Professional Documents
Culture Documents
2. How many Normal and Special periods will be there in fiscal year, why do u use special
periods?
Ans: 12 Normal posting period and 4 special periods are in the fiscal year which can be used for
posting tax and audit adjustments to a closed fiscal year.
12) What is reconciliation account; can you directly enter documents in that a/c?
Ans: When you post items to a subsidiary ledger, the system automatically posts the same data
to the general ledger. Each subsidiary ledger has one or more reconciliation accounts in the
general ledger.
We can’t use reconciliation account for direct postings.
13) How do you control field status of GL master records and from where do you control?
Ans: Field status variant is maintained all FSGs.
15) What does Field status group assigned to a GL master record controls?
Ans: It controls the account assignments that are made to the account. Specifically, the field
status group controls whether postings to cost centers, internal orders, profitability segments
and so on are required, not allowed (suppressed), or optional.
16) What is Country and operational chart of account? Why do you use group chart of
account?
Ans: Operational chart of account – Day to day activities It is mandatory.
Country COA – It’s used for the legal specific requirement of each country. It’s additional and
optional. Group COA used for consolidation of Company codes. This is for group consolidation
purpose.
Read Here at SAP FICO Forum to Get Answers for More Questions Like This.
18) What is open line item management? What do you mean by clearing open line items?
Ans: Open item management is further reconciliation function. OIM allows you to display the
open and cleared items and amounts in an account. OIM should be used if an offsetting entry is
made for every line item posted in the account. The a/c is reconciled and cleared against
another account. Ex. Salary clearing account and GR/IR Clearing account.
19) What is residual payment and partial payment?
Ans:
Residual payment: It clears original invoice with the incoming amount and creates new line for
remaining outstanding amount.
Partial payment: It leaves the original invoice amount and creates new line item for incoming
amount.
6. Can we assign one Controlling area to two different Company Codes (but the company
codes having different fiscal years/different Currencies?
Company code should have the same financial year, may have different currencies.
You can assign 2 or more company codes to one controlling area as long as the chart of
accounts is same. Furthermore, if you have different fiscal year variant in the company code,
then make sure that the number of period remains the same.
Related: Difference between company and company code
7. What does document header control?
Field status.
8. After entering a document can you delete the entry? Can you change the
document? Which fields’ can/not is changed?
Document header cannot be changed, after posting the document you cannot change. only if
you want to change the document the reversal entry.
11. What is base line date? Why is that used? Can this be changed?
For payment terms it is used. Base line date is the due date.
FI/CO Interview Questions
Implementation exp.:
Brief about the project you did: w.r.t. the main activity of the client, How many plants they had,
What modules were implemented, Who were the implementers, What’s the implementation
team size, How many were in your module team, What’s your role in the project with respect to
the activities you partook in the project, The Enterprise Structure with regard to the no. of
Company Codes, any Business Areas or Profit Centers defined, Cost Centers defined, What’s the
period of the project, When did they Go-Live?, Any issues you’d solved during ‘Support’ phase?
a) Extended With Holding Taxes configuration steps – right from creation of WH Tax Types,
Codes to Annual Return
b) FI-MM Integration (OBYC configuration with particular reference to Off-Setting entries)
c) FI-SD integration
d) Down Payments transactions
e) Interest – Balances / Arrears
f) Asset Accounting: Asset Class, Main Asset, Sub-Asset, Group Asset, Dep. Areas, Dep. Key,
Transaction No’s (100- External acquisition, 210 – Retirement with Revenue, etc.), Imp.
Transaction Codes.
General questions:
a) Educational Background
b) What influenced you to go in for SAP career?
c) Functional Career
d) Present earnings vs Expected pay
e) Inclination to relocate
What is APC?
APC stands for Acquisition and Production Costs. The acquisition means any asset which you
may acquire/purchase externally. It includes invoice price and other related expenses.
Associated with it like customs, octroi, freight which you add and arrive at total cost of
acquisition for capitalization of the asset. For ex Say a computer. The total cost which you
incurred for the acquisition of the computer including installation will be your APC
Production cost means any asset which is created internally within the organization. This is
normally created by means of AUC and you go on adding cost to the AUC as and when you incur
exp. for the same. For ex. say addition to the office building. Therefore APC includes any
external acquisition or internal construction of exp. which needs to be capitalized.
