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Practical perspectives on SAP Finance and Controlling. Andreas Niestroj | ANICONSAP

Cross-System Product Costing during a phased transformation

When production sites move to S/4HANA at different times, a single product may pass through plants operating in different SAP systems. Product Costing then has to follow the production chain across ECC and S/4HANA boundaries.

The key design question is how the receiving stage obtains the cost information from the preceding stage. A consistent approach must define the transferred values, their timing and the way they enter the next costing step. Repeated crossings between systems make the sequence particularly important.

My project experience includes RFC-based data exchange and stepwise cost rollup across such boundaries. A useful starting point is a map of the production chain showing the responsible system and the costing input for every stage.

Margin Analysis and the timing of profitability reporting

The design of profitability reporting includes a practical question: which information is available before the monthly closing process? If the required characteristics can be derived from operational postings, selected views can be prepared without first running a monthly settlement process.

In my WestLotto work, internal orders and material numbers provided the basis for characteristic derivation. The controlling model supported parallel contribution margin perspectives and weekly reports without relying on CO-PA settlement postings.

This experience highlights the importance of defining reporting dimensions together with their source objects. The reporting design and the settlement design need to be considered separately for each business process.

Intercompany service allocation connects CO and FI

An intercompany service process needs a clear connection between the operational service, its valuation and the accounting entries in each company. For services recorded in hours, this includes who receives the service, how the hours are valued and how invoicing and counterpart postings are generated.

My Roche experience included service allocation to three companies and an interface supporting automated cross-company invoices and corresponding postings. The work connected operational service data with the Finance and Controlling process.

For a workshop, I start with the service flow and the involved companies. The next step is to trace one complete example from the recorded service through allocation and invoicing to the postings on both sides.