Home S4HANA Sneak peek into S/4HANA 1909 Finance Innovations – Part 2

Sneak peek into S/4HANA 1909 Finance Innovations – Part 2

by Ugur Hasdemir
1 comment
Sneak peek into S/4HANA 1909 Finance Innovations – Part 2

The latest release of S/4HANA ads a variety of innovations to further extend the digital core and improves connectivity to other best of breed (cloud) applications.

I have categorized the topics in two areas. Part 1 is already published; this post is about part 2. 

Previously in Part-1

Management Accounting

  • Universal Allocations: Actuals
  • Where used list
  • Margin Analysis (COPA)

Part-2

Financial Accounting

  • Goods and Invoice Receipt Reconciliation: ML-Service + Enhancements
  • T-Account Display
  • Group Reporting: Advanced Intercompany Reconciliation
  • Accruals Management: ML-Services

Goods and Invoice Receipt Reconciliation: ML-Service + Enhancements

We al know that you can have a hard time analyzing the GR/IR account and finding the root cause of the deffirence between goods receipts and invoice receipts. In many cases this root cause cannot be solved solely by the accounting department. It’s a joint effort between accounting, procurement, logistics and even the vendor.

If you are familiar with finance in SAP, you know that GR/IR reconciliation was done in transaction MR11 in the ECC era. With Simple Finance an Invoice and Goods Receipt Reconciliation Cockpit was introduces, but this cockpit is discontinued very quickly.  

Since S/4HANA 1809 we have the Reconcile GR/IR Accounts app and the GR/IR Overview app. But these apps are further enhanced with S/4HANA 1909.

Reconcile GR/IR Accounts app

This app gives a perfect overview of the GR/IR balance per company code. In the list page It is possible to change the view from company code to plant, material, supplier or a bunch of other criteria. You can filter on Goods Receipt or Invoice Surplus or search for a specific PO or supplier.

It’s not only an analytical app. With this app it is possible to directly write off open PO items like you did in the MR11 transaction.

Moreover, the app is also very useful as a collaboration app. It is possible to drop notes on PO items and assign actions to users.

From the list page you can navigate to the object page by clicking on a specific PO item. The object page will open up as a side panel on the right side. Here you can find all the details like the PO balance, FI documents, PO history, Notes, Action Log and Timeline.

Goods Receipt and Invoice Receipt Account Reconciliation
GR IR Timeline
GR IR Notes and Actions

From the PO history or FI Document it is possible to navigate to the source documents.

Back in the List Page, there are columns for notes and actions. In this way you can quickly review any notes or actions with a popover instead of opening the PO item in the object page.

GR IR Actions Popover

Summary of new features added in S/4HANA 1909:

  • Excel Export
  • Easy detection of outdated decisions (Filter option added: “Latest Posting is After Last Change “)
  • Easy access of action history for each purchase document item (Popover for Action Log)
  • Input validation of processor in dialogs: inform user about invalid input before he tries to save
  • A timeline shows the complete history of posted documents and user actions with the state of the purchase order item enabling the business user to understand what happened when and why

GR/IR Overview app

The GR/IR overview page is available since 1809, but there are new tiles added as of version 1909.

Summary of what’s new in 1909:

  • Show open debit/credit of absolute amount in tiles: Open FI amount by company code / Supplier
  • Open Fi Amount Donut chart grouped by company, Supplier, Purchase Organization, Purchasing Group, Material Group, Controlling Area, Profit Center of Plant
  • Open Fi Amount Bubble Chart. This chart puts the open credit and debit amount in relation to the total open amount.

Here is an example of the available data in the different tiles:

GR IR Overview Page

Automated GR/IR Processing with Machine Learning

 For the Machine Learning services in GR/IR a separate license is required. I did not test this functionality yet. Here are 2 slides from SAP explaining the functionality:

GR IR Machine Learning Services
GR IR Machine Learning Services 2

T-Account Display

One of my favorite apps to show the financial impact of specific processes in a document flow. From the document flow you can navigate to the T-account display app to show the posting in T schemes. Wonderful…

S/4HANA Display Document Flow
S/4HANA Display T-account View

Group Reporting

I was very exited to read about the availability of group reporting in S/4HANA 1909. However, my excitement was over when I learned that Group Reporting requires an additional license.

Highlights for 1909 release:

Group Reporting Highlights

Summary of functionality in Group Reporting:

Data Validation

Group Reporting Data Validation

Management Consolidation

Group Reporting Management Consolidation

Advances Intercompany Reconciliation – integrated and automated

Group Reporting Intercompany Reconciliation

Two Methods for Consolidation of Investment:

Group Reporting Methods of Consolidation

Accruals Management: ML-Service

In order to support cash flow planning it is important to accurately calculate the accruals.

Purchase order Accruals architecture:

S/4HANA Purchase Order Accruals
S/4HANA Purchase Order Accruals Machine Learning

Separate license is required for the Machine Learning (ML) services part.

The machine learning services provide recommendations at period end for accrual items to be reviewed. In customizing you can already define a threshold for accrual amounts. For accruals above the threshold there is an additional review step. Next to the manual review, the machine learning services are supposed to help making decision here.

I’m planning to test the manual review part of the “Schedule Accrual Jobs” App and write a dedicated blog on this.

Stay tuned for more S/4HANA updates and consider subscribing to the website so you don’t miss any blogposts.

You may also like

1 comment

Surya July 12, 2020 - 08:37

nice blog, very deep dive in to topics.
Thank you for your contribution to my knowledge enhancment.

Reply

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.