Working with SAP Group Reporting S/4HANA Finance 2022/2021

⇨ S4/HANA Group Reporting can simplify the financial landscape radically and simplify the architecture compared to the complex processes in legacy landscape.

⇨ With SAP SAC integration with Group Reporting, planning data can be released directly to Group Reporting (ACDOCU) table and can be integrated with consolidation process.

⇨ The most important functionality now available in SAP S/4 HANA Group Reporting is the Profit In Inventory (PII) elimination feature.

SAP Group Reporting – Part I – Introduction

SAP S/4HANA Finance for Group Reporting is the latest product designed by SAP made exclusively for consolidation purposes. The solution integrates directly into the SAP S/4HANA database and has integration capabilities with the SAP Business Warehouse and SAP Analytics Cloud family of products. In this document the Data Monitor functionality in SAP S/4HANA Finance for Group Reporting is explained. We will review some of the configuration setups along with the security requirements needed so the right number of menus are available to the user when working in the web-based Fiori environment.

Before we begin, it’s important to emphasize that the SAP S/4HANA Finance for Group Reporting database and architecture are built for period or monthly data only, NOT year-to-date (YTD) data. This is an important point since all transactions, postings, and calculations in the system follow this rule. In comparison with SAP Business Planning and Consolidation, the planning model had to be created with the flexibility to have either Periodic or YTD, but this flexibility Is not available in SAP S/4 HANA Finance for Group Reporting.   SAP S/4HANA Finance for Group Reporting is designed around ACDOCA on a periodic (monthly) basis for all transactions in SAP S/4HANA. YTD reporting and selective YTD calculations can be performed within SAP S/4HANA Finance for Group Reporting, but the data will be captured on a high level as YTD and during the calculation the system internally will break down the value into the different monthly periods or periodic values. You can report data in YTD with the appropriate selections, but the core data in the database is stored PERIODIC or MONTHLY, and this includes balance sheet, income statement, journal entries, cash flow calculations, and any other postings.

Upgrading Your System to Support SAP S/4HANA Finance for Group Reporting Functionality

Before you start your implementation, a key point to discuss is your SAP system upgrade level. Often project managers or project leads are very hesitant to upgrade their SAP systems because the SAP Business Warehouse teams are reluctant to support the upgrades. For example, if you are in the current level of SAP S/4HANA 1609 and you want to implement SAP S/4HANA Finance for Group Reporting functionality that is only available In 1809 or higher, new software MUST BE INSTALLED on the servers which might cause significant impacts across the board. For example, I was recently involved with a major pharmaceutical company in the US and they were upgrading from SAP S/4HANA 1609 to SAP S/4HANA 1909, and the project manager was clear, no upgrades to the servers would be performed because the SAP Business Warehouse team would be impacted, and with the support of the project leader in Germany. SAP AG has provided so many guiding OSS Notes to manage upgrades across installation levels, and still I am very surprised how project managers, team leaders, Big 4 implementers, and developers around the world still rely on previous experience rather than focusing on the latest OSS notes and guidance in order to make their decision making.

Needless to say, please use SAP OSS notes as reference and guidance and not people’s opinions with a “show me facts” approach. To complete the story, the project managers agreed they will upgrade only front-end components on the laptops but nothing on the servers to finish the 1909 upgrade, and after multiple intense meetings and  after multiple OSS notes shown on the competitors desk and intense meetings with the overall Project Manager and Global Leader In Germany, finally an upgrade to 90% of their system components that I wanted was authorized and performed on the servers to bring the expected functionality required to have SAP S/4HANA Finance for Group Reporting using 1909. It was a massive impact since the last core backend upgrade to the servers happened 4.5 years ago, and after completion the performance issues were reduced overnight, and the expected functionality was available for implementation.

Another example that showcases the importance of upgrading: I was flown to Dubai on emergency to support a major supermarket and car dealership conglomerate. We reviewed the servers the first day with the SAP Basis team due to significant performance issues and system instability on their servers and the end-user community was ready to completely stop using the system all together since they could not access, use, or generate reports without the system taking one hour to open or their reports crashing all together. Long story short, the core components of this major conglomerate have not been updated for at least 6 years, and upgrading the servers at this time due to the level of customizations will have serious impacts that required further evaluations. To make matters worse, both project managers from the client and implementation teams were in denial that such upgrades would be necessary, arguing that SAP must provide a solution for their situation, and unfortunately the solution was simple, upgrade your systems at least once a year or else. In summary, YES Project Managers or Project Sponsors, if you want to use and deploy SAP S/4HANA Finance for Group Reporting on version 1909 your servers must be touched, and please do not listen to anything else but SAP OSS notes and your system status from your SAP Basis teams to avoid the major fails previously described, otherwise doing the job half way you will pay in wasted resources and time, develop useless customizations to patch up your system for a while, system instability, and poor performance in the immediate future.

