In this blogpost we will see the use cases of characteristics in SAP COPA. It is essential to understand the importance of characteristics because this is a first building block of Profitability Analysis.
If you are setting up profitability analysis, then as initial steps you have to sit down with client to point out required characteristics based on which profitability reports will be extracted.
Characteristics are also important from database point of view, as the number of characteristics impacts the size and complexity of data.
Before we get into more details, as disclaimer this blogpost is a piece of eBook – Controlling Profitability Analysis in SAP. If you want to learn end to end SAP COPA then you can checkout this book, which talks about everything from start to end in simple & plain English.
What are the characteristics?
Characteristics are nothing but those aspects on which we want to break down the profit logically such as a customer, region, product, sales person etc.
Several essential and obvious characteristics are pre-defined automatically for every operating concern; these are known as fixed characteristics.
In addition to fixed characteristics, up to 50 non-fixed characteristics can be added to an operating concern.
Characteristics can be categorised in four types:
Fixed characteristics: Some characteristics are automatically pre-defined in every operating concern.
Pre-defined characteristics: In addition to fixed characteristics, a number of other pre-defined characteristics are available in the field catalogue and can be added to operating concern.
Copying characteristics from reference table: You can create characteristics by coping from table.
Characteristics created from scratch: You can create characteristics, by defining own logic to derive values.
To derive values of these characteristics, it is necessary to create derivation rules or table lookup rules unless they are readily available in the sender application (For e.g. in SD data flow to CO-PA, fields on the billing document).
When a value flows from SD, MM, CO, and FI to CO-PA, it will create a line item in the CO-PA tables. The way you customize the master data will directly impact how the characteristics and value fields are populated in the line items. Below is one example of a CO-PA line item.
You can see that the characteristics were populated automatically by the system in above snapshot. You can change the behaviour of the assignments and also complete the missing ones. It’s very important to have all characteristics filled for each posting so that the CO-PA reports you run for any characteristic are complete.
Characteristics derivation makes it possible for the system to automatically derive unknown characteristics value (especially for user defined characteristics) if these are dependent on characteristics whose values are known.
Following screen shows available and created CO-PA Characteristics in the system.
The characteristic region is not readily available, so we need to create it.
Click on
Then click on
(Note: We have two options while creating defining characteristics, one is to transfer it from existing SAP table or second is to create user defined characteristics, which will have it’s own SAP table to maintain values)
We are copying region characteristic from table KNA1
Here you can see the field region is added.
Now we will create a user define characteristics.
Note: A user defined characteristics should begin with WW.
Inputs:
Description: District (we are creating district characteristic)
Data type: Character
Length: 18
Check table: T25** (here system will create table which starts from T25 and the values of this characteristics stored there)
We have created this characteristic from scratch (without any reference), so we need to update it manually at the time of posting.
Click on
After activating characteristics you can see the status of characteristic and generated table.
Characteristic district is created.
Conclusion
In this blogpost we learned why characteristics are needed and how to maintain it.
As said at the start of the blog this blogpost is from this eBook, so if you want to know more about Controlling profitability analysis then you can checkout the book.
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When invoice receipt (IR) is performed, below accounting document gets generated (In case of standard price):
Any price difference will be booked on PRD transaction key (to GL assigned in OBYC)
So in conclusion, GR/IR prices are always influenced through PO except when material is maintained with standard price control.
When material is maintained with standard price control it causes price difference and then that is posted on price difference account which is maintained in OBYC transaction.
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In this blogpost we will see basics of IM, Why IM is needed and what is use of IM? Major Config. and end user transactions in SAP Investment Management.
Flow of Blogpost:
Introduction
IM in SAP
Configuration steps of IM
Basics – What is Investment Management in SAP?
Investment Management is a budgeting tool that helps organizations to budget, plan and structures investment goals. Investment programs are used on top of Project System. Now you might say, project system itself have budgeting functionality, then what is the need of Investment management?
Lets understand this with one example; Consider your organization have international presence. The head office is in Europe. And there are hundreds of different projects going on at different locations. All projects are undergoing for different purposes. Some projects are for setting up new offices, some for restructuring existing plants, building new stores etc.
