Saturday, May 28, 2011

SAP Modules

There are 11 modules in SAP, usually referred to by a two-letter acronym. The BASIS system could also be considered a module, but is the heart of the SAP system and is not normally evident to users. All these modules need not be implemented in a company.
AM Asset Management – track, value, and depreciate assets, including
Purchase
Depreciation
Sale
CO Controlling – internal cost management accounting, including
Overhead cost
Product cost
Profitability analysis
FI Financial Accounting – normal accounting books, including
General ledger
Special purpose ledger
Accounts receivable and payable
HR Human Resources – People management, including
Payroll
Recruitment
Personnel development
MM Materials Management – Anything to do with goods, including
Inventory Management
Consumption-based planning
Purchasing
PM Plant Maintenance – Equipment maintenance record, including
Maintenance order management
Equipment inventory
Down time
PP Production Planning - Manages the production process, including
Production order execution
Material requirements planning
Capacity planning
PS project System – Standard tools for project management, including
Progress analysis
Time sheets
Costs and forecasts    
QM Quality Management – Controls materials quality, including
Planning
Inspections
Certificates
SD Sales and Distribution – Controls the order lifestyle, including
Sales Promotion
Pricing
Billing
CA Cross Application – Enhances the individual modules, including
Workflow [WF]
Business information warehouse [BW]     
Industry solutions [IS]

Tax Jurisdiction

This field is used to capture the tax jurisdiction code for the plant for the purpose of tax calculation.

Saturday, May 21, 2011

State True or False for each of the following statements

Ø  The G/L master consist of two segments: [1] General data and [2] Company code data.
Ø  A COA can be assigned to more than one company code within a client.
Ø  A year-dependent fiscal year needs to be configured each year.

What is the difference between Account Assignment Model [AAM], recurring entries, and sample documents

AAM: - A reference for document entry that provides default values for posting business transactions. An AAM can contain any number of G/L account items and can be changed or supplemented at any time. Unlike sample documents, the G/L account items for AAMs may be incomplete.

Recurring Entries: A Periodically recurring posting will be made by the recurring entry program on the basis of recurring entry original documents. The procedure is comparable to a standing order by which banks are authorized to debit rent payments, payment contributions, or loan repayments.

Sample Documents: A sample document is a special type of reference document. Data from this document is used to create default entries on the accounting document entry screen. Unlike an accounting document, a sample document does not update transaction figures but merely serves as a data source for an accounting document.

Are any FI documents created during purchase order [PO] creation? If yes what is the entry

During PO creation [using truncation code ME21N], no FI document will be created. However, in CO, there can be a commitment posting to a cost center according to configuration. The offsetting entry is posted at the time of GR.

What are the types of currencies

The following currencies are used in SAP solutions.
Ø  Local Currency: - This is company code currency, which is used for generating financial statements for external reporting. Sometimes it is called operating currency.
Ø  Group Currency: - Group currency is the currency that is specified in the client table and used for consolidation purpose.
Ø     Hard Currency: - Hard currency is a country-specific second currency that is used in countries with high inflation.
Ø  Index-Based Currency: - Index-Based currency is a country-specific fictitious currency that is required in some countries with high inflation for external reporting [for example, tax returns].
 Global Company Currency: - Global company currency is the currency that is used for an internal trading partner.

What is open item management

Open item management means that a line item needs to be cleared against another open item. At a particular point, the balance of an account is the sum of all open items of that account. Generally, you make these setting in the G/L Master for all clearing accounts, such as a Goods Receipts and Invoice Receipts [GRIR] account, customer account, vendor account, or bank G/L  account, or all accounts except the main bank account. Open item managed accounts always have line item management. You can switch open item management on and off through transaction code FS00

What is the difference between a participating and nonparticipating currency

A participating currency is the currency of a country participating in the European Economic and Monetary Union [EMU]. Those countries currently include Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia and Spain.
A nonparticipating currency is the currency of a country not participating in the EMU

How is year-dependent fiscal year variants usually used

The year-dependent fiscal year variants are used when the start and end dates of posting periods differ from year to year and when one fiscal year has fewer posting periods than the others [Shortened fiscal year].

