Skip to Content
Personal Insights
Author's profile photo Prakhar Saraswat

Cost Allocation via Universal Allocation

Hello Everyone,

Welcome to my first blog post. Here, I am going to give a detailed view of the Universal Allocation feature available in SAP S/4HANA Cloud 1905 and above.

Before deep-diving into the capabilities of Universal Allocation, let me quickly give an overview of Cost Allocation and the need of it in simple terms. In every organisation, there are various types of cost involved in different departments; each department can have particular ways of running their day to day operations which can have direct or indirect incurred cost. Think about a dynamic organisation with complex processes where daily activities are taking place, which involves cost.

Now, how to report the accurate costing flow in the most efficient way?

To showcase the same at the reporting level, we need the Cost Allocation planning, which has two allocations methods in SAP:

  1. Distribution (Primary Cost Element)
  2. Assessment (Secondary Cost Element)

During the period-end closing activities, various organisations use the above-stated methods.

Note– The importance of using different Cost Element is not explained here, one can reach out to https://help.sap.com/viewer/index or Google, you can also reach out to me ?

Why the need of the hour? To answer this, let me quickly explain to you what were the challenges faced in the earlier process of Cost Allocations. It lacked the traceability of the data involved; also, the granular visibility at the reporting level was missing. In simple words, today’s organisations struggle to understand their allocation cycles and the resultant cost flows. At the same time, failed to explain them to the related stakeholders.

Please refer to the below image as well for the detailed explanation:

 

Image reference-  Markus Hauser

 

The entire process to show cost allocations involved various tcodes and core tables which was later simplified to a great extent by the concept of SAP Universal Journal which plays a vital role in the Universal Allocation process.

Benefits of Universal Journal:  It provides us with a simplified data model by removing a handful core tables which in return reduces the database size significantly. Besides, significant benefits are as follows:

  1. Easier Data reconciliation.
  2. Efficient analysis at the reporting level.
  3. Month-end activities.

 

To know more on the above three, I will try to write another blog; else one can reach out to me for any clarifications.

 

Let’s now address the elephant in the room “Universal Allocation.”

  • This Next-generation allocation in SAP S/4HANA is showcased through Manage allocation app, which enables you to allocate and distribute overheads from one object to one or many others. The allocation process debits the requesting cost centers and credits the cost centers that provided the services. With the allocations features, you can manage and perform various overhead allocation and distribution tasks for different allocation contexts, such as cost centers or profit centers. You can periodically allocate amounts and quantities from sending objects to receiving objects.

 

Features:

  • Customers can quickly identify possible financial effects of changed allocation rules on their financial data.

 

  • Allocations for plan data, you can now perform allocations for actual data.

 

  • Allocations for cost centers, you can now perform allocations for profit centers.

 

  • Provides one architecture for FI and CO allocations.

 

  • Combines actual and plan.

 

  • Provides simulation capabilities.

 

  • Includes actual and predictive data (ledgers).

 

  • Provides all the required reporting currencies.

 

  • Provides traceability of the value flow.

 

  • Simplifies the process with guided procedures and validations.

 

  • Instant Insights of the cost related to G/L account for respective cost center and profit center.

 

Note – Two core tables used for Actual and Plan data respectively are: ACDOCA and ACDOCP.

 

The two main apps to be used are: one is Manage Allocation, where you can find the standard allocation cycles available which can be extended and changed as well. At the same place, you can configure them as well. Below are the few relatable screenshots from the system:

 

Above screen shows, three standard cycles already present in the selected combination.

 

The other app is- Run Allocations, where we get an option of running the allocation cycles in test mode to see how the data will look and then run it in live mode. Another feature available here is – Reversal of allocation cycles. Let me give you a scenario here, for a presales person to showcase the demo of Universal Allocation multiple times can be a task as that much of data should be configured in the demo system. Isn’t it? Now to deal with this- Recently I have prepared a demo, where I have just maintained data for a single month and year, and with the help of reversal feature of allocation cycles, presales person can run the demo as many times as we want and showcase it in the reporting level with ease.