So project level expenditure management and budgeting is the lowest level management in organization hierarchy. On top of projects business needs investment programs to categorize and allocate budget as per business priorities and decisions.
Investment programs can be created based on geographical areas and then further drilled down to different segments of business. For e.g. there will be separate Investment program for each country and then under that investment program budget can be allocated to different segments like IT, Sales & Marketing, Accounting, Manufacturing etc. or based on product mix, revenue mix.
It can also be done vice versa, Multiple investment programs as per business segments and then under each segment different geographies can be added.
Before it gets too confusing lets have look at sample Investment program:
IM11
Highest level node is the main node of Investment Program, it tells you about investment program. We can see in above image this Investment program is for Mexico. After first node you can assign multiple levels as per business requirement (99 level drilldown is supported)
Each node can have organization units assigned to it along with responsible person. Budget has to passed on from top to down. Which can be monitored and validated with allocation and approval approach.
Projects are assigned to the lowest level nodes. In above structure you can see under CAPEX there is lowest level node for New Stores. So all the projects in Mexico created for New stores can be assigned to this node. This node will have certain amount of approved budget that can be distributed to all assigned projects based on requirement or management decisions.
Lets understand the life cycle of Investment programs in bullet points:
Decision of Investment (appropriation request)
Creation of Investment Program
Budgeting the Investment program nodes
Creation of Project (Investment Measure)
Transferring budget from IM to Project
Booking actual expenses during project completion time
Periodic settlement to AUC
Upon Project completion final settlement to Final Asset
Asset Depreciation will be booked as per legal and other valuation methods.
If you want to know more about it from business standpoint, how things happens in business from top to down? How budgets are approved, allocated and monitored, then you can give try to this eBook which is written by a project manager to understand things from high level management.
Hope you got the high-level overview of IM, In next chapter we will see end user activities in Investment Management followed by backend configuration chapter.
Investment Management in SAP (End user activities)
Earlier we saw the use of Investment program. Based on it you can guess the basic things, we will require to create Investment program. Below is the list of activities that users do in SAP:
Create Investment program definition IM01
Create top position of Investment program IM11
Change/Create IM Program structure IM22
Budget Program IM32
Supplement budget IM30
Budget return IM38
Assign Investment program position to Project CJ20N
Allocate budget to project IM52
Return budget from project IM52 (with return radio button)
And that’s pretty much that you can do in Investment Management. Let’s check each activity in little deep:
While creating investment measure you will have option to enter person responsible for the investment program. You have to enter fiscal year variant and currency. Based on fiscal year variant, year end budget transfer will take place.
Create top position of Investment program IM11
In IM11 you will have to create top positions of budget which can be restricted to organizational units like controlling area, company code, profit center etc. In our initial example we discussed how we can have same investment program created for different geographies. And it can be drilled down to multiple countries and company code. So we can assign each node of investment program to separate controlling area/company code (currency validation will be there).
Change/Create IM Program structure IM22
Here you can create whole structure of Investment program
You can double click on any node to assign it to any organizational unit.
Budget Program IM32
Once the structure is created, you can budget the program nodes as per requirement in IM32
IM32
In above screen budget can be entered on various nodes, following top-down or bottom-up approach.
Supplement budget IM30
Once the initial budget is updated through IM32 then afterwards you can supplement more budget through IM30 or can return the budget by IM38 transaction.
Assign Investment program position to Project CJ20N
Once the investment programs are created and budgeted, it needs to be assigned to projects in CJ20N
CJ20N
Allocate budget to project IM52
Now projects are assigned to investment programs, then we have to transfer budget to projects from Investment program positions. This is done through IM52 transaction.
IM52
We can notice that project is reflecting on level 4 under level 3 investment measure.
And you are done with budgeting in Investment management.
Further you will have to budget lower levels of project then you can use WBSE to capture cost.
Investment Management reporting transactions: S_ALR_87012824 and S_ALR_87012813
In next chapter we will see major configuration that are required in Investment Management in SAP.