What is a business area? Can you assign it to a company

The business are is an organizational unit of financial accounting that represents a separate area of operations or responsibilities within an organization and to which value changes recorded in financial accounting can be allocated.
Business areas are used in external segment reporting [over and above company codes] based on the significant areas of operations [for external, product lines] of a business enterprise. A segment is an isolated area of activity.
The business area will not be assigned to any company code. It is available at the client level. All company codes under the same client can use the same business areas. You can restrict a business area for a company code through validation.

Saturday, May 14, 2011

What are the country and operational COA, why do you use the group COA

The operational COA is used for accounting of business transaction for day-to-day activities. It is mandatory for a company code.
The country COA is used for specific legal requirements of each country, it is optional.
The group COA is used for consolidation of company codes
Depending upon the configuration, the same COA may be an operational COA, a country COA, or a group COA.

What is field status group [FSG] and what does it control

FSG represents the grouping of various fields in a certain logical way. There are various types of FSGs used in SAP solutions. These are: FSG for G/L master, FSG for customer master, FSG for vendor master, and FSG for posting a transaction.
FSG for G/L master controls which fields allow input while creating the G/L master. Similarly, vendor and customer FSG controls which fields allow input while creating the vendor and customer masters. Finally, the FSG attached to a company controls which fields allow input while posting the transaction.
A filed may have one of the following statuses.
Suppressed
Display
Optional
Required

What do you mean by year dependent is fiscal year variants

A year-dependent fiscal year variant is the financial year for which the configuration settings are valid for that particular financial year. You generally use a year-dependent financial year when the preceding financial year or succeeding financial year is a shortened financial year.

What is the difference between the company and the company code.

A company is the organizational unit used in the legal consolidation module to roll up financial statements of several company codes.
The company code is the smallest organizational unit for which a complete, self-contained set of accounts can be drawn up for purpose of external reporting. A company may be assigned to n number of company codes.

There is a company field in the company code global settings. The SAP R/3 help says that it is used for consolidation. You can use the group COA to do the same. What is the significance of this field.

A company is an organizational unit that is generally used in the legal consolidation module to roll up financial statements of several company codes. A company may have one or more company codes. If you are going for consolidation, you need to enter the six-character alphanumeric company identifier that relates to company codes for which you are consolidating accounts. Company code within a company must use the same COA and fiscal year, and for consolidation purpose, you use the group COA where you like the operating COA by entering the general ledger account number of the group COA in the general ledger account of the operating COA.
In the SAP system, consolidation functions in financial accounting are based on companies. A companies comprises one or more company codes. For example, company A has four company codes, located in different states and/or countries. When company A wants to consolidation the accounts, it will give the common list of accounts, which in turn calls the group COA. The group COA is used to define and list the general ledger account uniformly for all company codes.

Why and when would you use a year-specific fiscal year variant

The year-specific fiscal year variants are used in two cases. The first is when the start and end dates of the posting periods differing from year to year, such as when there are 365 days in a fiscal year regardless of leap year. The second case is when one fiscal year has fewer posting periods than the others [shortened fiscal year].

How many normal and special periods will be there in a fiscal year, and why would you use special periods

In general, there are 16 posting periods in a fiscal year. Of these 16 posting periods, there are 12 normal periods and 4 special posting periods. Special posting periods are used for book adjustments, tax adjustments, audit corrections, and so forth. Special posting periods are path of the 12th normal period.

Explain the relationship between the sort key and the assignment field

The sort key defines the field[s] used to populate the assignment field when a document is posted in the G/L. The Assignment field is used as a sort criterion when displaying G/L account line items.

What is the credit control area? How is it related to the company code

Like the company code, the credit control area is an SAP entity through which you set and control a customer’s credit limit. There is one credit control area per company code. A credit control area may have more than one company code. A customer’s credit limit can be set at the credit control area level or across the credit control area.

What is the difference between the enjoy SAP document entry screens [FB50, FB60, FB70] and the old general transactions

The SAP enjoy screens are created to expedite data entry for GL, AR, AP postings. In the old FB01 screen, users are required to manually enter document types and posting keys to determine the nature of postings. In enjoy SAP Data Entry Screens, these are defaulted via a configuration table so that user has to choose debit/credit and the system will determine whether the entry is a vendor/customer invoice/credit memo or G/L Journal.

