Q&A: What You Should Know About Material Ledger in S/4 HANA

GET ANSWERS TO THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS AND MANY MORE IN THIS CO-HOSTED ASUG WEBCAST.

This presentation by Paul Ovigele and Rogerio Faleiros will cover:

• Why Material Ledger is Mandatory with S/4 HANA

• The difference between using Material ledger for Actual Costing and Parallel Valuation

• The improvements that have been made to the Actual Costing closing cockpit

• The improved reporting that exists for Material ledger within SAP S/4HANA

• Migrating to Material Ledger in S/4 HANA

Watch the prerecorded webcast by pressing play:

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Q&A questions answered by ERPfixers expert Fixers Rogerio Faleiros & Paul Ovigele.

Q: So any MB type transaction where a BDC is used will need to be reworked then correct? 

A: Yes, any transactions that began with MB… (e.g. MB1C, MB1A, etc.) are now replaced with MIGO, and therefore any BDC sessions would need to be updated accordingly. It is better to transfer this transaction to a BADI or BAPI

Q: Can we use material ledger with different fiscal year variant than core ledger (FI) ? 

A: There is no concept of a Fiscal year variant in Material Ledger itself. Fiscal year variants are based on Ledgers in the Universal Journal. If you use Multi-valuation Ledger, then your Fiscal Year variant of the leading ledger will be the same in all Valuations of material ledger. If you use Single Valuation Ledger, then you should be able to have different Fiscal Year variants for the different ledgers (which represent separate valuation views in the Material ledger).

Q: Another question is do we need to close actual costing before we start posting in new period?

A: No. In both S/4 HANA and ECC, you will normally be closing actual costing after the new period has been opened. One of the reasons for this is that the Actual Costing “Post Closing” step reversed the inventory postings with a posting date of the beginning of the new period, therefore this new period needs to be open.

Q: Does ML in S/4 HANA allow negative inventory?

A: ML in S/4 HANA allows negative inventory, however, this needs to be specified in the Material Master and MM Period opening program.

Q: Is it easier to change Material Type or Valuation Classes than in ECC6? 

A: As far as I know, there is no difference with the process of changing Material Type or Valuation classes, as with in ECC 6.0.

Q: The same question about actual material ledger activated and Transfer Price, any point for attention?

A: The configuration for activating Material Ledger is the same as in ECC. One difference is that you need to specify the FI currency types that you want to use in ML. this is because FI now has eight extra currency types, while ML has only three. Transfer Pricing has been much more streamlined with S/4 HANA and you now have the option of having a separate ledger for each valuation view.

Q: Can you explain the differences from ECC to 1709 for how to setup LIFO or other balance sheet valuations?  Any thoughts on how to automate LIFO calculations?

A: To calculate LIFO you will need to define an accounting principle and assign LIFO method to it, and this assinged to material ledger.

Q: Everything was shown using the classic GUI.  Are there Fiori apps to process material ledger yet?

A: There are a few Fiori apps such as “Material Inventory Values” which can be used to view the data in the ML tables, however, there isn’t a Fiori App to process Material  Ledger as of yet.

Q: Are the MBEW EBEW tables going to be maintained as "views" in S/4Hana, or are they deleted?

A: Yes, the MBEW, EBEW, etc. tables will be maintained as compatibility views so that they can still be read with custom programs.

Q: Similar question, are the old ML tables MLHD, MLIT CKMLPP maintained as "views so that old programs & reports still work in S/4Hana?

A: Yes, these old ML tables are also maintained as compatibility views in S/4 HANA.

Q: Do we have to do new ML config before we execute the Migration steps?

A: yes, you at least need to reconfigure the currency type, if you used 0000. Also there is a new account modification PRL which is to be set up as the offset account key that is used for cost center credit posting (GBB-AUI).

Q: Is it mandatory to activate ML if I don't have it in my company?

Yes, it is mandatory to activate ML when you move to S/4 HANA even if you did not have it in ECC. Remember however, that Material Ledger is replacing the tables that were used in ECC for Inventory Valuation, therefore there probably is already relevant data in your current system for Material Ledger, even if you do not have it activated. Material Ledger is now the new subledger for inventory valuation but you do not have to activate Actual Costing, if it is not needed.

Q: What is the impact of activating ML in ECC before moving to S/4 if you don't have ML activated for materials?

