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General Ledger Accounting (FI-GL) (New)
Purpose
The central task of G/L accounting is to provide a comprehensive picture of external accounting and accounts.
Recording all business transactions (primary postings as well as settlements from internal accounting) in a software
system that is fully integrated with all the other operational areas of a company ensures that the accounting data is
always complete and accurate.
Beyond fulfilling the legal requirements, General Ledger Accounting also fulfills other requirements for modern
accounting:
 Parallel Accounting
General Ledger Accounting allows you to perform parallel accounting by managing several parallel ledgers
for different accounting principles.
 Integration of Legal and Management Reporting
In General Ledger Accounting, you can perform internal management reporting in parallel with legal
reporting. For this purpose, the Profit Center Accounting functions are integrated with General Ledger
Accounting. Furthermore, you can generate financial statements for any dimension (such as profit center).
 Segment Reporting
General Ledger Accounting supports the segment reports required by the accounting principles IFRS
(International Financial Reporting Standards) and US GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles). For
this purpose, General Ledger Accounting contains the Segment dimension.
 Cost of Sales Accounting
You can perform cost of sales accounting in General Ledger Accounting. For this purpose, General Ledger
Accounting contains the Functional Area dimension.

Integration
General Ledger Accounting is integrated with all application components of the SAP System that generate posting
data of relevance to General Ledger Accounting:
 Asset Accounting (FI-AA)
 FI Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable
 Controlling (CO)
 Materials Management (MM)
 Human Capital Management (HCM)
 Treasury and Risk Management (TRM)
 Travel Management (FI-TV)
 Public Sector Management - Funds Management Government (PSM-FM)
When you activate the business function set Public Sector (EA-PS) and the global functions Funds
Management (PSM-FM), you obtain a separate set of tables containing the Public Sector account
assignments, such as fund and grant.

Features
General Ledger Accounting comprises the following functions for entering and evaluating posting data:
 Choice between group level or company level
 Automatic and simultaneous posting of all subledger items in the appropriate general ledger accounts
(reconciliation accounts)
 Simultaneous updating of the parallel general ledgers and of the cost accounting areas
 Real-time evaluation of and reporting on current posting data, in the form of account displays, financial
statements with different balance sheet versions, and additional analyses.
In this way, General Ledger Accounting automatically serves as a complete record of all business transactions. It is
the central and up-to-date component for reporting. Individual transactions can be checked at any time in real time
by displaying the original documents, line items, and monthly debits and credits at various levels such as:
 Account information
  Journals
 Totals/transaction figures
 Balance sheet/profit and loss evaluations

Parallel Accounting
Purpose
You can portray parallel accounting in your SAP System. This enables you to perform valuations and closing
preparations for a company code according to the accounting principles of the group as well as other accounting
principles, such as local accounting principles.

To simplify matters, this documentation assumes two parallel accounting principles.

Implementation Considerations
You can use the following approaches to portray parallel accounting in your SAP System.
 Portrayal Using Additional Accounts
 Portrayal Using Parallel Ledgers
You can also continue to use the option for portraying parallel accounting using an additional company code.
However, this approach is not supported by all application components. For more information, see Portrayal Using
Additional Company Code.

The solution scenarios described require that you have customized the application components that
you use consistently.
For information about the settings for parallel accounting for the individual components, see the links
in the list under “Integration”.

Integration
Parallel accounting is supported by the following application components:
 Financial Accounting (FI)
 Asset Accounting (FI-AA)
 Corporate Finance Management (CFM)
 Controlling (CO)
 Inventory Accounting (MM and ML)

For information about the general settings for parallel accounting, see Defining and Assigning
Accounting Principles.

Example
Parallel accounting is necessary for a German subsidiary of an American group. The German subsidiary has to
create financial statements according to the accounting principles of the group (such as US GAAP) as well as
according to German commercial law (HGB).

