S4HANA Finance: New Asset Accounting – Simplified.
S4HANA Finance: New Asset Accounting – Simplified.
New Asset Accounting is not really new. It has been available since SAP ECC enhancement pack 6. However, lately it has gained attention because it is a mandatory step to activate New Asset Accounting in the S4HANA Finance or S4HANA migration. It is mandatory. One good thing about it is that it provides an opportunity to be proactive. If you are already on New GL, you could start going through the pre-requisites, pre-checks and even head start activating New Asset Accounting project before your S4HANA migration project.
Though in our recent S4HANA Finance 1605 project we did not come across any serious issues, few consultants I talked to face some challenges that could turn into prove a bottleneck and slow down the progress. It is not only because of the complexity but also large impact of asset accounting on business. I am hereby trying to connect few dots that would bring clarity.
The program RASFIN_MIGR_PRECHECK checks if the migration pre-requisite is complete. Also the business function (Enterprise extension) EA-FIN and FIN_AA_CI_1 (for parallel accounting) are activated. Refer to the SAP Note 1939592 and also Note 965032 for more details.
Pre-Check if the New Asset Accounting
Check if the New Depreciation Engine is Active once business extensions activated.
Let us now start with the functional benefits of New Asset Accounting when you migrate to S4HANA Finance and then discuss on changes in the architecture, configuration options, new posting logic, new t-codes and (positive) impact on the closing process. I will also discuss on some specific errors we came across in our recent S4HANA Fin 1605 migration project and the resolution.
Impact on Functionality (All for Good!)
- Reconciliation between FI and AA is not required
- Depreciation values posted in Real time – efficient and faster depreciation run.
- Depreciation posted for the individual asset
- Depreciation posting run, detailed log option provides information on individual assets level along with cost centers.
- Clean and transparent assignment of depreciation areas to the Accounting Principle.
- APC ( Acquisition and Production Costs) posting run are not required – Closing
- Balance carryforward is not required by design and FAGLGVTR takes care of balance carry forward for all sub ledger accounts including Asset Accounting – Closing
- Planned values are updated online with master data and transaction to assets – Closing
- No need of the delta areas as separate single valuation area per valuation
- Since the Asset Accounting is a part of universal journal there are many opportunities combining GL and Asset Accounting example drill down by cost center or asset from one place.
- Accounting Principle and depreciation area can be entered in the Document posting
- Optional display of Asset view of journal entries
- Period Close is possible even if there are errors on assets ( No blocking for the process) – Closing
Architectural Changes
- Classic Asset Accounting is no more supported
- All actual line items are posted to the Universal Journal Entry – ACDOCA table. Tables ANEK, ANEP, ANLC, ANLP are hence redundant but reporting is possible due to compatibility views. You still can run reports for earlier periods before migration.
- The plan and statistical data is stored in separate tables FAAT_DOC_IT ( statistical), FAAT_PLAN_VALUES (Planned) and FAAT_YDDA (year dependent
Posting Logic:
The integrated acquisition of an asset is split in to two parts – an operational ( Vendor Invoice – Debit Technical Clearing Account to Vendor. In the second part, valuation part ledger group specific document is posted to each of the accounting principle.
Example
Customizing / Configuration
The IMG path covers step by step customizing / configuration of the new Asset Accounting
I am covering only few of the important customizing / configuration steps to build our understand
- Migration of Chart of Depreciation. There is a migration program FAA_CHECK_MIG2SFIN but it is recommended to it manually.
- Assign Accounting Principles and Ledger Groups to the depreciation are.
- Make sure that for each currency type a separate Depreciation area is assigned
Example:
GL currency config in parallel accounting
Ledger | Currency type | Currency | Accounting Principle |
0L | Company Code Currency | CAD | LGAAP |
0L | Group Currency | USD | LGAAP |
0L | Additional Currency | EUR |
LGAAP
|
NL1 | Company Code Currency | CAD | IFRS |
NL1 | Group Currency | USD | IFRS |
Depreciation Area Config
Area | Name od Dep Area | Posting to GL | Accounting Principle |
01 | Book Depreciation (Co Code) | Posting to GL | LGAAP |
02 | Consolidated B/S (Group) | Area Does not post | LGAAP |
03 | Adj Current Earning | Area Does not Post | LGAAP |
31 | Company Code – Val 2 | Area Post in Real time | IFRS |
32 | Group – Val 2 | Area Does not post | IFRS |
- Refer to SAP Note 2180591. This note is to address issues with parallel valuation / currencies but useful in clear understanding of the new architecture and configuration requirements.
