Integrating subsidiary ledgers with the general ledger (G/L) is just as important as integrating the accounting and logistics functions.
Every transaction in customer and vendor accounts in the accounts payable (AP) and accounts receivable (AR) subledgers, as well as in asset accounts, has a direct effect on the corresponding accounts of the general ledger (G/L). Therefore, the subsidiary ledgers are always in balance with the corresponding G/L reconciliation accounts.
You, together with the fixed assets department, need to set up the G/L reconciliation accounts in advance.
Asset Acquisition – Posting Options
You can create the acquisition posting in the department that is primarily responsible for the business transaction.
The following are the methods of posting external acquisitions (acquisition of an asset from a business partner):
In FI-AA with AP integration, the posting is done when an incoming invoice is available without any reference to a purchase order.
In FI-AA with automatic offsetting entry, but without a link to a purchase order and any AP integration, the posting is done when the invoice has not yet been received, or when the invoice was posted by the AP department beforehand in a separate step.
In Materials Management (MM), the assets are posted and activated in Logistics (LO).
Acquisition from in-house production is the capitalization of goods or services that are partially or completely produced by the enterprise. The costs for these in-house produced goods or services must be capitalized to assets. To capitalize production costs, create an investment measure (order or project) in Investment Management (IM) and settle to an asset under construction (AuC), then to the final asset.
Another acquisition alternative is to settle a controlling order that has already been charged directly to a fixed asset on the incoming invoice. The process is typically carried out by the Controlling (CO) department.
Asset Acquisition Integration with Accounts Payable (AP)
You can post to the asset and the vendor in one document. On the Fiori Launchpad screen, choose the Post Acquisition (Integrated AP) without Purchase Order tile (transaction F-90).
This posting is often made in AP. It satisfies the requirements of both Financial Accounting (FI) and FI-AA.
Note
Integrated Asset Acquisition G/L Accounts
When you post an invoice to a vendor or an asset account, the corresponding G/L accounts (payables or fixed assets) are automatically updated at the same time.
Integrated Asset Acquisition
For an integrated asset acquisition posting, the system divides the business transaction into an operational part and a valuating part:
For the operational part (vendor invoice), the system posts a document valid for all accounting principles against the technical clearing account for integrated asset acquisitions. From a technical perspective, the system generates a ledger-group-independent document.
For each valuating part (asset posting with capitalization of the asset), the system generates a separate document that is valid only for the given accounting principle. This document is also posted against the technical clearing account for integrated asset acquisitions. From a technical perspective, the system generates ledger-group-specific documents for each accounting principle.
In this way, the system ensures that the technical clearing account for integrated asset acquisitions has a balance of zero (for each accounting principle and account assignment object) for every accounting principle in the chart of depreciation. So that the system can ensure the zero balance, manual posting cannot be made to the account.
Define the technical clearing account for Integrated Asset Acquisition in Customizing for Financial Accounting under Asset Accounting→Integration with General Ledger Accounting→Technical Clearing Account for Integrated Asset Acquisition→Define Technical Clearing Account for Integrated Asset Acquisition.
The following prerequisites must be met:
The account is a balance sheet account that must be created as a reconciliation account for fixed asset accounts.
The account is not allowed to be defined in the account determination for Asset Accounting.
If document splitting is activated, the system cannot always pass on the document type of the entry view to the valuating documents. The reason for this is that the document type can be defined so that items are designated as required, but they only exist in the operational document, not in the valuating document.
Define specify alternative document types for accounting-principle-specific documents of Asset Accounting in Customizing for Financial Accounting under Asset Accounting→Integration with General Ledger Accounting→Integrated Transactions: Alternative Doc. Type for Ledger-Grp-Spec. Docs→Specify Alternative Document Type for Acctg-Principle-Specific Documents.
Transaction Types
Use transaction types with every asset posting. Transaction types are used to identify acquisitions, retirements, transfer postings, and so on.
The Asset History Sheet report and other FI-AA reports use the transaction type to identify the various kinds of transactions and display them separately. For example, the transaction type specifies where the value change appears on the asset history sheet and identifies the change as a transfer posting of a current-year acquisition or a prior-year acquisition.
You can also define your own transaction types. However, the standard SAP system already provides all necessary transaction types. The transaction types are stored according to the transaction type in Customizing for Asset Accounting under Transactions, and can be edited, copied, or created there. Every transaction type is assigned to a transaction type group and cannot be changed by individual customers. Transaction types are predefined by SAP.
