sap r3 reporting practices

8/7/2019 SAP R3 Reporting Practices

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Best Practices for R/3

Financial and CO-PAReporting

Quentin HurstVirtuoso



What We’ll Cover …

• Looking at R/3 Financials reporting overview

• Getting the most out of FI/CO

• Leveraging CO-PA best practices

Objective: Provide best practices you can implement at home to

get the most out of your R/3 Financials investment and reports



R/3 Financials Reporting Overview

• Now more than ever, financial reporting is at theforefront of an organization’s reporting needs

Greater visibility to their data (more/better reports)

Verification that existing reports are timely and accurate

• Driven by such factors as Stock market collapse

New legislation – Sarbanes-Oxley

New board of directors Building Block



R/3 Financials Reporting Overview (cont.)

• This places new requirements on financial reportingteams

Must think outside the box

Use new and different reporting tools

Ensure that documented reporting standards exist andare followed

Need additional knowledge on new tools and best

practices

Increased interaction and pressure from upper management

For a historical perspective on our current and future economic and

regulatory environment, read Manias, Panics, and Crashes: A History Of

Financial Crisis by Charles P. Kindleberger



R/3 Financials Reporting OverviewTop 5 Pitfalls for R/3 Financial Reporting Tools

1. Not knowing all of the reporting options in R/3 When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a

nail

2. Not knowing which tool to use for which report

3. Lack of report performance optimizationtechniques

4. Not making advanced configuration settings,which limits the reporting options

5. Bad design decisions in the reporting submodules,which negatively impact reporting options

GOTCHA!



R/3 Financials Reporting OverviewFI/CO Reporting Universe

SAP

Query

Painter/

Writer

Drill-down

Reporting

submodules

Cash

Management

CO-PA

Special

Purpose Ledger



Report request

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

no no nononononononono

Cannedreport

Drill-down Painter/Writer

SAPQuery

Reportingsubmodules

ABAP

R/3 Financials Reporting OverviewPicking the Right Tool

1. Is a canned report available?2. Can I make a config. change to use a canned report?

3. Can I use drill-down reporting?

4. Can I make a config. change to use drill-down reports?

5. Can I use Painter/Writer?

6. Can I make a config. change to use Painter/Writer?



R/3 Financials Reporting OverviewPicking the Right Tool (cont.)

7. Can I use a submodule (CO-PA, SPL, Cash Mgmt.)?8. Can I make a config. change to use a submodule?

9. Can I use SAP Query?

10. Can I make a config. change to use SAP Query?

11. Can I write the report in ABAP? Report request

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

no no nononononononono

Cannedreport

Drill-down Painter/Writer

SAPQuery

Reportingsubmodules

ABAP



R/3 Financials Reporting OverviewPicking The Right Tool – Don’t Forget Periodicity

X*SAP Query

XCash Management

X**Special Purpose Ledger

X*CO-PA

XDrill-Down

XPainter/Writer LIS/SIS structure

XPainter/Writer Standard Table

Non-accounting

period

Accounting

period



R/3 Financials Reporting OverviewIn This Session, You’ll Learn...

• Key reporting tools (and submodules) you should beusing

• How to get the most out of these reporting

tools/modules

• How to alleviate common performance problems

• Tips for maximizing your reporting options when

configuring the reporting submodules

• Advanced configuration techniques that will enable

additional reporting functionality (in Appendix B on

the CD)



Getting the Most from R/3 FI/CO

• Explore R/3 drill-down reporting

• Discover the Special Purpose Ledger

• Start using R/3 Cash Management!

• Consider implementing CO-PA



Getting the Most from R/3 FI/COExplore R/3 Drill-Down Reporting

• Powerful, flexible tool that draws data from InfoCubes Enables reporting on multiple characteristics at once

Users can slice and dice data

A single report can fulfill multiple report requests

Originally built for CO-PA, but now also usable for other FI/CO areas

Foundational technology for BW reporting

See Appendix B for more on how to use this tool for PCA/Costing



Getting the Most from R/3 FI/COExplore R/3 Drill-Down Reporting (cont.)

