With all the buzz around SAP Simple Finance , I decided to enroll for a course with SAP . I thought this blog would give some insights into what I feel about the product today.

My first thought was around the name - Why "Simple" Finance ?

SAP coined the word "Simple" due to the following reasons :

1. As businesses try to map complex scenario's in SAP utilizing the legacy architecture principles ,managing silo's of data spread across the landscape and solution's implemented by companies have also become complicated.

2. Sequentially scheduling lots of Batch Processing jobs tend to delay achieving the end objective.

Hence SAP decided to build their next generation ERP system that could provide "Instant Insight -to-action based on real-time information" which will become the need for a connected enterprise.

How is SAP re-imagining "Simple" architecture ?

SAP is leveraging on 3 things:

1. HANA architecture as the underlying platform by merging OLAP &OLTP

2. Simplification of Application and Underlying DATA Model. Hence no aggregate tables & no indices . Higher Throughput and reduced data footprint.

3. User Experience is a key focus which means similar experience across the paradigm.

What is Value generated on Investment ?

Investment in Simple Finance should be visualized as an opportunity to upgrade technically rather than functionally. It allows you to do so with least disruption to existing processes, and allow building future investment in SAP on the newer platform. (e.g. In generic terms , it is like upgrading from an Audi to  a Ferrari and in either case both get the job done. But to compete you would recommend a Ferrari)

Is the solution ready and stable ?

I would say that the idea is ready and Transformative . As of now there are constraints. We will discuss this in detail in my future blogs.

Fast, efficient reporting has always been a key requirement of cost accountants, financial analysts, and managers. Now, with S/4 HANA Finance, reporting has become not only fast but also intuitive and easy to use.

As a user, you are offered a list of reports tailored to your business needs. You can launch a report by clicking on the corresponding tile in the reporting section of your user specific SAP Fiori launch pad. The report opens and you can run it for your predefined selections - but you can of course also change your selections at any time.

You may play around also with the layout. In some situations it may be suitable to analyze data by periods - in other situations you may prefer to see detailed information by account and document number. Everything is possible.

It's up to you: play around and find the best way to see your figures ...

... and here's an appetizer video:   Working with Reports in SAP S/4HANA Finance - YouTube   Enjoy !

SAP allocation cycles work great until...you have to change them ... or explain the cost flows ... or ...

SAP Allocation Cycles

The traditional cost allocation techniques of assessment or distribution are used widely in the period end closing steps by enterprises that run SAP Financials.  Organizations use allocation cycles to transfer costs between cost centers, profit centers, internal orders, and to assign costs to profitability segment characteristics.  For many enterprises, the allocation cycles are defined initially upon migration to SAP and then subsequently adjusted at least yearly to coincide with the annual budget, or more frequently if needed to adapt to changes in the business span of control -- such as for an acquisition or divestiture which results in a change in the SAP organizational structures.

Challenges

It is not uncommon for the SAP allocation cycles to be defined using very comprehensive and granular business rules.  In some organizations this complexity leads to thousands of combinations of sender and receiver relationships.  Often there is a separation between the financial users who define the allocation logic and the SAP IT administrators that maintain th cycles in the system.  Due to such an environment, today's organizations struggle to understand their allocation cycles and the resultant cost flows.  Controllers and financial analysts cannot easily answer questions like:

"How do amounts flow across the chain of cycles and segments?"  or "Who is impacted and how much so when a change is made to the allocation rules and amounts?"

Opportunities for improvent

The new architecture of S/4HANA Finance, the power of SAP HANA and the improved usability capabilities of SAP Fiori all provide a new opportunity to address these areas where organizations struggle with the cost allocation processes.

Cost allocation and simulation

The SAP Labs Innovation Center Silicon Valley www.icn.sap.com has developed a prototype of a new application that seeks to give better visibility toward the allocated cost flows in S/4HANA Finance with real time calculations of the allocated amounts and a modern user interface to see the cycles and their related cost flows.  Please checkout the video of our prototype application here:

http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-70372

Interested in learning more?

We are seeking SAP S/4HANA Finance customers that want to work with our development team to give feedback on the future direction of the application, especially on the topic of simulation of cost allocations. 

You can contact me jeffrey.holdeman@sap.com directly or get in touch with us at innovation_center@sap.com.  Also watch for this topic as a Customer Engagement Initiative (CEI) program during the first quarter of 2016 at https://influence.sap.com.

**  Due to the architecture which is utilized, we do not anticipate to offer this application to run on SAP ERP 6.X releases with non-HANA databases ** 

Lots of customer projects want to adopt our award-winning Fiori apps, but since the technology is new, some implementation teams are still ramping up their knowledge. If your project is facing issues with Fiori apps, like missing tiles, apps that don't start, etc. or if you need tools for error analysis then check out the SAP Fiori - Troubleshooting Guide for SAP S/4HANA Finance, On-Premise Edition.

This guide can also help you solve issues in your own custom-built Fiori launchpad content.

Hi Friends,

While reading through the Simplification List for SAP S/4 HANA, on-premise edition 1511 I created a summary of key changes which I thought to share with the community..

• Master Data:  Business partner is now capable of centrally manage data for customers and vendors. BP is now the single point of entry to create, edit and display master data.

      The user interface for SAP S/4HANA, on premise edition 1511 is transaction BP

      The specific transactions like XD01, XD02, XD03 or VD01, VD02, VD03 / XK01, XK02, XK03 or MK01, MK02, MK03 etc. are not available in SAP S/4HANA,         on premise edition 1511

• Material Master Data:   With SAP S/4HANA, on premise edition 1511, the maximum field length of the material number is extended from 18 to 4 characters.