A: If you want to activate ML in ECC before moving to S/4, you will need to perform a conversion of Inventory Valuation and Purchase Order history tables to Material Ledger tables. Note that, this this will need to be done anyway when you eventually move to S/4 HANA. The difference is that converting before hand gives the business some time to get used to material Ledger functionality, fosters user adoption, and provides historical information that can be accessed when you move to S/4 HANA. Note that if you Activate Actual Costing in ECC, the Actual Costing Run (CKMLCP) will be revamped when you move to S/4 HANA.

Q: What are steps we need to do before migrating ML from ECC to S4 Hana?

A: ML is now part of the conversion steps for S/4 HANA, so the ML activation will be included in the migration process. What is more important is that you understand how you can leverage Material Ledger functionality, and plan and design your S/4 HANA migration accordingly. You can take advantage of the Multi-valuation or Single valuation ledger approach; Company Code transfer pricing; Profit Center Transfer Pricing; Alternative Valuation Run to cumulate prices over several periods; Revaluing Inventory according to FIFO, LIFO, or NRV prices; and much more. Once you come up with the functionalities that will be beneficial to your business, you can then set up the system accordingly.

Q: Do we have view to old tables?

A: You can view the old Inventory and ML tables because the custom programs which accessed these tables will be able to access the compatibility views of these tables so that there is no disruption. However, you will not be able to write new data to these old tables.

Q: We use FIFO calculation and are there any steps we need to take care during Migration?  

A: No it is the same process as a company that does not use FIFO.

Q: We are moving to Hana Enterprise Cloud first just o get to  more current platform than our old ECC6.  will upgrade of material ledger come along with that, or not until we do the upgrade to S/4 Hana which will follow this system upgrade?

A: The new functionality of Material Ledger is only available with S/4 HANA. Even if you have HEC, this will only enable faster processing and reporting in the current ECC system but not add any extra functionality.

Q: Hi - Does the COGS split happen for the COGS variances also since ML has the variances data for this?

A: As of now, the COGS split (or Cost Component Split for Cost of Sales) does not happen with COGS variances. Instead, the Variance Categories (Input Price, Input Quantity, Resource Usage, etc.) can now be mapped to separate accounts in the Universal Journal.

Q: Will there be new functionality on non-distributed items?

A: Due to the revamped processing logic in Material Ledger on S/4 HANA, the “Not Distributed” items have been seriously reduced.

Q: Can we have material ledger activate for variant material (variant configuration active)?

A: Yes, you can have Material Ledger active along with Variant Configuration, in both ECC and S/4 HANA.

Q: We are currently on SAP ECC 6.0 on HANA with material ledger active. Will we have any disruption if we migrate to S/4?

A: No, there should not be any problem with migrating to ML on S/4 when you are already on the HANA database. You may not see much of a difference with the processing speed, since you already have the fast database, but you will go through the S/4 migration as normal and be able to leverage the new functionalities.

Q: We are on SAP ECC 6.0 on HANA with Material Ledger and Split Valuation active. Any anything we need to worry?

A: There should be no negative impact of having Material ledger and Split valuation when you move to S/4 HANA.

Q: Does ML or Actual costing support LIFO calc?

A: Yes, this is based on accounting principle.

Q: Does ML have capability to have LIFO valuation in parallel with FIFO valuation?

A: You have the option to have one material ledger run (e.g. CKMLCP) as FIFO and a second one using alternative valuation run (e.g. CKMLCPAVR) as LIFO.

Q: In ECC, the customer is able to choose whether the revolution will be done inside or outside ML. Is that option available in ML S/4 HANA?

A: If you use Actual Costing with S/4 HANA, you will need to run the Actual Costing program every month in ML. You can choose whether you want to revalue inventory with the actual cost or not. If however, you do not want to revalue inventory within ML (but say, in another system) then this will need to be a separate customized process.

Q: In ECC, the customer is able to use one single PRD Account. 3 or 4 slides before the end of the presentation, there is a slide with some hints about variances accounts and I am wondering whether in S/4 HANA we would be able to configure more than one single PRD Account. Is that possible? For instance: Price Variance, Freight Variance, etc...

A: At the moment, there is still no distinction between the cost components of a Price Variance Account. The COGS accounts can be split into different accounts by Cost Components, but this logic does not yet apply to inventory variance accounts. The slide being referred to is about the combining of single and multilevel price and exchange rate variances, and thereby not needing account keys PRV and KDV.