Segment
Definition
Division of a company for which you can create financial statements for external reporting.
Use
The accounting principles US GAAP and IFRS require companies to perform segment reporting. You can define
segments in your SAP system for this purpose. You find the appropriate IMG activity in Customizing under
Enterprise Structure ® Definition ® Financial Accounting ® Define Segment.
You can enter a segment in the master record of a profit center. The characteristic Segment is only released in
combination with the characteristic Profit Center. If no segment is specified manually during posting (only possible
for transactions in Financial Accounting), the segment is determined from the master record of the profit center.
This profit center can also be assigned manually or derived.
If you want to apply different rules to derive the segment during posting, you can define your own rules for this. You
find the corresponding settings in Customizing under Financial Accounting (New) ® Financial Accounting Global
Settings (New) ® Tools ® Customer Enhancements ® Business Add-Ins (BAdIs) ® Segment Derivation.
The document splitting procedure is the prerequisite for creating financial statements at any time for the Segment
dimension. For this, you need to set up a zero balance setting for the Segment characteristic. You find the
document splitting settings in Customizing under General Ledger Accounting (New) ® Business Transactions ®
Document Splitting.

Structure
US GAAP and IAS set out different requirements regarding segment reporting:
US GAAP requires a virtually complete balance sheet at the segment level for segment reporting (essentially
everything apart from stockholders' equity). The segment is defined as a subarea of a company with activities that
generate expenses and revenues, with an operating result that is regularly used by management for profit
assessment and resource allocation purposes, and for which separate financial data is available.
You can use the Segment dimension to represent the segment levels.
IAS requires for segment reporting primary and secondary segmentation, which have different reporting depth. A
distinction is made between the following types of segment:
 Business segment
A business segment is a distinguishable subactivity of a company that relates to the manufacture of a
product or the provision of a service and that has risks and revenues that differ from those in other business
segments.
 Geographical segment
A geographical segment is a distinguishable subactivity of a company that relates to the manufacture of a
product or the provision of a service within a specific field of business. The risks and revenues of a
geographical segment differ from the subactivities in other fields of business.
You can choose which segment type you want to have as the primary or the secondary segmentation. You can use
the Segment dimension for the primary segmentation. You can represent the secondary segmentation in your
system. You can do this by including a user-defined field Region in your general ledger accounting, for example.

Business Area (FI)

Purpose
Business areas are primarily used to facilitate external segment reporting across company codes, covering the
company's main areas of operation (product lines, branches).

You can assign all balance sheet items, such as fixed assets, receivables, payables, and material stock, as well as
the entire P&L statement directly to business areas. You can only assign banks, equity, and taxes manually to
business areas indirectly. For this reason, it is not possible to create the legally-required financial statements and
tax reports at business area level. Financial statements at business area level are therefore only suitable for
internal reporting.

Features
To be able to create financial statements, the data has to be updated in the general ledger transaction figures for
each business area. There are two different procedures for doing this:

 When posting the original document, the system supplies the business area with the correct information.

You create a customer invoice. You can assign the sales revenue to exactly one business area.
The same business area is also assigned to the receivable.

Account Business Area Amount

Customer/receivable 0001 200.00
Revenue 0001 200.00-

 The business area used in the original posting (particularly when the initial value is not entered) is changed
to the correct value in a second step, using an adjustment posting in the general ledger. This may
sometimes distribute the posting to several business areas.

You create a customer invoice. The sales revenue must be assigned to several business areas.
The receivable is posted without a business area, and a transfer posting is made in a second step.

Account Business Area Amount

Customer/receivable 700.00
Revenue 0001 300.00-
Revenue 0002 400.00-
Account Business Area Amount
Receivable 700.00-
Receivable 0001 300.00
Receivable 0002 400.00

The following documentation explains how you set the business area in accounting documents created by business
transactions from individual SAP applications. In addition, it shows the steps necessary for creating business area
financial statements.

Business Areas in General Ledger Accounting (FI-GL)

This section describes the role played by the "business area" organizational unit within General Ledger Accounting.

Overview

Automatic/Manual Account Assignment

You cannot directly assign G/L account master data to a business area. The account assignment for the business
area must be either entered manually or derived from the CO account assignment object that has been entered.

