SAP S/4HANA Central Finance and Group Reporting

Integrate SAP S/4HANA ERP Systems into Your Financial Data and Workflows for More Agility

Sudipta Malakar

• Publisher: BPB Publications
• Year: 2022
• Topic: Computer Science
• eBook ISBN:
  9789355511539
• Subtopic: Computer Science General
• Index: Computer Science

Put together a centralised repository for all financial information and alter it as you see fit

Key Features
? Expert-led approach to implementing S/4 Central Finance in a wide range of companies.
? Solution-focused responses on Central Finance, Group reporting, BPC, and Fiori.
? Preparation guide for the certification exam and SAP S/4HANA Interview.

Description
Your SAP S/4HANA journey has just begun. This book details several processes, methods, and expert strategies for integrating central finance into your IT systems, streamlining finance operations, data reporting, and master data preparation.With the help of this book, you'll learn all you need to know to get the most out of SAP S/4HANA Central Finance, SAP Group Reporting, BPC, Fiori, and other cutting-edge technologies. This book includes numerous examples to demonstrate the essentials of SAP S/4HANA Central Finance, SAP Group reporting, BPC, and Fiori. It offers extensive hands-on practice utilizing SAP S/4HANA standards to demonstrate Fiori, BPC, SAP S/4HANA Central Finance, and Group reporting. The book contains many applications and projects from throughout the industry spectrum. Interviewing for a job and passing the SAP Certification exam can be made easier with the help of this book!After reading this book you will be able to perform SAP S/4HANA Central Finance and SAP Group reporting operations. You can also define complex activities in SAP S/4HANA.

What you will learn
? Conduct the implementation of Central Finance in your IT environment.
? Consolidate your SAP S/4HANA system's finances.
? Carry out currency conversion, intercompany elimination, financial closure, and reporting.
? Perform a BPC Evaluation.
? Carry out SAP S/4HANA Central Finance and Group reporting functions.
? Utilize Fiori applications to perform SAP S/4HANA operations.

Who this book is for
This book is a must for SAP consultants, architects, and project managers who wish to become proficient in the SAP S/4HANA project life cycle phases.

Table of Contents
1. Introduction to Enterprise Security
2. Get to Know Zero Trust
3. Architectures With Zero Trust
4. Zero Trust in Practice
5. Identity and Access Management (IAM)
6. Network Infrastructure
7. Network Access Control
8. Intrusion Detection and Prevention Systems
9. Virtual Private Networks
10. Next-Generation Firewalls
11. Security Operations
12. Privileged Access Management (PAM)
13. Data Protection
14. Infrastructure and Platform as a Service
15.Software as a Service (SaaS)
16. IoT Devices
17. A Policy of Zero Trust
18. Zero Trust Scenarios
19. Creating a Successful Zero Trust Environment

CHAPTER 1

Key Success Factors for Adopting S/4 Central Finance in an Organization

Introduction

SAP’s Digital Business Framework helps SAP customers solve complexity and transition issues that they are facing in their journey into the digital economy as a live business. Digital finance is the power plant that drives the digital ERP core, bringing together transactions and insights.

Figure 1.1: Digital finance needs

Typical challenges raised by CXOs are outlined in the following figure:

Figure 1.2: Typical challenges raised by CXO

Using the new digital finance capabilities of SAP S/4HANA, customers can anticipate business outcomes and reimagine business processes to accelerate their transition to a live business.

Structure

In this chapter, we will discuss the following topics:

• Introduction to S/4 Central Finance
• S/4 Central Finance Simplifications
• Challenges to prepare Consolidate reporting
• Prerequisites for the Source Systems
• Prerequisites – Technical (Hardware)
• Target Customers
• Top benefits that Central Finance offers
• Benefits – S/4 Central Finance version 2020
• SAP S/4 Central Finance Solution Map
• S/4 Central Finance - Architecture and Systems
• S/4 Central Finance Innovations
• SAP S/4 HANA Central Finance Value Proposition Summary
• CFIN requirements
• CFIN Capabilities and S/4 Central Finance version 2021
• SAP S/4 HANA Central Finance Standard Deployment options
• SAP S/4 HANA Central Finance Factors to consider
• SAP S/4 HANA Central Finance options
• How Central finance leads us towards a path to Digital Transformation
• FIORI (UX) – High-end level
• From source replicated objects to S/4 Central Finance
• End-to-end scenarios
• Central Finance Integration
• Central Finance Configuration
• Central Finance Errors
• Error Correction via AIF
• Data Mapping Points in CF
• Replicated FI Document in CF
• Error Handling in CF Scenarios
• CF Scenario in Earlier/New releases enabled by replication of Clearing
• Replication of Document Changes in CF
• CF Approach - Challenges
• Key Takeaways
• Test Yourself