Implementation exp.:
Brief about the project you did: w.r.t. the main activity of the client, How many plants they had,
What modules were implemented, Who were the implementers, What’s the implementation
team size, How many were in your module team, What’s your role in the project with respect to
the activities you partook in the project, The Enterprise Structure with regard to the no. of
Company Codes, any Business Areas or Profit Centers defined, Cost Centers defined, What’s the
period of the project, When did they Go-Live?, Any issues you’d solved during ‘Support’ phase?
What is a breakpoint?
Breakpoint is used to help the user scrutinize how the system behaves at a certain point in the
ABAP code. At that point the system goes into debug mode. This breakpoint is useful in
investigating how routines and requirements function. By accessing the routine source code
and setting a breakpoint at its execution point, a user can follow the routine through each step.
What is a CATT?
CATT means Computer Aided Test Tool. It is SAP's tool for processing transactions
automatically. CATT is used in bringing in data, such as a mass maintenance of the material
master in EXCEL, from an application to modify master data.
User exit is a point in a SAP program at which a customer's own program can be called. User
exits allow developers to access program components and data objects in the standard system.
There are two types of user exits -
user exits that use includes (customer enhancements that are called from the program) and
user exits that use tables, which are used and managed directly via customizing.
What is a client?
Client in a SAP work environment is the highest organizational structure. Many clients can be
found in each system. QA (quality analysis) and Development are clients in Training and
Production system.
What is an authorization?
Who is a user?
Anyone who is given access to the SAP system by the system (basis) administrator is known as
a user.
What is a variant?
When executing a program, different selection parameters may be used. These selection
parameters are stored in the SAP system as variants.
SQL trace records all open, prepare, fetch, and execute and actual SQL statements and the
duration time for each step in a procedure.
What is master data?
Master data is used in an SAP system to represent the basic components of a procedure and to
ensure data integrity throughout the SAP business process. This guarantees that one common
record is accessed for different procedures. Example - a customer master record may be
referenced by more than one functional module: FI (financial) and SD (sales and distribution).
What is ASAP?
ASAP is Accelerated SAP, a project management software tool that is used on SAP
implementations to guide the project through different phases. ASAP can take a project from
the designing of the "blueprint" through to "going live". Accelerated SAP is SAP’s total process-
oriented solution for accelerated implementation and continuous optimization of R/3.
What is LIS?
LIS is Logistics Information System. LIS consists of following information systems -
Sales Information System
Purchasing Information System
Inventory Controlling
Shop Floor Information System
Plant Maintenance Information System
Quality Management Information System.
These are information systems can be used to plan, control, and monitor business events at
different stages in the decision-making process. They are flexible tools for collecting,
aggregating, and analyzing data from the operative applications.
What is OSS?
OSS is an Online Service System which can be used to access information about a module in a
given release. OSS is a database of notes on known issues and their remedies. Any user with a
logon name and password can access this information. OSS can be used to obtain quick
responses from the SAP help desk representatives, administration and registration of new
users.
What is an SAP GUI?
GUI means Graphical User Interface. It is responsible for the graphical layout of the SAP
software. GUIs in SAP R/3 differ from version to version of SAP
FICO Questions
Courtesy of ZZ:
3. Views within IMG allow for grouping of transactions based on various criteria.
True/False
4. Business Area is set up within organization structure and is linked to the Company Code.
True/False
5. Parameters for processing accounting data is must when creating a Company Code.
True/False
6. One customer can belong to multiple dunning areas.
True/False
7. Customer created in one company code can be allocated to several Credit Control Areas.
True/False
8. Tick the incorrect answer Benefits of Organizational Structure in SAP R/3 are
9. Customer and Vendor Master Records can be accessed from the IMG side.
True/False
10. Master records may be assigned to an Account Group.
True/False
13. Only one vendor master record is defined for a client having four different companies.
True/False
15. If the Currency key of a Balance Sheet Account is not same as the Local Currency then the
monthly debits and credits are stored only in the specified foreign currency. True/False
16. When creating a Customer Master Record the monthly debits and credits are entered at the
Client level.