Below screens are from the system itself to give you an idea:

 

 

 

There is still a lots of scope which can make this process even worth more, like having a single source of truth (universal journal) comprising of profitability analysis and also a feature of running the allocation cycles through job scheduling and many more.

I hope this blog post finds the right audience and might interest them. As this is my first blog post, I am very much keen about the feedback and response on this. Looking forward to answering any related questions under best of my capabilities ?

Feel free to get in touch.

 

Note- Anyone who has access to SAP Demo Store or SAP Demo Library can also go through the Universal Allocation script.

 

Best Regards

Prakhar Saraswat

 

 

Assigned Tags

      8 Comments
      You must be Logged on to comment or reply to a post.
      Author's profile photo Srinivas Dasoju
      Srinivas Dasoju

      Hello Prakhar,

      Thanks for giving high level Overview of Universal Allocation for both Cost Center and Profit Center, but I have tried select in the "Allocation Context" but not updating either Cost center and Profit Center which is mandatory field during the create a new Cycle.

      Can you guide me how this come automatically? or Is there any setting need to be done?.

      FYI - We are using 1909 - OP version, I believe same features available like 1909 - cloud.

       

      Thanks & Regards,

      Bhaskar K

       

      Author's profile photo Prakhar Saraswat
      Prakhar Saraswat
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Srinivas,

      Allocation cycles in OP are not present by default, you can create one as per your requirement and use it.

       

      Note- I am already working on the demo script for OP and content will be available soon.

      Let me know if you need any further clarification.

      Regards

      Prakhar

      Author's profile photo Raja Sekhar Andey
      Raja Sekhar Andey

      HI Bhaskar,

       

      In 1909, the Allocation Context is a field to select for allocations i.e., base for allocation (cost centers or profit centers)

      Best Regards

      Raj

      Author's profile photo Rahul Chakrabarti
      Rahul Chakrabarti

      Hi Prakhar,

       

      Thanks for the high  level summary of Universal Allocation. Wanted to to check the following points on this topic:

      1. If this Allocation cycle has got a validation check if any of the cost centers involved in the cycle is blocked or not to prevent the Allocation Run or if there any features in the test mode to check that.
      2. If this Universal Allocation is available as a part of S4 HANA Core from 1709 onward

       

      Regards

      Rahul

      Author's profile photo Prakhar Saraswat
      Prakhar Saraswat
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Rahul,

       

      As discussed over the call:

      a) There is no validation check of cost center /profit center, eg if currency is maintained wrong. If blank it will through error only in Live run not in test run.

      b) In OP it's available from 1909.

      I hope our conservation was helpful for you and all the best with your requirements on this topic.

       

      Best Regards

      Prakhar

      Author's profile photo Jerson Medina Salmeron
      Jerson Medina Salmeron

      Hi  Prakhar Saraswat

      I would like create my test for the Allocations, but I am having problems creating it, I don't know how and where to create the Master Record for my Allocation and I suppose it is the cause of my error in the Allocation Context (For Cost Center or Profit Center)

      Please, can you help me to know to create Master Records for Allocation or Allocation Context?

       

      Thank you.

       

      Author's profile photo Emerson de Oliveira Marcal
      Emerson de Oliveira Marcal

      Hey Prakhar Saraswat,

      I create a scenario where my send is cost center and receiver a WBS Element. When executed Allocation by app, I don´t see amount left Cost Center and goes to WBS Elemente in ACDOCA Table.

      There is any step to populate this change? Where Am I wrong?

      Thanks in advanced.

      Emerson

      Author's profile photo Pankaj Adhikari
      Pankaj Adhikari

      Hi Prakhar

      Nice blog. Apart from its look and tables is there any difference between this app and KSV5? I see that reversal option is also there in KSV5.

      P.S- In allocation cycle (S/4 Hana) few things which pinches me are you need to open posting periods in FI whenever you want to run KSV5 & it's real time integration. This should have been optional like before. I have seen lot of clients who want to allocate in different cost centers but without posting in Finance.

      Regards

      Pankaj