•   The Foreign Trade functionality as part of Sales & Distribution is not available within SAP S/4HANA. The functional equivalent in SAP S/4 HANA is     SAP Global Trade Services (GTS). The below mentioned fields for Letter of Credit/ Legal control/ Export control/ Preference management in Foreign Trade is supported by GTS and not through Material Master:
  • CAP product list no.
  • CAP prod. Group
  • Preference status
  • Vendor decl. status
  • Exemption Certificate
  • Exemption Cert. No.
  • Iss.date of ex.cert.
  • Military goods

• Material type "SERV" for services is introduced for Product Master in S/4HANA for simplification purposes. When you use material type SERV, some fields and departments that are irrelevant in S/4 are hidden from the screen. This gives all transactions relevant for material master, a leaner and simplified look.

• SD Data Model: The following data model simplifications have been implemented for the SD area

Elimination of Status Tables VBUK, VBUP: Status fields have been moved to the corresponding header and item tables - VBAK and VBAP for sales documents, LIKP, and LIPS for deliveries, VBRK for billing documents

• Simplification of Document Flow table VBFA.
• Field length extension of SD document category: Data element VBTYP (Char1) has been replaced by data element VBTYPL (Char4), also: elimination of field VBTYP_EXT (Char4)
• Elimination of redundancies – Document Index Tables VAKPA , VAPMA, VLKPA, VLPMA, VRKPA, VRPMA
• Elimination of redundancies – Rebate Index Table VBOX: see simplification item SD Rebate Optimization
• The FI-AR-CR Credit Management is not available with SAP S/4HANA. The functional equivalent in is SAP Credit Management (FIN-FSCM-CR). You need to carry out a migration from FI-AR-CR to FIN-FSCM-CR.
• SD Rebate Processing replaced by Settlement Management: In general, SD Rebate Processing is not available within SAP S/4HANA. The functional equivalent in SAP S/4 HANA is SD Rebate Processing is Settlement Management.
• SAP SRM: The functional scope of SAP supplier relationship management will gradually be made available with S/4 HANA a limited functional scope is now available as compared to SAP SRM. The coverage is proposed to grow overtime and procurement solution will evolve to take over SRM functions.
• SAP Supplier Lifecycle Management: The goal is that - over time - the functional scope of SAP Supplier Lifecycle Management (SAP SLC) will be available within the SAP S/4HANA stack.
• MM-Inventory management data Model: With S/4HANA this data model has been changed significantly. The new de-normalized table MATDOC has been introduced which contains the former header and item data of a material document as well as a lot of further attributes. Material document data will be stored in MATDOC only and not anymore in MKPF and MSEG. Additionally the aggregated actual stock quantities will not be persisted anymore in the hybrid or replaced aggregation tables. Instead, actual stock quantity data will be calculated on-the-fly from the new material document table MATDOC for which some of those additional special fields are used.
• Material Ledger Obligatory for Material Valuation: This simplification makes it obligatory to use the Material Ledger in all SAP S/4HANA systems. When a system is converted to SAP S/4HANA the Material Ledger will be activated if not active already. Please take a note that though material ledger will be active for parallel valuation of inventory and other purposes it is not mandatory to activate/use actual costing.

In MM02 and MR21 material prices can now be maintained in multiple currencies. In Financials the inventory account balances are calculated separately for each currency and result therefore in a cleaner and more consistent valuation in other currencies than the local currency.

• Sales & Operations Planning (SOP) will be replaced by Integrated Business Planning IBP12. Integrated Business Planning supports all SOP features plus advanced statistical forecasting, multi-level supply planning, an optimizer, collaboration tools, an Excel-based UI, and Web-based UIs.

Disclaimer: this blog represents a partner's perspective and not SAP's official opinion or commitment. Subject to change.

Several key partners and customers were recently invited to Walldorf for a Central Finance Collaboration Workshop in order to test, provide feedback and brainstorm over the upcoming features of SAP Central Finance. If you missed the roadmap announced last December, here is the key picture:

Roadmap: S/4 HANA Finance, Central Finance Foundation. Source: SAP

One of the key topics that we spent a lot of time on was: give existing and soon-to-be-released features, which Scenarios would provide Value to Central Finance customers? Here is the list of the top Value Scenarios that were identified.

These are the notes I took related to the Value Scenarios of S/4HANA Central Finance. Feel free to correct, comment, or extend.

Reporting with SAP Fiori

For most customers, this will be the first step in the Central Finance journey: connect one or more existing ERP system(s) to an S/4HANA instance, replicate key data, activate the Fiori content.

The potential benefits are:

• Non-disruptive
• Side-car (the S/4HANA instance can be restarted or discarded)
• Access to latest UX for non-upgradable systems

SAP Central Finance: Reporting with Fiori

Reporting: Rationalization of Data Warehousing

Once the data from the source systems have been collected into a central instance, there is an opportunity to rethink the data warehouse strategy. Instead of connecting the BW and / or BOBJ Universe to each source system, there could be a direct integration with the Central Instance. In addition, the data could now be accessed directly instead of being copied over (replacing BW DSOs with Virtual Infoproviders).

The potential benefits are:

• Reduction of the landscape complexity and data footprint leading to lower TCO
• Reuse of existing reports
• Enablement of Real-Time analytics for finance-related reports

SAP Central Finance: Rationalization of Data Warehousing

Unified Platform for Planning

Centralizing the financial data also represents a better platform for Planning with applications like SAP BPC.

