BPC ACCTYPE: what is AST, LEQ, INC and EXP? What account type sould be used?
Introduction
Have you ever wondered why there are 4 types of account available in account dimension? What are LEQ, AST, EXP and INC and what type should be used and when?
This document will show the difference in account types in SAP Business Planning and Consolidation.
Account types
There are 2 categories of accounts – Balance sheet account and Profit and Loss accounts. Each category has its corresponding account types.
Balance sheet accounts are Assets and Liabilities and Equity. The corresponding ACCTYPE are AST for Assets and LEQ for Liabilities and Equity.
Profit and Loss accounts are Income and Expenses with corresponding ACCTYPE as INC and EXP.
The difference in them is how data is assumed to be entered in BPC and how it is extracted from it.
For Balance sheet accounts the data is always entered up to the end of a period. This means that Balance sheet at the end of certain month will show the actual state of a company in a financial year.
For Profit and Loss accounts, data in a certain month is entered as movement. It means that data in a month will show what a company has earned/lost only in this month.
Example
How let’s have a look at all this on a sample data in BPC.
Balance sheet accounts
For the sake of simplicity we will look at account dimension only. Account dimension has Balance Sheet accounts and Profit and Loss accounts.
Please notice that Balance Sheet accounts are of type AST and LEQ, which stand for Assets and Liability and equity.
ID |
EVDESCRIPTION |
PARENTH1 |
ACCTYPE |
BALANCE |
Balance |
|
AST |
TOTAST |
Assets |
BALANCE |
AST |
AST1 |
Cash |
TOTAST |
AST |
AST2 |
Accounts Receivable |
TOTAST |
AST |
TOTLEQ |
Liabilities and Equity |
BALANCE |
LEQ |
LEQ1 |
Liabilities (e.g. Accounts Payable) |
TOTLEQ |
LEQ |
LEQ2 |
Equity (e.g. Stock) |
TOTLEQ |
LEQ |
Assets account is a total of Cash and Accounts Receivable, Liabilities and Equity is a total of all liabilities and equities of a company.
A sum of the both account should be equal to zero and this should be shown at the very top Balance account.
Let’s have a look at data. Let’s say we are interested in data for Nov, Dec 2012 and total balance for 2012.
|
|
2012.NOV |
2012.DEC |
2012.TOTAL |
---|---|---|---|---|
BALANCE |
Balance |
0.00 |
||
TOTAST |
Assets |
120.00 |
||
AST1 |
Cash |
100.00 |
||
AST2 |
Accounts Recivable |
20.00 |
||
TOTLEQ |
Liabilities and Equity |
120.00 |
||
LEQ1 |
Liabilities (e.g. Accounts Payable) |
50.00 |
||
LEQ2 |
Equity (e.g. Stock) |
70.00 |
A sample data is entered above for Nov 2012. The data shows that balance is 0.
The balance in November shows the state of the company by the end of Nov 2012, which means it is not the balance only for one month (Nov 2012) but a “cumulative” balance of the company for 2012 by the end of Nov 2012.
Thus, when data is entered in Dec 2012 it will show the balance Dec and the whole year.
|
|
2012.NOV |
2012.DEC |
2012.TOTAL |
---|---|---|---|---|
BALANCE |
Balance |
0.00 |
0.00 |
0.00 |
TOTAST |
Assets |
120.00 |
130.00 |
130.00 |
AST1 |
Cash |
100.00 |
90.00 |
90.00 |
AST2 |
Accounts Recivable |
20.00 |
40.00 |
40.00 |
TOTLEQ |
Liabilities and Equity |
120.00 |
130.00 |
130.00 |
LEQ1 |
Liabilities (e.g. Accounts Payable) |
50.00 |
70.00 |
70.00 |
LEQ2 |
Equity (e.g. Stock) |
70.00 |
60.00 |
60.00 |
Please have a look at 2012.Total which equals to 2012.Dec. These are correct figures.
