The Intercompany integration solution for SAP Business One enables businesses running SAP Business One to manage Intercompany transactions for multiple companies by automatically replicating corresponding transactions across multiple company databases. Automating the replication of such transactions significantly reduces the amount of end-user effort needed to maintain Intercompany trading financial statements.
It is important for the user to configure and setup the intercompany landscape accurately. The landscape available in the administration console allows a user to setup and configure all the branch and consolidation companies that need to be used in Intercompany Integration Solution.
In this blog, we are covering following broad sections on intercompany landscape:
1. Setting up the Intercompany Landscape
1.1. Definition of Branch Codes
1.2. Definition of Company Template
1.3. Definition of Company Type
1.4. Definition of company operations – Service, Sales, etc.
1.5. Definition of consolidation hierarchy
2. Intercompany Solution Deployment
3. Adding a new branch company in the intercompany landscape
4. Removing a company from the Intercompany landscape
1. Setting up the Intercompany Landscape
To set up the Intercompany Landscape, follow the steps below:
- In the Intercompany Administration Console, in the top menu bar, choose the Setup option.
- In the left frame, choose the Landscape option. The intercompany Landscape page appears.
- Choose the Refresh Companies button to refresh all selected companies’ details. This will load the company’s localization and company’s local currency information.
Note: In case there has been a change in Local Currency or System Currency for any participating branch company, you must choose the Refresh Companies button to pull the latest information from the branch companies. - On the Intercompany Landscape page, in the Company Registration table, select the checkbox next the systems that you want to register in the Intercompany integration solution.
- For each system you have selected, in the Action field, choose the (…) (Browse) button.
Our recommendation is to start with the higher level of Consolidation Company. - The Company Details window will be display
Let’s go through all fields available in Company Details area.
1.1. Definition of Branch Codes
Branch code is a unique code allocated to each branch or consolidation company. It is advisable that meaningful and intuitive branch codes are used to represent a participating company.
Some of the ways in which the branch code is used in the application are as follows:
- Filtering of financial statements in the consolidation company based on branch codes. A consolidation company is the main company defined where financial data from all the participating companies is consolidated. It is this company from where the financial reporting of all the participating companies (many a times subsidiary companies) is generated.
- Every participating company will be a vendor as well as a customer to other participating company. To ensure that such intercompany vendor and customer are easily identified across the IC landscape, the application enables this by assigning the IC branch code to the business partner codes. Even though the application ensures such a qualification, it is advisable to use branch code as a suffix or a prefix to the intercompany vendor and customer code definition.
- Data in all the intercompany reports is displayed with branch code.
Following is the list of screens where branch code is used:
- Branch Accounts Setup
- Global Data Distribution Template
- G/L Allocation Posting Templates
- Recurring G/L Allocation Postings
- G/L Branch Allocation
- Branch Journal Entry Details
- A/P Service Invoice Allocation
- Marketing Documents - Intercompany Tab
- Intercompany Reports
- Payment Delegation
- Chart of Account Distribution
- Manual Consolidation
- Automatic Consolidation
Following are the intercompany transactions where branch code is used:
- G/L Branch Allocation
- G/L Allocation Posting Templates
- Recurring G/L Allocation Postings
- Document exchange cycle
- A/P Service Invoice Allocation
- Centralized Payment
- Remote Query Execution
- Manual Consolidation
- Automatic Consolidation
- Intercompany Reports
As you can observe, branch code is used across the Intercompany solution, it is therefore very important to assign a meaningful name to the branch code.
1.2. Definition of Company Template
In the company template field, choose the default company template for the SAP Business One localization. For the un-supported localization, choose the general template.
You can also customize the company template and assign it to the branch company.
In the customized company template, you can specify the master that can be sent from or received in a SAP Business One Company. For each master, you can also specify the field list to be replicated between the SAP Business One Companies.
1.3. Definition of Company Type
In the company type field, specify the type of the company selected i.e. Head Office, branch or Consolidation Company.
You must define at least one head office company and one Branch Company. If you plan to use the Financial Consolidation module, then you must also define the company as a consolidation company.
1.4. Definition of company operations – Service, Sales, etc.
The Operation setup is required for the replication of service masters in Service module of SAP Business One. User can select the operation type for the company from the following options: Sales, Service, or Sales and Service. Based on this setup, the service masters (Contract Templates, Equipment Card, and Service Contract) are replicated to branch companies.