True/False
17. What is the third level of information contained in a Vendor Master Record when a Vendor
is maintained centrally?
Purchasing Information
18. Which field in the Customer Master Record controls the One Time Accounts?
Account Group
19. What are the three levels of controlling screen layout of a Master Record?
Field status of "Account Group", "Company Code" and "Activity Type"
Related: Difference between Company and Company code in SAP System
20. Do you need to maintain line item display of a Vendor Reconciliation Account?
Yes/No
21. To manage foreign Currency bank accounts, the G/L master record must have the same
currency as the foreign currency bank account.
True/False
22. In SAP for each payment term you can define up to 3 individual levels.
True/False
23. In the SAP system multiple documents are created for every business transaction.
True/False
24. Tick the incorrect answer
Document type
a. Distinguishes between the types of business transactions
b. Assigns the document Number
c. Controls the account types that can be posted to the document
d. Used as a sort Criteria
e. None of the above.
26. In SAP only one posting period is allowed to remain open at any point of time.
True/False
29. Field Status Group of a posting key is defined at the Client Level.
True/False Company Level
30. What are the levels of controlling layout of a Document Entry screen?
Field status of "Posting Key", "G/L account master record".
31. Is it a must to associate all revenue and loss accounts to a retained earning account?
Yes/No
33. What are the two types of "Fields" defined in SAP for authorization purpose?
Ans.: Operational Object like transaction table, Company code etc.
Activities like Create, Change, and Delete etc.
34. There can be only one Authorization Object defined for an Object Class.
True/False
Several Authorization Objects (i.e. Customer, Account authorization) can belong to one
Object Class (e.g. FI).
37. There is only one validation table defined per Company Code.
True/False
42. The process of clearing open items for a customer who is also a vendor of the company is
called
a. Partial Payment
b. Residual Payment
c. Transfer with clearing
d. Vendor Clearing
43. Which of the following statements is incorrect for Account Assignment Model.
45. Creation of the recurring reference document updates transaction figures of the associated
accounts.
True/False
46. Preliminary posting is posting of incomplete documents before extensive entry checks.
True/False
47. Difference between a Parked Document and a Held Document is: The Parked document
gets a document number based on the user ID where as the Held Document gets the document
number assigned in the same way as in the standard document posting function.
True/False
48. What determines the document fields that can be changed?
Document Update Rule
49. What does GAAP rule specifies in context of Document Update Rule?
Account, Amount and Posting keys can not be changed for a posted document
51. Which field in the master record determines the way in which the line items are sorted?
Ans. Sort Key
53. Can you create customized line layout, totals variant, or lists?
Yes/No
Ans. It determines the fields according to which the line items are totaled. For each Total
Variant up to three fields can be specified. For example, the line items of an account can be
totaled and separated by : document type/document date, business area/month, or
year/month/posting date.
A "Work List" is
a. List of pending jobs
b. List of scheduled jobs
c. No of Employees and their job status
d. combination of accounts or company codes
Ans. An Update Group is assigned to a credit control area which affects how the accounts are
updated. For example one update group can specify what credit statistics such as open order
value, open delivery value, or open invoice value are updated based upon what document is
being posted.
58. Tick the elements that needs to be configured for automatic credit checking
a. Credit Group
b. Credit Control Area
c. Risk Category
d. None of the above
59. In SAP which one of the followings is not a type of payment advice?
a. EDI
b. Lockbox Advice
c. Bank Advice
d. Dunning letter
60. Can a customer be dunned twice within the same Dunning Interval?
Yes/No
61. The due date for dunning is calculated from which date?
a. Document date
b. Baseline date
c. Value Date
d. Posting Date
62. Can a customer receive dunning letters from two dunning areas?
Yes/No
a. Mark specific items that should not trigger specific dunning levels
b. Identify the Dunning procedure
c. List the customers under same dunning area
d. All of the above
64. Payment method must be defined at the country level before it is specified at the Payment
program level.