Business transactions (for which automatic procedures exist) that analyze existing documents/transaction figures in
the system, and use them to create new documents (for example, foreign currency valuation) , assign the line items
generated to the business areas entered in the documents/transaction figures that were read.
Financial Statement Adjustments
Balance sheet adjustment is the retroactive assignment of receivables, payables, and taxes to business areas
and/or profit centers. This is possible in cases where the original document was posted without account
assignments being made to the appropriate fields.

P+L adjustment is the debiting of a profitability segment (business area, profit center, cost center, and so on) with
expenses and revenues that occur when a customer or vendor invoice is paid. Two major forms of these revenues
and expenses are cash discounts and exchange rate differences.

General Information

Adjustments generate adjustment postings to the accounts used for posting the original documents. To do this, the
system carries out a transfer posting from an initial account assignment, (that is an account assignment without a
value), to another, or several other non-initial account assignments.

The distribution is determined according to the account assignments of the outgoing document’s offsetting entry. All
G/L items, except tax items and cash discount items, are regarded as offsetting entries.

You must carry out adjustments before generating a balance sheet for a business area. These
adjustments are also needed for profit center accounting.

Customizing for Adjustments

In Customizing for Financial Accounting, you make the following settings for adjustments:

1. For each account involved in the adjustment, you can set up an adjustment account to which the
adjustment is posted. The account and its adjustment account must be displayed together in one balance
sheet item.

This includes the following accounts:

- Reconciliation accounts. These accounts cannot be posted to directly. Therefore, you must enter an
adjustment account.

- Tax accounts

- Cash discount accounts

- Accounts for exchange rate differences

The adjustment accounts may not be tax-relevant. This means that either the "Tax category" field in the
master record is not to be filled or the "Posting without tax allowed" field must be selected.

It is possible to make adjustment postings to accounts that the system can directly post to. Therefore, you
do not need to set up adjustment accounts for these accounts.

If you do not set up an adjustment account, the system posts to the original account. If you wish to
separate the adjustment postings from other postings, you should create separate adjustment accounts for
this purpose and post to these accounts.

2. You need to create a clearing account. Postings that ensure that the adjustment does not affect the
distribution of business area balances are made to this account. The posting that balances business areas
to zero is also generated from these clearing accounts.

The programs for adjustments automatically carry out the transfer and adjustment postings.
Therefore, adjustment account numbers must be stored in the system.
 You set up the accounts via the G/L Accounting Implementation Guide. To do this, select the
activity Define Accounts for Adjustment.

Profit and Loss Adjustments

The P&L adjustment distributes the following items when they arise on payment of a customer or vendor invoice:

 Cash discount paid/received

 Exchange rate differences (realized/valuated)

These items are distributed to the profitability segments affected (for example, business area, profit center, cost
center, and so on).

All customer and vendor items cleared within the specified reporting period are selected, and the cash discounts
and exchange rate differences, noted within these items, are distributed.

The system determines distribution according to the account assignments for the outgoing document’s offsetting
entry. All G/L items are regarded as an offsetting entry, except taxes and cash discounts. An adjustment occurs
only for those account assignments that have been posted with no value. If the business area is assigned to an
account in the original document’s item to be cleared, the system posts the cash discounts and exchange rate
differences with this value. No adjustment is carried out to the business area.

See also:

Carrying Out Profit and Loss Adjustments

Carrying Out Profit and Loss Adjustments

The program for P&L adjustments can be carried out only once for each posting period. Once this is carried out,
you can not carry out any clearing transactions within the period. In order to ensure this, the system searches for
documents that have been appropriately indicated in the header before proceeding with postings. If any such
documents are found, the system issues a warning message. However, this can be ignored.

You execute the P&L adjustment from the General Ledger menu. To do this, proceed as follows:

1. Select Periodic processing  Closing  Regroup  Profit and loss adjustment.

2. Enter the following data:

- Company code

- Reporting year and period for which the adjustment should be carried out.

- Field names, (from the account assignment block), that should not be taken into consideration during the
allocation. By default the system takes into consideration all fields that you can call up using the F4 key.
Fields to which no values have been posted will be automatically ignored.

- If you select the Create batch input field, you must specify a document type and a session name for the
documents you are creating. If you do not enter a posting date, the system uses the last day of the
reporting period for this date.