What is the Data Monitor Functionality in SAP S/4HANA Finance for Group Reporting?

As shown in Figure 1, SAP S/4HANA Finance for Group Reporting has two monitors and their tasks are clearly described based on their processes: Data Monitor and Consolidation Monitor. In summary, the Data Monitor functionality is tailored towards the local accountant in charge of the data collection, transfer data from ACDOCA to ACDOC U, data preparation, currency translation, rounding, CTA calculations, journal entries, and validity check of the data BEFORE consolidation process begins. The Consolidation Monitor, which will not be reviewed in detail in this document, controls the consolidation process within SAP S/4HANA Finance for Group Reporting, such as intercompany elimination, group elimination, equity calculations, divestitures, among others.

Figure 1—The Overall Consolidation Process in SAP S/4HANA Finance for Group Reporting

To be clear, BOTH Data Monitor and Consolidation Monitor provide a sequence of events and processes to be executed to complete a task. It Is recommended that you install the pre-delivered content called 1SG. It Is recommended to review SAP OSS note 2659656 for further clarifications.  An important concept in SAP S/4HANA Finance for Group Reporting is financial statement items, which are commonly referred to as FS. FS is nothing more than an account used in SAP S/4HANA Finance for Group Reporting that gets populated as a result of the mapping from the original SAP general ledger (G/L) account to a new number that will be used to build your financial statements for consolidation, such as balance sheet, cash flow, and P&L statements. FS accounts can be populated using BOTH planning data from table ACDOCP and actual transaction data from ACDOCA, and their values reside In the ACDOCU table only. FS are generally referred to as group chart of accounts, and the SAP G/L account is generally referred to now as the operational chart of accounts with a leading ledger coming from the ACDOCA and ACDOCP tables.

Based on Figure 1, the tasks that the Data Monitor will take care of are mostly data preparation and review performed by the local accountant role:

• Open Period: by right clicking on a Consolidation Unit (Company Code) you can open a period in SAP S/4HANA Finance for Group Reporting. Remember the closing in SAP G/L account level is separate from a FS item opening period.
• Balance Carry Forward: performing a Balance Sheet Carry Forward process from operational chart of accounts (SAP G/L Account) to FS items is done on period 1 of every year.
• Release Universal Journal: transfer data and executing the mapping from operational chart of accounts in ACDOCA to FS items in ACDOCU.
• Validate Mappings: supports the validation of mappings from operational chart accounts to FS items, and also SAP S/4HANA Finance for Group Reporting provides an app that helps perform a mapping check for a specific time period based on your selection parameters and identify the missing mappings.
• Calculate Net Income and Validate Reported Data: SAP S/4HANA Finance for Group Reporting allows you to create your customized data validation formulas, group them together into a single task, and execute them at once as part of the Data Monitor.
• Manual Postings: you can also use Data Monitor to load SAP, non-SAP data or adjustments using a flat file upload interface.

Now, to access the Data Monitor functionality you need to use the web-based Fiori App available In the Consolidation Data Preparation Tile Group and click on the Data Monitor App as shown in Figure 2 or by accessing the T-code UI2/FLP In your SAP GUI environment.

Figure 2— Accessing the Data Monitor from the Fiori Tile in the Consolidation Data Preparation

However, it is important to notice that the option for Set Global Parameters must be set up since these selections affect the data and structures displayed in the Data Monitor, as shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3— Setting Up the Set Global Parameters for Data Monitor

Similarly, to the Data Monitor itself, Set Global Parameters Tile is available in the same Consolidation Data Preparation Tile, next to the Data Monitor, as shown in Figure 3.  The key selections are:

• Version: Versions are also called categories in other SAP products such as SAP Business Planning and Consolidation. The purpose of a version is to create data sets that you can separate your data for reporting such as Actual, Budget, Actual data with Budget Rates, and Budget Data with Actuals Rates, and more. The SAP pre-delivered version Y10 is available if Business Content 1SG is installed.
• Fiscal Year: defines the year.
• Period: defines the period.
• Consolidation Chart of Accounts (FS Items Groups): identifies the chart of accounts available for the FS items to be used and displayed and reported.
• Consolidation Ledger: defines the Group Currency and the source SAP leading ledger, example 0L. There can be only ONE currency per ledger, meaning ALL reports and calculations would be delivered in one single currency. If you require reporting in EUR you must create another ledger in the required currency as of Version SAP S/4HANA 1909. In the SAP pre-delivered content there are two ledgers delivered Y1 in EUR and Y2 In USD, custom made ledgers must start with C such as C1 or C2. Also there are consolidation ledgers 1C/2C, which are not relevant for Group Reporting.