• Powerful, flexible tool that draws data from InfoCubes(cont.)




• Where can I use it? General Ledger (G/L)

Accounts Payable (A/P)

Accounts Receivable (A/R)

Profit Center Accounting (EC-PCA) Treasury (TR)

Enterprise Controlling Consolidations (EC-CS)

Controlling-Profitability Analysis (CO-PA)

Project Systems Product Costing

Special Purpose Ledger




• There is no single place to access drill-down reporting You must go to the specific application area you want to do

drill-down reporting on

See the handout on drill-down reporting for transaction codecharacteristics and value fields for each area



Getting the Most from R/3 FI/COExplore R/3 Drill-Down Reporting – Output Types

• In 4.6C, there are new output types that you can use

Standard drill-down layout



Getting the Most from R/3 FI/CO Explore R/3 Drill-Down Reporting – Output Types (cont.)

New layout options



Graphical output





ALV output




You can give your users the option of selecting which output

type to use when executing the reportTip



Getting the Most from R/3 FI/COTips for Drill-Down Reporting

•Don’t include too many characteristics in your report Hinders performance

A good rule of thumb is to limit characteristics to six or less

• Use report-to-report interface to link to other reports

Line item report for reconciliation Other drill-down reports that have additional characteristics

Other SAP report types that are useful for your report

• Use frozen data for reports that take a long time to run

See Appendix A for details!

• Use mass print settings when you need hard copies




Creating andusing drill-

down

reports



Getting the Most from R/3 FI/CODiscover the Special Purpose Ledger

•

The Special Purpose Ledger is a user-defined,flexible ledger

Captures only what you want, for the activities you want, inthe time frame you want

In very general terms, SPL can be thought of as the CO-PA

of FI

• What can I do with an SPL?

An SPL can update based on any activity

You can pick up FI accounts as well as cost elements

You can set up a series of ledgers that roll-up into oneanother for consolidated reporting

R/3 Profit Center Accounting is actually a Special Purpose Ledger!



Getting the Most from R/3 FI/COWhen is the SPL a Good Fit?

•The SPL is particularly good when you need to: Report off of a different fiscal year variant

Report off of a different organizational structure

Report on a different accounting basis (cash basis)

Combine data from different parts of the system thataren’t normally available in a single transaction or reporting tool

Consolidate data that falls outside of EC-CS or SEMConsolidations

Stage data for export to an external consolidation tool

Report off a subset of system activities

Handle complex foreign currency reporting issues



Getting the Most from R/3 FI/COSpecial Purpose Ledger – Best Practices

• Include all currencies you need when defining theledger

It is hard to add them later! At a minimum, include transaction

currency and local currency

•Research how your data flows before trying to set up anSPL

Make sure you identify all of the activity types that you need to

map

•Use user exits in movement types To capture all of the characteristic data you need

You will also have to maintain integrated master data via

transaction code GCS1



Getting the Most from R/3 FI/COSpecial Purpose Ledger – Best Practices (cont.)

• Use Painter/Writer and drill-down to create SPL reports Your SPL totals table is available as a reporting table in

Painter/Writer

Use transaction code GCRE1 to activate drill-down reporting

for your SPL You will also have to maintain integrated master data via

transaction code GCS1

See also: “How to Tap into the Power of the Special

Purpose Ledger” – Quentin HurstNote



Getting the Most from R/3 FI/COStart Using R/3 Cash Management

• What is Cash Management? Submodule within Treasury

Used to report short-term and medium-term cash

position and forecast

•Key Cash Management features you should use Electronic bank statement

Lockbox processing

The Cash Management Position (CMP) report

The Liquidity Forecast (LF) report

We’ll cover the CMP and LF reports since they’re particularly

important!Note



Getting the Most from R/3 FI/COWhat Is the CMP Report?

• Used to forecast cash position in the short-term Based on banking transactions entered in R/3

Looks at actual cash transactions only

Great tool to help manage float – timing differences of

when different deposits, outgoing checks, wires, etc.,clear the bank

T code

FF7A




What Is the LF Report?