Now, let’s have a look at the same figures at a bit different angle. What will we see when looking at Periodic vs YTD for Nov, Dec and Total? Will the figures sum up? No. This is because it is a balance sheet accounts.
Here is the same example for Periodic and YTD view.
|
|
Periodic |
Periodic |
Periodic |
Year To Date |
Year To Date |
Year To Date |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2012.NOV |
2012.DEC |
2012.TOTAL |
2012.NOV |
2012.DEC |
2012.TOTAL |
||
BALANCE |
Balance |
0.00 |
0.00 |
0.00 |
0.00 |
0.00 |
0.00 |
TOTAST |
Assets |
120.00 |
130.00 |
130.00 |
120.00 |
130.00 |
130.00 |
AST1 |
Cash |
100.00 |
90.00 |
90.00 |
100.00 |
90.00 |
90.00 |
AST2 |
Accounts Recivable |
20.00 |
40.00 |
40.00 |
20.00 |
40.00 |
40.00 |
TOTLEQ |
Liabilities and Equity |
120.00 |
130.00 |
130.00 |
120.00 |
130.00 |
130.00 |
LEQ1 |
Liabilities (e.g. Accounts Payable) |
50.00 |
70.00 |
70.00 |
50.00 |
70.00 |
70.00 |
LEQ2 |
Equity (e.g. Stock) |
70.00 |
60.00 |
60.00 |
70.00 |
60.00 |
60.00 |
Profit and Loss accounts
Moving to Profit and Loss accounts. Here they are in account dimension. Please notice that P&L accounts are of INC and EXP account type. They stand for Income and Expense correspondingly.
ID |
EVDESCRIPTION |
PARENTH1 |
ACCTYPE |
PL |
PROFIT/LOSS |
|
INC |
PROFIT |
Sales |
PL |
INC |
COST |
Cost of sales |
PL |
EXP |
Above is a very simple example of P&L accounts. The company has profit and costs. Profit minus Costs is what the company has at the end of a period as a profit (if the result is positive) or loss (if the result is negative). The sum is shown at PL account. Let’s have a look at PL for the same period of time (Nov, Dec, Total).
|
|
2012.NOV |
2012.DEC |
2012.TOTAL |
---|---|---|---|---|
PL |
PROFIT/LOSS |
50.00 |
50.00 |
|
PROFIT |
Sales |
100.00 |
100.00 |
|
COST |
Cost of sales |
50.00 |
50.00 |
In Nov the company sold products for 100 currency units (cu) and had a cost of sales of 50 cu. In Nov the company finished with total profit of 50 cu. (100 + (-50) = 50). These figures show movement of money just in Nov. (we assume the company did nothing in Jan-Oct 2012).
In Dec the company sold products for 200 cu having costs of 50 cu. The total for Dec would be 150.
|
|
2012.NOV |
2012.DEC |
2012.TOTAL |
---|---|---|---|---|
PL |
PROFIT/LOSS |
50.00 |
150.00 |
200.00 |
PROFIT |
Sales |
100.00 |
200.00 |
300.00 |
COST |
Cost of sales |
50.00 |
50.00 |
100.00 |
The data above shows that 2012.Total adds up figures for Nov and Dec, which is correct. This is showing the total result of the company in regards to profit. The company made 50 cu in Nov plus 150 cu in Dec which is 200 cu totally in 2012.
Now let’s have a look at Periodic vs YTD for PL accounts.
|
|
Periodic |
Periodic |
Periodic |
Year To Date |
Year To Date |
Year To Date |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2012.NOV |
2012.DEC |
2012.TOTAL |
2012.NOV |
2012.DEC |
2012.TOTAL |
||
PL |
PROFIT/LOSS |
50.00 |
150.00 |
200.00 |
50.00 |
200.00 |
200.00 |
PROFIT |
Sales |
100.00 |
200.00 |
300.00 |
100.00 |
300.00 |
300.00 |
COST |
Cost of sales |
50.00 |
50.00 |
100.00 |
50.00 |
100.00 |
100.00 |
Please notice that Periodic figures for Dec do not match YTD figures in Dec. This is because for YTD view we want to see how much money the company made/lost by the end of a certain period (Dec in this case). For YTD Dec that would be PL 50 + 150 = 200, Profit 100 + 200 = 300 and Cost 50 + 50 = 100.
