Outlining Further Data Mapping Possibilities

Robert, our new consolidation consultant, wants to:

• Understand how to leverage the Group Journal Entries - Import API for data transfer for a consolidation unit in SAP S/4HANA Finance for group reporting, thereby gaining the ability to create an automated process that eliminates the need for an intermediary CSV step.
• Learn to use Data Mapping to read SAP ECC tables and transfer data from legacy applications like SAP Financial Consolidation to SAP S/4HANA Finance for group reporting, using tools such as the "Data Loader" program and "CSV file as target" feature.

You can also establish a connection for data transfer via Group Journal Entries - Import API (technical name "API_CnsldtnGrpJrnlEntr_Imprt") for a consolidation unit running in SAP S/4 HANA Finance for group reporting - on Premise as well as on Cloud.

In this scenario, you must develop an API in your remote system. This application reads data from the database, formats it in CSV, and pushes it through the Push API.

The import via API to ACDOCU is therefore a more automated use case as you don't need the intermediary CSV step.

The API allows you to import reported financial data from any external system to the ACDOCU table of SAP S/4HANA Finance for Group Reporting, using the CSV file mapping definitions.

Having a SAP S/4HANA Finance for group reporting stand-alone solution, you can - with the help of an API - for example, download EC-CS data and then upload the data into ACDOCU.

Also see documentation for more details: https://help.sap.com/docs/SAP_Group_Reporting_Data_Collection/60055cf8f72644eb82a6f3bdc9be6e2b/571c7d271c2d4bbd8121bacac116e8e8.html.

Also check:

• SAP Note 2659656 - FAQ About SAP S/4HANA Cloud for Group Reporting and attachment "How to Set Up APIs to Transfer Reported Financial Data to Group Reporting.pdf".
• SAP Note 2659672 - FAQ About SAP S/4HANA Finance for Group Reporting (On Premise) and attachment "How to Set Up APIs for Group Reporting_V1.pdf".

Data Mapping supports SAP ECC (Enterprise Central Component) as a source from SAP ECC 6.0, ERP 2005 on.

To use a SAP ECC system as a source instance, you must create a dedicated destination in the SAP BTP Cockpit, which will let the application know the location of the SAP ECC system you want to use.

You can read the following SAP ECC tables with Data Mapping:

• GL tables:
  • GLT0
  • GLT3
  • GLFUNCT
  • GLPCT
  • Customer special ledger Z tables (supported with customer extension scenario).
• New GL tables:
  • FAGLFLEXT standard fields
  • Customer extended fields.

You must implement the SAP note 3144499  before you start using an SAP ECC system as source instance.

Also see the documentation for more details:

• https://help.sap.com/docs/SAP_Group_Reporting_Data_Collection/4c13b45001524d6cbdc5d55ee08ff300/4895727cbda84cd8b4d71e2502b1b7a5.html?state=DRAFT&q=data%20mapping
• https://help.sap.com/docs/SAP_Group_Reporting_Data_Collection/e29950571a2b4065b1dacaf881c67413/2584139aa87340fc86b441cf79dd017f.html?version=1.0&source=redirect.

You can also transfer data from SAP Financial Consolidation as a "legacy" application to SAP S/4HANA Finance for group reporting using the delivered migration support functions. These migration support functions include:

• The export of transactional data from SAP Financial Consolidation to Group Reporting Data Collection - Mapping.
• An example mapping definition to transform transactional data of the SAP Financial Consolidation starter kit to SAP S/4HANA for group reporting best practice content item 1SG, allowing to extract the transformed data into a flat file.
• The import of transformed transactional data file into SAP S/4HANA using the „Data Loader" program provided as a service.
• A new SAP Financial Consolidation function for extraction via "report bundles" and calling GRDC mapping.
• A new SAP S/4HANA "Data Loader" program to import consolidated data from SAP Financial Consolidation to SAP S/4HANA Finance for group reporting.

The Group Reporting Data Loader tool is used to validate and convert data from the legacy Financial Consolidation product into Group Reporting ACDOCU format and upload records.

It is a tool delivered at no additional cost by SAP and intended for use by experienced users in the context of an FC to S/4HANA GR migration project.

With the help of the Data Loader program you can load data from a csv file to Group Reporting on all posting levels.

The Group Reporting Data Loader program applies to On-Premise and Private Cloud editions S/4HANA Finance On-Premise, version 2020 and higher.

Also check SAP Note 3329416 - Historical Data Loader Program into S4 HANA Group Reporting and its attachment "DATA LOADER TECHNICAL GUIDE.docx".

Since the Data Loader program is provided as a service, the program must previously be installed as a customer program on the S/4HANA system and you need proper rights to access the S/4HANA system and launch the Data Loader transaction.

The Data Loader is released as an ABAP export package, that you need to import in the target S/4HANA environment. Not only the ABAP program will be imported but also the dependent HANA worktables used by the Data Loader tool:

• zfincs_acdocu
• zfincs_acdocu_sl
• zfincs_acdocu_in

In the Define Data Mapping tile, you can select CSV File as Target, if the mapped data has to be generated in an output CSV file instead of being uploaded into table ACDOCU.

When running data mapping in the Run Data Mapping tile, you can download the CSV file with mapped data. Creating a CSV file as output instead of directly writing into group reporting increases the flexibility of SAP S/4HANA Finance for group reporting Data Collection - Mapping.

The figure above gives an example of a source file and its mapping file. Both are used to generate the output CSV file.

Initially, the feature "CSV file as target" has been added for SAP Financial Consolidation migration scenarios, as some customers need to recover historical data into SAP S/4HANA Finance for group reporting. This means that they have to import already consolidated data into GR, which isn't supported by our BULKIMPORT API, nor by the Flexible Upload task in SAP S/4HANA for group reporting which can only import reported data but not consolidated data.

Using the "CSV file as target" feature in Data Mapping it is possible to map SAP Financial Consolidation consolidated data and to extract this mapped data into an output CSV file.

This output CSV file can then be used in the "Data Loader" as source for the import into table ACDOCU of SAP S/4HANA Finance for group reporting.

Also see SAP Note 2659656 -  FAQ About SAP S/4HANA Cloud for Group Reporting and its attachment "How to Recover Historical Data from SAP Financial Consolidation".

In addition, the "CSV file as target" feature allows using Data Mapping for extracting/mapping data from any source and loading this mapped data in any other external system, i. e. outside of SAP S/4HANA for group reporting.