Know about the accrued cost

Operating expenses are often allocated differently in financial accounting than in cost accounting. If, for example, an expense incurred in external accounting covers a whole year, you must assign a proportion of such expenses to each individual cost accounting period. In this process, you distribute irregularly occurring expenses, according to cost-origin, to the months in which they are incurred. This allows you to avoid irregularities within cost accounting. Costs allocated in this manner, such as yearly bonuses, are termed accrued costs.

What information will not be copied to a new company code when you copy the company code.

All the organizational global master data for a company code will be copied to the new company code upon using the copy function except for the transactional data.

When you copy the chart of accounts [COA], only one financial statement version [FSV] is being copied. However, a COA can have more than one FSV. Why does copying the COA allow only one FSV.

An FSV corresponds to the COA, wherein individual [Operational] accounts are assigned to corresponding financial statement items on the lowest level of the FSV. However, in case of rollup of the account, it is not possible to copy all of the FSVs you will have to manually create multiple FSVs, depending on the financial statement that are necessary for the organization.
Describe some generally used FI sub modules
FI-G/L – FI-G/L sub module: records all account data including all posting happening to subsidiary ledgers.
Accounts Receivable [FI-AR] – This sub module records all transactions relating to customer. FI-AR is treated as a subsidiary ledger of FI-GL. All transactions all relating to this module are recorded in a summary form in FI-GL.
Accounts Payable [FI-AP] – Like FI-AR, this sub module records transactions relating to vendors and is summarized in FI-GL.
Special Ledger [FI-SL] – This sub module takes care of special reporting requirements of an entity by providing G/L based on user-defined fields.
FI-AA – The FI-AA sub module takes care of recording transactions relating to assets. Here assets mean both tangible and intangible assets. FI-AA is also treated as a subsidiary ledger.

When you copy the chart of accounts [COA], only one financial statement version [FSV] is being copied. However, a COA can have more than one FSV. Why does copying the COA allow only one FSV.

An FSV corresponds to the COA, wherein individual [Operational] accounts are assigned to corresponding financial statement items on the lowest level of the FSV. However, in case of rollup of the account, it is not possible to copy all of the FSVs you will have to manually create multiple FSVs, depending on the financial statement that are necessary for the organization.

What are the highest organizational units in sales and distribution [SD], Materials Management [MM], Production Planning [PP], Financial Information [FI], and Controlling Area [CO]

SD – Sales organizations
MM – Plant
PP – Plant
FI – Company Code
Co – Controlling Area

here above informations for your reference.

Friday, May 13, 2011

Describe the data types that can be used in SAP solutions

There are three types of data in SAP: [1] Master Data-> Customer, Vendor Master, and Asset Master, [2] Transactional Data -> Purchase, Sale, Payment and Receipts, and [3] Table Data -> Document type SAP Delivered Data, and so on.

Describe the major areas within the SAP environment

The SAP environment consists of [1] configuration and [2] application.
Configuration: Configuration represents maintenance of setting to support business requirements through the IMG menu.
Application: This supports the handling of day-to-day activities through the SAP Easy Access Menu.

Understand what is SAP Business One

In 2002, SAP AG purchased an Israel-based developer of business application called Top Manage Financial System: SAP renamed its product Business One. SAP Business One is targeted for small and medium enterprise [SME]. Due to its low implementation cost and SAP support, most SME find Business One affordable compared to SAP R/3 or my SAP ERP. SAP Business One consists of the following core modules:
Ø  Administration Module: This modules is similar to the IMG menu in SAP R/3 , where configuration is performed.
Ø  Financial Module: This module takes care of an entity’s accounting needs: this is similar to FICO of R/3.
Ø  Sales Opportunities Module: This is where existing customers and potential accounts are structured and tracked.
Ø  Sales Module: Module where orders are entered, shipped, and invoiced; this is similar to the SD module of R/3
Ø  Purchasing Module: Module where purchase orders are issued and goods are received into inventory; this is similar to the MM module of R/3
Ø  Business Partners Module: Module where business partners [Customers, Vendors, and Ideas] are contacted and maintained.
Ø  Banking Module: Like the SAP R/3 banking module, this module records payments and receipts.
Ø  Inventory Module: This Module, integrated with the purchase module, helps inventory evaluation.
Ø  Production Module: Module that takes care of production process.
Ø  MRP Module: Module that determines purchase requirements and checks product or material availability
Ø  Service Module: This sub-module handles contact management for after –sale services.
Ø  Human Resources Module: Module where employee information is kept; similar to the HR Module in R/3.
Reports Module: Helps to build new reports. Here we will find delivered reports.