- Contract templates, customer equipment card, and service contracts are replicated from sales companies to service companies.
If you want to replicate these masters in all companies, then you must select Sales and Service in Operation field for all the companies. - Though the field is optional it is advised not to keep this field blank.
- Consolidation type of companies do not require the Operation definition.
1.5. Definition of Consolidation Hierarchy
Consolidation Percentage field indicates the percentage of share that the parent organization (defined as the consolidation company) holds in the company. User can enter the percentage that indicates what percentage of each account for this company should be included in the consolidation.
User may divide the branch consolidation percentage between multiple consolidation companies. For example, if one branch company is consolidating in to two consolidation companies, user can define the percentage as 30% for one company and 70% for other company.
One branch company can be consolidating in to multiple consolidation company based on the consolidation percentage. However, the total consolidation percentage (%) for all consolidation companies should not be greater than 100
At any given time, you can view the consolidation hierarchy setup of all branch company by clicking the (Consolidation Hierarchy Chart) icon available in the intercompany landscape.
You can take the printout of the consolidation hierarchy chart and shows to the user for verification of consolidation setup.
- After providing the company details information, choose Save in company details window.
- Similarly, you provide the company details information for all companies.
- Once the landscape setup is complete, you must deploy the solution (explained below). On deployment, landscape information will be replicated to all SAP Business One companies configured in the landscape.
2. Intercompany Solution Deployment
To deploy and initialize the Intercompany integration solution, choose the Deploy button in the intercompany landscape.
The Deployment Status table displays the progress and status of various deployment tasks
Please Note:
- During the deployment process, on the Intercompany Landscape page, in the Company Registration table, the
icon is displayed to indicate that the deployment process is in progress. - If you close the Deployment Results table during deployment, click the
icon to reopen the page. - Status field displays Success on successful deployment of the solution.
- If the deployment was not successful, the Status field displays Failure in the Deployment Status window. To display error details, choose Error Details button in the Details field.
- To re-execute a failed task, choose the Retry button in the Action field. The Retry button will be enabled only after all tasks across all the stages have been processed.
- If you encounter some problems during deployment processing, you may choose the Reset button to clear the deployment queues. Note: choosing the reset button deletes all deployment data.
You can check the deployment status at any given time by clicking the
icon in the Company Registration.
3. Adding a new branch company in the intercompany landscape
Following steps are required to include a new branch company in the intercompany landscape and in SAP Business One
Note: In the new company, you must manually ensure that all masters, which are replicated by the Intercompany solution, have an equal number of records (that is, identical records exist in each company).
- Install the Intercompany add-on in SAP Business One company database which you would like to introduce in the Intercompany solution.
- Complete the Intercompany initialization wizard in newly introduced branch company.
To display this wizard, choose Administration → Intercompany Implementation Wizard → Intercompany Initialization Wizard. - You must ensure that an SLD (System Landscape Directory) entry for the new company database exists in the SLD page of Administration Console.
To launch the Administration Console, choose Start -> All Programs -> The Intercompany Integration Solution for SAP Business One -> Intercompany Administration Console. - To include the new company database in the Intercompany landscape, choose the Landscape option in the left frame of the Setup page.
On the Intercompany Landscape page, in the Company Registration table, select the checkbox adjacent to the System Name that corresponds to the new company database. Populate the Company Details for the new company database by choosing the Browse button
- To deploy and initialize the Intercompany solution with the new company database, choose the Deploy button.
- After deployment, complete the key Mapping process for the new company database.
- After key mapping, run the Intercompany Setup wizard in all SAP Business One companies configured in the Intercompany Solution again.
To display this wizard, choose Administration ->Intercompany Implementation Wizard ->Intercompany Setup Wizard. - Run the consolidation setup wizard in consolidation companies configured in the solution.
4. Removing a company from the Intercompany landscape
To remove a branch company from the solution, deselect the checkbox in the Action field next to the relevant system and press the deploy button to deploy the entire solution again. After deployment, the user cannot use the removed branch company for the intercompany transactions and financial consolidation.
Note: Once a company is removed from the Intercompany integration solution, it cannot be added again. The checkbox in the Active field next to the relevant System Name field will be disabled for deactivated companies.
(This blog content was created by the development team of the intercompany integration solution for SAP Business One)
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