Once opened, the Data Monitor will display the selections chosen in the Global Parameters App on the top of the screen with Consolidation Chart of Accounts (COA), Version, Period and Year. Notice that in Figure 4 the selections chosen in Figure 3 have been greyed out, and to change it to you must return to the Tile discussed in Figure 3.  Notice in Figure 4 on the left hand side is the consolidation unit hierarchy (Company Codes), and the units such as SW00 highlighted in green means its selected period is not open, which is separate from FI monthly close process or SAP Financial Closing Cockpit.

Figure 4— Sample of the Data Monitor Environment

As shown in Figure 4, you see the consolidation unit hierarchy on the Y axis and the tasks are managed in the columns or the X axis. Notice in this grid there are tasks to be executed for each group or consolidation unit. Also, the tasks can be executed at the group level or the parent of the hierarchy. For example, CG00W node is the parent for Canada, France, Switzerland, United States, and more. This hierarchy includes both SAP companies and non-SAP companies, only the SAP companies will be populated when the replication and mapping tasks from ACDOCA to ACDOCU are performed.

Figure 4 contains a grid with colors and symbols that identify the different status of your data by Consolidation Unit (company Code). SAP S/4 HANA Finance for Group Reporting allows you to execute each of these individual tasks at the Group Level or at the Individual Consolidation Unit level for each of the identified tasks located on the columns in Figure 4. Each of the consolidation units on the Y axis must have a green checkmark at the end of the completion of each task. The nomenclature of each status is noted below:

• A green check mark with a window identifies a successfully completed task and execution.
• A yellow task identifies Items to be reviewed.
• A X identifies a task not yet executed.
• A red minus sign identifies a task that does not apply to the consolidation unit, for example because the Consolidation Unit does not have data and it is not an SAP company for this step.

Finally, it is important to notice that each data point or grid can be executed in test mode or update mode. The first one test mode is considered a simulation, where the task is executed testing the available data and without changing the data in the database, just a read process. The update mode performs the tasks and changes the data available in the data base, and after completion the data adjusted or generated would be available for reporting or review in ACDOCU.

Critical Security Roles for SAP S/4HANA Finance for Group Reporting and Data Monitor

As mentioned in the previous section, SAP S/4HANA Finance for Group Reporting works with tiles. These tiles exist in the SAP Fiori environment. Similarly with other SAP products, it is important for the user or group of users to have the proper security available in order to work, configure, and access the complete set of tools as an admin or super user in order to work and configure the Data Monitor. The roles shown in Figure 5 are MANDATORY when accessing the security t-code PFCG:

• Administrator-Group Reporting (SAP_BR_ADMINISTRATOR_GRP role)
• Analytics Specialist (SAP_BR_ANALYTICS_SPECIALIST)
• Configuration Expert-Business Process Configuration (SAP_BR_BPC_EXPERT and SAP_BR_BPC_EXPERT_MDG)

Figure 5— Required Security Roles for SAP S/4HANA Finance for Group Reporting

Part 1 – Conclusion

We have briefly reviewed the components and tasks performed using the Data Monitor tool from SAP S/4HANA Finance for Group Reporting. Once again, all data in SAP S/4HANA Finance for Group Reporting occurs MONTHLY or PERIODIC, and NOT using YTD. You cannot input YTD, you cannot change the database to store the data in YTD, every transaction is stored monthly following ACDOCA and ACDOCU architecture. You can, however, convert data stored monthly into YTD using different selections and or report It In YTD.

We have reviewed the major tasks used as part of the Data Monitor, the roles required for an admin to have in order to work with SAP S/4HANA Finance for Group Reporting and access the SAP Fiori tiles associated with SAP S/4HANA Finance for Group Reporting. In addition, we have reviewed briefly the overall consolidation process available in SAP S/4HANA Finance for Group Reporting and how there are two monitors: one that controls the data preparation and currency conversions (Data Monitor), and the Consolidation Monitor used to execute the consolidation steps on a monthly basis for both non-SAP and SAP company codes that belong to a Group hierarchy.

