Analyzing Financial Statements with the Review Booklet

Objective

After completing this lesson, you will be able to describe the review booklet

Review Booklet Introduction

Overview

Review booklets are application-guided reports that answer many business questions using out-of-the-box prepared layouts. The prepared layouts can be adapted by users as needed.

Use the review booklet app to display, analyze, and validate group reporting data at various levels of detail. The app presents an aggregated view of financial statements by combining predefined business pages grouped under the main areas of:

  • Consolidated Balance Sheet
  • Profit & Loss Statement
  • Cash Flow Statement
  • Statement of Changes in Equity

This collection of pages forms a review booklet, which can be used to carry out a comprehensive financial review.

Using the Review Booklet

Watch the following video to see how you can use the Review Booklet.

Review Booklet Initial Setup

Initial Setup

To use the review booklet, check the following:

  • Global Parameters: Make sure that you’ve selected the appropriate global parameters in the Global Parameters app. The review booklet derives the default values for the global filters from what you've selected in the global parameters.
  • Check Hierarchies: You can use delivered or custom hierarchies. Regardless of which hierarchies you use, make sure that those hierarchies are activated before using them.
  • DEFAULT_HIERARCHY: By default, the consolidation unit hierarchy DEFAULT_HIERARCHY is used for the Consolidation Unit Hierarchy global filter in the review booklet. However, if you're not using the standard content delivered by SAP, you don't have DEFAULT_HIERARCHY in your system. In this case, you must do one of the following in the Manage Global Hierarchies app:
    1. Create a hierarchy called DEFAULT_HIERARCHY by copying your own custom hierarchy for this name.
    2. Replace DEFAULT_HIERARCHY with your own custom hierarchy using a different name.

Use the following link to learn more: Group Financial Statements - Review Booklet

Review Booklet Business Pages

The review booklet comes delivered with five business pages. These business pages are organized by type of financial statement.

Business Pages

The image shows the Group Financial Statements screen overview.

Each business page has one or more sub-pages with aggregated and detailed data. The consolidated balance sheet is a financial statement that shows assets and liabilities and equity at the end of the fiscal period. The Consolidated Balance Sheet main tab contains the following three detail tabs where you can review the data:

  1. Overview: a basic overview of assets, liabilities, and equity
  2. Assets: a detailed look at current and non-current assets
  3. Liability & Equity: a detailed look at equity as well as current and non-current liabilities
The image shows the Group Financial Statements screen displaying the Assets details.

The following business pages use FS items:

  • Consolidated Balance Sheet
  • Profit & Loss Statement (Function of Expense)

The following business pages use Reporting Items:

  • Profit & Loss (Nature of Expense)
  • Cash Flow Statement
  • Statement of Changes in Equity

Note

Business pages that use reporting items require Report Rule Variants.

Review Booklet Rows and Columns

You can adjust the columns and rows in the report to display your data in various ways. You can also select specific column structures that enable you to make comparisons with your data, such as Closing Period vs. Previous Period.

In the following image, you can use the dropdown next to Rows to select the most popular dimensions.

The image shows a SAP Group Financial Statements interface displaying a consolidated balance sheet for assets. A dropdown menu is open, allowing the user to select between different reporting lines and units.

You can also add any other dimension in group reporting into the report. For example, you can right-click on FS item and select other dimensions to include in the output.

The image shows a financial statement view in SAP with various options for adding dimensions and filters. The screen displays consolidated balance sheet data, including assets and liabilities.

The structures in the columns can be changed by using the dropdown next to Columns. You can also right-click Structure and edit the filter.

The image shows a financial statement report in SAP, displaying assets for different periods. A dropdown menu is open, offering various comparison options such as Closing Period vs. Previous Period and Closing Quarter vs. Previous Quarter.

Review Booklet Properties

You can use dimension properties to:

  1. Change how members are displayed.
  2. Change how members are sorted.
  3. Change hierarchy expansion level and position of nodes.

You can access properties via the context menu or from the layout.

Note

There are similar properties for measures and structures.

Dimension Properties

The image shows three tabs in the Properties for Consolidation Unit settings: Display, Sorting, and Hierarchies. Each tab contains various options for configuring the display, sorting, and hierarchical structure of the consolidation unit.

Review Booklet Filters

Global filters apply to all business pages in the app and underlying data providers. You define them in the filter bar. Use Adapt Filters to add to the global filters.

Note

Consolidation Unit must be added to the global filters and restricted to a hierarchy that is different than the default.
The image shows the screen of the Group Financial Statements with filters set for Version, Consolidation Group, Posting Period , Fiscal Year , and Consolidation Unit Hierarchy. Also has the Adapt Filters option so more filter could be applied.

