Explaining Cost Object Replication

Objective

After completing this lesson, you will be able to explain the Cost Object Replication process and best practices via SAP ICS

Important Notice regarding Configuration and Access

Caution

Your SAP Concur system must be set up according to SAP Concur's recommendations to ensure SAP ICS operates at its best. If your configuration differs, consult your SAP Concur representative before proceeding, as your setup might require review and updates. Additionally, you might not be able to view all the configuration items. Some changes cannot be undone or are difficult to reverse. Always consult your SAP Concur representative before making any modifications to your site.

Cost Object Replication Basics

Cost Object Replication is the process used to ensure that the relevant cost objects in SAP are available within Concur Expense for users to select on their expense reports. All customers using Concur Expense Professional have always had a number of different options available to replicate their cost objects. These options include manual entry and updates, using an Excel-based data import, and creating and importing flat files in a comma-separated values (CSV) format. Historically, customers opted for the CSV option, but that option is not without its limitations.

What Cost Objects Can Be Replicated via SAP ICS?

SAP offers a wide variety of cost objects for its customers. However, only certain cost objects can be replicated in SAP Concur via SAP ICS. Let's take a brief look at those cost objects:

Cost Center

Cost Centers are one of the most common cost objects replicated from SAP to SAP Concur. As the name implies, Cost Centers are organizational units that represent a clearly delimited location where costs occur. Customers can define their Cost Centers on the basis of functional, settlement-related, activity-related, spatial, or responsibility-related standpoints.

Standard abbreviation: CC

Availability: SAP ERP, SAP S/4HANA, SAP S/4HANA Cloud, SAP Business By Design

Internal Order

Another common cost object used by SAP customers, Internal Orders, are cost objects used for overhead management. They are intended to be used as temporary cost collectors for short-term projects or events. Compared to Cost Centers, Internal Orders are far more flexible and have an advantage in that customers can plan, budget, and use availability control. This allows customers to monitor spending by comparing spending to plan, as well as limiting spending against a budget.

Standard abbreviation: IO

Availability: SAP ERP, SAP S/4HANA

Maintenance Order

Maintenance Orders are used to track the costs associated with the maintenance of machines and equipment.

Standard abbreviation: MO

Availability: SAP ERP, SAP S/4HANA

Network

A Network represents the sequence of activities in a project or the sequence of a single activity within a project. During the life of a project, Networks are used as a basis for planning, analyzing, controlling, and monitoring schedules, dates, and resources such as personnel, machines, materials, documents, and drawings.

Standard abbreviation: NW

Availability: SAP ERP, SAP S/4HANA

Network Activity

A Network Activity corresponds to a single task or process within a project. Customers use them to obtain the activity list for a Network or WBS Element. Customers can also view the Network Activity based on status or the activity type.

Standard abbreviation: NA

Availability: SAP ERP, SAP S/4HANA

QM Order

A Quality Management (QM) Order is used to track the costs associated with an inspection or appraisal. These cost objects can be replicated in SAP Concur for those SAP customers who need to track expenses incurred on expense reports related to these inspections.

Standard abbreviation: QM

Availability: SAP ERP, SAP S/4HANA

Production Order

A Production Order is used to define the material to be produced, the plant location where production is to be done, the date and time of the production, and quantity of goods required. A Production Order also defines which components will be used, the sequence of operations to be used, and how the order costs are to be settled.

Standard abbreviation: PP

Availability: SAP ERP, SAP S/4HANA

Sales Order

A Sales Order is a contractual agreement between a sales organization and a sold-to party about delivering products or services for defined prices, quantities, and times.

Standard abbreviation: SO

Availability: SAP ERP, SAP S/4HANA, SAP Business By Design

WBS Element

Another one of the more common cost objects used within SAP Concur is WBS Elements. WBS stands for Work Breakdown Structure, and WBS Elements represent work performed as part of a project. Within SAP, WBS Elements show the amount of work, the time required, and the costs involved in the project.

Standard abbreviation: PJ

Availability: SAP ERP, SAP S/4HANA, SAP S/4HANA Cloud

It is always the customer's responsibility to make sure their cost object data is correct and up to date.

Recommended SAP Concur Configuration

One of the biggest strengths of the Concur Expense system is the flexibility it offers in its configuration options. That being said, we recommend following some standards when working with a new customer. Following these standards helps speed up the implementation process and makes it easier to support customers going forward.

These standards should be followed for all customers using SAP as their Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), even if the customers are not using SAP ICS at the time of implementation. This is to make the process of activating SAP ICS as easy as possible if the customer implements it later.

Note

Existing customers may need to reconfigure their site to use Cost Object Replication.

List Management Configuration

Connected List Setup

Best practice configuration of List Management for SAP ICS customers is a four-level connected list, though in some rare cases the list could be up to seven levels based on customer requirements.

Logical System
The first level of the list will represent the Logical System ID of the SAP environment. While most customers will only have one SAP production system, some larger customers may have multiple. Most customers have multiple SAP testing systems (DEV, QA, or other iterations). Putting this item at the top of the list hierarchy means customers can have multiple SAP systems integrated into a single SAP Concur site with the appropriate cost objects only available to the appropriate SAP environment.
Company Code
The second level of the list will represent the Company Code. In SAP, cost objects are defined by company; Company 1 can have a different list of cost objects than Company 2. Placing Company Code higher up in the list hierarchy facilitates this organization within SAP Concur.
Cost Object Type
Level three is used for Cost Object Type. As we saw previously, SAP has a wide variety of cost objects that can be replicated in SAP Concur. SAP has the flexibility of having different cost object types for each company code. For example, the German company may use WBS Elements, while the French company does not. Putting the cost object type beneath company code in the list hierarchy makes this same flexibility possible in SAP Concur.
Cost Object ID
Finally, the fourth level is for the Cost Object ID. This represents the actual cost object(s) that the user selects when creating and allocating their expense report. No matter how many levels your customer's list has, Cost Object ID must always be at the bottom.