Q: I am presuming there is a package of transactions for conversion from ECC to S/4 HANA. Is that correct? Any information about it?

A: Yes , with the S/4 HANA migration there is a specific cockpit for Material ledger. This can be found in SAP Notes 2694618 and 2352383

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Q&A questions answered by ERPfixers expert Fixers Rogerio Faleiros & Paul Ovigele.

 

Author: Rogerio Faleiros

Rogerio is an independent SAP consultant specializing in controlling functionality. He has worked with SAP technology for more than 10 years, implementing controlling solutions in the food processing, chemical, construction and agribusiness industries. Roger has been working with IFRS and integration with product costing and material ledger minimizing the impact of the changes in SAP for companies in different locations.He has participated in rollouts in several countries such as United States, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Turkey, UK, France, Spain, Egypt, UAE, India Sweden and Finland. Rogerio has an MBA in IT from Getulio Vargas Foundation and is a frequent presenter providing training for new consultants in Brazil. Rogerio is the author of Configuring Controlling in SAP ERP.

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Purchase Paul’s latest book, “Material Ledger in SAP S/4HANA: Functionality and Configuration”.

Ask a Fixer: What You Should Know About Material Ledger in S/4 HANA

EXCLUSIVELY FOR ASUG MEMBERS!

Start: Thursday, February 8th, 2018 12:00 PM (CT), 1:00 PM (ET), 11:00 AM (MT), 10:00 AM (PT)

End: Thursday, February 8th, 2018 1:00 PM (CT), 2:00 PM (ET), 12:00 PM (MT), 11:00 AM (PT)

There are several changes that have been made with S/4 HANA for the Financials Modules. One of the major ones is with Material Ledger, which is now mandatory for inventory valuation and contains new data structures and enhanced functionalities that allow you to manage Parallel Valuation and Currencies, Transfer Pricing and Actual Costing in a more efficient and streamlined manner. Attend this webcast and live Q&A with Paul Ovigele and Rogerio Faleiros, FI/CO Experts and authors of the upcoming SAP Press E-bite “Introducing the Material Ledger in S/4 HANA”, to learn more about the following:

• Why Material Ledger is Mandatory with S/4 HANA

• The difference between using Material ledger for Actual Costing and Parallel Valuation

• The improvements that have been made to the Actual Costing closing cockpit

• The improved reporting that exists for Material ledger within SAP S/4HANA

• Migrating to Material Ledger in S/4 HANA

Speakers:

Paul Ovigele, FI/CO Expert, ERPfixers
Rogerio Faleiros, FI/CO Expert, RFERP

WHAT IS "ASK A FIXER" WEBCAST SERIES?

Ask a Fixer is a live ASUG-hosted Q&A session with one of ERPfixers’ top-rated SAP experts (“Fixers”) in a specific module or topic. In this real-time discussion session, you have the opportunity to pose your specific questions to a Fixer, who will provide an immediate answer during the forum. This is a great way to get quick answers to your pressing issues, as well as learn from questions posted by other users during the forum.

If you cannot attend: The webcast will be recorded. The link to the recording will be posted here and emailed to all registrants.

Q&A: Analytics-Based Enterprise Performance Management

Watch the prerecorded webcast by pressing play:

GET ANSWERS TO THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS AND MANY MORE IN THIS CO-HOSTED ASUG WEBCAST.

This presentation by Gary Cokins, a leading practitioner and author will cover:

• How strategy maps and their companion balanced scorecards communicate strategic objectives with target-setting to help cross-functional employee teams align their behavior to the strategy and better collaborate.

• Why measures of channel and customer profitability and customer value are now superceding profit and service-line measures – and shifting from product to customer-focused organizations including future potential value – customer lifetime value.

• How activity-based cost management (ABC/M) provides not only accurately traced calculated costs (relative to arbitrary broad-averaged cost allocations), but more importantly provides cost transparency back to the work processes and consumed resources, and to what drivers cause work activities.

• Reforming the broken annual budgeting process with performance based budgeting that links strategy to operations and is process volume sensitive rather than simply incremental at each cost center.

• How EPM/CPM also applies to public sector government to understand their “output costs” and better serve citizens.