True/False
a. Client level
b. Company Code level
c. Group Level
d. Country level
68. Where are the data to calculate tax are defined in SAP?
a. Tax Type
b. Posting key
c. G/L tax accounts
Ans. Tax Jurisdiction codes are used in conjunction with tax codes to further specify the taxes
applied to a purchase. This is recommended for implementations crossing multiple tax
jurisdictions. Tax Jurisdiction codes are tied to customer/vendor master records. Using tax
jurisdiction codes allows the user of fewer tax codes and easier tax determination by deriving
tax information from the master record. This minimizes the burden of determining the
appropriate tax information on a purchase order or invoice for a PO creator or Accounts
Payable Clerk.
72. What are the criteria considered by SAP when archiving a document?
Ans. The longest of Minimum days in the system, Life by Document Type and Life by account
determines the life of any document before it is archived(These are to be configured).
73. Once a change is made to the coding block, it is permanent and can not be deleted.
True/False
Ans. Light Mode: Only the absolute minimum amount of information required to create a field
is entered. Expert Mode: More detailed data dictionary and table information to be entered to
create a new field. This is more complex. After a field is been entered a subscreen is generated
to build the particular posting screen and to position the new field.
75. When posting document in FI, if only one line item has a business area, the system will
automatically populate the blank records in the other line items.
True/False
78. Which field determines where to post the exchange rate differences of foreign currency
during revaluation?
79. The special G/L transactions per customer/vendor are tracked in the customer and vendor
reconciliation accounts.
True/False
Ans. reconciliation accounts other than reconciliation account for customer and vendor
80. A special G/L transaction is defined by the special G/L indicator and the account type.
True/False
82. In GLIS from the business ratio field can you drill-down to the line item level?
Yes/No
CO Interview Questions
Again courtesy of ZZ:
CO is for internal reporting where FI is more for external legal reporting. CO relates more to
indirect and overhead costs, which don't affect G/L. These costs hit the G/L once, after that all
the allocations are behind the scenes.
2. Describe the possible options for a controlling area - company code relationship Put
emphasis on the option you have in terms of different currencies.
A controlling area can encompass one or more company codes. These company codes may
have different currencies, but they must use the same chart of accounts. The controlling area is
assigned a currency, but can also support multiple company code currencies. If all the
companies have the same currency, then the object currency is freely definable (if currency
type 10 is used). If the company codes do not have the same currency, then the object currency
inherits the currency of the company code.
6. What are the three types of currencies used in cross-company-code accounting and what
conversion rates are used?
8. Define the types of master data that exist in cost center accounting?
12. Define the relationship between the chart of accounts and cost elements in cost center
accounting.
The chart of accounts contains all G/L accounts for financial accounting and all primary cost
elements for cost accounting. Secondary cost elements are not contained on the chart of
accounts.
15. What is the difference between primary and secondary cost elements?
Primary cost elements are costs that originate outside of the company (posted to G/L).
Secondary cost elements are costs resulting from the internal exchange of activities, and do not
exist in the G/L. They exist solely within Controlling.
26. Is it possible to plan on cost centers in more than one plan version - elaborate
youranswer?
Yes, when planning for cost centers, changes can be made to all plan versions This includes
copying these planning versions, to create separate scenarios with When calling up the
planning screen you will be asked to enter the plan version number.
30. Discuss how distribution for cost center allocation is used in the system.
Primary postings are pooled in a cost center and allocated out at the end of the period specified
by user. Original cost elements are retained, and line items are produced for sender and
receiver. Receiver line items contain information about the sending cost center.
31. Discuss how assessment for cost center allocation is used in the system.
Designed for cost center settlement, primary and secondary postings are allocated at the end of
period according to a user defined key. The original cost elements are totaled and posted to a
secondary cost element (assessment cost element). Line items for sender and receiver are
provided, with receiver cost center getting information on sender cost center. Assessments can
include all or a portion of costs from the sending cost center.
