ASUG Carolinas Chapter MeetingCustomer Case Study: Easy FI Uploading with GLSU – A Z Option Customer Shares Their Experience

Americas’ SAP Users’ Group

Introductions

Pat Martens

IS Lead Professional

Owens Corning

Shari Alexander

Solutions Specialist

Z Option, Inc.

Agenda – In this session

Wrap-Up

Questions & Answers

GLSU

Z Option Information

Owens Corning

About Z Option

Located in Lewisville, Texas (Near Dallas, TX – U.S.)

Formed in 1998 by accountants and programmers

SAP software solution partner

Customers of all sizes and industries

Z Option has hundreds of customers

with thousands of users worldwide.

For a more complete list of our

customers, visit www.zoption.com.

Software Tools

Start posting documents in a few hours with a free remote

installation service

GLSU uses standard SAP authorizations

Reduce support and development costs

Powerful, flexible, user-friendly solutions

Agenda – In this session

Wrap-Up

Questions & Answers

GLSU

Z Option Information

Owens Corning

Founded in 1938 - Fortune 500® company for 61 consecutive years.

2014 sales: $5.3 billion with 15,000 employees and plants and technical centers in 26 countries.

Three market-leading businesses: Insulation, Roofing and Composites.

Owens Corning

Accounting background with IT experience

With Owens Corning since 1983

SAP user and implementer since 1995 – one of SAP’s first American customers

From early SAP R3 release to ECC 6.0

SAP experience in FI-CO, COPA, Consolidations, MM, SD

When not working, I can be found out running somewhere

Pat Martens Biography

Why a 3rd party tool for journal postings is a better alternative than an in-house custom solution.

Quickly uploading GL entries in SAP from Excel.

How to use a journal upload tool on a SAP deployment.

LEARNING POINTS

Centralize journal postings

Centralize storage of journal templates in SAP instead of on personal/public drives.

Attach documentation to postings.

Place tools in the hands of business users whenever possible.

Establish common practices across technology landscapes and across geographical regions.

BEST PRACTICES

Fixed and limited format.

ABAP code – any changes required IT resources.

2-step process for posting.

SAP limit for document postings.

Not compatible/transferrable across systems.

Error checking only at time of posting.

Challenges of Old In-house Solution

Old In-House Template

Old In-House Process

1. Complete journal template and create input file

2. Execute Z-transaction (test or live)

3. Review proposed posting

4. Process SM35 session created from Z-transaction

5. Update template with document number

Owens Corning Examples

Cross-Company Code

Owens Corning Examples

Dropped Header (Multiple Company

Codes)

Owens Corning Examples

SA – ZR Template

Owens Corning Examples

Dual Currency

Owens Corning Examples

SA ZR Russian Non-Leading Ledger

Leverages Excel functionality.

Easy to use and flexible.

Improved data handling – more than 1,000 lines.

Pre-validation.

“Owned” by business users.

Attachment capability.

1-Step posting process from within spreadsheet.

Benefits of GLSU

Don’t reinvent the wheel.

What the business user controls the business user is more likely to use.

Use tools at which users are already proficient.

Use GLSU to enhance your SAP posting experience.

KEY LEARNINGS

Agenda – In this session

Wrap-Up

Questions & Answers

GLSU

Z Option Information

Owens Corning

Current Challenges

Non-flexible upload tool

Errors on large journal entries

New implementations

Multiple currencies

Cross-company postingsLarge external file uploads

SAP upgrade

Mergers/acquisitions

Multiple vendors

Month-end closing process

Key Features of GLSU

Easy user interface

Leverage existing Excel skills

Pre-validation of data before posting

Master data lookups

Post more than 1000 linesPost directly from the

spreadsheet

Flexible layouts

SAP document numbers returned

Attach source workbook to posted document in SAP

Post multiple documents from one worksheet

GLSU Common Uses

Attach source document (entire workbook)

Misc. vendors

Multiple currency entries

Cross-company transactions

COPAPayroll

Travel and expense process

P-cards (i.e. phone bills, lease payments)

Accrual entries

Acquisition/Migration (moving legacy information)

“We’ll have been using GLSU for two years and I cannot tell you what a

positive impact it has had on our finance users.” – Director

“Since implementing GLSU, we’ve managed to achieve our goal of a

[much shorter] closing, down from 8 weeks.” – ICT Officer, FI Unit

“There is simply no limit to how you can use GLSU if you’re familiar with

Excel.” – SAP Business Analyst

“We use GLSU to improve overall productivity.” – Senior Accountant

“SAP is dynamic, my clients’ businesses are dynamic, and they need

dynamic tools like GLSU.” – Independent SAP Consultant

Customer Comments

Review customer success stories and published articles at www.zoption.com.

Customer Success Stories

“With GLSU, we save time

and money.” –FI Project Manager

“[GLSU] is the best of both worlds. We get the functionality of

SAP software and the user-friendliness of the Microsoft Excel

front-end.” –Manager of Finance

“With GLSU, we don’t have to maintain the

software, and it gives us better

flexibility with more options.” – IT

Project Manager

“As accountants, we know Microsoft Excel

very well – so the more we can do in spreadsheets, the

more productive we can be.” – Accounting

Manager

GLSU has increased our data integrity on

all levels, from finance to marketing. Users have commented on the quality, volume,

and accuracy of data.” – General Accountant

GLSU

Maintain Your Security

Reduce Your Costs

Empower Your Users

Increase Your Productivity

Agenda – In this session

Wrap-Up

Questions & Answers

Z Option Information

Owens Corning

GLSU

Questions & Next Steps

Contact Information:

www.zoption.com

972-315-8800

Shari Alexander – Z Option

Shari.Alexander@zoption.com

Pat Martens – Owens Corning

Pat.Martens@OwensCorning.com

Agenda – In this session

Wrap-Up

Z Option Information

Owens Corning

GLSU

Questions & Answers

Wrap-Up

Thank you for joining us for

today’s session.

Please contact us if you have

questions or would like

additional information.

Thank You!

SAP, R/3, mySAP, mySAP.com, SAP NetWeaver®, Duet™®, PartnerEdge, SAP HANA®,

and other SAP products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective

logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP SE in Germany and in several

other countries all over the world. All other product and service names mentioned are

the trademarks of their respective companies. Z Option is neither owned nor controlled

by SAP.

Disclaimer

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GLSU Example Templates

– Expense Report

– Journal entry form

– Multiple Misc. Vendor invoices

– Asian character support

Travel & Expense Form

Journal Entry Form

Cross-Company Transactions

COPA – Profitability Analysis

Multiple Misc. Vendor Invoices*

*Dropped Header feature may be used on most header fields on any transaction

> 999 Line Items

General Ledger Entry