What is gap analysis

The SAP R/3 system comes with predefined packages. Sometimes these predefined packages may out suit a client’s business requirements. In the first phase of implementation, the implementation team will gather all business requirements. A thorough analysis of the business requirements will lead to a gap between the business requirements and the SAP standard package. There are two ways to reduce the gap: [1] by changing the business process or [2] by developing new programs [customizing] to accommodate the client’s business process. Before the second phase of implementation, the SAP implementer will try to reduce these gaps by adopting either of these options or both.

Where do you find all of the transaction codes, including custom transaction codes

In SAP R/3, the TSTC table stores all of the transaction codes. Through transaction code SE16, you can browse all of the transaction codes. The TSTC table stores the standard SAP transaction codes, as well as custom transaction codes

Know about What do you do with errors in batch data conversion [BDC] sessions

You use BDC to post data into SAP solutions with the help of the system-sometimes, while posting data through BDC, the system will encounter problems and cannot post data. When the system encounters a problems it will create BDC error sessions. The following are common reasons for BDC error sessions.
Ø  posting periods are locked
Ø  Changes in master data, e.g., in general ledger [G/L] accounts, profits centers are locked for posting.
Ø  Changes in screen layout of SAP program.
These scenarios are only examples: There may be several reasons for errors. To process incorrect BDC sessions, you need to find out the reasons for these error sessions. The easiest way to do this is to analyze the BDC log. In truncation code SM35, select the BDC sessions in question and click on the log. The Batch input : Log Overview screen will appear: double-click on any of the rows of the Log Overview tab to see an error screen. After analyzing the error, fix it and process the BDC sessions.

After configuration you have to transport the configuration to the QAS or PRD. Can you transport number ranges of documents, Assets Masters, Customers Masters, and Vendor Masters in the same transport request

No. These have to be transported separately. Number ranges are not automatically included in transport requests.  It is easy to overlay number range objects and get existing ranges out of the system when you transport ranges. It is recommended that you do not transport number ranges, and instead set them up individually in each client. This is part of the cutover activities for the go-live checklist.

How many versions of the implementation guides [IMGs] are available in SAP

There are three versions of the IMG available in SAP. These are:-
Reference IMG: The reference IMG contains all configuration transactions available for all functionalities/Modules/sub modules in the installed versions of SAP R/3. The reference IMG represents the base set of configuration options from which SAP functionality can be configured. All other versions of the IMG subsets of the reference IMG.
Enterprise IMG: The enterprise IMG only contains configuration transactions that are applicable to a specific company’s installation of SAP software. The enterprise IMG serves the purpose of filtering out configuration options that are not required by a company if certain modules are not implemented.
Project IMG: A Project IMG contains a subset of the enterprise IMG configuration transactions that need to be configured to complete a specific project.

What are specs

Specs represent specification. In an information technology [IT] environment, you will find two kinds of specification: [1] functional specification and [2] technical specifications. These documents contain the business requirements, such as inputs, solutions, processing logic, and so on.
Functional specification: The documentation typically describes what is needed by the system user as well as requested properties of inputs and outputs. The functional specification is business-oriented. A functional specification does not define the inner workings of the proposed system, nor does it include information for how the system function will be implemented. Instead, it focuses on what various outside agents [e.g., people using the program, computer peripherals, or other computers] might observe when interacting with the system.
Technical Specification: While the functional specification is business-oriented, the technical specification is system-oriented and discusses programming.