• Why business analytics, with emphasis on predictive analytics and pro-active decision making, is becoming a competitive advantage differentiator and an enabler for trade-off analysis.

• How all levels of management can quickly see and assess how they are doing on what is important – typically with only a maximum of three key performance indicators (KPIs).

• How to integrate performance measurement scorecards and ABC/M data with:

  • Strategy formulation.

  • Process-based thinking and operational productivity improvement.

  • Channel/customer profitability and value analysis and CRM.

  • Supply chain management.

• Quality and lean management (Six Sigma, cost of quality).

Q&A: FIN REVENUE RECOGNITION - With the Deadline Looming, Are You Ready?

Get answers to the following questions in this co-hosted ASUG webcast:

• This presentation focused on the use of RAR. But that has only been generally available since Mar, 2015. How many customers are actually using RAR? What about the rest (assumed to be the majority) who are using "old" functionality like basic SD Rev rec?

• In your opinion, how long should the project be for a fortune 500 company to implement RAR, the right way?

• What is software requirement to have implemented RAR in SAP ECC6 EHP6?

• Do companies seem to be also changing all of their internal and management reporting and metrics or do most companies appear to only be changing their external SEC reporting to align with the new standard?

• How does/can RAR handle revenue recognition based on estimates, when customer actuals are submitted a quarter later?

• For a mining company with sales restricted to few customers, do you think RAR is a scope?

• RAR requires a separate license, correct?

• What all criteria need to be met for the company to be required for this reporting?

Watch the prerecorded webcast by pressing play:

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Is your Contract Roll-Forward external disclosure report ready?

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When is your ASC606 US Adoption Rate?

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Q&A: What you should know about New Asset Accounting with S/4 HANA

Q: If you do not currently use the Fixed Assets module in SAP, and you are planning on moving to S/4 HANA, is it better to implement Fixed Assets before you move to S/4 or after?

A: Assuming that you are on SAP, it depends whether you have the new GL or not (as New GL is a pre-requisite for New Asset Accounting), whether you plan to have additional accounting principles, and whether you are converting to S/4 HANA on-premise or doing a Greenfield implementation, which version you are planning to move to and when. Uploading an excel file with batch processing via the LSMW is not available at the moment on-premise, but you can use a BAPI.  An asset upload is usually easier at a year end. If you are already on NewGL and planning to convert to S/4HANA at a year end, it may be easier to get the asset upload out of the way before the S/4 HANA migration.  In all cases I would get expert advice to examine all the facts before making a decision.

A: The fiscal year end of asset accounting must agree with the fiscal year end of Finance, (even if the periods differ) but how can you map a depreciation area with one fiscal year end if you have a different fiscal year end for the parallel ledger in finance?

Q: Lets say you have 0L with March year end and 2L with Dec year end. Create a new ledger e.g. NL with March year end and add to a new ledger group so the new ledger group has both 2L and NL in it and mark  NL as the representative ledger and map the depreciation area for the Dec year end to the new ledger group. This should allow you to post from asset accounting to a different year end in finance.

Q: Can you map depreciation areas to appendix or extension ledgers in finance?

A: No this cannot be done at the moment. The extension ledger posts only delta postings in finance.

Q: If you have an asset with different useful lives for example for local GAAP and IFRS, so that the total depreciation calculated to date is different, and you make a sale to a customer, how does the system post the different values to different ledgers, but the same amount to the customer?

A: The system will automatically use the technical clearing account in a similar way to an acquisition to post the different values in different ledgers.

Q: Can you set up asset accounting with Central Finance on S/4HANA?

A: FI documents from Asset Accounting that are sent to Central Finance are only replicated as FI documents and not currently as fixed assets, and some of the fixed asset information may be removed. Therefore, although in the source system, the APC and accumulated depreciation accounts are set up as reconciliation accounts, in the SAP S/4HANA Finance system, they are not and accept only finance postings.

Q: Is it beneficial to implement new asset accounting prior to upgrading to S/4 Hana?

A: Assuming that you are on SAP, it depends whether you have the new GL or not (as New GL is a pre-requisite for New Asset Accounting), whether you plan to have additional accounting principles, and whether you are converting to S/4 HANA on-premise or doing a Greenfield implementation, which version you are planning to move to and when. Uploading an excel file with batch processing via the LSMW is not available at the moment on-premise, but you can use a BAPI.  An asset upload is usually easier at a year end. If you are already on NewGL and planning to convert to S/4HANA at a year end, it may be easier to get the asset upload out of the way before the S/4 HANA migration.  In all cases I would get expert advice to examine all the facts before making a decision.

