Product Information
Comparison of UX with SAP ERP vs SAP S/4HANA: Financial Balance Sheet – Profit and Loss Analysis
Recently, my colleague Noboru Ota drew attention to a new procurement comparison video in our series, and now we have added another finance scenario: SAP S/4HANA Financial Balance Sheet – Profit and Loss Analysis. It is also based on our latest on-premise release, SAP S/4HANA 1709.
Many of you, may already be familiar with the series of YouTube clips that compare the UX of our classical SAP ERP (SAP GUI) and S/4HANA (SAP Fiori). Our newest video joins the list of scenarios covered:
Sales order fulfillment (update done):
https://youtu.be/zhAdO__hfXI
Self-service procurement (update done):
https://youtu.be/1qb_JVmFqVU
End-to-end inventory management (update done):
https://youtu.be/w4cbFYvjL1Q
Produce with Real-time MRP Insights (update done):
https://youtu.be/b1xoleIK2is
Financial Balance Sheet – Profit and Loss:
https://youtu.be/YIfHsp2AUio
Process Flow
The comparison video is intended for an audience who is familiar with the process flow of the financial balance sheet, in particular the profit and loss analysis in SAP ERP. The overall flow is illustrated in the following diagram:
This video “SAP S/4HANA: Analyze Financial Balance Sheet – Profit and Loss” was developed to showcase the ability of SAP S/4HANA with SAP Fiori UX in generating different financial reports, compared to the traditional SAP ERP with SAP GUI. The SAP ERP transactions in SAP GUI and SAP Fiori apps in SAP S/4HANA used for this process are listed in the table below.
The user in this scenario could be a Controller, Financial Analyst, or Asset Accountant, whoever needs to work with balance sheet, profit and loss statement (P&L) in a company. In this business scenario, the user wants to analyze data in the balance sheet, fixed assets, inventory, and profitability. The business scenario was executed in SAP S/4HANA with SAP Fiori UX and in SAP ERP with the traditional SAP GUI, to compare the two systems + interfaces and their impacts on how the user works with multi-dimensional reporting.
With SAP S/4HANA the business scenario “Analyze Financial Balance Sheet – Profit and Loss” was completed faster with less effort than in SAP ERP. The timing and the number of clicks were reduced. The scenario conducted with SAP Fiori requires very few typing (typing is only for quick search of dimensions).
SAP S/4HANA with SAP Fiori allows multi-dimensional financial reporting. The business user can drag and drop multiple dimensions from a huge list of dimensions in the navigation panel, and add them directly to the report structure. This enables quick and easy reporting without moving data to another analytical system.
Compare this with SAP ERP, where the user must use many transactions to access the desired data, each transaction provides a part of the information. Therefore in SAP ERP, for a sophisticated report with more dimensions, it requires huge reconciliation efforts to combine content of several tables from various transactions to represent the truth, which can lead to the error in combining data or data inconsistency.
SAP S/4HANA also allows the analytical view with charts, or view switch to tabular or even hybrid view if required, which is not feasible in SAP ERP with the traditional SAP GUI.
SAP S/4HANA and SAP Fiori provide a simple and intuitive user experience tailored to the way business users work. This UX enables quick task completion with a comprehensive view of all relevant information on one screen. Additional enhancements to finance functionality in SAP S/4HANA include superior real-time analytics, the ability to generate multiple financial reports with various dimensions within one app, as well as the ability to easily drill down from the financial view to logistical view of materials. If the user didn’t have the benefit of the new UX and improved functionality, the process would be more complex. Watch the video now. In the Fiori Lighthouse Scenarios blog you will find additional suggestions for SAP S/4HANA Fiori apps and their benefits.