Outlining Global Hierarchies

Global Hierarchies – Key Points

Global (or universal) hierarchies are any characteristic hierarchies that are maintained centrally in the app Manage Global Hierarchies.
You can create new hierarchies or copy from existing ones.
You can import and export hierarchies through worksheet files (from MS Excel for example).
You can import SAP S/4HANA hierarchies as a node into a consolidation hierarchy
(for example: an SAP S/4HANA profit center hierarchy can be imported as a node into a consolidation profit center hierarchy).
Global Hierarchies are stored in a central table and can be consumed by Fiori analytical apps at run time.

This figure explains which types of hierarchies can be set up using the Manage Global Hierarchies app.

Key Benefits of Global Hierarchies

The figure describes the advantages of hierarchy creation using the Manage Global Hierarchies app.

The key benefits of Global Hierarchies are:

Unified way to maintain hierarchies for different master data objects like Bank Account, Cost Center, Profit Center, Functional Area, Financial Statement Version, Product, and Consolidation related objects.
Time-dependent hierarchies: If there is a change in the hierarchy, for example, one consolidation unit belonging to one node has to be moved to another node; the same hierarchy can be used in a different time frame, and the report will reflect the new change.
Single dashboard to control hierarchies.

Use Global Hierarchies for Legal and Management Consolidation Reporting

The figure above describes the focus of legal and management consolidation and shows a typical report for both consolidation approaches.

Users can create multiple hierarchies for the same group reporting dimension to meet various business requirements. For example, a consolidation unit can have a legal as well as a management consolidation roll-up that can be used in consolidation reports.

Users can also generate a matrix-like report by selecting two hierarchies of different dimensions and placing them in rows and columns respectively, for example, consolidation unit by region in rows and profit centers by line of business in columns.

The figure gives an example of a Matrix report with a consolidation unit hierarchy in the rows and a profit center hierarchy in the columns.

Using the Manage Global Hierarchies app you can also create reporting item hierarchies.

This figure shows the X2-Statement of Cash Flow reporting item hierarchy which is a delivered hierarchy.

Compared to a mere FS item, a reporting item can be enhanced by assigning it a set of selection criteria of specific data, such as FS items, consolidation units, document types, and subitems.

At group report runtime the reporting item value is calculated.

You can arrange reporting items in reporting item hierarchies as shown in the figure above. 

There are five delivered reporting item hierarchies:

X1 Statement of changes in equity
X2: Statement of cash flow
X3: Statement of comprehensive income
X4: P&L by function of expense
X5: IC reconciliation.

This figure shows a Matrix Elimination report. The elimination is shown on the hierarchy leaf which end with ..._ELIM.

Based on the hierarchies of consolidation units, profit centers, and segments, you can display the data for these organizational units eliminated and consolidated hierarchically.