Sign of data for in BPC and BW (BPC NW)
Let’s have a look at with what sign data is stored at BW level for different types of accounts.
The table of input sign at BPC level, corresponding BW sign.
ACCTYPE |
Input value |
BW sign |
Reporting value |
AST |
– |
– |
– |
AST |
+ |
+ |
+ |
LEQ |
– |
+ |
– |
LEQ |
+ |
– |
+ |
INC |
– |
+ |
– |
INC |
+ |
– |
+ |
EXP |
– |
– |
– |
EXP |
+ |
+ |
+ |
Let’s have a look at sample data to see the signs at BPC level (input and reporting) and BW. Here is BPC input data and BW in one table.
Account |
BPC |
BW |
AST_MINUS |
-10.00 |
-10.00 |
ASP_PLUS |
10.00 |
10.00 |
LEQ_MINUS |
-20.00 |
20.00 |
LEQ_PLUS |
20.00 |
-20.00 |
INC_MINUS |
-30.00 |
30.00 |
INC_PLUS |
30.00 |
-30.00 |
EXP_MINUS |
-40.00 |
-40.00 |
EXP_PLUS |
40.00 |
40.00 |
Hi Kirill,
Thanks for sharing valuable details on account setup at BPC. I had some doubts on behaviour of different account types and now I can see explanation in your blog.
Regards,
Bhaskar
Hi,
If my users want to visualize EXP with "-" when debited and INC with "+" when credited. It is common from a consolidation perspective. We then decided to have P&L accounts all under the account Type EXP.
The behavior is until now all fine, but how can we guarantee that this option has really no consequence and that anywhere in the application, it won't have an unexpected consequence? In other words, that the account type is not used somewhere in the application in another place than for the display and storage conventions?
I already have an example in the dashboard in the Miscrosoft version where the trend arrow are positioned in a different way based on the account type.
Thanks for any comment,
JH
This is the best article I found about the these four account types. Very helpful.
Hi,
Very good explanation.
Thanks!
Very clear and usefull !!!
Thanks Kirill
Regards
Aldrin Liendo
This document is very helpful .Thanks for sharing
Prabhakar
Well documented.
Hey Krill you really prepared a very nice document for Account types.
Thank you for sharing!
i have same doubt as Jean-Hubert Guillot
Hi Krill
Very nice stuff..... on Account Type topic.
I appreciate your effort in preparing this! đ
Hi,
Which is the best way to define another account members like percentage and unit price?
Best regards,
Ana Teresa
Hi Ana,
For KPI accounts I can recommend to use INC or EXP type - not a big difference (you can't use aggregation for KPI accounts). Also, in our system KPI accounts use dimension formulas...
Vadim
We often use only EXP and AST accounts and so far this has never cause any issues. Our clients often want to enter both the P&L and the BS with + and - numbers and show them that way in reports.
We just make sure that if we show an actual profit in the P&L it has the same sign that we want to see in the equity section of the balance sheet.
Accounts like percentages and unit prices I would always define depending on whether they have P&L or BS character and use EXP or AST so that the data is stored in the DB as I enter it without a change in sign.
Vadim and Arnold,
Thank you! So, it's similar that we use... We understand what is the use of each one and choose the best type...
Best Regards,
Ana Teresa
Hi Arnold,
Thanks for that. I do agree that it does make Input Sheets easier for the users that want revenue and equity entered as negatives.
I have picked up on a system with only AST and EXP account types. However sometimes it is useful to display revenue as positive (graphs, for example), in which case I create a second account property (AType, for example) which has each of the four account types. From there I create a custom measures formula (both YTD and Periodic) which then references the AType property to display everything as positive. It's way easier than fiddling with cell formatting, especially in graphs.