Q: For parallel ledgers with differing fiscal year variants, is the migration scenario mandatory for new primary ledger with same fiscal year variant as leading ledger?  Or, can new primary ledger be treated as a "technical ledger" only?

A: I think you can use the representative ledger box to get round this. Lets say you have 0L with March year end and 2L with Dec year end. Create a new ledger e.g. NL with March year end and add to a new ledger group so the new ledger group has both 2L and NL in it and mark  NL as the representative ledger and map the depreciation area for the Dec year end to the new ledger group. This should allow you to post from asset accounting to a different year end in finance.

Q: Each currency needs separate Dep. Area.  Can you please elaborate this from with current ECC EHP6 scenario?

A: It is the same principle as in ECC6, if you have two currencies in finance for a ledger you will need two depreciation areas, one for each currency, for that accounting principle. The main difference is that you no longer need any delta depreciation areas.

Q: How is archiving of FI_DOCUMNT impacted?

A: Not sure if this is a question about new asset accounting or asking if an S/4HANA migration affects already archived documents, or how documents are archived on S/4HANA.

Q: Where do you configure technical clearing account? In AO90 - Asset account determination, or somewhere else? Can you please specify.

A: You cannot configure the technical clearing account in AO90. It has its own section in the New Asset Accounting section under Integration with General Ledger Accounting in the IMG.

Q: I heard a new year could not be opened independently in both Finance and Asset Accounting and is done in a single t-code which is balance carry forward. The carry forward transaction to open the new year can’t be processed if the previous year hasn’t been closed. Does this mean that AJAB closing asset has to be performed before we open a new fiscal year?

A: It is correct that transaction FAGLGVTR, which is the general ledger carry forward is now used for asset accounting as well. However it only opens the new year and you can continue to post to the old year. You should not need to close the old year with AJAB before opening the new year. (In ECC6 i have seen the old year closed 10months later in one company).

Q: If LSMW doesn't work, will tools like WinShuttle or SHDB work?

A: It depends on the version of S/4HANA - I believe the Cloud version has its own tools. For on-premise you can use a BAPI, or transaction AS100 if you don't have too many items, or can split the upload into 2 or 3 uploads.I have not used either Winshuttle nor SHDB  to upload to S/4HANA, the Winshuttle website mentions Certified S/4HANA integration including the 1610 version, but I don't know about SHDB.

Q: For Depreciation areas that do not post to FI where is the data kept and what does it look like what tables do reports run against? Is it held in ADOCA and marked as statistical in some way?

A: ACDOCA contains actual data by ledger and therefore if a depreciation area is not mapped to a ledger it can't record data from it. FAAT_DOC_IT will contain statistical data.  Most of the asset reports can be run by depreciation area so you can see data in the asset module for all the depreciation areas in the same way.

Q: Can we change accounting principle on a depreciation area after the initial migration?

A: During the migration you may need to do some changes to the configuration, but if you want to point one depreciation area at a completely different ledger, It would be best to check with SAP as I am not sure of the consequences.

Q: Can we still use calculated depreciation areas in S4 still posting to ledge?

A: Yes, although as with most of my answers, you should carry out extensive testing to make sure that the results are as you expect.

Q: FYI: LSMW is still officially supported for RE and FI-AA legacy conversion. It just requires that you use the BAPI_FIXEDASSET_OVRTAKE_CREATE rather than a screen recording.  Note 2208321 has more information.

A: In the Simplification List issued for the S/4HANA 1610 release, it states: ""The LSMW (Legacy System Migration Workbench) function is still available within SAP S/4HANA, (onpremise edition) but not considered as the migration tool. LSMW might propose incorrect migration interfaces that cannot be used in SAP S/4HANA anymore. The Legacy System Migration Workbench (LSMW) is an SAP NetWeaver tool for data migration that was first introduced with R/2 to R/3 migrations. It uses standard interfaces like BAPIs, IDocs, Direct Input and Batch Input programs and recordings. Due to this nature, the use of LSMW is restricted for migrations to SAP S/4HANA. The Legacy System Migration Workbench (LSMW) can only be considered as a migration tool for SAP S/4HANA using workarounds and careful testing for each and every object. The use of LSMW for data load to SAP S/4HANA is not recommended and at the customer's own risk. However it then goes on to quote the OSS note 2208321 for one of the workarounds - hence the confusion.