33. Distinguish between the two cost allocation techniques: assessment and distribution.
In a distribution, all receiving cost objects are debited with a portion of an original cost element
that had been posted to a sending cost center. This portion is determined as part of
configuration. In assessment, a secondary assessment cost element is used. Within the sending
cost center, all costs to be allocated are totaled and the sender is credited with this assessment
cost element while all receivers are debited with a portion of assessment costs. This could be all
costs or a portion of the costs (both primary and secondary that had been originally posted to
the sending cost center).
39. What is the difference between direct and indirect activity allocation?
With direct activity allocation an individual activity confirmation takes place. Thus the activities
are directly allocated to the cost centers.
The purpose of indirect activity allocation is to automatically allocate planned and actual
activities. There are two kinds of indirect activity allocation.
40. What are the two allocation categories for indirect activity allocation?
Activity volume known: The planned and actual activity volume is known. The total actual
volume is manually entered for the sender and allocated to the receiver cost centers (or orders)
based upon some planned/actual quantity/ statistic.
Activity volume not known: This uses management units to provide an actual activity quantity
to the sender cost center using statistical key figures so that the system can calculate an
operating rate for the target cost calculation.
Actual costs can only be posted to cost centers within cost center accounting. Therefore, in
order to compare target versus actual costs on activity types and to display variances for each
activity type, it is necessary to split (apportion) the actual costs to each activity type.
43. What are the two stages which splitting actual costs based on the activity type occurs?
The actual costs are split in two stages (1st stage is not necessary in planning):
1) In the first stage, the actual cost are apportioned by cost element to the activity type based
on the target costs or target quantities. If no costs exist for a cost element, the target cost of
the cost element group is used as the first splitting step.
2) In the second stage, the remaining costs on the cost center level are apportioned to the
activity types according to the splitting rules (user defined). If the splitting rules are not defined,
the actual costs are split based on the equivalence numbers for the activity type.
Read Here for SAP FICO Tutorials to Get Brief Explanations of Terms and Queries mentioned
within it.
Internal orders
1) Quantitative control of input factors and sales performance (sales and production order).
2) Monitors costs and supports decision making (Internal overhead orders and capital
spending orders).
3. Define and contrast individual orders and standing orders. Give examples of each.
Individual - Collects costs of a one-time business activity (Christmas party, capital spending
order).
Standing - Allocated each month to a cost center, it is used to collect the costs of regularly
occurring activities (maintenance order, small repairs orders).
A statistical order collects costs for informational purposes and does not settle costs against
another object. You would use this to track costs in a separate fashion without double counting
them. An example would be one car in a fleet of cars. Typically, a statistical order could collect
data that also was posted to a cost center.
An order can be processed individually or with collective processing. An example of this is that
it is possible to call all orders which have already been released but not yet have a settlement
rule. Users can enter recipient cost centers in the list screen or alternatively, they can reach the
entry of the distribution rule via the Settlement rule function. (This is not the same as choosing
an order group.)
This allows you to select a group of orders so that you can change them all quickly and
accurately. Manual collective processing requires the use of a list variant and allows changes to
be made to the order master data. Automatic collective processing is used to release orders or
settle them. This changes the status of an order, not the master data.
12. What is a selection variant and what is it used for within CO?
A selection variant is SAP or user-defined to select orders. The variant chosen determines which
master data fields are offered for selection of collective processing, whether a status profile can
be used, whether a selection rule can be used and what default values will appear in the fields.
13. What is a list variant?
A list variant defines which master data fields can be maintained for collective processing.
14. What options do you have for additional account assignments within a CO posting and
when would you get a statistical posting?
There can be two additional account assignments excluding business areas and profit centers.
These can be chosen from an order, project, or profitability segment. If the order or other
object is not marked for statistical postings, the profit center is always statistical.
15. What are the different commitment types the system can record for an internal order?
For which type do you have to perform a manual reduction?
Purchase Requisition
Purchase Order
The availability control allows you to warn a user if/when budget is exceeded. You set
tolerances for these availability controls.
Funds Reservations must be manually reduced by the user.
The settlement hierarchy is used to ensure that settlement of orders is occurring in the right
sequence. An example would be if order A is settled to order B and this is settled to order C,
then you want to make sure that order B is not settled before A, otherwise you will not be able
to settle order A to order B because it will be closed.