Most importantly, before you plan to deploy or implement SAP S/4HANA Finance for Group Reporting in 1909 or higher, please make sure that your servers are updated following SAP OSS note guidelines, or at least request that your SAP Basis team provide the status and recommendations following these guidelines. If your systems have not been upgraded for at least one year, you might be in trouble already. Think of it this way: If your SAP system was a car, it would be a Ferrari, Lamborghini, Pagani, or Bugatti, depending on the size of your implementation. When it’s time to change the oil in your car, do it in a proper manner including the filters so you don’t risk your investment.

SAP Group Reporting – Part II – Introduction

SAP S/4HANA Finance for SAP Group Reporting is the latest product by SAP exclusively for financial consolidation purposes. It is a centralized tool for financial consolidation and the only tool in SAP’s landscape that can perform processes related to consolidation such as Currency Translation Adjustment (CTA). This article aims to elucidate and explore the key topics in SAP Group Reporting S/4 HANA 2022/2021. Although the concepts discussed in the article are for advanced-level consultants, users, and technical teams familiar with configuration screens and technical terms, the language has been simplified to make it comprehensible to all.

There are always new products in SAP’s landscape, but SAP’s Group Reporting solution has a stronghold until 2025 (according to the Product Vision Status―Figure 1). Solutions like Group Reporting are long-term investments on which improvements are made continuously unlike products that are in support mode and receive no maintenance support when they reach the end of their life cycle. A clear example of the product in support mode is SAP BW (all versions).

Figure 1—SAP Group Reporting Product Availability Matrix Source: SAP

At the outset, clients need to integrate their systems with the SAP Group Reporting Architecture (Figure 2) for a better experience. There are different software that can be integrated into Group Reporting, which might not be included in implementation due to licensing constraints. Here is a list of solutions that can be integrated with S4/HANA for Group Reporting:

• Group Reporting Data Collection (GRDC): Sold as a companion app which requires a separate license, this tool is a data transformation, storage, and conversion solution that automates data transformation from external systems with data mapping, for example, transactional data from non-SAP systems to SAP system.
• SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC): This tool is used for dashboards, analytics, and planning. It has pre-delivered business content for SAP Group Reporting but requires a separate license. This is one of many other SAP cloud solutions such as Datawarehouse Cloud (DWC), Data Intelligence (DI), HANA Cloud, and others.
• SAP Disclosure Management: A separate tool used for financial statement submission and to publish regulatory statements and notes as well as to file the corresponding data in XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) format.
• ICMR (Intercompany Matching and Reconciliation): This tool was introduced to speed up the intercompany reconciliation process from company close to corporate close with workflow functionality and integration with SAP Group Reporting. This does not require a separate license and is a part of the package except for Machine Learning feature. In SAP S4/HANA 2022, the integration function has been improved and data can be transferred into the ACDOCU table seamlessly.

Figure 2—Target Architecture Integrated Platform for Group Reporting Source: SAP

S4/HANA Group Reporting can simplify the financial landscape radically.

Figure 3 depicts how SAP Group Reporting tool can simplify the architecture compared to the complex processes in legacy landscapes. In a legacy system, the old ETL tools are required to manage and transfer data between systems and servers, and in the S4/HANA landscape, there is seamless integration between the ACDOCA (financial transactional) and ACODCU (analytical) tables.

Figure 3—Simplification of SAP S/4 HANA Group Reporting (both Cloud and on-premise) Source: SAP

What is new in SAP Group Reporting on HANA 2022/2021?

SAP Group Reporting with SAP S/4 HANA 2022 was released in October 2022. A detailed SAP S/4 HANA Group Reporting 2022/2021 comparison can be accessed here.

Figure 4 provides a summary of the new functionalities available in SAP S/4 HANA 2022. Comparison of SAP S/4 HANA 2021 functionalities with earlier versions can be accessed here.