The potential benefits are:

• Better integration of planning and reporting
• Better performance of the Planning application
• Reduction of TCO through fewer interfaces and potential reduction of data footprint

SAP Central Finance: Rationalization of Planning

Shared Services with Cloud Applications

Coordinating and connecting services through cloud applications like Human Capital Management (SuccessFactors), Commerce, Marketing and Billing (Hybris), Vendor Management (Fieldglass), indirect procurement (Ariba), or Travel Expenses (Concur),  can be challenging. Instead of multiple connections to each ERP instance, a central communication could be setup.

The potential benefits are:

• Central Master Data for the Cloud Applications
• Central processing of business processes like commerce, procurement or expenses
• Reduced TCO through fewer interfaces

SAP Central Finance: Cloud Applications

Shared Service Operations

Many companies have implemented Share Service Centers in order improve the efficiency of the back-office. In particular, Accounts Payables (AP), Accounts Receivables (AR), Payroll, or Document Management (openText). However, the agents performing such tasks have to log into multiple systems in order to perform their tasks. it would be much more effective for them to work out of a single system.

The potential benefits are:

• Increased productivity of the Shared Service operators
• Higher security with a clear separation of the central and local users and authorizations
• Extension of the scope of the Shared Service organization to processes that were historically not possible

SAP Central Finance: Shared Service Operations

Central Transactions

Several transactions on the ERP systems can be very time consuming or have to be performed in each single system. These processes could be improved if only they were centralized in a single system like SAP Central Finance. Some of these transactions are:

• Rebates Calculation
• Revenue Recognition
• Cost Allocations
• Period-End Closing
• Assets Management
• Cash Management

The potential benefits are:

• Enablement of processes with a requirement for a global view
• Improved productivity of operators for critical applications
• Shorter period-end close.

SAP Central Finance: Transactions

3rd Party Integration

Many companies with multiple ERP systems are using multiple instances of 3rd party applications like Hyperion Financial Management, Tableau, Cognos or Vistex. These companies could improve the integration of these applications by pointing to a single Central instance instead of multiple local sources. In some cases, these companies used to require a central data warehouse just to collect data for these applications. These redundant systems could also be turned off.

The potential benefits are:

• Reduced TCO through reduction of 3rd party licenses or reduction of systems interfaces or removal of deprecated staging systems.
• Increased performance of 3rd party applications through faster / easier data acquisition.
• Enablement of new applications that were historically not possible.

SAP Central Finance: 3rd Party Integration

Conclusion

SAP Central Finance or S/4HANA Finance is usually seen as a single black box but the Central Finance Collaboration Workshop allowed key customers and partners to build together additional Value Scenarios.

What do you think? Would these scenarios be relevant to your organization? Are you considering additional ones?

Now, it's easy to make manual postings to general ledger accounts using the Post General Ledger Entries app.

Thanks to the app's intuitive layout, you can quickly make adjusting entires during period-end closing, or record transactions that don't have a source document.

The app can calculate applicable taxes automatically as you enter the items.

Check out the video: Post General Journal Entries on YouTube

In a constantly evolving world, CEOs and CFOs must adapt continuously to their new market dimension. Having access to real time reporting gives a serious advantage on its competitors. Thus, CFOs can obtain the necessary information to have a real-time picture of their finance.

Real time reconciliation introduced by SAP Simple Finance solution increases the confidence index of financial reporting.

In a more and more competitive world, CFOs can detect earlier business lines profitability decrease and take appropriate decision.

In addition, connectivity and mobility solutions as HCP, HANA Live, Fiori, Lumira etc.. Enable you to reach your reports at any location/device.

This have been said, let’s see how SAP HANA tools are integrated.

Here is a simple case of turnover geolocalisation.

1- Pre-requisite :

In order to show finance posting analysis, we need.

• SAP Simple Finance system fully configured
• SAP HANA LIVE Studio with the standard package imported
• SAP Lumira connected to SAP HANA
• SAP Lumira map extension activated
• Esri GEOMAP account
• Your financial posting

For instance, the following finance posting has been done in the SFIN System.

Company 1 with 14 888 550 euro of turnover

Company 2 with 17 780 000  euro of turnover

2- HANA LIVE Data model creation:

Create or extend a standard calculation view (based on ACDOCA table) in order to extract turnover data.

A relevant data selection can be performed.

3- SAP Lumira analytics :

Add a new dataset getting the financial report based on the calculation view below.

Your report is ready, you can display it and breakdown data as needed.

The first screen is a global turnover view “by country”.

Then you can breakdown it to display turnover by country and G/L account.

In conclusion, thanks to those new features, CFOs can benefit from turnover geolocation presentation on any device which is very important in the big data era.

In MRP logistics processes, for example, stock can be displayed by store or by region which can help for appropriate replenishment.

I am pleased to announce the availability of “SAP S/4HANA Finance: An Introduction” on March 25, 2016 on Amazon.com. This is the second edition of the original book “SAP Simple Finance: An Introduction, SAP S/4HANA”.  This new edition is updated based on customer experience and additional innovations to S/4HANA Finance since the first edition to provide:

• Embedded analytics comments
• Flexible data integration and analytics with core data services
• Insight into shorter time to value by deploying SAP S/4HANA Finance in the cloud for finance organizations struggling to run efficiently with their current solution
• A vision of how SAP S/4HANA Finance supports the journey to the digital enterprise

This book is written for the finance executives, who want to understand how in-memory technology coupled with innovations in processes and usability allow them to run more efficiently and provide greater insights to the organization.

If you’re not an SAP customer this book provides a primer on the impact of in-memory technology on the finance organization.  It focuses on the results of paradigm shifts in data management created by removing limitations using typical relational and OLAP technologies such as:

• Removal of data redundancy 
• How real-time insight is created with on-the-fly aggregation at the transaction level vs pre-aggregation
• Non-disruptive innovations
• Innovations created when real-time finance is integrated with real-time operations
• Major functional improvements that bring the data closer to the business user with the Universal Journal and its benefits to end user reporting and ad hoc analysis. 

