SAP General Ledger: Preparing for a New G/L Migration
Are you considering a migration to the new SAP General Ledger? Even though the product has been available for 10+ years, many companies are still using the classic General Ledger and therefore unable to utilize functionality like document splitting, parallel ledgers, and real time integration with CO. Most of the latest functionality in finance business functions requires the new SAP General Ledger.
Perhaps the process of migrating seems daunting with the substantial time and cost investment that’s required. This doesn’t have to be the case, as good project preparation and expert migration consulting can make a migration project more of a technical process.
Preparation for a migration project should start as soon as possible. Data cleanup is one of the most important preparation tasks as corrupted data will require repair before the migration, and data volume should be reduced as much as possible. The main two areas to focus on regarding data cleanup are::
Corrupted Data – There are several checks that can be run in the classic GL to check for corrupted data. Through my pre-migration service I have found several issues including, for example, documents without headers and line item tables out of balance with totals tables. These issues will actually stop the migration and the data must be repaired before the migration date.
Data Volume – In general, the larger the data volume, the longer the migration will take and complexity will increase. For migrations with document splitting, special attention should be given to reducing the number of GL, vendor, and customer open items on the migration date. It is usually not possible to reduce customer open items, but many SAP customers have significant open items in accounts such as the Goods Received/Invoice Received (GR/IR), intercompany, tax accounts, etc. Older items in these accounts should be cleared before the migration date.
Often, the migration project is a driver for data cleanup that is required anyway for optimizing system performance. For example, I have found open item managed accounts with millions of open items that had never been cleared!
As part of the preparation, I also recommend testing the new SAP General Ledger functionality with a pilot system. Mid-to-large companies that wish to migrate with document splitting will find having a pilot system invaluable for testing existing transactions with the document splitting configuration, and for testing interfaces and reports. The pilot system can also be used for training the migration project team.
To find out more about the steps you need to prepare for a new G/L migration; read my new SAP PRESS E-Bite SAP General Ledger: Preparing for a New G/L Migration https://www.sap-press.com/sap-general-ledger-preparing-for-a-new-gl-migration_3938/ .
About the Author
With experience of some of the largest migrations worldwide, my company CAPE Global Consulting has automated many of the migration activities. This means significant cost savings as far less consulting time is required and many of the activities can be performed remotely.
For more information, please refer to my E-Bite and contact me at ptheobald@capeglobal.com or (702) 425-1490.