What You Need to Do

The good news is that all you have to do in List Management is create the list where cost objects will be stored; SAP ICS will do the rest. When creating the list, keep the following in mind:

Name the list something clear and specific; "SAP Integration Hierarchy" or "SAP Cost Object Hierarchy" are good examples.
You can manually enter dummy data for testing of the SAP Concur user interface, but be sure to delete the dummy data once the customer's SAP ICS is configured and running.
You may be in the habit of using the asterisk (*) as the first character of your list names, such as "*SAP Integration Hierarchy." The asterisk, or any other special character, is not allowed in the name of any list used with SAP ICS.

The completed configuration of the SAP Integration Hierarchy list in List Management.

Uncommonly, three additional levels can be inserted into the list:

Controlling Area: Controlling Areas can be used to group Company Codes for accounting purposes. If needed by the customer, the Controlling Area level would be between Logical System and Company Code.
Country:Countries can be used as another option for grouping Company Codes. If used, this level would appear below Controlling Area (if applicable) and above Company Code. This is the only additional level the SAP S/4 HANA Cloud supports.
Business Area: Business Areas are used to group cost objects within a Company Code for accounting purposes. If needed, they would appear below Company Code and above Cost Object Type.

The customer can add other, customer-specific, levels in the middle of the structure if needed. This would require you or the customer to create Business Add-In (BAdI) logic to produce the values they need.

Note

Make sure your customer has a strong business case before proceeding with more than four levels.

List Management is just one piece that needs to be configured as part of Cost Object Replication. Next, you'll see our recommendations for configuring Forms and Fields.

Forms and Fields Configuration

Once the list has been created in List Management, you must use the Forms and Fields tool to define what fields will be used to capture the four levels for each form type. The best practice implementation is defined in the following fields. The recommendations below are always followed for new customers.

The configuration recommendations will be as follows:

Employee

The best practice is to use the following fields to capture the values in the four-level list on the employee profile. Access Rights are not listed in the table below. Best practice is to set them to "Read-only" or "Hidden" for the Employee and "Modify" for the Employee Administrator.

	Logical System	Company Code	Cost Object Type	Cost Object ID
Field Name	Org Unit 1	Org Unit 2	Org Unit 3	Org Unit 4
Default Value Type	None	None	None	None

Expense Report Header

The best practice is to use the following fields to capture the values in the four-level list on the Expense Report Header forms. Access Rights are not listed in the table below. Best practice is to leave them as the defaults and work with your customer to determine the appropriate values for Employees, Expense Approvers, and Expense Processors.

	Logical System	Company Code	Cost Object Type	Cost Object ID
Field Name	Org Unit 1	Org Unit 2	Org Unit 3	Org Unit 4
Default Value Type	Copy Down	Copy Down	Copy Down	Copy Down
Copy Down Source	Employee	Employee	Employee	Employee
Copy Down Field	Org Unit 1	Org Unit 2	Org Unit 3	Org Unit 4

Expense Entry

Best practice is to not add the cost object fields to the Expense Entry forms. There are a few reasons for this:

Adding cost object fields to Expense Entry forms can lead to more entry forms, which makes it more challenging and time-consuming to create and maintain them.
The best practice configuration will automatically allocate each expense 100% to the same cost object chosen by the user on the Expense Report Header.
Users can use the allocation feature of SAP Concur if they need to change the cost objects for individual expenses on their expense reports.
Users can use the allocation feature of SAP Concur if they need to split one or more entries across multiple cost objects.

Expense Allocation

Financial posting via SAP ICS is mapped directly to the allocation fields. Therefore, configuring an allocation form and field is mandatory. The best practice is to use the following fields to capture the values in the four-level list on the Expense Allocation forms. Access Rights are not listed in the table below. Best practice is to leave them as the defaults and work with your customer to determine the appropriate values for Employees, Expense Approvers, and Expense Processors.

	Logical System	Company Code	Cost Object Type	Cost Object ID
Field	Custom 1	Custom 2	Custom 3	Custom 4
Default Value Type	Copy Down	Copy Down	Copy Down	Copy Down
Copy Down Source	Expense Report Header	Expense Report Header	Expense Report Header	Expense Report Header
Copy Down Field	Org Unit 1	Org Unit 2	Org Unit 3	Org Unit 4

Cost Object Replication is used by the majority of SAP ICS customers.

Let's Summarize What You've Learned

Cost Object Replication ensures relevant SAP cost objects are available in SAP Concur for expense reporting.
Only specific cost objects, such as Cost Centers and WBS Elements, can be replicated via SAP Integration with SAP Concur Solutions.
Best practice is a four-level connected list: Logical System, Company Code, Cost Object Type, and Cost Object ID.
Configure Forms and Fields to capture cost object values at the Employee, Expense Report Header, and Allocation levels.
Always keep cost object data accurate and follow recommended configuration standards to support seamless integration and future scalability.