The book also explores the impact of in-memory technology on critical financial functionality from cash management to profitability analysis and through to the financial close.

Preorder your copy on Amazon.com here, available March 25, 2016.

We all know how hard it can be to follow news online for a special subject matter like Finance (or any other topic) these days. The problem is not that you wouldn't find the news you are looking for. It's information overload.

The following may not solve all information challenges at once, but I still have some hope and good news for you today for all SAP Finance friends:

My SAP colleagues and I have worked hard over this year to bring new life to some of our key SAP Finance social media channels. Follow these channels online and you will get some of the latest and greatest content and news around Finance, which will support you and your business on your finance transformation journey.

Join the SAP Finance conversation online

	SAP Finance on Twitter
	SAP Finance on Facebook
	SAP Finance on LinkedIn (an extension of SAP’ company page)
	SAP Finance playlist on YouTube (part of the SAP YouTube channel)
	SAP Finance blogs on SAP Business Trends, Digitalist Magazine, SAP Analytics

Not a one-way street

These channels are not intended as one-way street (as no social media channel should). Please engage with us. We’d love to hear from you!

Dear SCN Members,

The big challenge for the Finance Area so far has been the information in the right time. Period-by-period and year-by-year performing data treatment (Sales Close, Marketing Analysis, MRP, Production Results, Finance Period Close, FP&A execution, Budget Definition, etc) to finally present the company and business result expectation or actual profitability in the CO-PA or sometime extracting data to BW for data mining increasing the workload and the information cost.

The current resources (people, software license and hardware maintenance) dedicated to generate information which guides the company for better decision making has a cost, a huge cost.

The SAP new technology of in-memory data processing pretend to delivery real-time information across all business financial and operational dimensions combining financial and management accounting and profitability data into one universal journal.

This is the finance goal delivered by SAP HANA described in the marketing slogan for finance: Create the possibility to run on-the-fly financial analysis to take the best decision in the right time. Bring the database to memory will provide instant information access, reducing physical disk read. The biggest SAP ECC performance bottleneck which drives SAP to a solution to attend current customers needs.

There is no doubt about cost of information reduction with SAP HANA comparing to the actual SAP ECC structure. Based on that, near from now, it will demand a huge number of SAP HANA migration projects.

This migration should start as soon as possible with the current key users and system specialist to get ready for the near future of in-memory technology.

The process definition sometimes has to be aligned with the information system and data flow which will have a new concept with in-memory technologies requiring a redesign of business process thru this new data treatment.

The following topics below describe actions that can be taken even if your company will or will not migrate to SAP HANA:

- Data centralization: Analyze your system landscape around your current ERP system and check data storage duplication, for example, legacy system storing same information as your ERP in another database. There is no sense to apply SAP HANA with a system landscape with a lot of legacy system and databases integrated by interfaces.

- Process redesign: some process cannot be applied in your current system due to data processing and management. For example, production process and online backflush in a repetitive manufacturing sometimes is not possible due to the high volume of database lock designing the current production process to have asynchronous generating WIP materials when actually it does not exists. At this point raise ideas that could be implemented or improved with in-memory technologies resources.

- Refresh and redirect your knowledge: your functional skills will be enlarged and not lost with SAP HANA technology. It's the chance to redirect ways of working so far to in-memory technologies and suggest improvements currently undelivered for technical limitations. This way of think will refresh your knowledge and prepare yourself for the near future.

- Integration and cross-business process understand: the goal to delivery real-time information across all business process will require  from us the cross-business understand. The information will be triggered and integrated in real-time all business areas involved. It will be necessary to understand the information from the start until the end.

These items above describe how I am understand SAP HANA so far and how I am preparing myself for this new technologies.

Gabriel Coleti

What is this all about?

The SAP RealSpend (BETA) solution is the first comprehensive tool that allows managers to improve decision-making with regards to their budgets and expenses. Detailed drill-down features make it possible to perform a fine-grained analysis of actual and future expenses, as well as the related forecast and budget plans. Furthermore, the manager is able to simulate the influence of certain decisions onto his budget situation (e.g., marketing, hiring, travel, or hardware decisions). Augmenting financial data through tagging enables flexible reporting beyond the classical ERP data model.

Key Pain Points Addressed

• Financial data stored in ERP is "after-the-fact" and not well-suited for efficient decision-making upon future financial data.
• Financial data (e.g., planning, actuals) can only be reported based on dimensions and characteristics which were foreseen by central controlling or finance departments.
• Implementation of new concepts and models takes too long in an ERP system.

Key Product Features

• Augment financial data with future expenses.
• Bottom-up planning based on future expenses.
• Flexible tagging to introduce new dimensions and characteristics for reporting on the fly.
• Full real-time integration with SAP Simple Finance and S/4 HANA.
• A simple way to declare top-down budgets.

Get Started, Now!

    1. Register for or go to your own account on SAP HANA Cloud Platform Trial: https://account.hanatrial.ondemand.com/

         Note: Chrome Web Browser or Safari is recommended.

     2. Navigate to the Servicestab on the left side

     3. Find the Management Accounting Services under Category Business Services

     4. Click Enable and wait a few seconds.

     5. After the service is shown as "Enabled" click on it.

     6. Inside the service select: RealSpend Launchpad

     3. Accept the Terms of Use

     4. If you want to use SAP RealSpend (Beta) in demo mode click on the Enable Demo Mode toggle.

Optional

     6. If you want to enable real-time integration with your test on-premise ERP system please refer to the documentation: https://bmsfin.hanatrial.ondemand.com/core/documentation.pdf

     7. As an alternative to the real-time integration with your test on-premise ERP, the app is capable to import financial data from spreadsheets exported from your CO transactions KSB1, KSB2, KOB1 and KOB2. For details, refer to Chapter 4 of https://bmsfin.hanatrial.ondemand.com/core/documentation.pdf.

