Delineating Contract Cash Flow Information

Chris got an overview of the "Contract and Lease Cashflow Dashboard" and the "Cash Flow Information System" in the week before. He heard that there is a third variant to report contract cash flows: the "Contract Cashflow Report". He decides to ask Maria whether she can explain some more details of the mentioned reports. Chris and Maria agreed on a call to discuss the details of the reports and to compare them with each other. As a result, Chris wants to find out which of the apps he can use to fulfill a requirement from the colleagues of the finance department.

Select the play button to learn about the functions, capabilities, and use cases of the Contract and Lease Cashflow Dashboard, Cashflow Information System, and Contract Cashflow Report apps.

Different apps of the information system can be used to collect and list information for and about contract-related posting processes. Beside the reports in the real estate information system, you can also use several other SAP S/4HANA Finance reporting functions.

The cash flow of a contract is the basis for contract-related posting processes, such as periodic postings for contracts. Different contract attributes (e.g. conditions, partners, posting parameters) are used to create the cash flow of a contract. Therefore reports related to the cash flow collect and list important information about posting-relevant data.

You can use the different apps to get an overview as well as detailed information about contract cash flows:

• Contract and Lease Cashflow Dashboard.
• Cash Flow Information System.
• Contract Cashflow Report.

We want to contrast and to compare different reporting techniques and capabilities used in those apps.

The "Contract and Lease Cashflow Dashboard" provides an overview and detailed key figures regarding the partner-related contract cashflow. It is based on the embedded SAP Analytics Cloud technology.

Several pre-defined key figures like actual and planned cash flow values per quarter including the comparison between different quarters are available within the dashboard. Different views to the cash flows can be used, such as:

• Contract Cash Flow.
• Cash Flow per Flow Type.
• Deviation previous Year.
• Cash Flow Detail.

The app "Cash Flow Information System" provides detailed selection criteria including, contract, partner, and condition-related information. Based on these criteria the relevant items of the partner-related cash flow will be displayed. It is possible to consider the status of the cash flow items (already posted items, planned items). Specific list layouts can be created according to the specific requirements of a user or a company.

The "Contract Cashflow Report" is a web dynpro grid app that allows to adjust the report layout via the selection of rows and columns and the addition of them to the rows’ axis or to the columns’ axis. Dedicated filter and sort criteria ca be defined.

The results can be displayed as data analysis or as graphical display.

All three mentioned apps provide detailed functions to sort, filter, and aggregate the data on dedicated levels.

Select the play button to learn how to check and analyze contract cash flow using the contract and lease cashflow dashboard. Get an overview of planned lease amounts and expected payments for real estate contracts.

The partner-related cash flow of a contract can be reported using the app "Cash Flow Information System".

The relevant cash flow items can be selected via detailed selection criteria, e.g.

• Company code, contract number, and contract type
• Partner selection (for both external and internal partners)
• Period-related data, e.g.
  • Due date
  • Calculation to
  • Cash flow key date

Information like condition currency, condition type and flow type, net amount, gross amount, tax amount can also be used as selection criteria.

The app allows to list cash flow items and their details, e.g.

• Cash flow duration (field "Cash Flow To").
• Net amount, tax amount gross amount.
• Status of the cash flow item (already posted or planned item).
• Company code, contract number, and contract name.
• Relevant business partner.
• Relevant object.
• Condition type and flow type.

These values can be sorted, filtered, and also aggregated. The results can be exported as spreadsheets or as local files, as ABC analysis, or as an HTML file.

An important property of this app is the handling of time-dependent information.

Besides the time-dependent reporting capabilities some apps provide a time slot management function also. In this case you can choose a time slot for the value selection on the initial screen of the app independently of the selection criteria. The results of the report are adjusted accordingly.

These apps select and cluster the available cash flow items into time slots and offer the functionality to display either the data for all periods or the data for dedicated time slots.

It is also possible to switch between different time slots, e.g. to the previous or the next time slot.

Furthermore, there is the capability to enter different key dates in the upper part of the list. Using this function, it is possible to "look" at the listed information from a dedicated point of time.

It might be that the list shows unexpected results or some of the expected results are missing within the list. The reason for such effects mostly is founded on the chosen key date.

In this exercise, you will learn how you can report on contract cash flow.

Select the play button to learn how to use the Contract Cash Flow Report app to analyze cash flow values by contract type and distinguish between credit and debit contracts. Improve your reporting capabilities today!