• Used to forecast liquidity position over short/medium term Forecasts future obligations and receipts

Based on business transactions entered in R/3

Includes transactions to “convert” outgoing/incoming documents

to cashPurchase orders, A/P invoices

Sales orders, A/R invoices




What Is the LF Report? (cont.)

T code

FF7B



Getting the Most from R/3 FI/COCash Management Best Practices

• The CMP and LF can be combined You can merge the two reports together to get a

consolidated picture of your cash and liquidity positions

Provides the optimum view of short-term cash position

and forecasted cash position

• Use a proper bank account G/L structure

• Set up the appropriate number of planning groups

You can always combine

• Key to a good CMP is value dating timelytransaction entry




• Looking at R/3 Financials reporting overview• Getting the most out of FI/CO




Leveraging CO-PA Best PracticesConsider Implementing CO-PA

• Why Implement CO-PA? R/3 module for tracking and analyzing profitability

Helps you understand where your profits come from

Captures revenue and cost of goods sold conditions from

Sales and Distribution (SD) Can also capture variances and assessments

Materials Manager (MM) variances, Production Planning (PP)

variances, CO assessments, and FI journal entry activity

• Gives you the information you need to make strategic

decisions

Which are the most profitable customers?

What product lines give me maximum contribution margin?



Leveraging CO-PA Best PracticesTop CO-PA Pitfalls

•Poor report performance

• Bad design decisions limits what data you can

report on

• Inconsistent value for the same key figure on

different reports

• Difficult or erroneous reconciliation

GOTCHA!



Leveraging CO-PA Best PracticesGetting the Most from CO-PA

1. Choose value fields strategically2. Ensure consistency with key figure schemes

3. Boost performance with summarization levels

4. Hasten runtimes with report splitting and Report/Report

Interface (RRI)5. Reconciliation tools

In the Appendix on the CD, there are five more CO-PA

best practices!



Leveraging CO-PA Best PracticesStrategically Choose Your Value Fields

•

Many teams skimp on the number of value fields theyset up

Example: setting up a single field called “Net Revenue”

instead of the components as separate fields

• R/3 won’t allow you to break the data out later It’s indivisible once it’s posted

As time goes on, you will be asked to break out Net

Revenue to its individual components for analysis



Leveraging CO-PA Best Practices Strategically Choose Your Value Fields (cont.)

•

Break potentially useful conditions into their own fields Even if you don’t have a current requirement to justify the

field, in the future someone will probably ask

You can always add value fields together when detail isn’t

needed



Leveraging CO-PA Best PracticesEnsure Consistency with Key Figure Schemes

•Key figure schemes are groupings of value fields You set them up once and use them across your reports

Ensures line items have the same definition across

reports

Net revenue, total cost of goods sold, etc.

When creating your report forms, you have the option of

using value fields or key figures



Leveraging CO-PA Best Practices Ensure Consistency with Key Figure Schemes (cont.)

• Set up key figure schemes via transaction KER1




• How to use them in reports

When creating the report form, you will be prompted on

whether to use characteristics, value fields with

characteristics, or a key figure scheme



Leveraging CO-PA Best Practices Boost Performance with Summarization Levels

•Summarization levels speed up report runtimes You define summary levels (tables) and specify an

update frequency

R/3 generates, loads, and updates the summary tables

When designing reports, you tell R/3 to use thesummarized data

R/3 fills in any missing data from original table (new with

4.5!)

• The best tool for maximizing CO-PA report

performance!



Leveraging CO-PA Best Practices Boost Performance with Summarization Levels (cont.)