Questions and Feedback?

  We would highly appreciate your questions or feedback. Please add your comments below or write the team directly via fincloud@sap.com

Release Notes

04.04.2016: LineItem Table shows a click popup do avoid horizontal scrolling inside RealSpend

15.03.2016: Multi-currency support

15.02.2016: Allows again to upload Excel files from KOB1, KOB2, KSB1, KSB2

We are on the cusp of an information driven corporate finance reformation. That is an overhaul and restructuring of how financial information is placed "in context" with operational and machine generated information to allow the business user to:  monetize operations in terms of units, rates, drivers and sensitivities;   analyze and understand the financial and operational impact of decisions in real time;  and convert insight into action. This also elevates Finance’s role as a key partner/resource for monetizing operational decisions and strategies.

This is the first of a blog series that will explore the corporate finance reformation, including what has changed to make this possible, what it will require from finance departments and information technology and some of the key benefits.

In the past, different innovations have come close to resulting in a corporate finance reformation but have fallen short. Online Analytics Processing [OLAP] tools with their cached results and intuitive modeling techniques were one approach.  While they supported sophisticated models for analyzing "What If", their data was too high level and not connected to the detail transactions where questions are answered, anomalies identified and action plans defined. Techniques used to link OLAP databases to the detail relational transactions proved fragile.

A second approach was to use relational accelerators to speed up relational query time and create a line of sight between summary totals and detail level transactions. The challenge with these solutions were twofold: first the speed still wasn't fast enough; and complex data architecture became a challenge for the business user to navigate. Traversing data with inner and outer joins connecting 10 or 20 different tables to create a business view required a combination of IT and business acumen.

Both of these approaches along with the typical relational database/data warehouse approach suffer from data inflexibility. It required data/information to be architected in anticipation of the way business users wanted to look at the information.  If business users queried the data the way it was anticipated, the queries were fast. If the business user stepped outside the way the data was architected, the query was slow. 

Why is it different now? 

This reformation is fueled by in-memory technology and the data simplification that in-memory technology provides.  In-memory technology:

• Provides the ability to organize data in columns and effectively makes each field (column) act as an index. It thereby removes the need for data architecture choreographed the way we want to query the data.
• Enhances the speed of analysis. Eliminating speed as barrier to analysis enables simplification of data architecture.
• Allows us to write transactions to the same detail table we do the analysis on and eliminates aggregated tables.
• Eliminates the need to anticipate the questions being asked by the business user and provides a more "flexible and agile"[1] corporate climate.

The results of in-memory technology is a system architected without aggregate tables and without separate transaction tables that have to be maintained, reconciled and linked when creating reports or performing analysis. This concept is the core of S/4HANA Finance.

The Universal Journal table, provides a single source of truth in accounting and controlling where:

• All financial transactions are  written including transactions from accounts payable, accounts receivable, general journal, material ledger, asset accounting and COPA sub ledgers.
• All reports are based, from high level financial statements to detail level accounts payable summaries and daily check log to apply against accounts receivable transactions.
• Transactions can be tracked from original purchase order of raw materials to final sale of finished goods.

Why is it important for companies?

The real-time environment and the ever accelerating corporate “clock speed” demand an organizational capacity to respond in ever-shorter time frames with information and insight. S/4HANA Finance provides a business platform that incorporates a powerful predictive engine and facilitates decision making in the accelerated time frame.  It helps organization’s create and capture new economic value by merging financial transactions with their operational attributes to create integrated planning.  It helps to focus the company on the financial implications of operational decisions and provides the missing link for supporting data driven insights rather than basing decisions on assumptions or intuition. 

My next blog will dig deeper into “Why is it different now?” and focus on key features of “in-memory” technology that make this reformation possible.

[1] See the Harvard Business Reivew Article: “The Future and How To Survive It” October 2015, by Richard Dobbs, Tim Koller and Sree Ramaswamy

The real questions is “What has changed to alleviate data bottlenecks, slow of response time and complexities of data architecture that will NOW allows us to do things we have always aspired to do in Finance”. These are the things that we have felt “almost” in our grasp since the invention of spreadsheets.

The big game changer is the advent of in-memory technology:

With an in-memory database, nonvolatile [disk] storage is still needed to ensure we have a persistent data store of all transactions, but this “write” function can be performed after the information is written to memory.  The benefit of writing it to memory is that it can be immediately read from main memory eliminating the latency of disk I/O.  Although this provides a big decrease in response time, there are additional techniques that decrease response time even further:

Organizing Information in a Columnar Data Store

Conceptually, relational databases write information in complete transactions, as a long sentence made up of columns that electronically describe the transaction. We say we write the information to “rows” of the database.  In (Figure 1) each row represents a vendor purchase/payment transaction.  Analytics, however, are typically performed on selected “columns” of the database.  We don’t need all 11 columns in the above example to analyze vendor purchases; we only need the “Amount” column and the corresponding “Vendor Id”.  If we want to do analysis it would be beneficial to organize the data in a columnar database.

Figure 1

There are benefits to both row and column organized databases, row databases are appropriate when the system needs to process a complete record at a time, like recording a vendor invoice for payment.  Column databases are appropriate for analytics, when I don’t need all the columns of a transaction [row] as in the example above. The workload has changed and is mainly driven by analytical style queries even in transactional systems.