Q: Will you still have the tax deprn available for reporting?

A: If I understand the question,  if you have a tax depreciation area set up and you keep that tax depreciation you should be able to continue to report on it after a migration.

Q: Pease could you confirm. I believe you said migration had to occur at fiscal year end and that you could not reopen the prior year once the migration was over. Our tax only books are often re-opened for the prior year.

A: I believe a New GL migration has to occur at a fiscal year end, but an S/4HANA migration,  can occur at any period end. If I mentioned a closed fiscal year could not be re-opened after migration I was referring specifically to a closed fixed asset year end at the time of migration.

Q: Does HANA still support multiple Chart of Accounts? Or are these now unified into a single CoA?

A: If you mean for example an operating chart or accounts, local chart of accounts or group chart of accounts, then they behave the same in S/4HANA. You still have the option to add a local chart of accounts to the company code in global parameters and enter the alternative account number in the GL account master data.

Q: We have to report by tax jurisdiction and have the tax jurisdiction on the asset will that still be there?

A: The tax jurisdiction field is still available in the asset master data.

Q: Is it possible to add parallel ledgers at the same time as S/4HANA migration?

A: You cannot add parallel ledgers during the migration.  I understand that adding parallel ledgers once on S/4HANA is now available since version 1610 on-premise.

Q: Could the AP invoice in the example have been posted w/ different amounts by ledger?

A: The initial AP invoice would have the same amount for each ledger, so for example the whole amount in one ledger could be capitalized and the whole amount in the other ledger could be expensed, but if you wanted to transfer part of the amount to say shipping costs you would need a subsequent journal using FB01L or AB01L posting to just the one ledger.

Q: It seems in 1605 you must add then parallel ledger in separate year.  can you do it in the same year as migration then with 1610?

A: I think it would be safer to check with SAP as I am not 100% sure of when the parallel ledgers can be added.

Q: We calculate tax depreciation each month and report it at the end of the year the the taxing authority we have a special tax depreciation area.

A: I see no reason that this would not work on S/4HANA although would need more detail to be sure what the exact question is.

Q: Can you open the new year with a pending new project adding a parallel ledger?

A: I think it would be safer to check with SAP as I am not 100% sure of when the parallel ledgers can be added.

Q: Heard that carry forward is only needed one time and will update automatically after performed if posting is made to prior year in the ledger. is this correct?

A: This is the carry forward transaction FAGLGVTR - this is how it worked in ECC6 and as far as I am aware should work the same in S/4HANA.

Watch the prerecorded webcast by pressing play:

Ask A Fixer: What you should know About New Asset Accounting with S/4 HANA

EXCLUSIVELY FOR ASUG MEMBERS!

Start: Wednesday August 23rd, 2017 1:00 PM (CT), 2:00 PM (ET), 12:00 PM (MT), 11:00 AM (PT)

End: Wednesday August 23rd, 2017 2:00 PM (CT), 3:00 PM (ET), 1:00 PM (MT), 12:00 AM (PT)

There are several changes that have been made with S/4 HANA Finance. One of the major ones is with the introduction of New Asset Accounting which provides new data structures and enhanced functionalities that allow you to manage and monitor your fixed assets. Attend this webcast and live Q&A with Oona Flanagan, ERPfixers Expert and author of the new SAP Press E-bite “Introducing New Asset Accounting in S/4 HANA”, to learn more about the following:

• Key changes introduced with New Asset Accounting
• Depreciation Areas and Ledgers - how they work now
• Integrated Asset Postings and the Universal journal
• How Depreciation runs in New Asset Accounting?
• Migrating to New Asset Accountin

SPEAKERS:

Oona Flanagan, SAP FI/CO Expert

WHAT IS "ASK A FIXER" WEBCAST SERIES?

Ask a Fixer is a live ASUG-hosted Q&A session with one of ERPfixers’ top-rated SAP experts (“Fixers”) in a specific module or topic. In this real-time discussion session, you have the opportunity to pose your specific questions to a Fixer, who will provide an immediate answer during the forum. This is a great way to get quick answers to your pressing issues, as well as learn from questions posted by other users during the forum.

