Outlining Group Reporting

Objectives

After completing this lesson, you will be able to:

Describe the building blocks of integrated group reporting
Recall the key benefits of using group reporting for consolidation
Discuss continuous accounting in the context of consolidation
Outline the system architecture supporting group reporting
Summarize key terms used in group reporting

Course Target

You have been hired at the Bike Company SE, an international group, as a consolidation accountant.

Among your tasks is to support the closing activities of your consolidation department.

The Bike Company SE recently implemented SAP S/4HANA Cloud for group reporting, and everyone is familiarizing themselves with the solution.

As you have no prior knowledge of SAP S/4HANA Cloud for group reporting, you need a brief but concise introduction to the business scope.

Building Blocks of Integrated Group Reporting

SAP S/4HANA Cloud for group reporting is the strategic consolidation solution for SAP on the SAP S/4HANA platform.

Note

SAP offers two products depending on deployment SAP S/4HANA Cloud for group reporting and SAP S/4HANA Finance for group reporting. This course covers both editions and the product name can be used interchangeably. For more information about group reporting, see also SAP notes (access is restricted to customers and partners):

Key Benefits of SAP S/4HANA Cloud for Group Reporting

Below, you can find a list of the key benefits of the solution.

Continuous Accounting

Benefits of continuous accounting

Below is a list of key benefits you gain from the continuous accounting features of group reporting in an integrated SAP S/4HANA system:

Intercompany reconciliation does not only occur after the data has been loaded into the consolidation system, but continuously in SAP S/4HANA and, therefore, at the same database level or platform.
Certain consolidation steps, such as currency translation for example, can be performed before at any time, which enables real-time access to data in the group currency.
No time wasted for data loading.
Validations take place on an ongoing basis and not only when data is imported into the consolidation system. Postings are checked continuously against central validation rules.
Necessary adjustments can be done locally and results are provided immediately for consolidation.
Better data quality (same data model for individual financial statements and group financial statements).
Avoid redundancies (data is not stored multiple times in different locations).
Simplify the user experience: from entity to group close.
Simplified coordination processes.
Accelerate your group close process to faster financial and consolidated financial statements.
Greater transparency and auditability: drill-down from consolidated financial statements to the line item.

System Tables in Group Reporting

The SAP S/4HANA platform covers all financial areas and the SAP S/4HANA database shows the single source of truth.

Key Terms in Group Reporting

Consolidation unit: A consolidation unit represents a legal subsidiary in group reporting. Analogous to company codes in accounting.
Consolidation group: Consolidation units are assigned to consolidation groups. Each consolidation group has its own set of consolidated financial statements.
Consolidation version: In group reporting, a consolidation version is used to separate actual vs. plan data using versions. Version can also be used to meet multiple accounting standard requirements and provide version-dependent configuration.
Financial statement items (FSI): Financial statement items represent accounts in group reporting. G/L accounts in the general ledger are mapped to FSIs on a one-to-one or many-to-one basis.
Posting level: Posting levels are used to identify data by key process step: reported data, standardized data, eliminated data, and consolidated data.
Document type: Group reporting has its own document types that are analogous but unique as compared to accounting.

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