Figure 4—What’s new In SAP S/4 HANA Group Reporting Release 2022 Source: SAP

SAP Group Reporting S/4 HANA 2022 delivers the following major new features:

• Tighter integration of accounting with group reporting via the introduction of new group reporting preparation ledgers at accounting level, with real-time aggregated group view into accounting
• Restatements and simulations capabilities, leveraging and enhancing the extension version capability, to help you run these critical activities of your consolidation process
• Segment reporting through flexible derivation of the consolidation unit in group reporting preparation ledgers, helping you manage the data collection process at segment level, define consolidation groups for segments, split up data from one company to several consolidation units so that you can perform the consolidation of segments, profit centers, functional areas, or a combination of these
• Enhanced reclassification for equity method, with a new option called “Remove Predefined Filters” to automate the consolidation adjustments for a unit consolidated with equity method
• Integrate planning data from SAP Analytics Cloud with group reporting consolidation, with the ability to perform entity planning as well as corporate planning based on built-in integration on planning functions and analytics reporting
• Improved data feed with SAP Group Reporting Data Collection (GRDC) data mapping app including ECC as a source to populate the consolidation table, test run capabilities and enhanced segregation of duties
• Better collection of text comments, and introduction of visual controls / conditional formatting in SAP Group Reporting Data Collection (GRDC) forms
• Enhanced “Manage Substitution/Validation Rules – Group Journal Entries app”, with the ability to use time and version-dependent financial statement item attributes as a pre-condition value for your substitution and validation rules
• Increased flexibility in the consolidation process with consolidation unit extensibility, enabling you to create custom attributes on your units

(Source: SAP S/4HANA Finance for group reporting 2022 is generally available)

The key components that stand out when we compare SAP S/4HANA Finance for Group Reporting 2022 to the earlier versions are:

1. Better integration with ICMR to book Journal Entries for imbalances as part of the Data Monitor with the addition of Task 2042 IC Balance Sheet Elimination which allows two-sided interunit elimination by using automatic posting rules and using a Document Type with Business Application as G for “External Documents”.
2. Improvements in Consolidation of Investments (COI) with more fields is a welcome addition. SAP will continue supporting both rule-based and activity-based Consolidation of Investments (COI). However, there are functionality differences between the two approaches.
3. Increased integration with GRDC (Group Reporting Data Collection) improves the functionality of the product for data conversion in comparison to other tools.
4. The biggest and most important improvement in functionality for SAP Group Reporting, and only available in release SAP S/4 HANA 2022/2021 and onwards, is the Profit in Inventory or Intercompany Profit (PII or IIP). This allows SAP Group Reporting to perform the process of elimination of profit when inventory or intercompany sales are performed across company codes within the same group, and a percentage of markup is involved across partner company codes.
5. Extensibility of financial statement items master data facilitates reporting or data manipulation.

However, there are still certain functionalities that are not available in SAP Group Reporting S/4 HANA 2022/2021 but are available in solutions such as SAP SAC. In particular, the workflow functionality for creating a work status or approval chain for Group Journal Entries is reserved for cloud versions to be released in Q1 2023 but not for on-premise versions. In the absence of an on-premise solution, there is an increased request for custom functionality using other SAP tools for this.

Workflow functionality for Manual Journal Entries

For cloud version, workflow functionality for manual journal entries would be released in Q1 2023 following SAP Availability Matrix for SAP Group Reporting S/4 HANA (shown in Figure 5). For on-premise solutions, the journal entry workflow will be released in Q4 2023 (depicted in Figure 6) however, it is unclear as to which SAP S/4 HANA versions will be supported or allowed to be installed.

Figure 5—Workflow functionality available in SAP S/4 HANA Group Reporting for Cloud version Source: SAP

For other tools such as SAP SAC, the expected manual journal entry functionality will perform the following tasks:

• For analysts or accountants:
  • Create a draft manual journal
  • Check for consistency
  • Request an approval or the posting
• For managers or approvers:
  • Receive workflow item in their inbox
  • Check the manual journal
  • Approve, post, send for rework, or reject

The functionality is for manual journal entries, and not for importing journal entries using flat files.

Figure 6—Workflow functionality available in SAP S/4 HANA Group Reporting On-Premise Solutions Source: SAP

Equity Pickup (EPU)

Equity Pickup (EPU) is a regulatory requirement in some countries used for reporting standalone financial statements for parent units. This allows the parent company’s investment to be revaluated to reflect the change in equity after acquisition that must be recorded in the parent unit books.

Equity Pickup app enables the generation of journal entries required at the parent unit by reading the net income and Other Comprehensive Income (OCI) reported by a subsidiary. As shown in Figure 7, Equity Pickup app creates a file with all journal entries generated and the Import Group Journal Entries app is used to load the file. As part of SAP S/4 HANA 2022/2021, this functionality has been improved to perform the Equity Pickup automation to include currency translation adjustments on OCI.