Configuration steps of Investment Management in SAP
Configure Program Type
First step in IM configuration is to configure Program type. You enter program types at the time of create of Investment program (in IM01)
So, let’s see what program type controls:
SPRO – Investment management – Investment Program – Master data – Define Program Types
You can notice that we entered budget profile and plan profile in program type. These needs to be created separately. It controls that how many years of future / past planning / budgeting you can do.
Status profile will allow the approval and rejection functionality in IM.
Represent. Form will decide how IM structure should be displayed. (In coding format or text format)
Object class help to categorize CO class for IM
Investment profile will control automatic creation of AUC while creating WBS/IO
Budget dist. Overall & Budg. Dist. Ann. Vals – these check box will affect the budget distribution.
On left hand side you have one tab for assignable operative object
Here you can select what are the object type to which Investment program can be assigned.
Define Person Responsible
Here you have to define responsible person that can be assigned in investment programs. Same will be used in various workflows.
SPRO – IM – Investment Programs – Master Data – Allowed Values for certain master data fields – Define responsible person
In this config node you can configure below values:
Enter numeric value in responsible person field and in Office user enter the SAP user ID.
Define Plan Profile
Plan profile will control how much years in future you want to plan your investment. (this is assigned in Program Type)
SPRO – IM – Planning in programs – Cost Planning – Maintain Plan profile
Which values should be allowed to plan – Total / Annual
Past, Future, Start enter the number of year system should allow to enter and change values. If you enter 2 in Past field. Then you will be able to change and enter past two years plan data.
Decimal Places, scaling factor can be decided in plan profile.
Planning currency – Co area currency / object currency
Define Budget Profile
It is similar like Plan Profile, only this time the budget will be controlled as per profile maintenance.
SPRO – IM – Investment program – Budgeting in program – Define budget profile for investment program
Define Number range for budgeting line items
SPRO – IM – Investment program – Budgeting in program – Define number range for budgeting line items
Define Investment profile
When you settle Investment Measure (WBS, Internal Order) it gets settled to AUC. In IM AUC is created automatically at the time of release of Investment Measures. During periodic settlement system collects all debit items from WBS / IO and settle it to AUC. You don’t have to enter settlement rule manually.
This is controlled in Investment profile:
If you tick manage AUC, system will automatically create AUC while releasing WBS / IO.
For that you will have to enter asset class in Inv. Meas. Ast. Class field. If selected fix default class, then system will not allow you to change asset class manually at investment measure level.
You can enter different asset class for depreciation simulation.
Assign this investment profile to project profiles.
Conclusion
With this set of configuration you should be able to start using IM. Hope you got an overview of Investment Measures along with end user activities and backend configuration related to it.
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In this blogpost we will see everything about cost object settlement. How each cost object are settled? What configuration is required to do settlement run? And how to trace these settlements on table level?
In order to understand settlement of cost objects, first we have to look into cost object itself. Controlling module is made of various cost objects. Cost objects are used to capture cost. So first we need to understand how many cost objects there are to capture any kind of cost.
Cost Center CTR
Sales order SDI
Internal Order ORD
Production order ORD
Profitability segment PSG
Network NTW
Network activity NWA
Work breakdown structure WBS
Every cost object has separate purpose. And it is used to capture different set of cost. For e.g. WBS/Network are used to capture project related cost. Whereas internal order and cost center usage is dependent on each and every organization.
But the bottom-line for this blogpost is that most of the cost objects are temporary cost carriers and has to be settled to final receiver. And this makes settlement a major activity.
Examples: WBS is settled to asset, sales order settled to profitability segment, Internal order is settled to cost center. (It is not possible to settle cost center, because cost center is considered as final object. If you are booking cost in cost center, then it means there should not be any further transfer of cost)
Settlement Profile – What is the use of settlement profile?
Settlement profile is the template for any object to settle cost. Every cost object that needs to be settled should have settlement profile.
Settlement profile is configured in transaction OKO7. Here you can create settlement profile for sales order, production order, projects, internal order etc.
Transaction OKO7
This is how settlement profile looks like. First you decide whether the cost object should be settled in full as mandatory or it can be optional.
In second part, where you maintain allocation structure, source structure, PA structure these all are used to restrict or filter the settlement cost. For e.g. in allocation structure you can maintain some cost elements in grouped manner and assign that allocation structure in settlement profile. Then whenever this settlement profile will be used it will only consider cost of those cost elements that are entered in allocation structure. It is also used for better reporting by grouping different cost elements separately.
