Working with Semantic Tags in Financial Statement Versions

Objective

After completing this lesson, you will be able to use semantic tags in financial statement versions.

Introduction to Semantic Tags

It is time for Zhi to take a closer look at some of the settings available in a financial statement version. She is interested in the semantic tag parameter, which can be customized to meet Bike Company’s specific reporting needs.

The figure illustrates two categories of semantic tags: pre-delivered and customer-specific. Pre-delivered semantic tags are divided into three groups: Balance Sheet (BS), Income Statement (IS), and Fixed Semantic Tags (FIX). Each group contains specific tags such as AACPAY (Accounts Payable) under BS.

Semantic tags in SAP S/4HANA Cloud are textual identifiers used to highlight key figures in financial statement versions (FSVs).

These tags are linked to structures of FSVs, easing the calculation of metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) for analytical reporting.

Standard semantic tags, along with incorporated calculation logic, are provided as a standard feature of the system within the following semantic tag groups:

  • BS (Balance Sheet Group)
  • IS (Income Statement)
  • FIX (Fixed Semantic Tags)

Semantic tags provide a wealth of benefits when applied to FSVs in SAP S/4HANA, such as: improved data accessibility, interpretation and consistency, enhanced reporting capabilities and simplified data querying.

The special nodes also use predelivered semantic tags. For example, for the calculation of Total Assets or Liabilities and Equity.

Moreover, extra semantic tags can be assigned to structuring components of a financial statement version, such as financial statement hierarchy nodes and G/L accounts. This enables the system to determine and exhibit accurate results in financial statements, like balance sheets, income statements, and cash flow statements.

The figure outlines a process for utilizing semantic tags. First, verify that the required semantic tags are available in SAP S/4HANA. Next, assign semantic tags tin the FSV to the nodes or accounts. Finally, use these semantic tags in KPIs and reports.

Beyond the standard semantic tags that are offered, SAP S/4HANA also allows you to construct your own custom semantic tags to cater to your unique reporting requirements. These custom tags must be associated with the correct financial statement versions (FSVs).

Advanced technical users can then create customized analytical queries to reference the new semantic tags to use them.

To learn more about using Semantic Tags in the FSV, play the following video.

Semantic Tags in Financial Statement Version

The figure displays a FSV with a hierarchical structure of nodes representing various accounts such as Assets, Liabilities, Revenues, and Expenses. The FSV includes columns for Bank Account Grouping, Debit, and Credit indicators. On the right side, there is a section labeled Semantic Tags, which categorizes the accounts into specific financial tags like Assets, Liability and Equity,

Using the pre-existing semantic tags is a seamless process that can be undertaken directly from the Manage Global Hierarchies app. Within this application, users can readily access the column dedicated to semantic tags, which aptly facilitates the association of existent semantic tags to financial statement items, accounts, or functional areas pertinent to a specific financial statement version. For maintaining consistency in data, these preset semantic tags cannot be altered within the financial statement version.

However, for manually created or added items, accounts, or functional areas, it's crucial to manually link them to the existing semantic tags. Linking these semantic tags is necessary if you intend to use them.

The KPIs like Cash Flow Statements are based in semantic tags. Remember that semantic tags are short text identifiers representing key figures, which provide stability across reports and KPIs. Semantic tags can be used to create KPIs to improve your financial management. Instead of rebuilding your reports every time you generate a new FSV, the semantic tags maintain consistency, therefore reducing your workload. To change the selection, all you must do is choose the relevant FSV during runtime.

Any changes to your FSV structure are automatically updated in the reports and KPIs via semantic tags, reducing your coding tasks. You can also perform multi-dimension drill-downs using semantic tags, for example, by G/L account, cost center, profit center, and fixed asset transaction type.

As an example, Zhi needs to gather Bike Company's working capital data from various reports. Any addition of a new G/L account would typically require her to adjust all her structures and queries. This process is tedious, time-consuming, and prone to errors. Thanks to semantic tags, she can now assign these semantic tags to sections of the hierarchy. This eliminates the need to rebuild his queries for each report as the tags will do it for her. This ensures that the data returned by his preexisting and newly created queries is always accurate.

This video shows you how Zhi analyzes the semantic tags for the cash flow statement and incorporates them into an FSV.

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