Page filters only apply to a specific business page and underlying data provider. Some variables for page filters are already derived based on your selection of global filters. You can display them in the side panel. In addition, you can apply page filters for specific dimensions in the report.

When the page filters are displayed, they show the default dimension filters. In the All view, you can Add additional dimensions to the filter or choose Clear to remove previously added dimensions.

The image shows the Page filters that are tools that allow users to refine and narrow down the data displayed on a particular page or application.

Note

The filter for the Consolidated Balance Sheet - Overview page is different than the other pages because the filter has an Asset view and Liabilities & Equity view.

You can also filter a dimension via the context menu. For example, right-click FS Item → Filter → Edit. You can then select a hierarchy node and choose OK.

Review Booklet Layout

You can access the report definition by going to the layout panel. The layout panel has the following components:

  • Builder Pane: Here you can see the information that you've selected under Available Objects. It's displayed in your statement, either as a row or as a column.
  • Available Objects: Here you choose which type of measure, structure, and dimension you want to display in your financial statement by selecting or deselecting it.

You can use drag and drop to change the rows and columns. You can use the ...More option to control:

  • Zero suppression: hide members if they have zero values.
  • Compact display: group dimension members hierarchically.
  • Set properties.
  • Edit filters.
  • Display unbooked members.
  • Control totals.
  • Control sorting.
The image shows a data analysis interface with options to select available objects, measures, and dimensions. The builder section allows configuring rows and columns for financial statement items and closing year-to-date comparisons.

Note

Structures are made up of multiple dimensions. For example Closing YTD 2022 includes the period mode, and time dimensions.

Review Booklet Formatting

You can use the formatting option to:

  • Select measures
  • Change scaling
  • Set the number of decimal places
  • Change the sign display
  • Set up conditional formatting

Formatting

The image shows a Styling panel with options for number formatting, including measure selection, scale, scale format, decimal places, and sign display. There is also a section for conditional formatting, which currently has no rules found.

Review Booklet Context Information

You can use the context option to display global filter values and jump to hierarchies.

The image shows the Context Information with various global filters related to accounting details and hierarchies. It includes consolidation COA, profit center hierarchy, segment hierarchy, and consolidation unit hierarchy.

Review Booklet Exports

If you need to evaluate the review booklet results in Microsoft Excel, you can download it.

The image shows the process of exporting financial data to a Microsoft Excel file, specifically a Profit and Loss (P&L) statement. The exported Excel file contains various financial metrics such as revenue, gross margin, and net income for different time periods.

Review Booklet Report Jumps

From your review booklet, you can navigate to other areas and apps of group reporting.

This navigation is context-sensitive: The booklet settings (for example, the global filters and page filters) are automatically applied in the group reporting app that you navigate to.

You can jump to the Manage Global Hierarchies app by selecting a hierarchy from the Context Information in the side panel.

You can also transfer the context (selections and filters) to the Display Group Journal Entries app. You do this by right-clicking a data cell in the table and choosing Jump to Display Group Journal Entries.

The image shows a financial report , and the detailing of the Gains on the disposal of other assets displaying a view of group journal entries related to this item, including various transaction amounts in different currencies.

Review Booklet Views

After you apply filters and select the rows, columns, and dimensions that you want, you can then save the pages as a view. Saved views can then be selected to reload all the pages in the review booklet as you had saved them. Depending on your authorization, you may be able to save a view as Public so that other users can use it as well.

To save a view, choose the dropdown list of views and select Save As. When you save the view, you can also select Set as Default so that it appears by default every time you enter the app.

You can also manage views by selecting Manage from the dropdown list of views. Here, you can view the details of views, rename them, set them as default, and delete them.

The image shows the process of saving and managing views, including options to set a view as default and make it public. The Manage Views section displays a list of views with details on sharing settings, default status, and the creator.

Use the Review Booklet

Business Scenario

At ABC Corporation, your business users are interested in the review booklet because you can use one app to access many different reports. They're also interested in how to use and modify the predefined views.

What skills will you develop in this practice exercise?

  • Run the Consolidated Balance Sheet reports.
  • Run the Profit & Loss reports.
  • Run the Cash Flow Statement report using report rules.
  • Save your settings with a report variant.

Task 1: Run the Consolidated Balance Sheet Reports

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Task 2: Run the Profit & Loss Reports

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Task 3: Run the Cash Flow Statement Reports

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Task 4: Save Your Settings with a Report Variant.

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