SAP ERP customers, take note: If you install SAP S/4HANA Finance but keep running your accounting practices as before, you'll be missing out.

With this guide to SAP S/4HANA Finance's innovations, uncover the fundamental changes that can transform your finance organization. You've heard about Universal Journal, real-time processes, and UI improvementsnow learn how these changes will actually impact your accounting practices. From the redesigned steering model and unified planning to consolidation and real-time close, see where new processes affect your business users and how system efficiencies benefit your bottom line.

Highlights include:
1) Universal Journal
2) Local and global accounting
3) Financial process optimization
4) SAP Fiori and real-time data
5) Key figures for operational reporting
6) Real-time financial close
7) Predictive accounting
8) Unified planning model
9) Asset accounting
10) Cost object controlling and actual costing
11) Group reporting
12) Cash management

Understand how key features change your finance processes

Autorentext
Michel Haesendonckx is the global solution owner for financial planning and analysis at SAP SE with a broad expertise in finance and performance management, primarily focusing on management accounting and reporting. He is responsible for driving the go-to-market initiatives in this area for SAP and is highly involved in key innovation topics. He has 22 years of experience in the area of financial processes and analytics, of which 19 years have been focused on SAP solutions. Michel built his functional experience as an external auditor, controller in the oil sector, and CFO in the port logistics industry, and extended his view in this field through his leadership position in FP&A in a globally operating consulting organization.

Inhalt
... Foreword ... 15

... Preface ... 17

... Objective of This Book ... 17

... How to Read This Book ... 18

... Acknowledgments ... 23

... Introduction ... 25

... The Changing Role of Finance ... 26

... Finance with SAP ... 37

... Summary ... 48

1 ... The Universal Journal: Designing a Steering Model for the Business ... 49

1.1 ... Designing a Steering Model for Your Business ... 50

1.2 ... The Universal Journal ... 55

1.3 ... Reporting Dimensions in Detail ... 61

1.4 ... Extending the Steering Model ... 79

1.5 ... Changing the Steering Model ... 83

1.6 ... Summary ... 87

2 ... Local and Global Accounting: Changing Organizational Structures to Satisfy Various Requirements ... 89

2.1 ... Controlling and Global Business Management ... 91

2.2 ... Accounting and Local Business Management ... 104

2.3 ... Global Value Chains and Local Reporting ... 108

2.4 ... Summary ... 117

3 ... From Products to Services: Unifying Approaches to Controlling and Financial Operations ... 119

3.1 ... Industry Solutions and SAP S/4HANA ... 120

3.2 ... Controlling ... 122

3.3 ... Financial Operations ... 131

3.4 ... Summary ... 147

4 ... Financial Process Optimization: Standardizing and Automating Processes ... 149

4.1 ... Rethinking Business Processes ... 150

4.2 ... Automating Finance Processes ... 163

4.3 ... Redesigning Applications ... 174

4.4 ... Summary ... 182

5 ... SAP Fiori and Live Data: Merging Transactional and Analytics Data ... 183

5.1 ... What Is SAP Fiori? ... 184

5.2 ... First Steps in SAP Fiori ... 187

5.3 ... Using a Virtual Data Model to Access Live Data ... 203

5.4 ... SAP Fiori and the Intelligent Enterprise ... 219

5.5 ... Summary ... 221

6 ... Key Figures for Operational Reporting: Measuring Financial Performance ... 223

6.1 ... Driving Insight to Action ... 224

6.2 ... Using Semantic Tags to Link Accounts with Key Figures ... 231

6.3 ... Redesigning for 360-Degree Reporting ... 238

6.4 ... Summary ... 246

7 ... Real-Time Financial Close: Providing Timely Information ... 247

7.1 ... Improving the Hard Close ... 248

7.2 ... New Approaches for a Soft Close ... 258

7.3 ... Summary ... 280

8 ... Predictive Accounting: Providing Forward-Looking Insights ... 281

8.1 ... Accounting for Incoming Sales Orders ... 285

8.2 ... Accounting for Statistical Sales Conditions ... 295

8.3 ... Commitment Accounting for Purchase Orders ... 299

8.4 ... Summary ... 301

9 ... Unified Planning Model: Moving from Financial Budgeting to Driver-Based Forecasting ... 303

9.1 ... Moving toward a Unified Planning Model ... 306

9.2 ... SAP Analytics Cloud for Planning ... 313

9.3 ... SAP BPC for SAP S/4HANA ... 319

9.4 ... Planning for the Operational Processes ... 327

9.5 ... Summary ... 341

10 ... Asset Accounting: Making Real-Time Postings for Multiple Accounting Principles ... 343

10.1 ... New Data Structure in Asset Accounting ... 344

10.2 ... Key Figures for Asset Accounting ... 355

10.3 ... Asset Accounting and Controlling ... 357

10.4 ... Summary ... 363

11 ... Inventory Accounting: Simplifying Material Valuation, Production Cost Analysis, and Actual Costing ... 365

11.1 ... New Data Structure in Inventory Accounting ... 366

11.2 ... Production Cost Analysis ... 379

11.3 ... New Data Structure in Actual Costing ... 388

11.4 ... Summary ... 393

12 ... Group Reporting: Producing Consolidated Financial Statements ... 395

12.1 ... Consolidation Solutions ... 396

12.2 ... Group Reporting Dimensions ... 405

12.3 ... Consolidation Data Sources ... 410

12.4 ... Summary ... 413

13 ... Cash Management: Improving Cash Operations ... 415

13.1 ... Bank Account Management ... 417

13.2 ... Cash Operations ... 420

13.3 ... Liquidity Management ... 427

13.4 ... Summary ... 435

14 ... Tax and Legal Reporting: Ensuring Compliance with Key Requirements ... 437

14.1 ... Legal Reporting with SAP S/4HANA for Advanced Compliance Reporting ... 440

14.2 ... Indirect Tax Compliance with SAP Localization Hub, Tax Service ... 446

14.3 ... Summary ... 450

15 ... Cloud Extensions and Connectivity: Looking Beyond the Core ... 453

15.1 ... Finance Solutions ... 455

15.2 ... Finance Extensions ... 468

15.3 ... Summary ... 478

... Looking Ahead with SAP S/4HANA ... 479

... Recent Innovations ... 479

... Planned and Future Innovations ... 481

... Additional Resources ... 486

... Postscript ... 487

... The Authors ... 489

... Index ... 491