or Central Finance environment in order to support a future implementation of Group Reporting
- Hear lessons learned from Group Reporting implementations
May 11, 2021
•1 minute read
Reducing Closing Time and Increasing Data Quality at KMDNewly acquired companies often face roadblocks in consolidating their financial and accounting operations with their new parent company’s systems. Streamlining financial closing processes, addressing inefficiencies, and automating time-intensive activities with cloud technology can help acquired companies plan for an orderly, smooth transition.
One of the largest IT firms in Denmark, KMD, an NEC Company, proved that possibility with a timely upgrade to SAP S/4HANA Cloud for group reporting and SAP Analytics Cloud.
After being acquired in 2018 by NEC, the Japanese global systems integrator, KMD’s primary aims included reducing closing days by half and implementing more detailed reporting requirements. They had to weigh the pros and cons of moving away from SAP Business Planning and Consolidation, which had been in place at KMD for ten years. Users had acquired deep experience in the tool, and best practices and automated processes were already in place. Ultimately, they decided on moving to SAP S/4HANA Cloud for group reporting, SAP’s strategic consolidation solution.
In this SAP S/4HANA Cloud implementation case study, KMD shares key challenges and learnings from its consolidation approach, which dramatically streamlined workflow efficiencies and enhanced data quality.
Read this customer story and learn:
• How KMD implemented SAP S/4HANA Cloud and SAP Analytics Cloud to reduce financial closing times from 8 days to 4 days.
• The key impacts of shifting intercompany reconciliation responsibilities, including how it can drive dramatic improvements in data quality.
• Automation’s influence in freeing up valuable resources, allowing increased opportunities for more analysis and less time spent on reconciliation.
• About the value of SAP’s support in facilitating an exceptionally smooth implementation in just six months.
May 10, 2021
•4 minute read
The Strategic Role of Finance In Today’s Business LandscapeFinance teams have always been expected to fulfill a variety of reporting requirements to complete the financial close, also known as the record-to-report process. Today, that expectation has evolved, requiring finance professionals to deliver insights for both operational and strategic decision making. And yet completing operational tasks within the accounting and financial close process cannot be abandoned. In fact, these tasks need to be executed more efficiently than ever before. How can finance teams achieve operational efficiency within the record-to-report process and also become strategic partners to the business?
This article will provide best practices for how the finance department can simplify complexity and increase integration, achieve real-time insights into financial data, and add business value by helping leadership make informed and predictive decisions.
Read the article and learn:
- How SAP customers can achieve a more reliable and accurate view of the organization’s future financial results and move toward predictive accounting;
- Ways to shift focus from shortening time to close, to ensuring a continuous close process that delivers value on a regular basis; and
- How finance professionals can leverage these recommendations and best practices and take advantage of evolutions in financial planning and analysis capabilities to drive strategic decision making for the business.
Apr 12, 2021
•9 minute read
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