Describing the Structure of a Document and Identifying Some of the Most Relevant Control Elements of Record to Report Postings

Objectives

After completing this lesson, you will be able to:
  • Explain the structure of a document in the system
  • Identify some of the most relevant control elements of the record-to-report postings

Structure of a Financial Document

As Jill has discovered that each financial document contains a wealth of information, she is keen to understand their structure and outline their key elements. She particularly needs to determine the most important elements needed to be correctly entered to ensure that, in the end, the subsequent accounting reporting will meet the standards of Global Inc.

Let's look at the structure of a posted FI document in SAP.

Control Elements in Accounting Documents

Now let's take a closer look at some important fields in the document header and in the line items of a posted FI document.

The figure displays a screenshot of a journal entry posted in the SAP system. The text below provides more information about the highlighted Header and Line Items screen area.

Header Data

Now let's take a closer look at some important fields.

The document header contains data that is valid for the entire document, such as:

  • The company code (the company)
  • The journal entry date and the posting date
  • The journal entry type (which type of business transaction is involved)

Journal Entry Date: Issue date of the original document.

Posting Date: Typically the date, when entering the document to Financial Accounting. The posting date is responsible for the posting period to which postings are made.

Posting Period: The posting period is derived from the posting date. The posting period is relevant for the correct display of the posted data in reporting (reporting period).

Journal Entry Type: Classify the business transaction. Useful filter option when you want to display specific documents only. Further examples: KR (Vendor Invoice); ZP (Payment Posting); AA (Asset Posting).

Company Code: The Company Code is the central organizational unit of the external accounting. Company Code is a legal entity of Financial Accounting for which you create individual financial statements (Balance Sheet and Profit & Loss Account) for the purpose of external reporting.

Journal Entry Created By: This entry shows who actually posted the Journal Entry.

Line Items

An FI document consists of at least two line items because the debit and credit must be cleared. In a line item, specific information is provided for each individual line items, such as:

  • The account to which the posting was made
  • Debit or credit
  • Amount

G/L Accounts: The accounts have to be part of the Operating Chart of Accounts assigned to the used Company Code.

Debit and Credit: Debit and Credit determine the side of the account the values are updated. Debit and credit must be cleared within a posted document.

FI Documents and the Posting Periods

Jill's colleague Tom uses two examples to explain the problems that can be created by incorrect entries posted in the system.

Many reports must be created regularly in Financial Accounting, for example, on a monthly basis. To ensure that the documents entered can be correctly assigned to the individual reporting periods during the evaluations, a certain field must contain exactly this information. For financial accounting documents, this is the posting date. The entry in this field determines the reporting period in which the document values are included. Let me explain more in detail:

Correctly entered data in documents is a prerequisite for meaningful reporting and business processes.

Normally, only the posting periods that are currently required for postings are open and post-able in the SAP system. This is usually the current month and, if necessary, the previous and/or the following month.

FI Documents and the Journal Entry Type

Each financial accounting document is assigned to a certain type of business transaction by means of a journal entry type. Either the journal entry type is proposed automatically by the system when FI documents are entered, or the user enters or changes it manually.

The figure depicts a screenshot from an SAP system for posting general journal entries. The Journal Entry Type field is highlighted, indicating it is a required field.

The journal entry type is often used in reporting as a characteristic for identifying certain transactions. Due to the selection of an unsuitable journal entry type in the posted document, documents may be missing in evaluations or may be displayed incorrectly in reports.

In the general ledger, journal entry types are used for postings. However, journal entry types are also required for postings that originate from customer, vendor, or asset accounting.

In addition, the journal entry type is often used as a search criterion. For example: If you want an overview of the given customer credit memos, you search for documents with the journal entry type customer credit memo.

The figure shows the SAP interface for managing journal entries, with a focus on the Journal Entry Type field. The Adapt Filters option is selected, highlighting the Journal Entry Type as an available filter option.

This means that if a customer credit memo is incorrectly posted with the journal entry type DR (customer invoice) instead of DG (customer credit memo), this document would be missing in the evaluation, or other reporting would not be correct.

For this reason, it is important that the correct journal entry types are proposed by the system as automatically as possible and that the users know exactly when they have to change them.

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