- Additionally, if you are using the Accounting approach, for parallel valuation, define the hen G/L accounts as reconciliation accounts
- We need to create a Technical Clearing Account for Integrated Asset Acquisition.
- Following are manual activates needs to be completed depending on the scenario
List of Obsolete t-codes and new t-codes
Old Transactions | New Transactions | |
Reconciliation check | ABST2 | FAGLGVTR (Close) |
Periodic APC Run | ASKB | Obsolete |
Reconciliation FI-AA | ABST /ABST2 | Obsolete |
Asset Explorer | AW01_AFAR | AW01N |
Create asset | AB01 | AB01L |
Unplanned depreciation | ABAA | ABAAL |
Last Retirement on Group Asset | ABAKN | ABAKNL |
Asset Sale Without Customer | ABAO | ABAOL |
Asset Retirement by Scrapping | ABAV | ABAVL |
Balance sheet revaluation | ABAW | ABAWL |
Adjustment Posting to Areas | ABCO | ABCOL |
Credit Memo in Year after Invoice | ABGF | ABGFL |
Credit Memo in Year of invoice | ABGL | ABGLL |
Investment support | ABIF | ABIFL |
Manual depreciation | ABMA | ABMAL |
Manual transfer of reserves | ABMR | ABMRL |
Post-capitalization | ABNA | ABNAL |
Subsequent Revenue | ABNE | ABNEL |
Subsequent Costs | ABNK | ABNKL |
Miscellaneous Transactions | ABSO | ABSOL |
Transfer from | ABUM | ABUML |
Acquisition from in-house production | ABZE | ABZEL |
Asset acquis. autom. offset. posting | ABZO | ABZOL |
Acquisition from affiliated company | ABZP | ABZPL |
Write-up | ABZU | ABZUL |
Changes in loading of Asset Master – Transaction AS91
The process is changed after migrating to New Asset Accounting. The transaction AS91 still exists but to load the historical values, accumulated depreciation and depreciation costs for the year are loaded through ABLDT. The current year acquisition managed through AB01L
Limitations
- Reversal for the documents posted prior to migration ( prior to activation of new posting logic) is not possible.
- Transaction types that are specific to depreciation area cannot be used and required to be marked as obsolete
Errors in Migration
We came across a few errors in migration – one of them being “Mismatched Balance for ANLC”. It was corrected thru an SAP Note 2155523
That’s all for today.
Hope, the blog was helpful to you. Please feel free to reach out to me for any specific questions or suggestions that would help me improve.
Thank you for the deatiled blog - very informative for those who are in the process of HANA migration.
Looking forward for subsequent blogs on the subject.
Hi Dinesh,
Thanks for this. Very informative. BTW, can you specifically list some of the Asset Closing related activity changes (eg. if T code AJRW is still relevant or not) in SAP S4/HANA? Simply, the primary differences in New Asset Accounting vis-a-vis New Asset Accounting (under EHP6 Business Suite)? I know there are some slight variations? Just want to ascertain the same especially from closing perspective? Appreciate your insights?
Makesh
Hello Dinesh, when I am trying to activate the business Function "FIN_AA_CI_1", the windowi, is displaying the message. the Businoess function is obsolete and can not be activated.
Is it correct. This needs some response from your end.
Hi Dinesh,
I saw an SAP Note which says for Year end closing , for change of Fiscal year we are supposed to run AJRW- Calculate Depreciation first and then only Fiscal year gets changed. I tested in Quality and followed same in PRD. For another company code it just allowed without any execution of AJRW. Was lil Confused, is it required and its one time activity or its not required at all . Please confirm
Hi Dinesh,
I have a question concerning the migration of fixed assets to S4Hana, particularly deletion assets data after migration. Despite using OABL to remove master data and transaction data, there are still entries in ANEK and ANEP. How can I properly clear the system from both master data and all transactions related to assets.
Wiktoria
Hi,
I am facing same issue.
Please post if someone has the solution
Hi,
I am facing an issue in S4/HANA version 1709 with assets that pre-exists in previous fiscal years: figures are all in zero values. For new assets for current period there is no problem at all, but there is no values neither yield depreciation for older assets (from fiscal years N-1, N-2, etc). Thank in advance for your help.
Sir!! Excellent post! thanks for sharing your knowledge!!
Thanks! Your Information Is Great