Setting up Budget Availability Control on Cost Centers

The budget availability control on cost centers is set up in several steps as shown in the preceding figure.

To activate the conversion into parallel currencies, exchange rate type P must be used for the plan data. The rate is only relevant if the plan data is saved into table ACDOCP.

By Importing Financial Plan Data, users can import financial planning data into this category using the Import Financial Plan Data app or SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC).

By Copying Another Plan Category, users can copy financial planning data into the category using the Copy Financial Plan Data app.

By Deleting Financial Plan Data, users can delete financial plan data in the category using the Delete Financial Plan Data app.

Usage/Category Usage: By selecting "Cost Center Budget" instead of "No specific usage" both in Category Maintenance and in Budget Checks for categories, the system interprets a plan category as a budget for availability control.

Availability Control field: If selected, the availability control is activated, i.e. when actual data is posted, the system checks whether the budget has already been exceeded or is still available and issues a warning or error message according to the tolerance limit setting.

Budget Consistency Check field: ("budget deficiency check") If selected, the following two checks are carried out by the system:

If the time of budget entry is not the first of January of a fiscal year, but for example the first of February of a fiscal year, actual costs are usually already posted to the (budget) cost centers, which may be higher than the budget still to be entered on each respective (budget) cost center. In such a situation, the system will generate an error message when importing this budget amount according to the selected budget consistency check.

If cost centers are not budget cost centers but are assigned to a higher-level budget cost center (that is, cost center with budget responsibility) in their master record and this assignment is changed, an error message is also generated in accordance with the budget consistency check if the budget of the new budget cost center is too low in relation to the actual costs already posted directly when changing master data.

The account groups to be taken into account in the budget availability control for cost centers are defined in the SAP Fiori app Manage Global Hierarchies.

If, for example, an expense account is posted that is part of such an account group and this account group is also assigned to the Budget Availability Control Profile, the available budget for this account group is checked.

The Budget Currency Type is the currency type that is used by budget availability control to compare costs (and, if applicable, commitments) with the budget.

You can choose between the company code currency or the global currency.

In general, it can be decided for each tolerance limit to be set whether a warning or an error should be displayed.

If a warning has been assigned to a budget tolerance limit, the posting can still be carried out despite the tolerance limit being exceeded!

If an error has been set, the booking will not go through.

You can create several profiles for budget availability control and assign these profiles to the various cost centers that are budget-relevant. The budget maintenance is later done per cost center and fiscal year.

The establishment of the tolerance limits and thus the checking of the available budget takes place depending on account groups and per account group per activity group.

If an expense is posted to an account that is part of an account group and that is assigned to the Budget Availability Control Profile, the available budget for this account group is checked.

If the budget consumption exceeds a specified limit, a warning or an error message is issued, depending on the settings specified in the Maintain Budget Availability Control Profile for Cost Centers menu.

If a purchase requisition or a purchase order is created that is assigned to a cost center, a commitment is generated. This commitment also reduces the available budget.

The budget availability control can be set up with the help of the Manage Cost Centers app.

The budget availability check can be carried out on two different levels:

• For each cost center with its own budget.
• For a budget-bearing cost center that is assigned to several cost centers for postings of actual costs.

  In this case, both the budget consumption of the budget-bearing cost center itself and the non-budget-bearing cost centers to which the budget-bearing cost center is assigned are included in the budget availability control of the budget-bearing cost center.

Accordingly, in the second case, only the budget-bearing cost center will display the budget and the available budget in the Cost Center Budget Report!

The number range that is used to post budget transfer documents to the database must then be maintained. The document type to which the number range number is to be assigned must then be created.

In this step, an extension ledger is selected that is used for Predictive Accounting.

With Predictive Accounting, you can use current data from areas in SAP S/4HANA outside of Finance, e.g. sales, or integrated products such as SAP Concur or external systems, to predict future results at any time. This will help you better understand how the accounting results may be at the end of the current period or quarter and why.

In addition, you can activate the budget availability control for each of the extension ledgers by selecting Relevant for Commitment Management for the respective extension ledger.

Requirements:

• Predictive Accounting has been activated for:
  • Sales processes
  • Incoming sales orders
• The new commitment function must have been activated in Predictive Accounting.

• Set up budget availability control by defining budget categories and checks for cost centers.
• Activate budget consistency checks to ensure budget accuracy and prevent errors during data entry.
• Maintain budget availability control profiles, assigning them to relevant cost centers for effective budget management.
• Implement tolerance limits to manage budget consumption, issuing warnings or errors as needed.
• Utilize Predictive Accounting to forecast future financial outcomes and enhance budget planning.