SAP ERP Central Component (SAP ECC) 6.0 contains a completely new program called FAGL_SWITCH_TO_OPEN_ITEM. The former program, RFSEPA01, is no longer available in the SAP General Ledger environment. The ultimate objective or function of both programs is the same — to convert the SAP General Ledger items into open items and make the master data change. I explain the basic process of running this new program, which is available in software effective from SAP ECC 6.0 (enhancement pack 3).

Using transaction SFW5 you can verify whether business function FIN_GL_Cl_1 is active or not. If it is not, have it activated (Figure 1) by the Basis team. The purpose of showing this is only to see whether this business function is active in your system; if it is already active, you can proceed without involving your Basis team.

Figure 1

Check whether the relevant business function is active

Execution of Program FAGL_SWITCH_TO_OPEN_ITEM

Execute program FAGL_SWITCH_TO_OPEN_ITEM from transaction SE38 or simply run transaction FAGL_ACTIVATE_OP, and the screen shown in Figure 2 appears. To execute the program to switch to open items, enter the following information in the screen shown in Figure 2:

Figure 2

The initial screen to enter the parameters to execute transaction FAGL_ACTIVATE_OP

1. Select the Standard option, provided that you don’t have non-leading ledgers working with one leading ledger If you have a multiple ledger option, you can run the report for a specific ledger group, as this program is ledger specific.
2. Enter your company code.
3. Enter the general ledger account number for the account you want to convert to open item managed.
4. Enter a date in the Switch-on field. This step is very important. If you want to convert all the existing line items of the general ledger account to open items, the switch-on date should be the date prior to the posting date of the first document posted in this account. However, if you give the current date, the system clears all the existing line items, and all the documents posted in the future are recorded as open items.
5. The Document Type field is a required entry to post the clearing/balancing document. You can use a standard AB document type, or you can define your own document type for these postings.
6. The Account for Transfer Posting field is a required entry. I recommend creating a separate Open Item Clearing Account and using it for this specific purpose so that you can trace back the clearing entries and not mix them up with any regular accounting entries. To switch an account to open item management, it has to have a balance of zero. To achieve a balance of zero, the system posts the balance of the account to be switched to a different account (the account specified in the Account for Transfer Posting field). If you set the Perform Reposting indicator, the system posts the balance back to the original account for which open item management has now been activated.

Consider the scenario that in company code 1000, general ledger account 1072220 was not managed as an open item, and now after two years, the company decides to convert all the existing line items of this account as open items because it is facing a problem in offsetting entries. Because it is so difficult to manually match and find out real open items and outstanding transactions, the company wants this account to be managed as open items. If you run the report FAGLL03 on this account, you can see that line items are not managed as open items (Figure 3), and in the master data of this general ledger account, the open item is not activated (Figure 4).

Figure 3

Line items of a general ledger account before executing program FAGL-ACTIVATE_OP

Figure 4

Master data of general ledger account before executing program FAGL-ACTIVATE_OP

Enter the following parameters (Figure 5) to run the report FAGL_ACTIVATE_OP and see the changes to the general ledger account:

• Company Code: 1000
• G/L account (this account is to be converted to Open Item Management): 1072220
• Switch on: 27.05.2009 (the first document posted in this account was on 26.06.2009, so you select the prior date because you want to convert all the line items posted in this account.)

Figure 5

Transaction FAGL_ACTIVATE_OP with minimum required information to execute it

Execute the report in test run mode first and see if there is any error (previous posting periods must be open so that the system can post the clearing document). If you make a mistake executing the report in selection parameters, if the general ledger is already maintained as open item, or if the general ledger is not maintained as line item display, you receive an error message, such as Company Code 1000 is not considered for the activation (Figure 6).

Figure 6

Report after executing FAGL_ACTIVATE_OP

If there is no error in the test run mode, remove the test run check from the Test Run Check Box (Figure 5) by deselecting it. You must execute the program in the background. You can monitor your job via transaction SM37. Once the job is finished, you can see that all the existing line items are converted as open items and the general ledger master data is also changed. Make sure that during this activation process that the account that is being activated does not receive any entries. It takes a few minutes to activate the account. You can see that all the existing items are converted into open items (Figure 7) and that general ledger master data is changed into open items managed (Figure 8).

Figure 7

General ledger line items converted into open items

Figure 8

General ledger master data is changed and the Open Item Management option is activated

So what happened to general ledger account 9029000? The system posted only one document against general ledger 1072220, and entire general ledger line items are converted into open items. The logic is that the activation date is prior to this document, so the system only made a balancing document for this first item and after that all the items are converted into open items (Figure 9).

Figure 9

Offsetting account display

I have described a simple scenario. However, there could be more complex scenarios in which more ledger groups, currency changes, or document splitting are involved. Read note SAP Note 1356457 for more information about this functionality. 

Nasir Rashid

Nasir Rashid has 10 years of experience in SAP and has worked on different SAP projects as a FI/CO consultant. He is currently working as FICO team lead at Binzagr Co. in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

You may contact the author at nasir.rashid@email.com.

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