If you cannot attend: The webcast will be recorded. The link to the recording will be posted here and emailed to all registrants.

Q&A: What You Should Know About Profitability Analysis With S/4 HANA Finance

Get answers to these questions:

• How Account-Based CO-PA is integrated with the Universal Journal

• The considerations to be taken into account when converting from Account-Based to Costing-Based CO-PA

• How to perform realtime derivation in CO-PA and reduce the need for month-end settlements

• The setup needed to break cost of goods sold into cost components using Account-based CO-PA

• How CO-PA allocations work with the Universal Journal

Watch the prerecorded webcast by pressing play:

Ask a Fixer: What You Should Know About Profitability Analysis with S/4 HANA Finance

EXCLUSIVELY FOR ASUG MEMBERS!

Start: Thursday July 13th, 2017 12:00 PM (CT), 1:00 PM (ET), 11:00 AM (MT), 10:00 AM (PT)

End: Thursday July 13, 2017 1:00 PM (CT), 2:00 PM (ET), 12:00 PM (MT), 11:00 AM (PT)

There are several changes that have been made with S/4 HANA Finance. One of the major ones is with the integration of Profitability Analysis (CO-PA) with the General Ledger, which provides new data structures and enhanced functionalities that enable flexible, multidimensional reporting, and seamless reconciliation.

Attend this webcast and live Q&A with ERPfixers experts and Financials Expert authors, Ajay Maheshwari and Kavita Agarwal to learn more about the following:

• How Account-Based CO-PA is integrated with the Universal Journal

• The considerations to be taken into account when converting from Account-Based to Costing-Based CO-PA

• How to perform realtime derivation in CO-PA and reduce the need for month-end settlements

• The setup needed to break cost of goods sold into cost components using Account-based CO-PA

• How CO-PA allocations work with the Universal Journal

Speakers:

Ajay Maheshwari, SAP FI/CO and SAP S4/HANA Solution Architect

Kavita Agarwal, SAP FI/CO and SAP S4/HANA Solution Architect

Ask A Fixer: Simple BI with Business Objects Cloud

EXCLUSIVELY FOR ASUG MEMBERS!

Start: Thursday May 11th, 2017 1:00 PM (CT), 2:00 PM (ET), 12:00 PM (MT), 11:00 AM (PT)

End: Thursday May 11th, 2017 1:00 PM (CT), 2:00 PM (ET), 12:00 PM (MT), 11:00 AM (PT)

Growth always brings room for simplification, what if you could answer all business questions, access all data and uncover new insights that enrich your analysis experience in one single Saas tool ? E.g. Crossing sales data with web traffic, visualizing patterns for a specific product, sharing hypothetical sales scenarios with coworkers, planning and collaborating in the same tool. This is what BOBJ Cloud can do for your company.

Attend this webcast and live Q&A with BI Expert Ricardo Sada, to learn more about how BOBJ Cloud can benefit your company with:

• Analytic Capabilities
• Planning Capabilities
• Importing data from on-premise sources
• Basic Modeling
• Basic Story Creation

WHAT IS "ASK A FIXER" WEBCAST SERIES?

Ask a Fixer is a live ASUG-hosted Q&A session with one of ERPfixers’ top-rated SAP experts (“Fixers”) in a specific module or topic. In this real-time discussion session, you have the opportunity to pose your specific questions to a Fixer, who will provide an immediate answer during the forum. This is a great way to get quick answers to your pressing issues, as well as learn from questions posted by other users during the forum.

SPEAKERS:

Paul Ovigele, ERPfixers

Ricardo Sada, Linktech

If you cannot attend: The webcast will be recorded. The link to the recording will be posted HERE and emailed to all registrants.

Ask A Fixer: Gain better Visibility of Inventory Costs within your ERP System

Start: Thursday April 27th, 2017 1:00 PM (CT), 2:00 PM (ET), 12:00 PM (MT), 11:00 AM (PT)

End: Thursday April 27th, 2017 1:00 PM (CT), 2:00 PM (ET), 12:00 PM (MT), 11:00 AM (PT)

In the standard ERP system it is difficult to find reports that give you a multidimensional view of your inventory costs. Many customers download the information to Microsoft Excel or use external reporting tools such as BI to do the analysis. There is nothing wrong with these options, but sometimes they lead to reconciliation errors (in the case of Excel) or realtime update issues (in the case of BI). With the Material Ledger Activated and by utilizing an enhanced report, there are several reporting options that will give you a more granular view of your inventory values.

