Consolidation / Reporting across Multiple Countries and Subsidiaries

29.01.2017

Requirement set

A group has several subsidiaries in different countries. These countries have country-specific charts of account. Uniform reporting is called for, in which all country-specific general ledger accounts are incorporated in general ledger accounts of the group reporting structure. To this end, a mapping is to be established between concern and subsidiary general ledger accounts and an export function provided.

Problem associated with prior implementation by another partner

The requirement was implemented using several charts of account and set of books as well as general ledger allocations between the charts of account.

The problem with this solution arises from the fact that master data (such as material cost records) needs to be maintained in triplicate owing to the existence of 3 set of books, as master data has to be maintained separately in the system for each set of books. This leads to inconsistencies in the system if you forget to maintain all 3 data sets or enter different values.

Example: Material cost records that are entered and updated differently for the set of books result in different level of general ledger postings for goods movements. These postings would lead to differently evaluated inventories in the set of books.

Own implementation / improvement

Before implementation, all set of books apart from the country-specific ones need to be deactivated. This prevents the multiple entry and updating of master data. Only one single set of book is still present from the reporting date of the change or deactivation of the accounting standard, with master data (such as material evaluations) only having to be maintained one time. All cost records are still displayed in old materials on account of statutory requirements, whereby only the one activated cost record is used and only this can be adapted.

The cost records of the old accounting standard are codified and can no longer be changed. The required data consistency is thus established. Nor is there any further need to maintain multiple charts of account, this making the allocation between concern and country-specific general ledger accounts much easier.

The requirement has now been solved via a general ledger account reporting structure. Every concern reporting item is allocated to one or more general ledger accounts here. The concern reporting items are predetermined and all country-specific general ledger accounts are incorporated in this structure. A typical structure is shown in the screenshot.

Typical allocations to this structure now follow:

Example with 1 to 1 allocation:

The country-specific general ledger account 01690000 has been assigned to the group general ledger account 1323600169.

Example with 1 to n allocation:

The two general ledger accounts 19000000 and 31000000 have been assigned to the group general ledger account 1413213100.

The general ledger account reporting structure created can then be selected and evaluated in the reporting for the consolidation.

This consolidation report can be exported from SAP ByDesign to Excel, sent periodically by email via a broadcast or made available for downloading together with other reports via a run in the system.