In indicators part you have options to select % settlement or amount settlement (this impacts at the time of settlement rule creation)
In valid receivers, you have to make all potential receivers optional. For e.g. if this settlement rule is for WBS element then we know WBS is settled on asset, so asset settlement should be optional here.
Once settlement profile is created it should be assigned to source cost object.
Project/WBS – Settlement profile is assigned to project profile
Internal order – Settlement profile is assigned to internal order type
Sales order – Settlement profile is assigned to requirement class
Production order – Settlement profile is assigned to order type
So you create settlement profile in OKO7 irrespective of source object and then assign it to source type.
For internal order settlement profile will be assigned to order type. And under that order type all internal orders will have settlement same settlement profile. (however it can changed at all cost object level)
Settlement rule – How to create settlement rule?
Once the settlement profile is created and assigned, you have to create settlement rule for all cost objects. In all cost object somewhere in menu there is option to create settlement rule.
In sales order line-item level, you have account assignment tab where you can create settlement rule
In WBSE there is button at bottom for settlement rule
In internal order at menu there is option for settlement rule
This is how settlement rule will look like. You have to maintain receiver category and receiver. Remember that you can only maintain those receiver which you allowed in settlement profile.
Then mention % settlement, you can have multiple receiver and distribute settlement to all receiver.
There is also option to maintain amount, like how much amount you want to settle to this receiver. But this option will only be available if you tick it in settlement profile.
Settlement run – What are the ways to run settlement?
There is dedicated transaction code for each cost object to run settlement.
Sales order settlement – VA88
Project/WBS settlement – CJ88
Internal order settlement – KO88
Production order settlement – C088/KO88
This is how selection screen looks like in almost all of the above transactions.
Enter sender object on top then settlement period and select processing type and execute.
It will settle the cost from sender to receiver as mentioned in settlement rule.
Upto this point everything is very clear and straight forward, but real challenge comes in when we have to track these settlements. In next heading that is what we will be looking into..
Working as SAP FICO consultant, many times you will have this question, when this cost object is settled? Whether this object settled before or not? What is receiver cost object?
We will check what are the important tables that can help to track down above information. Each settlement run creates one document. That document header details is stored in AUAK table.
AUAK Document Header for Settlement
AUAK Table
Every cost object in SAP has unique object number, that is used in 90% of tables. In AUAK you will not be able to search any document based on cost center number or WBSE number, you have enter relevant object number of that cost object.
Now where you can find the object number?
Object number is stored in master data table of every cost object. Cost center object number is available in CSKS table, WBSE object number is available in PRPS table. Sales order object number is available in VBAK table.
You can also use some naming convention for object number. Like Cost center object number is always starts with KS*, WBSE Object number starts with PR*, Sales order object number starts with VB*
So our analysis will start from getting object number respective cost object master data table.
Lets take e.g. you have one WBS element for which you want to check settlement details.
Then first you will go to WBS element master data table PRPS, get OBJNR number for that WBSE.
Then enter that OBJNR number in AUAK table.
You can also select settlement period and settlement year to narrow down selection criteria.
Then execute to see settlement details.
Here you can see between that time period how many times the cost object was settled. you will also get the settlement dates and document number.
But from this table you will not get who was the receiver of this settlement.
AUAA Settlement Document: Receiver Seg
In this table, you can enter the settlement document number (taken from AUAK) to see who the sender and receiver of the settlement was.
You can notice in our example settlement was done between WBSE and Asset.
What if you want to check settlement rule of any cost object?
We have other tables for that COBRA & COBRB. COBRA stores header details of settlement rule and COBRB stores item details of settlement rule.
In both table you can search using object number of cost object.
This is how COBRB will show settlement receiver details.
Important tables for settlement related transactions:
AUAK Document Header for Settlement
AUAA Settlement Document: Receiver Seg
AUAB Settlement Document: Distribution
COBRA Settlement Rule for Order Settlement
AUAV Document Segment: Transactions
AUAI Settlement Rules per Depreciation
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