Deriving and Realigning Consolidation Data

Watch the following video to learn how to derive a consolidation unit.

In group reporting, you can derive dimension members such as consolidation unit, partner unit, and FS item.

At ABC Corporation, you're using the preparation ledger. You have several company codes, but you want to split the data by business segment in group reporting. So, each company code and profit center combination in SAP S/4HANA will be derived into unique consolidation units. For example:

• If the company code is 1010 and profit center is CF00_A, then the consolidation unit is DE00.
• If the company code is 1010 and profit center is CF01_A, then the consolidation unit is DE01.

As a result, each consolidation unit represents a business segment and you are able to perform segmented reporting for groups of consolidation units.

• Each consolidation unit is assigned only to one company at a time. This helps to prevent data from multiple companies from ending up in the same consolidation unit.
• If the company assignment is changed for fiscal year periods where accounting postings already took place, the consolidation unit information for the existing transaction data in group reporting has to be corrected by using the realignment function.
• Plan versions don’t support group reporting preparation ledgers. Therefore, consolidation unit is impossible.
• During accounting postings, the consolidation unit derivation will be processed (as any other group reporting related derivation) when all of the following preconditions are fulfilled:
  • Posting takes place in a group reporting preparation ledger.
  • The fiscal year of the posting is not before the From Year for Preparation Ledger.
  • The company code of the accounting line item is assigned to a company.
  • The company is assigned at least to one consolidation unit in the given fiscal year period.

To derive consolidation units, use the Manage Substitution / Validation - Journal Entries app.

Follow these steps to create a new rule:

1. Choose Create Rule:
   • Business Context: Choose GRPL core fields (GRPL subassignments to FS item is available if you need to derive FS item).
   • Event: GRPL core fields
   • Rule Type: Substitution Rule
   
2. Choose Create.
3. Enter a name and description.
4. Precondition: (Example)
   • Field / Function: Company Code
   • Field / Function: Profit Center
   Note

   If you want to define substitution rules for different group reporting preparation ledgers, you can use the precondition section to specify the ledger for which the a substitution rule is relevant.
5. Substitution:
   • Target Field: ConsolidationUnit
   • Substitution Type: Substitute with Constant
   • Source: Consolidation Unit
   • Overwrite: Overwrite any existing value of the target field with the value you specified in the source. If you want to keep existing values already in the target field, leave the checkbox unselected.

The business requirement in this example, is to concatenate company code with the last character of the profit center. For example, if the company code is 1010, and the profit center is CF10_A, then consolidation unit 1010_A will be derived.

In the concatenation, company code is used to determine VALUE_01. So the concatenated value will start with the company value from the accounting posting line item. VALUE_02 is a substring that accesses the profit center value. The OFFSET is 5 (the first 5 characters will be skipped). The LENGTH is 1.

This Substitution Rule - Function Example shows that with one substitution rule the derivation of many consolidation units can be achieved.

However, the consolidation units in this case have to follow the naming convention of the concatenation rule. For example, what if the sixth character of every profit center is non-unique. And, that concatenation result does cannot exceed the consolidation unit field length (current limit: 6 characters). If these are issues on your project, a table lookup can be used.

Among the different substitution types available, the table lookup can be one of the most useful for consolidation unit derivation. This substitution type allows you to use a custom-defined lookup table in which you maintain associations between consolidation units and the criteria in the accounting posting. In this way, the system searches in the lookup table to retrieve a consolidation unit based on the relevant criteria of the accounting posting.

This is advantageous because you can create one substitution rule to derive many consolidation units.

To create a substitution rule for consolidation units using a lookup table, you first need to create the lookup table, create, entries in the lookup table, and create the substitution rule.

In order to use a table lookup:

1. Create a new custom business object with a lookup table: Custom Business Object
2. Create a substitution rule similar to the following example (Substitution Rule - Configuration) but with two exceptions:
   1. In the precondition operator, choose is not empty to ensure that the substitution rule will function properly. For example, if the lookup is based on company code and segment, these two dimensions cannot be empty. Also, use a Precondition that selects records with an empty consolidation unit in case another derivation rule has already filled it.
   2. In the substitution type, choose the of ID of your Table Lookup.

If consolidation units are derived, then partner units must be derived as well.

When you create substitution rules for the flexible derivation of partner units, the process is almost the same as creating substitution rules for the flexible derivation of consolidation units. There are only the following differences:

• For Business Context, you select GRPL subassignments to FS item instead of GRPL core fields.
• For Target Field, you select PartnerConsolidationUnit instead of ConsolidationUnit.

Watch the following video to learn how to realign group reporting data.

At ABC Corporation, your integrated consolidation units are derived from company code and profit center combinations. Because you’re using the preparation ledger at ABC Corporation, group reporting fields are populated in ACDOCA when accounting postings occur. These fields include:

• Company
• Consolidation unit
• Consolidation chart of accounts
• FS item
• Subitem category
• Subitem
• Partner unit

If the substitution rules have changed after the accounting posting, then you can use the realignment function to reprocess the derivation of consolidation units. Realignment is also necessary if the group reporting master data was changed or if the configuration influencing the result of the substitution was changed.

In a scenario where the company code doesn't have a one-to-one assignment with a consolidation unit and no substitution rule is created (by mistake):

• Accounting postings record the company code in the line items.
• No data is released into group reporting.

Corrective action:

• Create a substitution rule.
• Run a realignment job.
• Release the data.

If the realignment results in changes, they're posted with separate document numbers on a special group reporting reclassification document type in accounting. The adjustments are posted using the timestamp of the realignment execution.

You can realign the group reporting data using the Realign Group Reporting Preparation Ledger scheduling job in the Schedule Jobs for Consolidation Tasks app.

When you run the job, the system selects the current period data and clears the group reporting fields. After clearing, the predefined substitution rules are started again and are automatically applied to journal entries.

You may use this job to:

• Initialize the integration with group reporting preparation ledger for periods before the activation. The job selects data from period 000 to the current period. The specific fields in group reporting are cleared and the predefined substitution rules are run again.
• Correct errors from previous periods.
• Schedule the job at year-end to ensure that the opening balance in a new year and the closing balance of the previous year are equal.

To realign the group reporting data, go to the Schedule Jobs for Consolidation Tasks app:

1. Choose Create:
   • Select the Schedule Jobs for Consolidation Tasks job template.
   • Enter a Job Name or use the system-generated name.
   
2. Choose Start Immediately or select a Recurrence Pattern.
   
3. Make the following selections:
   • Consolidation Units: Companies assigned to the consolidation units determine the underlying company codes to be processed.
   • Version: Version is used to determine the accounting ledger for which the realignment function shall be executed. It's the accounting ledger that is maintained as the preparation ledger in the selected consolidation version.
   • Fiscal Year / Period: This determines for which fiscal year and period the realignment task is executed. It also determines the fiscal year and period the company assignment to the selected consolidation unit is taken from.
   • Technical Settings:
     • Periodic Mode: Process the current period records.
     • YTD: Process year-to-date (cumulative records for the entire year).
       Note

       SAP recommends running the Balance Carryforward job after realigning the group reporting preparation ledger. In this context, you should run the Realign Group Reporting Preparation Ledger job in year-to-date mode in the last period of the year. As a result, discrepancies between the opening balances in the new year and the closing balances in the prior year are prevented.
     • Log: A log is generated for the job.
     • Test Run: The job can be run in test mode when needed.