Figure 7— Executing the Equity Pickup App

Intercompany Profit in Inventory Profit in Inventory (PII), or Elimination of Unrealized Profit in Inventory or Transfer Pricing

The Intercompany Profit in Inventory Process is relevant to companies that sell goods to other companies or partner units, who in turn sell them to others, all within the same group. If there is a margin in the intra-group selling price and leftover inventory at the end of the accounting period, there is a need to eliminate the selling unit’s profit. This can also happen at the plant level, which automatically increases the complexity of the scenarios and the limitations of the tool.

In S/4HANA 2022/2021, the transfer price dilemma is resolved through the following:

1. The material or product is added to the consolidation package, which is a significant change but also a risk from a data volume perspective. Since it is a new process, not many companies have fully implemented this solution.
2. Method S2015 IC. Elim. Inventory Profit has been introduced (Figure 8) to perform markup percentages, allowing the adjustments to COGs, inventory, and net income.
3. The Methods screen has been enhanced to include the field “Percent f. Partner” that is, Percentage from Partner. In this case, the source partner with the markup percentage needs to be “eliminated” or adjusted to remove the profitability of the sale to the partner unit.
4. With this functionality, SAP comes full circle to support material ledger and product costing to manage transfer pricing, which was not available earlier.

Figure 8— Method S2015 for Intercompany Elimination of Inventory Profit in SAP S/4 HANA 2022/2021

Figure 9—New enhancement In the Methods Screen to read the markup percentage from the Partner Unit

Intercompany Matching and Reconciliation (ICMR) Integration

ICMR is another tool outside of Group Reporting for reviewing and identifying out-of-balance transactions for intercompany transactions and potential corrections. In SAP S/4 HANA 2022/2021, ICMR has been integrated as part of the process through Task 2042 with Business Application type G (Figure 10 and 11). Through this, balancing postings are extracted into Group Reporting to correct data and out-of-balance transactions.

Figure 10— ICMR Integration using Task 2042 In SAP Group Reporting 2022/2021

Figure 11— Document Type and Business Application required for ICMR Integration

SAP SAC integration with SAP Group Reporting (now available on-premise)

This functionality was recently released (see Figure 12) and enhances the integration of SAP Group Reporting with SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC). With this, planning data can be released directly to Group Reporting (ACDOCU) table and can be integrated with consolidation process. In SAP S/4 HANA 2022, the following scenarios are feasible:

• Write data back from SAP Analytics Cloud to SAP S/4HANA for Group Reporting by pushing data from SAP Analytics Cloud to SAP S/4HANA.
• Integrate with the status of the data collection task in the Group Reporting monitor.

• Group-level planning with no integration in company-level planning.
• Planning of consolidation units not represented in accounting, and which need to be consolidated

Figure 12— SAP SAC to SAP Group Reporting Integration available In SAP S/4 HANA 2022 as promised

SAP Group Reporting Job Automation

SAP Group Reporting with job automation can schedule one or multiple processes to run on a scheduled basis. Applications like Jobs, Job Templates, Log Messages (see Figure 13) can schedule Consolidation Tasks that are executed in either the Data Monitor or the Consolidation Monitor or both.

Figure 13— SAP Group Reporting Job Automation Tiles

However, the procedure requires a review of services activation and security roles to run effectively. Another alternative for users interested in consolidation tasks automation is the implementation of old Process Chains if using tiles is not desirable (Figure 13). To achieve process chain and job scheduling, T-Code RSPC1 can be leveraged if available in the systems (Figure 14) to implement a job automation process for group reporting. In Figure 14, the T-code RSPC1 has been used to create two process sequences―once for actual data and then for budget data. These processes run on the first day of the month for every 2 hours for 10 days, which means that nobody in the consolidation team needs to manually trigger any of the processes in SAP Group Reporting.

Figure 14— Running SAP Group Reporting Jobs as Process Chains using T-code RSPC1

Conclusion

This document explores the key functionalities of SAP Group Reporting that are business critical or that many business users and managers need guidance on. The most important functionality now available in SAP S/4 HANA Group Reporting is the Profit In Inventory (PII) elimination. As mentioned before, adding the material field in the consolidation landscape might have performance and data volume implications, which is why this must be a coordinated decision depending on the complexity of the organization. It is possible that the material field increases the data volume significantly in the database, and there might be a need to perform partition in the ACDOCU table keeping in mind the 2 billion records recommended threshold.