Not sure if there is a better way of doing it?
Best Regards
Nick
Hi Nick,
I sometimes simply use Excel formatting for that. So my acctype would just be ast but I would also have a second property that differentiates between ast and leq and then use the formatting sheet based on this property to format numbers differently.
BR,
Arnold
Thanks, Arnold.
Thanks. Appreciated. Make sense.
However, if I am asked to do graphs for revenue / COS / other expenses (in one graph), then the revenue items come in as negative and the COS / other expenses come in as positive (the number as it is stored) and then I have to reverse the revenue items before plotting.
I suppose it's not the end of the world ... it just takes a bit longer. đ
Take care
Nick
Hi Nick,
You idea with custom measure formula using something like ATYPE instead of ACCTYPE is quite fine... I don't see any issues.
Vadim
Very useful information. Thanks for Sharing
Naresh.
good understading..
Hi,
one question regarding account type in P&L Planning.
we calculate Revenues like Amount * Price = revenue
20 * 3 = - 60 --> revenue Accounttype = INC,
for retraction to ERP I also want to retract - 60 (negativ Value) but on Database level in SAP BW my revenues are strored positiv (60)
Is there any recomandation or experience to solve this problem?
thank you very much
"but on Database level in SAP BW my revenues are strored positiv (60)" - what do you mean?
If you have INC account in BPC and in BPC report you have +60 then in BW you have -60
Hello Vadim,
If I open my BW Cube via TA LISTCUBE my planed revenues are stored +60. (in BPC EXCEL Frontend they are negativ (-60)
revenues account is INC.
I calculate my revenues with script logic like I sad. Amount(EXP) * Price(EXP) = Revenue (INC)
now when I retract data to ECC, I have positiv revenues - but I need negative Revenues to be in line with SAP general logic. do you have a recommendation to solve this issue in a smart way?
Best Regards
stephen
Absolutely incorrect!
In the BPC Excel report the revenue has to be POSITIVE! +60!
And the data in BW has to be negative -60!
Calculations in the logic are incorrect, please open a new discussion and post the logic!
Vadim
Hi Vadim,
After Our Upgrade from BPC7.5 to BPC 10.1, The report logic changed from Positive to Negative.
Example:
We had Revenue value $ 21 000 plan data from August to Dec
We made a change and zero out $ 21 000 in Aug in our revenue template
When we look at the rev in the BPC Reporting cube - P & L the $ 21 000 was zero "0" which is correct
We went back to the Revenue model/appset and re-enter the $ 21 000
When we viewed the P & L report the $21 000 displayed as -$21 000
This is incorrect because all new revenue values are now displaying as Negative and not Positive
Anyone experienced this issues before?
Regards,
Caroline
Looks like you have some calculations in default.lgf. Please read about sign logic here:Â https://blogs.sap.com/2014/06/09/how-to-write-defaultlgf/
Thanks for sharing! Best explanation ever..
Great summary! thanks!!
Â
Does anyone know what meta-data I could use in SAP ERP or S/4HANA Finance to derive LEQ, AST, EXP and INC from existing attributes inside the ERP?
SAP ERPâs also have an Account Type but it is not as specific as the Account Type in BPC or BOC.
I am pretty sure that is a good start:
IF Secondary Costs, then EXP, else
IF Balance Sheet Account, then AST (?) or LEQ(?), else
IFÂ Primary Costs or Revenue, then INC(?) or EXP(?), else
IFÂ Nonoperating Expense or Income, then INC(?) or EXP(?)
Trying to assign the â?â above using information in SAP ERPâs
  Please let me know if you have any ideas or email mark.p.burke@sap.com and we can engage on the topic!  Thanks.
Hi,
DId you ever find a solution to your question???
Hi Experts
I am using P $ L accounts with acctype INC/EXP, but the report does not apply YTD, an idea?
Regards