What does system landscape mean

The system landscape represents the SAP system deployment at your implementation site. Ideally, in an SAP environment, a three-system landscape exists, consisting of the development server [DEV], quality assurance server [QAS], and production server [PRD]. This kind of setup is not primarily designed to serve as a server cluster in case of system failure; rather, the objective is to enhance “configuration pipeline management.”
The system landscape is the system structure that you have for implementation project. For Example, you might have a development system, quality assurance [QA] system, and production system, it also includes now the configuration change goes through these systems and what controls there are. System landscape mostly has to do this with the system, their   servers, and so forth.

SAP General Question

What are SAP implementation roadmap and what steps are involved in it?
The SAP implementation roadmap is a standard process provided by SAP AG for smooth SAP implementation and is called the ASAP roadmap. The ASAP roadmap consists of five phases: [1] Project Preparation, [2] Business Blueprint, [3] Realization, [4] Final Preparation, and [5] Going live and support.
Ø  Project Preparation: in this phase of the ASAP Roadmap, decision-makers define clear project objectives and an efficient decision making process. Here, project organization and roles are defined and implementation scope is finalized.
Ø  Business Blueprint: In this phase, the scope of the R/3 implementation is defined and the Business Blueprint is created. The Business Blueprint is a detailed documentation of the customer’s requirements.
Ø  Realization: The purpose of Phase 3 is to configure the R/3 system. The configuration is carried out in two steps: baseline configuration and Final configuration.
Ø  Final Preparation: The purpose of this phase is to complete the final preparation of the R/3 system for going live. This includes testing, user training, system management, and cutover activities to finalize your readiness to go live.
Going Live and Support: During this Phase, the first early watch session should be held, where SAP experts analyze the system’s technical infrastructure. The aim is to ensure the system functions as smoothly as possible.

Thursday, May 12, 2011

Define Posting Period Variant

Menu Path
IMG -> Financial Accounting -> Financial Accounting Global Settings -> Document -> Posting Periods -> Define Variants for Open Posting Periods
 To separate business transactions into different periods, a posting period variant has to be defined so that transactions entered or posted are reflected in specific periods only.
For this firstly we need to define opening posting period
Here, we can define variants for open posting periods
In the standard setting, a separate variant for posting periods is defined for every company code. The name of this variant is identical to the company code name. Every company code is allocated to this variant with the same name.
In our example we will have posting period variant which is identical to the company code i.e. 1100



















Click save icon to save entry
Thus posting period variant 1100 is created


Assign Company Code to a Fiscal Year Variant

Menu Path
IMG -> Financial Accounting -> Financial Accounting global Settings -> Fiscal Year -> Assign Company Code to a Fiscal Year Variant
Transaction Code is OB37
The company code 1100 needs to be assigned to a fiscal year variant. This controls which periods the company code will post data.

















 Assign company code 1100 to K4 fiscal year variant in SAP.
















Click save icon to save entry.
Thus company code 1100 is assigned to fiscal year variant K4 in SAP.

Maintain Fiscal Year Variant

Menu Path
IMG -> Financial Accounting -> Financial Accounting Global Setting -> Fiscal Year -> Maintain Fiscal Year Variant (Maintain Fiscal Year)
Transaction Code is OB29
We can define the following characteristics for a fiscal year variant in SAP.
To separate business transactions into different periods, a fiscal year with posting periods has to be defined.
The fiscal year variant defines the number of posting periods a fiscal year can have, along with the special periods we need, this helps the system is to determine the posting periods when postings are done.
When defining the fiscal year, we can choose out of the following options.
Ø  The fiscal year is the calendar year in this case; we must only select the calendar year field.
Ø  The fiscal year is not the same as the calendar year and is not year dependent. In this case: we first enter the number of the posting periods in the number posting per. Field. To define the posting periods, select our fiscal year variant and select periods on the navigation screen. On this screen, enter the month and the day of the period end and the period in each case.
Ø  The fiscal year is not the same as the calendar year and is year-dependent. We can enter number of posting periods in the field number posting periods and select the field Year-dependent. To define our posting periods, select our fiscal year variant and select periods on the navigation screen. The system asks for which calendar year our year-dependent fiscal year variant is valid. We then enter the month and day of the period end for each of our periods, and the periods themselves. We can use the standard fiscal year variant K4 in SAP where the financial accounting year corresponds to January to December. In case the financial accounting year is April to March, We can use the standard fiscal year variant V3 in SAP.
We can copy and create new variants, but we should keep in mind that it should start with Z as the starting character.
In our example we will use the standard fiscal year variant K4.

