SAP S/4HANA Finance


What is SAP S/4HANA Finance?

Initially released in 2014, SAP S/4HANA Finance is the core financial solution for SAP customers, designed to leverage the SAP Fiori user interface and in-memory computing power of HANA. Previously referred to as SAP Simple Finance and SAP ERP Financials, SAP S/4HANA Finance provides multiple innovations, such as the Universal Journal single source of truth, allowing organizations to streamline financial processes, with real-time updates and reporting, across a simplified data model for storing financial and managerial accounting information.

What is SAP S/4HANA Finance?

Initially released in 2014, SAP S/4HANA Finance is the core financial solution for SAP customers, designed to leverage the SAP Fiori user interface and in-memory computing power of HANA. Previously referred to as SAP Simple Finance and SAP ERP Financials, SAP S/4HANA Finance provides multiple innovations, such as the Universal Journal single source of truth, allowing organizations to streamline financial processes, with real-time updates and reporting, across a simplified data model for storing financial and managerial accounting information.

Many SAP ERP customers utilize SAP S/4HANA to manage core business functions that enable timely and accurate financial operations and reporting, such as accounting and finance, financial planning and analysis, financial risk management, and risk and compliance management. SAP S/4HANA Finance is a powerful and versatile system that can be deployed in multiple ways to suit your organization’s needs.

Key features of SAP S/4HANA Finance include:

  • Unified real-time data model for storing all finance-related information
  • Enhanced financial closing capability
  • Centralization of account payables and account receivables
  • Predictive accounting
  • Embedded analytics

Key Considerations for SAPinsiders 

Start thinking about your SAP S/4HANA Finance journey now. In 2027, SAP expects to cease all new development for the core ERP and sunset support, requiring organizations to transition to S/4HANA Finance. Organizations that have yet to make the move to SAP S/4HANA Finance need to begin planning and develop a viable roadmap or risk falling behind their peers.

Reduce compliance risks by properly archiving financial information prior to SAP S/4HANA Finance transition. The size of your financial database directly impacts both the complexity and cost, which often leads to long timelines for moving everything over as well potential compliance risks that need addressing before they can be done. Achieve a high level of data protection by archiving critical financial information before it impacts performance, cost, or availability. Evaluate requirements for data cleanup to transfer historical data securely.

Leverage Central Finance in transition to SAP S/4HANA Finance as an opportunity to optimize core finance functions.Consolidating data from multiple sources and creating a single summary of the information is difficult. Central Finance can make this process easier, as it simplifies everything into one easily accessible place for greater visibility. Organizations can empower SAP S/4HANA Finance modules, applications, and extensions end-to-end with more accessible financial information.

109 results

  1. Everything You Wanted to Know About SAP HANA Accelerators for ERP Financials

    Reading time: 46 mins

    Learn how to use SAP HANA accelerators to run reports and perform relevant period-end closing transactions much faster than with standard SAP ERP functionality. Follow steps on how to set up a connection between SAP Landscape Transformation and SAP HANA. Key Concept SAP HANA accelerators provide instant access to large volumes of data—enabling you to…...…

  2. Swiss Re Transforms Its Reinsurance Finance Division with SAP S/4HANA Finance

    Reading time: 4 mins

    The global 2008 financial crisis presented a multitude of challenges for companies in the insurance industry, including higher pressure on margins and strict regulatory reporting requirements. Swiss Re, a global provider of leading wholesale resinsurance and insurance, was not immune to these challenges. To help overcome these hurdles, Swiss Re undertook a multi-year finance transformation…

  3. New York Life Plans Bright Future for Finance

    Reading time: 6 mins

    New York Life Insurance Company, one of the largest life insurers in the world, is responding to the dramatic changes sweeping through the business world by accelerating its evolution into a more agile enterprise. In particular, the organization is speeding up analytics for real-time insight and improving process efficiencies around data access and management. Discover…

  4. The Power of Real-Time Decision Making with SAP S/4HANA Finance

    Reading time: 8 mins

    Cliff Eng, Partner at PwC, and Birgit Starmanns, Senior Director of Product Marketing for SAP S/4HANA and SAP Fiori at SAP, discuss how SAP S/4HANA Finance addresses today’s most pressing business challenges, touching on compliance, analytics, planning, and the need to become more strategic. This content is for Basic Access, SAPinsider Monthly Subscription, SAPinsider Annual…

  5. 5 Areas for Future-Proofing Your Corporate Finance Processes

    Reading time: 3 mins

    Companies understand the critical importance of having full and central control over their finance processes. Yet this is an increasingly challenging proposition, especially for treasurers of large corporations that have many subsidiaries. This article examines five key areas that CFOs can leverage to future-proof corporate finance in the age of big data and fast access…

  6. Gain Insight and Take Action

    Reading time: 6 mins

    In a highly connected business-to-business (B2B) digital economy that values visibility and immediacy in the movement of goods and services along the extended supply chain, finance organizations need to play a central role in a procure-to-pay (P2P) value chain that connects buyers, suppliers, and even value-added partners such as banking institutions into a central hub.…

  7. The Evolution of the Finance Function

    Reading time: 2 mins

    The finance function has evolved into an organization that incorporates real-time, live, dynamic planning cycles and analytics into its processes in a shift toward becoming a strategic, value-added partner to the business. Thack Brown and Henner Schliebs of SAP examine in greater detail how a need for flexibility and speed is being met by advances…

  8. Take Finance into the Digital Age

    Reading time: 8 mins

    In this Q&A, Martin Naraschewski, Vice President of Finance Solutions at SAP, provides insights as to what the digital economy really means for the finance organization and addresses what finance needs to do in order to prepare for a digital platform. He also lays out his vision for the finance function of the future, and…

  9. Transforming Finance

    Reading time: 5 mins

    What can a business accomplish if there are no wait cycles, all of the information you need is at your fingertips, and everything is instantly connected? Chris Horak, SAP Global Vice President, Finance Line-of-Business Solution Marketing, introduces the Achieving Financial Excellence Special Report with an article on why the finance function is embracing digitization and…