Creating Event-Based Postings Within and Outside Management Accounting

Internal Orders are updated by event-based postings from different SAP application components, like in Cost Center Accounting.

In Financial Accounting, you can assign postings of G/L accounts of G/L Account Type Primary Costs or Revenue. They will be called primary costs in the following. Examples for primary costs are costs for external services and deliveries to an internal order.

In Materials Management, goods receipts and goods issues may result in primary cost postings to an internal order.

Controlling

• To map commitments manually in Management Accounting, you need to enter funds commitments.

• Reposting functions allow you to post primary costs to an order. You can post G/L Accounts of type secondary costs (simply called secondary costs) from a cost center to an order with direct activity allocations.

• You can record statistical key figures for use as the basis for allocations to your orders and for analyzing your orders.

When you post actual costs to a real order, the costs are initially collected in the order, and you then have the option of reposting or settling the costs to other receivers as required. If the order is assigned to a profit center in the master record, the actual costs are posted statistically to the profit center if Profit Center Accounting is activated as an application of its own.

You can also specify a cost center when you post actual costs to a real order. In this case, the cost center receives a statistical posting of the actual costs. The costs are still managed at order level, but the cost information is also available for analysis at cost center level.

When you are posting actual costs to a statistical order, you must enter a real cost assignment object, such as a cost center, real order, or profitability segment. You can then manage the costs at controlling-object level, but you can analyze them in more detail at order level.

To facilitate data entry, you can assign a real cost center to a statistical order in the order master record. The following two options are available:

• The system always uses the assigned cost center. In this case, if you enter a different cost center manually, the system replaces it with the cost center assigned in the order master record.

• The system uses the assigned cost center only if no other cost center has been entered manually (deviating posting logic).

A commitment identifies the costs that will be incurred in the future for materials and services requested or ordered. By recording commitments as well as actual costs, you can compare the funds you have allocated to your planned or budgeted costs to determine funds availability.

You must activate commitment management both in the controlling area and in the order type to create commitment information on an order. The order status must also allow the relevant business transaction.

You record commitments on your overhead orders using certain MM and Management Accounting transactions:

• A commitment is recorded automatically when you assign an overhead order to a purchase requisition or purchase order line item.

• You can generate a commitment manually by entering a funds commitment in Management Accounting. A funds commitment in the system represents costs that are pending but that have either not yet been entered in Purchasing or that have not been entered yet because the component MM is not in use.

The information system uses different value types to identify commitments according to their origin (purchase requisition, purchase order or funds commitment).

You can carry forward open commitment values into the first period of the next fiscal year as part of the year-end closing process.

Example: You might have a purchase order item that is not due to be delivered until December 28, 2021, but the overhead order still lists this item as a commitment for the fiscal period 12/2021. If the item is not shipped by the end of the fiscal year 2021 and the purchase order remains open, you can carry the commitment forward. The commitment is then posted into the first period of the fiscal year 2022.

• Understand event-based postings from various SAP components, impacting overhead cost orders in Management Accounting.
• Learn to post primary costs from Financial Accounting and Logistics to internal orders.
• Explore commitment management, including automatic and manual creation of commitments on overhead orders.
• Analyze real and statistical orders, managing costs at order and controlling-object levels.
• Carry forward open commitments into the next fiscal year during year-end closing.