Compressing the Information

There are two benefits to data compression.  It reduces overall memory requirements of the system and read operations are performed more efficiently because the data segment being read is smaller.  Data compression is performed on columnar data where columnar values are converted to integer codes and these integer codes are stored in a separate dictionary for each column.  In the above example, figure 2, we show the column contents with the system assigned sequential record ID.  In figure 3 we show the unique column values being converted to an integer id and represent the dictionary.  Figure 4 shows the compressed column of information.  A performance factor of between 100 and 1000 can be achieved when comparing operations on integer-encoded compressed values vs uncompressed data.¹

Supporting parallel execution

Columnar data stores facilitate parallel execution because calculations using different columns can be performed by different cores.  Also, calculations on one column can be executed by dividing the column into multiple sections that are processed by different processor cores and aggregating the subtotals produced by each core.  This also has a high multiplier reduction in processing time as well as mirroring Excel like calculations.

The speed enhancements from the “raw” in-memory database coupled with the three techniques above allow us to merge On Line Transacting Processing Data, (i.e. the financial and operational transactions) with the On Line Analytics Processing [OLAP] data analysis and modeling into one database.  This allows us to create a database with simplified data schema that provides a single source for all calculations. The speed enables us to perform all calculations on-the fly (i.e. no aggregate tables), thus, we can combine the actual results, with the analysis (typically performed off line in Excel) and the simulation and planning processes (typically performed in an EPM solution). It also creates a direct line of sight from the lowest level transaction to the highest level calculated KPI. When split among two databases this “line if site” is fragile at best.

While the in-memory database makes the Financial Reformation possible, the other key component fueling the reformation is creating a simplified data architecture that is easy to understand, use and consume, without requiring a road map of how to perform inner and outer joins to combine the necessary information.  In S4/HANA Finance we do that with the Universal Journal. I will talk about that in my next blog.

¹ Hasso Plattner. “A Common Database Approach for OLTP and OLAP using an In-Memory Column Database.” Providence, Rhode Island, 2009.

Hello! Today, I'll tell you how to activate IBPF and embedded BW and how to solve issues, that appear during this process.

IBPF (Integrated Business Planning for Finance) is a new planning tool, which is deployed at S/4 Hana side. Briefly, IBPF is a BI business-content, which replaces old ERP planning transactions at Analysis for Office planning interface. In this article we will activate IBPF and perform first test.

Components requirements

All that is described below is valid for conditions:

1. you need to use IBPF functionality

2. embedded BW is not activated yet

3. you have installed the following components:

    a. SAP_BASIS 740 SP10

    b. SAP_ABA 740 SP10

    c. PI_BASIS 740 SP10

    d. SAP_BW 740 SP10

If the version of the components installed on your system is above mentioned before, you may have other errors or no errors occuring at all.

To activate the IBPF, you should have an active embedded BW. Let's activate it!

Activation of Embedded BW

1. Preparation Steps for Activation of Embedded BW

    The activation of the embedded BW has to be conducted in each system (development, test, production) separately. This activity is part of the system setup and not part of Customizing.

    1.1 Decide Which Client Is to Be Used as BW Client

        First decide which client to use as BW client. Log on to this client and execute all subsequent steps within this client. In most cases, the productive client is used as the BW client.

    1.2. Check for Existing Settings for the BW Client in the System

         In some cases, there is already a setting for the BW client in table RSADMINA, even if no BW is used in the system. Check the situation beforehand and correct as necessary.

                a) Use transaction SE16 to display all data in the RSADMINA table.

                b) Under CUSTOMIZID, if the entry is BW but the corresponding entry under BWMANDT is not the client used above, start transaction SE37, enter function module RS_MANDT_UNIQUE_SET, and click Test/Execute (F8). Enter the BW client you want to use in field I_MANDT and click Execute. The BW client is now set. If there is no such entry, or the BWMANDT field is empty, then there is no need to run function module RS_MANDT_UNIQUE_SET.

    2.  Customizing Steps for Activation of Embedded BW

      2.1. Assign Logical System Client

               a)  Under Controlling -> General Controlling -> Planning -> Setup for Planning -> Define Logical System, define the logical system, and then assign it to your BW client.

               b)You must define a logical system. If you do not work with logical systems, enter a dummy name for the technical name and a brief description.

               c)Choose Assign Logical System to Client.

               d)Under Controlling -> General Controlling -> Planning -> Setup for Planning -> Assign Logical System to Client, select the client that you have chosen as BW client.

               e) Check the settings of 'Cross-Client Object Changes'. Use one of the following settings:

                No changes to cross client customizing

                Changes Repository and cross client Customizing allowed

               f)Set the logical system to the one you created before.

    2.2. Set BW Namespaces to Modifiable

               a) In the Transport Organizer Tools (transaction SE03), choose Administration -> Set System Change Option, and then Execute.

               b) In the System Change Option screen, select the namespaces with the prefixes /BI0/ and /BIC/ as modifiable.

    2.3. Activation of Technical Content

      The report is started with the DDIC user, which must contain the profiles SAP_ALL and S_A.SYSTEM.

               a) Start transaction SU01, enter user DDIC and press the Change pushbutton.

               b) Go to the Parameters tab. Enter parameter RSWAD_DEV_MDVERSION, and 072 as the value.

               c) Enter parameter RSWAD_SKIP_JAVA and value 'X'.

               d) Save your entries.

               e) Now start transaction RSA1.

               f) In the Replicate Metadata dialog box, choose 'Only Activate'

Error while activating infocube 0PPM_VC1

At this step I got an errors. Go through errors and finally get:

(this is a screenshot from the log of activation content from transaction RSTCO_ADMIN)

The best way to solve this issue is manual activation:

1. Start transaction RSDCUBEM.
2. Select "Content" as version and "0PPM_VC1" as infoCube, as follows:

    3. Select "Subsequently activation" as option of activation:

  4. Start transaction RSA1 - InfoProviders and find cube 0PPM_VC1. It will be inactive. Open cube for edit and activate it manually.