Objectives

After studying this unit, you should be able to perform hands-on activities and confidently resolve tricky issues in SAP S/4 HANA. You can also apply SAP S/4 HANA in your organization/project(s) confidently from day 1. You can implement best practices and field rules of SAP S/4 HANA for faster performance and better results and can help project teams by delivering result-driven, cost-effective, faster time-to-market quality product(s). You can crack your interviews in the first try and get your dream job.

Introduction to S/4 Central Finance

Typically, customers with a large, distributed system landscape load financial data from their system into various data warehouses.

In contrast to an ERP system, a data warehouse accepts data without checking whether it is correct.

Many customers build custom logic to do similar checks, like ERP Financials does when a document gets posted, just to improve data quality.

The following figure outlines the introduction to central finance:

Figure 1.3: Central Finance - Introduction

The benefits of SAP S/4HANA are clear, but customers face an adoption dilemma.

Many organizations have a legacy of both NON-SAP and SAP ERP systems. These systems have different release levels, different customizing specifications, and some even have different charts of accounts.

For such companies, it would seem like an enormous effort to adopt SAP’s latest innovations. The idea may seem too big and expensive to even get through their budget committees.

SAP CENTRAL FINANCE provides a non-disruptive resolution of this issue by acting as a hub into which new entities can be integrated without imposing fundamental changes to the main accounting system. It further helps in the transition strategy to S/4 HANA due to its powerful components designed to harmonize data across various SAP and NON-SAP systems, including the following:

• A SOLID MASTER DATA MANAGEMENT process at the enterprise level
• Simplified reporting and analytics (single source of truth)
• Fewer reconciliations and an optimized month-end closing process
• A standardized and automated process to integrate new acquisitions and shorten the post-merger transition period

The following figure outlines the central finance needs:

Figure 1.4: Central Finance Needs

Let’s discuss some HANA keywords.

SAP HANA: SAP HANA is a analytic appliance; it’s an in-memory platform for processing a high volume of data in real-time.

SAP S/4HANA: SAP S/4HANA is business suite designed to run processes in the context of a digital economy.

SAP central finance: SAP central finance deployment strategy of SAP S/4HANA and a product to build a centralized financial reporting and information hub that inserts disparate accounting systems into the core accounting system of the organization.

SAP S/4HANA finance: SAP S/4HANA finance subset of SAP S/4HANA with a focus on financial and accounting solutions, including financial planning, accounting, financial close, treasury, and finance operations.

Central Finance (CF) benefits the from the latest reporting innovation and architectural simplification to gain better access in the reporting.

CF allows companies to repost/replicate fin transactions from several systems into a single instance of S/4 HANA.

CF is a separate product with a dedicated license.

The following figure outlines the inborn points of central finance.

The Inborn points of CFIN

Figure 1.5: The Inborn points of CFIN

Image Source: SAP SE / AG

CF is part of S/4 HANA, so no installation is required.

CF has the following features:

1. a) Instant insight (real-time analysis)
2. b) Single source of truth (highest granularity)
3. c) Real-time processes (Closing on the fly)
4. d) Planning, forecasting, and simulation (Integrated, predictive)
5. e) Intuitive user experience (Easy to use)

Central Journal

Let’s look at one central journal problem statement, its objective, and its outcome.

Problem statement

SAP customers with heterogeneous, multi-ERP system landscapes have been facing uphill battles to keep their existing ERP system up to date and in sync.

The f...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• About the Author
• About the Reviewer
• Acknowledgement
• Preface
• Errata
• Table of Contents
• Introduction
• 1. Key Success Factors for Adopting S/4 Central Finance in an Organization
• 2. Pragmatic Approach - BPC, Fiori, S/4 Central Finance and SAP Group Reporting
• 3. Interview Questions and Answers on BPC, Central Finance and Group Reporting
• Glossary
• References
• Index