•Summarization levels speed up report runtimes

SL

CE3

SL

SL

Report R/3

F i r s t

I f n o n e f o u n d




•How to set them up

1. Define summarization levels using transaction code

KEDV

2. Then tell R/3 to load the level by executing report

RKETRERU

Transaction code KEDU

3. Schedule report RKETRERU to periodically run to

update your levels

Create variant in KEDU, then schedule a batch job

to run off of that variant




TcodeKEDV




•Keys to success Choose a frequent update strategy to get the most boost –

normally a nightly update strategy is used

Set up and transport your levels from your Gold/CTS client

Include dependent characteristics in summarization levels Don’t define too many summarization levels (8-20 suffice)

Avoid “redundant” summarization levels

Make sure to periodically delete unused summarization

levels

Use the delivered summarization level tools

Tip

You can also use the summary tables created by summarization

levels to hasten custom ABAP reports



Leveraging CO-PA Best PracticesHasten Runtime with Splitting and RRI

•Report splitting and report/report interface Both improve performance

Break one report into multiple reports

Useful with large number of characteristics or high data

volume• What’s the difference?

Report splitting – one report automatically calls the other

RRI – from the first report list you use, manually navigate

to the lower-level report using a menu path

Original slow report Faster runtime: 2 smaller reports;

one calls the other when needed

SplittingRRI



Leveraging CO-PA Best PracticesHasten Runtime with Splitting and RRI (cont.)

• How to split reports

Use transaction code KE3L




• How to set up a report/report interface

For drill-down reporting, go to the Options tab in either

the create or change mode and click on the Report

assignment button




•

When to use splitting Reports that use a lot of characteristics or

characteristics that have a lot of values – performancebecomes an issue

Users typically do the same drill-down, e.g., company

code, then product line, then customer • When to use RRI

When you want to link different types of reports, such asABAP programs to Painter reports or SAP queries todrill-down reports

Users don’t use a single drill-down approach, so splittingisn’t a viable option

When splitting a report, users are limited to specific drill-downs



Leveraging CO-PA Best PracticesReconciliation Tools

•

Standard delivered CO-PA reconciliation report in R/3 4.5+ Name was derived from its transaction code KEAT

Tries to reconcile FI, PCA, SD, and CO-PA at an SD

condition/account level

Provides a quick overview of any discrepancies Offers drill-back functionality for out-of-balance entries



Leveraging CO-PA Best PracticesReconciliation Tools – KEAT

T codeKEAT



Leveraging CO-PA Best PracticesEase Reconciliation with KEAT

•

Unfortunately, KEAT has some drawbacks Not completely reliable, especially in make-to-order

environments

FI initiated updates aren’t tracked well or consistently

Report output isn’t customizable• The verdict:

Use as a quick check to identify errors

If KEAT shows an error, generally it is an error

Doesn’t always show all errors

Still need a more reliable reconciliation tool for detailed

reconciliations



Leveraging CO-PA Best PracticesSet up COS for Easier Reconciliation

•

What is Cost of Sale (COS) reconciliation? Simply stated, it is the creation of a COS cost element in

CO, coupled with the necessary configuration to force a

CO-PA segment update during any COS activity

The solution provides

Dual update into CO-PA – delivery and billing

A separate value field for each update

A low-data alternative to setting up account-based CO-

PA



Leveraging CO-PA Best PracticesMore Best Practices in the Appendix!

1. Benefit from R/3’s frozen data feature2. Boost performance with summarization data

3. Use realignments for mass changes

4. Leverage line item reports

5. Start using characteristic hierarchies



Resources

•

Dig into your system...• On CO-PA or financial reporting: help.sap.com

• The R/3 Reporting Made Easy Guidebook

• Configuring SAP R/3 FI/CO, by Quentin Hurst and

David Nowak – Sybex 2000

• On your CD

Drill-down reporting handout

Appendix A: More CO-PA best practices

Appendix B: Using Drill-Down for PCA and Product

Costing!



7 Key Points to Take Home

•

Drill-down reporting isn’t just for CO-PA anymore• Search for the node “information system” in the IMG

You may be surprised at the tools you will find

• There are report optimization techniques in CO-PA

that aren’t available to other reporting tools• There are specific reasons why you would use a

Special Purpose Ledger



7 Key Points to Take Home! (cont.)

•

SAP Query has been given a bad wrap – give it a try• Cash Management Position and Liquidity Forecast

are two strategic reporting tools that are often

overlooked

• Don’t forget the Appendices



Your Turn!

Questions?

How to Contact Me:[email protected]

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