The hierarchy is setup in the settlement parameters, and each order can be given a number
from 0 to 999 allowing up to 1000 orders in the hierarchy. The orders are settled in descending
order - highest number first.
The Reconciliation Ledger is a Standard Ledger configured and delivered by SAP. The data
model and functionality defined for specific business requirements are available. It is primarily
an information source.
A reconciliation posting is used to transfer costs to financial accounting which were made
across company code or business area boundaries in controlling. This allows for more freedom
with CO postings, and the ability to reconcile back to FI.
Profitability Analysis
1. T F A profitability segment is a combination of characteristics and value fields.
T F The primary source of input to Profitability Analysis is the Sales and Distribution module.
T F The Profitability Analysis portion of the Controlling module can not be used as a stand alone
system.
T F There are 4 tables created by the system when an operating concern is generated.
2. Describe how costs in Cost Center Accounting are transferred to Profitability Analysis.
Costs in cost center accounting are assessed to Profitability Analysis through assessment cycles
that specify which value field(s) will be affected, who the sender cost center(s) are, which cost
element(s) will be summed and transferred via a secondary cost element, and which
characteristic values will be affected
4. T F There are 2 kinds of Profitability Analysis: Cost Based and Value Field Based
T F Derivation is used to define values for non-system delivered fields.
T F Derivation can be multi-level but not multi-dimensional.
T F Sales information is received into PA at the time the Billing Document is released.
6. Explain the relationship between Controlling Area and Operating Concern within the
Controlling module. The Operating Concern can be defined to have a 1 to 1 relationship with
the Controlling Area, or multiple Controlling Areas can be assigned to one Operating Concern.
One Controlling Area cannot be assigned to more than one Operating Concern
Subtotals are formed for each set. The hierarchy of the set determines how many subtotals are
formed.
10. Using _________ sets you define which value fields or quantities are shown in a
report. (data)
What are the 3 levels that a customer master record can be maintained at? Why do these
three levels exist? Give an example of the information stored on these levels.
Client, company code, and sales (if maintained centrally). Exists so that you can tailor the
customization at each level. Adds more flexibility to the structure of a master record. For
example, if you have one customer named ABC Co., you define it once for your client Pepsi Co.
That customer exists in two companies of the client, Taco Bell and Frito Lay. However, in Taco
Bell the customer has different dunning areas, banks, payment terms than in Frito Lay. This is
an example of how all information is the same for ABC at the client level, but different at the
company code level. Of course, Sales information would be different in each company code as
well.
What are the 3 levels that a vendor master record can be maintained at? Why do these three
levels exist? Give an example of the information stored on these levels.
See the example given above. Exists so that you can tailor the customization at each level. Adds
more flexibility to the structure of a master record. In the above example, if ABC Co, is a vendor
in the companies Taco Bell and Frito Lay, under the client Pepsi Co, and the payment terms,
payment methods are different at the company level. Of course, purchasing information would
be different in each company code as well.
What are the two purposes of the customer/vendor Account Group? Give an example of how
the Account Group is used.
2) Establishes the screen layout for customer/vendor master records. All fields at the client
and company code level for customer/vendor master records can be designated either
suppressed, optional, required or mandatory. For example, some vendors may not use dunning
areas, so you would establish a separate account group for those vendors, where the dunning
fields are suppressed.
What are screen layout link rules? Why are screen Layout link rules used for customer/vendor
master records? Why are they used for line items?
Since the same information can be designated required, optional, mandatory, suppressed in 3
different places, the link rules determine which designation rules out over another. These 3
places are at the account group level, company code level, and the activity/transaction level.
For line items, the same information can be designated required, optional, mandatory,
suppressed in 2 different places. The link rules determine which designation rules out over
another. These 2 places are at the posting key level, and the field status group of the G/L
master record.
True. Account Groups are always mandatory when creating customer/vendor master records.
True. When setting up number ranges for account groups of customer/vendor master records,
you cannot create one that overlaps with an existing number range.