Let's try to activate technical content one more time.

1. Start transaction RSTCO_ADMIN.
2. Click "Start installation" and wait.
3. Done!

Well, we've successfully activated a technical content. Go ahead.

To perform a first test, start transaction RSD1 and check, whether infoobjects 0RSPL* exist in active version. Test passed succesfully:

We've succesfully activated an embedded BW.

Switch ON business function for project planning and CO planning

Start transaction SFW5 and select business-frunctions FIN_CO_CCMGMT (if you want to use project planning) and FIN_CO_CCPLAN (if you want to use cost center planning).Then, press activate changes and wait. To track progress of activation, use transaction SMX (keep track of job SWF_ACTIVATE_SFOX).

Activate Content Bundle for New Financials Planning and BW Reporting

1. Activate DataSource 0PROFIT_CTR_0106_HIER

          a) Start transaction RSA5

          b) Expand the complete SAP structure.

          c) Use the Find functionality to jump to DataSource 0PROFIT_CTR_0106_HIER

          d) Activate the DataSource: place the cursor on the DataSource, press Select Sub-Tree and Activate DataSource.

Error of activation an extractor

During activation of extractor 0PROFIT_CTR_0106_HIER I got a list of errors like this:

(I saw it throught the transaction SLG1)

This errors are associated with the fact, that application component EC_PCA_IO is inactive. To activate it:

1. Start transaction SE11 and check whether there's application component EC-PCA-IO with D version in table RODSAPPL

If you have "D" in field OBJVERS of this table, you need to call T-CODE RSA9 and click YES in a pop-up window.

Then, try to activate extractor one more time. It will be successfull.

     2. Activate Content Bundle

         a) Start transaction SPRO and activate Content Bundle /ERP/SFIN_PLANNING under Controlling -> General Controlling -> Planning -> Setup for Planning -> Activate BI Bundle Content for Planning

          b) Under Business Category, select 03 for Business Functions

          c) Select the line with the technical name /ERP/SFIN_PLANNING and click Activate.

          d) On the next screen, click the RFC Mapping button. In the dialog box, create one entry with "Dialog RFC connection" = NONE and "Background RFC connection"= NONE Also ensure that you select the Local checkbox.

          e) Under RFC Destination for Content Objects, enter NONE.

          f) Select No Data Source Replication.

          g) Under Treatment of Already Active Content Objects, press the Copy radio button and select the Install all Collected Objects checkbox.

          h) Click Activate.

        Note: Other options could be useful for later activations: In future, press the Match radio button if you have changed the content delivered by SAP. For content objects delivered by SAP, you are then asked if the new content version is to be merged with the active object. Deselect the Install all Collected Objects if only new SAP delivered objects are to be considered. Automatic choices between Match and Copy depend on the object type (See flag MERGEFL in table RSTLOGOPROP).

          i) Start the activation (If you want to transport the activation in the test and productive system click 'Activate with transport').

          j) The Select Source System dialog box appears. Do not select a source system, click Cancel.

          k) Check the activation log.

Error of activation content bundle

After almost 20 minutes of waiting, I got a list of errors:

For solving it, you must patch your SAB BW 7.40 to SP11 or above.

After patching your system, clear the tails of your previous trying of activation content bundle:

1. run report RSR_MULTIPROV_CHECK in SE38.
2. Scroll the bottom and flag 'All InfoProviders'
3. Press Execute

After execution of the report, try to activate function /erp/sfin_planning again, it has successfully activated now.

     3. Activate Analysis Office Workbooks

Remark: You can activate the Analysis Office Workbooks in each system separately, but you can as well transport this activation.

          a) Start transaction RSOR to activate the Analysis Office Workbooks.

          b) Ensure that in the right panel Grouping is set to Only Necessary Objects and Collection Mode is set to Start Manual Collection.

          c) Choose BI Content -> Object Types, select More Types -> Analysis Office Excel Workbook -> Select Objects.

          d) The Data Warehousing Workbench: BI Content box appears. Select all workbook starting with /ERP/SFIN_* and click on Transfer Selections.

          e) The Select Source Systems dialog box appears. Do not select a source system, click Cancel.

          f) Select all objects for installation and click on Install (If you want to transport the activation in test and production system chose 'Install and transport').

Categories

To use new Financials Planning, you need to create and maintain relevant categories. Categories can be created in each system separately but as well be transported into test and production system.

Do this creation in Customizing in SPRO, under Controlling -> General Controlling -> Planning -> Maintain Category for Planning.

   1. Category for Actual Data

    Create category ACT01 (maintenance view FCOMV_CATEGORY).          

   2. Categories for Plan Data

    Create categories for your plan data, for example, for optimistic or pessimistic forecasts.

    If you want to transport categories mark the categories you want to transport and select in the menu 'Edit' and 'Include in request'.

Perform a First Test

Start transaction SU01 and open your user profile for edit:

     a) Under System -> User Profile -> Own Data, set the user parameter CAC for the controlling area.

     b) Use transaction RSRT for a first technical test.

     c) Under Query, select /ERP/SFIN_A01_IRQ0001.

     d) Under Query Display, select HTML.

     e) Press the Parameter 1 radio button.

     f) In the text box, enter variable_screen =x

     g) To run the first test, click Execute (F8)

     The Query selection screen appears. Some values are defaulted, for example, the currency with the controlling area currency. Enter at least a category, a company code, and a fiscal year.

     h) Click Execute and see the first result.

