The project team makes multiple basic configuration decisions that affect the life of the SAP system, based on the best options available to them at the time:

• Company code to controlling area mapping
• Controlling area currency
• Group currency
• Chart of accounts (length of account)

These decisions may have been the correct choice at go-live, but the business process or organizational requirements have changed over time, and in retrospect, the project team realizes that it could have made better choices. Of course, the project team is not omnipotent and cannot anticipate activities such as the company merging with another company, starting a new line of business, or acquiring a foreign subsidiary.

Rohana Gunawardena goes into great detail about his best practices for setting up controlling areas and the reasons to reduce controlling areas, and explores the possibilities of, for long-standing FI systems, reducing and reorganizing your Controlling Areas.

Do you want to set up your system for multiple company codes to be mapped to a single controlling area? Or one company code to be mapped per controlling area?

For a clearer understanding of exactly what Controlling Areas are and why  significant structural changes are often warranted, we'll take a look at Rohana'ss Financials 2013 session, “A practical guide to navigating your Controlling options in SAP, ” Rohana touches on Controlling Area structures as part of his full session on making the most of CO modules and transactions, including CO-PA, Profit Center Accounting, and Material Ledger

Controlling Areas - Enterprise Structure

• Rules for organizational relationships are hard-coded
•  Controlling area to a single operating concern
• Company code to a single controlling area
• Cost object to a single company code
• Linked Operating Concerns, Controlling Areas & Company Codes must use the same chart of accounts and fiscal year variant
• Note a Profit Center is not a cost object

Controlling Area

• The Controlling Area (CoAr) is the key organizational element in CO
• Important to understand it is more wide ranging than the FI Company Code (CoCd)
• It sets the key currency code for reporting across the whole Controlling Area
• This may cover multiple company codes with their own local currency codes

• It is common to have only one Operating Concern and one Controlling Area for the whole enterprise

Controlling Area – Changing Structure

• Initially, CO was configured with one CoAr per CoCd; now you want a single CoAr
• This often occurs if analysts had a FI centric view of CO and now want to implement cross-company controlling
• Your company has CoAr currency EUR and FI-GL uses Group Currency USD and you want to align the systems
• See SAP Notes 27621 and 39919

For those who are now “stuck” with configuration that is out of synch with CO requirements, Rohana's SAPexperts article describes the solution- a reimplementation of the system -- or another option, a complex correction to current structures which, he notes, while involved, can be a good option but does require outside expertise.

For more from Financials expert Rohana Gunawardena,  read his recent Q&A with our members in the Financials discussion thread here, and meet him in person and attend his sessions at SAPinsider’s Financials 2013 conference  in Las Vegas, March 19-22.

This session, "Case Study: How Kimberly-Clark Implemented a Global Spend Analytics Platform and Gained Control of Spend Data in Less than 20 Weeks", was presented by SAPinsider's Logistics and Supply Chain Management 2012 conference. The following tip is an overview of SPM and some quick implementation concepts, taken from their longer, detailed session:

Core Components of SPM Solution

• Spend data extraction
• From SAP and Non-SAP sources

• Master and transactional data
• SPM Data Model and Reporting/User Interface
• Standard content/Business Intelligence data model
• Adobe Flex user interface
• Handles all language character sets – Unicode-based

• Data Standardization and Enrichment
• Spend Classification to a taxonomy
• Supplier Enrichment
• Supplier Normalization
• Language conversion supported by DSE and Bristlecone services

SPM ERP Extractors Will Give You a Start on Acquiring Data

• For SAP systems, there are SAP delivered extractors for:
• SAP ERP: 4.6C, 4.7, ECC 5.0, and ECC 6.0
• The starter kit can be downloaded from SAP Note 1239883
• Pay very special attention to the exclusion of data
• You DO NOT want all PO and Invoice data
• Exclude by GL, vendor account group, material type, etc.
• Exclude Employee data; exclude or separate Intercompany spend

NOTE: Extractors are a “starter kit.” You will need to customize them based on exact data requirements, your particular design and to obtain satisfactory performance. 

Base Steps to Configure and Run the Extractors

• SM30 (ZSA_FFCUSTTABL): Configure the output directory,  filename and delimiter (technical)
• SM30 (ZSA_D_FLDVAL): Maintain the exclusion table
• SM30 (ZSA_GLSPLIT): Maintain spend split table (optional)
• Z_SA_DEPD: Review the metadata and generate the extractor program
• Z_SA_EXTR: Select and run the extractor for a chosen object
• Z_SA_OBJ_SCHE: Schedule the extractor on the background

Key Performance Issues to Address

•  SAP ERP Extractors and data load
• Be current on all SPM patches to obtain data load improvements
• Partitioning of InfoCubes; create the right indexes to support loads and SAP
• ERP data extraction
• User Interface log in
• Application launch time – SAP Note 1584145 – reduce reads on table 0PM_PS_ITEM_DET during log in
• Returning reporting results back to the User Interface
• Java Memory usage dependent on the number of cells (rows * columns) returned to the screen
• Set a cell limit. After this cell limit is reached users receive a “limit exceeded” message.
• Set up appropriate filters and train users to use them!
• Remove ability to drill down to detailed reporting (transactions)
• Fits strategic message of the application

For more on SPM, be sure to attend the upcoming Logistics & Supply Chain Management 2013 conference in Las Vegas, March 19-22.  You can read the Kimberly-Clark case study from InsiderPROFILES here.

• Used frequently in countries like France, Spain, and Italy
• Name depends on the country
• It is a “check to yourself”
• Can be endorsed by the payee
• Usage of bills of exchange can be a complex procedure!  

Basic Principles — Payment Program Settings overview

• Bill of Exchange requires special settings in the customizing of the payment program F110
• Customizing transaction is FBZP
• IMG Menu path for individual parts of FBZP:
  Financial Accounting >  Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable > Business Transactions > Outgoing Payments > Automatic Outgoing Payments >  Payment Method/Bank Selection for Payment Program

The session covers specific SAP GRC strategies, challenges, and technologies  to effectively audit your SAP BusinessObjects GRC environment.

Here are just a sampling of two tips from James Roeske's session,  for avoiding SoD violations: check your rule configuration to elminate SoD violations (so that mitigation is a last resort), and review CUP configuration to maintain SoD compliance.

Incorrect Rule Configuration Is Always the Top Priority

> The purpose of remediation is to determine alternatives for eliminating SoD violations.

> These alternatives should be explored in the following order:

1. Is this SoD violation caused by an incorrect rule? If yes, then modification to the rule is required to resolve the false positive.
2. Can access be removed from the role or user to resolve the SoD violation?
3. Can this SoD violation be addressed using other alternatives, such as utilizing SAP Workflow, user exits, configuration modifications, or business process change?
4. Can this access requirement be addressed using GRC Superuser Privilege Management for SAP functionality?
5. If the SoD violation is not resolved in steps 1-4, then Mitigation is required

CUP Configuration Critical to Staying SoD Compliant

> CUP Review

• Is your CUP system configured utilizing suggested SAP GRC best practices?

• Are SoD violations still able to slip into your system through user access requests?

> Verification of the Stage Configuration

• CUP is a critical component to maintain a SoD free environment, only if it is configured correctly

> Verification of escalation is being used to support compliance and proper approval, or just to speed up the provisioning approval process

 > Validation of the CUP configuration for RAR integration to close SoD loopholes during the provisioning process

For more tips on SAP GRC configuration and SoD compliance, visit the GRC Group and www.grc2013.com