Define bank directory, house bank, bank account, bank ID, bank key, and account ID. Describe
the relationship between all of these and G/L accounts. Draw a picture if necessary.
The bank directory is the repository in SAP that contains all of the banks. It can be downloaded
into the system or manually keyed in. In order to establish house banks, which are banks in
which your company does business, the bank must first exist in the bank directory. The house
bank is named with a bank ID, and has a distinctive or unique, universally recognized bank key.
All of the accounts in a house bank are referred to as bank accounts and are named with an
account ID. Each bank account must contain a respective G/L account. Each G/L account must
contain the house bank and account ID. This allows SAP to maintain the bank books accurately.
For example, when you are running the payment program, you specify the bank accounts that
you are paying out of. When a payment is made, it is accurately reflected in the corresponding
G/L account.
What are payment terms? Why are they used? How are they define in SAP?
Payment terms define how you deal with a customer/vendor in terms of payment. For a
customer, it defines when a customer must pay you, in order to receive discounts. For a vendor,
it defines when you must pay the vendor in order to receive discounts.
The terms can be set up with 3 terms, which are usually cash discount term 1, cash discount
term 2, and due date for net payment.
Every transaction in SAP creates a document. This is a means of documenting all transactions,
being able to trace your actions in the system.
What are the two pieces of a document? What must all line items consist of ?
Header and line items. All line items must at least consist of a posting key, account and amount.
Document types:
1) distinguish between the types of business transactions - you specify the type. Ie. Is it a
general ledger accounting document, customer payment, etc.
2) controls which account types may be posted to - you specify the account types that may be
posted to. Ie. Some document types are only for asset accounts. Some are only for vendor
accounts, etc.
3) assigns the document number - each document type is assigned a number range
4) and is used as a sort criteria - by all of the above, you are grouping the documents or sorting
them accordingly.
Define posting periods, fiscal year variants, company codes and the relation between each.
Draw a picture if necessary.
Posting periods define which periods are open for posting documents, and also which accounts
are open for posting within these periods.
Fiscal year variant define what your posting periods are, in relation to the calendar year. For
example, if your fiscal year runs from July to June, you need to define, through a fiscal year
variant, how that relates to the calendar year, so that SAP can interpret your fiscal year.
Fiscal year variants and posting periods are assigned to a company code.
Posting keys determines how line items are entered. They control:
1) debit or credit entry?
2) what account type - posting keys are designated for specific account types
3) field status - how are the line items going to look if you use this posting key??
4) other properties - is it a sales related transaction? is a special g/l transaction? what is
the reversal posting key?
What are automatic line items? How are they configured in the system? Give some examples
of automatic line items.
There are certain activities defined at the Chart of Account level in FI that create automatic line
items. Examples include discount expenses, revenue from over/under payment, taxes. There is
a 3-character system-specific code in SAP that corresponds with each of these activities, and
usually you must specify a G/L account to correspond with these. This determines which G/L
account is hit when the automatic line item is generated.
Define composite profile, profile, authorization, value, field, authorization object, and object
class. Describe the relationship between each, draw a picture if necessary.
Composite profile is assigned to a user and contains one or several profiles. The profiles contain
the authorizations or allowed activities that a person may perform on an object, for a particular
value. Similar authorizations can be grouped in to object classes - such as an SD object class,
and FI object class.
They control the maximum amount that employees are allowed to post. All control the
maximum payment difference that employees are allowed to post. This is a control or
authorization mechanism. An example would be, you wouldn't want a brand new clerk to be
able to post more than $100,000 and wouldn't want them to post an incoming payment that
was 10% less than the total. All users must be allocated to an employee tolerance group in
order to post.
They control the maximum payment difference allowed for customers/vendors, specify how to
post residual items from payment difference, and contain details of clearing procedures. An
example would be: Customer One can post a 5% difference b/c they've been a customer longer
and are more credible. Customer Two can only post a 1% difference b/c they are a new
customer and haven't established credibility.
Define sort key, allocation field. Describe the relationship between the two.
Line items are displayed in the order designated by the allocation field. The allocation field is
populated by the sort key. The sort key specifies the fields that the line items are sorted by.