     This test result proves that the planning functionality has been installed and configured correctly.

Bonus: Activate Planning and Consolidation Unified

If you plan to use BPC 10.1 embedded model (also knows as unified), you should activate this instrument.

Prerequisites

     a) You are using a SAP HANA database.

     b) You have activated the SAP Business Warehouse Planning Applications Kit. For more information, see SAP Note 1637199.

          This activation can be conducted in each system separately but can also be transported if needed.

Procedure

     a) Run transaction SM30.

     b) Enter the RSPLS_HDB_ACT table view.

     c) Add and activate the following parameter: BPC_ACT: BPC-PAK integration active (or "BPC Embedded Model Active").

         If you want to transport this parameter mark the categories you want to transport and select in the menu 'Edit' and 'Include in request'.

         For more information, see SAP Note 1919631.

If you get errors, which differ from described above, let me know. I'll try to help you. Thank you!

Links:

SAP Business Planning and Consolidation 10.1, version for SAP NetWeaver – SAP Help Portal Page

SAP notes

1972819 - Setup Integrated Business Planning for Finance and Embedded BW Reporting

As of today, SAP RealSpend made it to the final stage: It is generally available as one of the first S/4 HANA Finance applications on the HANA Cloud Platform.

In this article, you will learn everything about the solution and get access to a TRIAL version.

What is SAP RealSpend

SAP RealSpend is a comprehensive tool that allows line managers to improve visibility and decision making on budgets and spending.  Detailed drill-down features make it possible to perform a fine grained analysis of actual and future spends, as well as related forecast and budget plans.  Managers can simulate the influence of certain decisions onto budget factors including sales, marketing, travel, hiring, and equipment investment.  Augmenting financial data through tagging enables flexible reporting beyond the classical ERP data model.

With SAP RealSpend, line managers and controllers are able to benefit from:

• Augmented financial data with future expenses
• Flexible tagging for reporting on new dimensions and characteristics on the fly
• Full real-time integration with S/4HANA Finance
• Fast implementation through cloud delivery and pre-configured S/4HANA connector
• High security standards and data protection

In addition, managers benefit directly from very fast innovation cycles as the application is provided via the SAP HANA Cloud Platform that integrates seamlessly with S/4 HANA systems.

How to get started

Choose one one the following options:

Option A

Get me directly into the live demo

Option B

I want to get a TRIAL of the full solution and integrate my S/4 test system

Additional Resources

• Release Notes of SAP RealSpend
• Try Out SAP RealSpend on SAP HANA Cloud Platform
• Official end user and administrator documentation

Contact

Please add your comments below or write us directly at fincloud@sap.com

Financial executives have long used spreadsheets as a tool for business analytics, and it seems many still remain reliant on their rows and columns. Many use spreadsheets successfully to grow their business and find spreadsheets an appropriate tool to reach good business decisions. However, using separate sheets for budgeting, forecasting, reporting and analysis can result in disparate data sets from areas such as finance, operations, sales and human resources. The work is manual and can drain time and resources. The Canadian Financial Executives Research Foundation undertook research that suggests that despite the wide variety of data analytics platforms in existence, many organizations, including public companies and large companies, rely heavily on spreadsheets even if they are also using other tools such as business intelligence software or even accounting software. This is in part because spreadsheets offer the capability for custom work specific to their organizations that may not be offered by other platforms. 78% of Canadian businesses still using spreadsheets as their primary source of business analytics, study finds and only 29% ready to invest in modern business analysis tools. This is a worrisome trend, while high-tech finance is potentially disruptive to CFOs who rely on spreadsheets, new business analytics also offer them the opportunity to lead in their firms. Arthur Gitajn, CFO SAP Canada, shared his views with The Globe and Mail. "What [CFOs] need are business systems that are intelligent, that go beyond automation to make predictive suggestions, that are integrated to customers, to suppliers and are immediate, in real time" Mr. Gitajin says. Read the full news briefing http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/cfos-why-bytes-not-beans-are-the-future/article29921639/ FEI Canada, together with the Canadian Financial Executives Research Foundation and SAP, is about to release a new study, Data Analytics in Canada, looking at the changing role of technology in the work of CFOs.Part of the study’s findings worry Mr. Gitajn, because 92 per cent of the CFOs and top Canadian financial executives surveyed said they still rely on spreadsheets – 70 per cent in the case of companies with fewer than 500 employees. This can limit a company’s ability to analyze its business and grow.

Please join the SAP & EY S/4HANA Finance webinar hosted by IMA (Institute of Management Accountants) on May 25:

Leverage New Technology to Enable Finance Functions to Operate in an Agile Way

Wednesday, May 25, 2016 at 10:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time

Duration: 60 minutes

Webinar Description:

Today's world is increasingly digital and networked, and new technologies provide an opportunity to enable digital transformation of the finance function, allowing companies to stay ahead of the competition. And while the finance function has traditionally focused on historical learnings to predict future possibilities, they now have the opportunity to leverage new technologies allowing them to operate in a more agile way. Join us as Thack Brown, of SAP, and Ingmar Christiaens and Tony Klimas, of EY discuss how world-class companies are transforming finance to focus on the future and evolve into the role of a go-to decision support source for other parts of the business.

Learning Objectives:

After this webinar, you will be able to:

1. Explain what digital transformation means to the evolution of the finance organization.
2. Recognize current technology trends in the market and how they are affecting the finance function
3. Understand how advanced technology can benefit finance processes, from the financial close to cash management.
4. Describe strategic guidance provided to key decision makers through forward-looking, predictive finance models.

Registrations:

Global Guests registration.

North America Guests registration.