Define Retained Earnings Accounts in SAP

Menu Path
IMG -> Financial Accounting -> General Ledger Accounting -> G/L Accounts -> Master Records -> Preparations -> Define Retained Earnings Account
Transaction Code is OB53
We have to assign a retained earnings account to each P&L Account by specifying a P&L statement account type in the chart of accounts area of each P&L account in SAP.
We must have minimum one retained earnings account.
The system carries forward the balance of the P&L account to the retained earnings account in SAP at the end of a fiscal year. We can define one or more P&L statement account types per chart of accounts and assign them to retained earnings accounts.
We have to update chart of accounts USCA in the given field.


















Update the following fields












Enter X in P&L statement
Enter the account code for Retained earnings account.
Click Enter/Continue icon
We will get a message “Account not created in chart of accounts USCA”, ignore it by pressing enter.
Click Save icon to save entry
In this way Retained-earning account is created for chart of accounts USCA in SAP. We need to create this GL code later on at the GL code creation stage.




Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Define Account Group

Menu Path
IMG -> Financial Accounting -> General Ledger Accounting -> G/L Accounts -> Master Records -> Preparations -> Define Accounts Group.
Transaction Code is OBD4
Since a chart of accounts contains many types of accounts, all these accounts can be dandled into different account groups.
Those accounts which have got similar kinds of business functions can be clubbed together under one account group. For example, one can have an account group for cash accounts, one for expense accounts, one for revenue accounts, and one for other balance sheet accounts, etc.
Moreover we can control the number range and the creation of the GL codes within specified number range.
We can copy from the account group delivered by SAP for INT chart of accounts or we can create new account group required as per customer requirement.
 To copy from other account group we need to mark the chart of accounts in the following manner:


















Thereafter click on the copy icon and change the chart of accounts description to USCA.
If you want to create from scratch in SAP you need to click on New Entries and update the following fields.













Click save icon to save entry.
This way Accounts groups are created for chart of accounts USCA in SAP.


Define Business Area

Menu Path
IMG -> Enterprise Structure -> Definition -> Financial Accounting -> Define Business Area.
In order to organize and manage different divisions or segments, e.g. geographically or product wise etc. in better way in SAP, they can be defined and maintained as Business Areas which helps to serve the internal as well as external reporting.
(For example this can help you to serve a report as required by the segmental reporting as required by the international Accounting Standards -14)


















Click on New Entries and update the following fields.
















Click save (Key) to save entry.



Assign Company Code to Chart of Accounts

Menu Path
IMG -> Financial Accounting -> General Ledger Accounting -> G/L Accounts -> Master Records -> Preparations -> Assign Company Code to Chart of Accounts.
Transaction Code is OB62



















Assign USCA in the chrt/accts filed to company code 1100.


















Click save (Key) to save entry.
Thus Company code 1100 is assigned to USCA chart of accounts in SAP.

Create Chart of Accounts in SAP

Menu Path
IMG -> Financial Accounting -> General Ledger Accounting -> G/L Accounts -> Master Records -> Preparations -> Edit Chart of Accounts List.
Transaction Code is (OB13)
The chart of accounts is a variant which contains the structure and basic information about the general ledger accounts.
We have to create one chart of accounts for each company code in SAP. This chart of accounts is assigned to the company code. One chart of accounts can be used by more than one company codes. These imply that the general ledgers of these company codes can have similar GL structure.
Under here we will define just a chart of accounts code in SAP. The GL codes are not defined here.



















Click on New Entries (Key) and update the following fields



We can have controlling integration i.e.
         i.            Manual creation of cost elements or
       ii.            Automatic creation of cost elements.
It is preferable to have manual creation of cost elements in SAP Financial Accounting.
We have to keep in mind that whenever we create a GL code (expense or revenue account) in Financial Accounting, at the same time we’ve to create the cost element (type 1 or 11) in the controlling module of SAP system.
This allows cost to be flown from FI to CO on a cost object in real time.
Click save (Key) to save entry.
This way USCA chart of accounts is created in SAP.