Why would a project team want to configure its own line item layout? Why would a project
team want to configure its own fast entry structure?
Some fields are more relevant for some customers than others. For instance, maybe the value
date or dunning areas are not important for a group of Accounting clerks to see. So a line item
layout would be made that did not include these fields. Also, it may be typical that clerks always
retrieve line items according to the posting date. This would be a necessary field located in the
line item layout.
In the same concept
The SAP functionality that allows you to maintain credit for customers on various levels, based
on the customer's creditworthiness. Basically credit checks can be performed for customers
throughout the sales cycle. Credit management is hugely integrated with SD.
You can set up risk categories, automatic credit checking, and update groups to check invoices
as they proceed throughout the sales cycle.
What is a Credit Control Area? Where does it fall in the organizational structure?
Credit Control Area is the highest hierarchial level in Credit Management. It falls below the
client level, above companies. You create credit control areas and assign companies to them.
Each company can only be assigned to one credit control area. Obviously, customers can span
Credit Control Areas since the same customer can exist in more than one company code.
First, a credit limit can be assigned to a credit control area. Then, any customer assigned to that
credit control area, will have that limit. On the next level, specifications can be made for each
customer individually. For each customer, you specify the maximum limits across all credit
control areas and per credit control areas. Then on the lowest level, you specify the current
limit across all credit control areas and the current limit per credit control area.
T or F The credit for a customer can be checked at various points along the sales cycle?
True.
What is a payment advice? Why would one be used? Give some examples of payment
advices.
A payment advice contains information about an incoming payment, such as amount, payment
date, reasons for underpayment, and document number. It is used for the automatic search
and matching of open items during the clearing process. Instead of matching an incoming
payment against the open items manually, the clerk only needs to enter the payment advice in
order to clear.
What is a reason code? Why would a reason code be used? Give an example.
The reason code specifies the reasons for over or under payment. It also determines if the
difference will be written off to a G/L account. An example would be a reason code set up for
damaged goods. If a business decision is made to write off damaged goods to a G/L account
then all payment advices with that reason code specified will cause differences to be written off
to the G/L account.
Dunning is a process whereby customer and vendors can be sent late notices for overdue
amounts.
What are the 4 necessary inputs for running the dunning program? Define each and give
examples of the data in each.
Data in master records - such as address and payment terms
Basic parameters - dunning procedure such as texts, levels, charges, interest
On-line parameters - such as company code, range of customers/vendors
OI - payment terms, baseline date in open items
Why are separate dunning levels supported by SAP? What is the purpose of the levels?
Because you may want to specify amounts, charges, texts depending on the number of days an
amount is outstanding. For example, you would want to send a firmer letter to customer when
they become more overdue.
T or F You may not change the dunning letters that are shipped with SAP.
Dunning areas are used when you want run different procedures for different groups of
customer/vendors. For example, you would send a different letter to your more reliable
customers, than for brand new customers b/c the reliable letter may be more friendly. Also,
you may send a differently worded letter for your plastics buyers than your electronics buyers.
Payment program is the procedure whereby payments are made to customer/vendors for
outstanding amounts. The procedure automatically clears outstanding items and updates the
corresponding bank accounts to reflect outgoing payments. They system evaluates all open
items based on payment terms and days outstanding to decide if the item is due.
What are the 4 necessary inputs for running the payment program? Define each and give
examples of the data in each.
What are the 3 levels that the payment program in configured at? Give examples of the data
that is configured on each level?
T or F The payment method must be configured for a country before it can be configured for a
paying company?
True.
Describe how SAP decides which open items must be paid by the payment program.
First, you specify whether you want to always maximize your cash discounts, or always
minimize. Then each open item is looked at individually by the system. In particular, the
payment terms are evaluated. If you are always maximizing, the program looks at the first
payment tier, if the payment program will not be run again in time to get the maximum
discount then the amount if paid. If the payment program will be run again before the first
payment tier expires, then the amount will be paid at the next run.
If you specify to always minimize the discount, the amount will only be paid when the program
will not be run again before the net amount is due (the third payment tier).