Attend this live Q&A with two experts, Paul Ovigele and Rogerio Faleiros, where you can learn the following:

• How to create drilldown reports in Material Ledger
• How to view inventory costs, such as beginning and ending inventory, receipts and consumption by cost components (such as Raw Materials, Labor, Overhead, Freight, etc.) for multiple materials
• How to track inventory turnover on a periodic basis
• How to view inventory costs according to dimensions such as material group, profit center, product hierarchy, etc.
• How to view standard and actual cost components for your inventory balance sheet accounts
• How to view the released costs of multiple materials for multiple periods

WHAT IS "ASK A FIXER" WEBCAST SERIES?

Ask a Fixer is a live ASUG-hosted Q&A session with one of ERPfixers’ top-rated SAP experts (“Fixers”) in a specific module or topic. In this real-time discussion session, you have the opportunity to pose your specific questions to a Fixer, who will provide an immediate answer during the forum. This is a great way to get quick answers to your pressing issues, as well as learn from questions posted by other users during the forum.

Speakers:

Paul Ovigele, FI/CO Expert, Author: "100 Things You Should Know About Financial Accounting"

Rogerio Faleiros, FI/CO Expert, Author: "Configuring Controlling in SAP ERP"

If you cannot attend: The webcast will be recorded. The link to the recording will be posted here and emailed to all registrants.

Q&A: Are you Optimally Utilizing Available Functionality within SAP Controlling?

Get answers to these questions:

• Which cost allocation method is better - Distribution or Assessment, when should I use one versus another?

• What are the different standard costing methods that are available for use, and under what circumstances should they be used?

• How does one go about correcting various error/ warning messages encountered during costing?

• What are the different cost objects that are available for use in SAP controlling?

• Under what circumstances should I go about automating WIP, Variance and Settlement jobs?

Watch the webcast by pressing play:

Ask a Fixer: Are you Optimally Utilizing Available Functionality within SAP Controlling?

EXCLUSIVELY FOR ASUG MEMBERS!

Start: Wednesday, March 15th, 2017 1:00 PM (CT), 2:00 PM (ET), 12:00 PM (MT), 11:00 AM (PT)

End: Wednesday, March 15th, 2017 1:00 PM (CT), 2:00 PM (ET), 12:00 PM (MT), 11:00 AM (PT)

The Controlling (CO) module is the Management Accounting module of SAP. It allows you to plan, monitor and control processes and operations in order to assist management with the implementation of the organization’s strategy.

Is your SAP Controlling implementation optimized to make the most of the available functionality? Are you taking advantage of the integrated nature of the SAP system and making the most out of this module?

Attend this live Q&A with Ashish Sampat, CO expert and Espresso Tutorials author,where you can ask questions that have been puzzling you (but do not know whom to ask!):

• Which cost allocation method is better - Distribution or Assessment, when should I use one versus another?
• What are the different standard costing methods that are available for use, and under what circumstances should they be used?
• How does one go about correcting various error / warning messages encountered during costing?
• What are the different cost objects that are available for use in SAP Controlling?
• Under what circumstances should I go about automating WIP, Variance and Settlement jobs?
• Can you tell us if there are any user exits available for product costing?
• What various design options can we use to add freight and other incidental costs on procured materials?
• How can we link and analyze Movement Types (in Materials Management) to GL Account (in Financial Accounting)?

WHAT IS "ASK A FIXER" WEBCAST SERIES?

Ask a Fixer is a live ASUG-hosted Q&A session with one of ERPfixers’ top-rated SAP experts (“Fixers”) in a specific module or topic. In this real-time discussion session, you have the opportunity to pose your specific questions to a Fixer, who will provide an immediate answer during the forum. This is a great way to get quick answers to your pressing issues, as well as learn from questions posted by other users during the forum.

Speaker:

Ashish Sampat, author of the following books:

• First Steps in SAP Controlling (CO)
• Expert tips to Unleash full Potential of SAP Controlling

If you cannot attend: The webcast will be recorded. The link to the recording will be posted here and emailed to all registrants.