Funds Management – Master Data
My goal is write several articles about FM explaining how it works and its integration along other SAP modules. The first post we’re going to talk about master data.
FM is the core component from SAP EA-PS module. This component gives the user the capability to control company budget in several dimensions. Below we’re going to explain all those dimensions and how they can be used.
Fund Center
Fund center is the most basic master data on FM. It’s used to mapping who is expending the budget or who is generating revenue. At the company where I work, we’ve created one fund center for each organization unit.
For each fund center, the SAP allows you designate a responsible for it. This responsible will be notified via SAP workflow when the budget suffer any modification like: commitment, budget transfer, payment and so on.
The fund center is created on SAP through transaction FMSA.
The fund center can also be created with validity limit. This validity can be useful when the company change its internal structure.
Commitment Item
The commitment item allows the user to catalogue the company expenditures and revenues. It’s always used along fund center. Both they are the minimal account element required to make FM works properly.
The commitment item represents the expenditures or revenues like: payroll, taxes, hydraulic material, paint service and so on. Depending on the company, different commitment items can be created.
The commitment item is created on SAP through transaction FMCIA.
For each commitment item, the user must inform its financial transaction. The financial transaction is a key that reproduces the business transactions from the feeder system (FI, MM and so on).
Below there is a table presenting the financial transaction and the its business transaction.
| Financial Transaction | Business Transaction |
|---|---|
| 30 | Expenditure / Revenue Posting |
| 40 | Goods Receipt / Issue |
| 60 | Payable / Receivable |
| 80 | Bank Clearing |
| 90 | Cash Holding |
Tip: On customizing, the user can specify a mask to make easier the management of the commitment items.
Fund
Funds are used to represent source of financing. The operations of public sector entity could be financed own fund or monetary resources generated inside the organization or coming from external entities. Once fund is activated, it allows to categorize these sources financing.
A typical example of these funds are the funds with specific destiny, which are revenues collected by an organization and that they can only be used for certain purposes (for example for financing the payroll).
Funds are created on SAP through transaction FM6I.
Funds don’t come activated by SAP, it can be activated by the user through customizing. The path to activate it is:
SPRO => Public Sector Management => General Settings for Public Sector Management => Basic Settings: Account Assignment Elements => Activate Account Assignment Elements
Functional Area and Funded Program
The Functional Area and the Funded Program are dimensions that can be used along the fund, fund center and commitment item. Like the fund, they can be activated by the user during the customizing.
They can be used to grouping the projects inside the same funded program or functional area. Depending on the business requirement they can be activated.
As far as I can see, rarely those two lasts master data are activated. Most of the company can cover its requirements with Fund Center, Commitment Item and Funds.
Conclusion
I hope you have enjoyed this brief topic. On the next topic we’re going talk about budgeting.
Regards,
Rodrigo Amorim