- You can also select whether or not to have a log at line item level. For each individual posting, the system
then lists the original document these items came from.
 3. Under Program, select how you want to run the program.

The program generates a batch input session that you must process. The system displays the generated transfer
posting documents in the log. Each block represents one document. Since the size of the document is limited, a
block can also be posted in several documents. If the account determination is incomplete, the system does not
produce a posting for the company code in question. The system lists the entries that need to be corrected at the
end of the log.

If you have generated a log at the line item level, double click the document number to branch to the document
display.

Balance Sheet Adjustments

A balance sheet adjustment distributes:

 Receivables and payables in customer and vendor reconciliation accounts

 Postings for taxes

 Postings for cash discounts from the vendor net procedure

 Valuated exchange rate differences in open items

The system also ensures that the business area balance sheet balances to zero.

A balance sheet adjustment is carried out according to business area if "Business area balance sheets" has been
activated in the "Details" screen of the company code. To do this, select the Enter Global Parameters activity in the
Financial Accounting Global Settings Implementation Guide under Company Code.

The system distributes according to trading partner business area if "Business area consolidation" is also activated.

An adjustment is carried out according to profit center and trading partner profit center if profit center accounting
has been activated in the controlling area assigned to the company code.

This function is separated into three steps:

1. When you post a document, the system determines whether a "Balance Sheet Adjustment" must be carried
out. If this is the case, the document is noted for the adjustment.
2. A report is used to calculate the adjustment for noted documents and this is then stored in special tables
The result of this calculation can then be checked for each individual document at any time. You can
execute this program as many times as you like. For more information, see: Calculating Balance Sheet
Adjustments
3. Another program reads the calculated distribution and posts it to the accounts set up for this process. This
view refers to the key date, which means that postings are made for all receivables open for a key date.
The receivables cleared for this key date are disregarded and the postings made during a previous view
are reversed. This also applies to payables and taxes. You can also execute this program as many times
as you like. The program posts accounting documents that are to be generated directly to the database. A
batch input session is only generated when errors occur. This session must be processed.

For more information, see: Posting Balance Sheet Adjustments

You must carry out the balance sheet adjustment after evaluating open items. After making the
adjustment, you can no longer post to the business area.

The following programs are used to carry out adjustments to the financial statements:
Program Name Function
SAPF181 Profit and Loss Adjustment
SAPF180A Calculate Balance Sheet Adjustment
SAPF180 Post Balance Sheet Adjustment
SAPF180P Display Balance Sheet Adjustment Log
SAPF180N Set up Balance Sheet Adjustment
SAPF180S Reverse Posting Run for Balance Sheet Adjustment
SAPF180K Redetermine Adjustment Accounts for Balance Sheet
Adjustment

Updating Balance Sheet Accounts at Business Area

Level
For balance sheet accounts, you can make system configuration settings to specify whether the business area is a
required entry when posting to these accounts. It may, for example, be necessary to not enter a business area if
the financial statement item has to be assigned to several business areas but the original item should not be split
up.

Invoice

Account Business Area Amount

Customer/receivable 1,150.00
Revenue 0001 600.00-
Revenue 0002 400.00-
Taxes 150.00-

In the standard system you can make transfer postings to the business area where the transaction originated for
the following balance sheet accounts:

 Receivables

 Payables

 Cash discount clearing

 Taxes

You can use the balance sheet adjustment to do this. When you post a document, the system checks it and, if
appropriate, marks it for the balance sheet adjustment. Program SAPF180A reads the marked documents,
calculates the necessary adjustment postings, and updates these in its own database tables. A second program,
SAPF180, reads the adjustment posting tables and on this basis posts the accounting documents required.

Balance Sheet Adjustment

Account Business Area Amount

Receivable 1,150.00-
Receivable 0001 690.00
Receivable 0002 460.00
Taxes 150.00
Taxes 0001 90.00-
Taxes 0002 60.00-

 The balance sheet adjustment generates summarized transfer postings for each of the categories in
question.

 You can run a balance sheet adjustment as often as you require.

 You cannot however run the balance sheet adjustment without first activating the business area balance
sheets for the company code in question.

 You can display the calculated adjustment postings for each individual document from the document
display screen.