Welcome in a new decade and to the first innovations in SAP S/4HANA Cloud for the professional services industry of 2020.
With this release we are addressing some amazing innovations that will further the benefits that project managers can leverage with the professional services functionality in SAP S/4HANA Cloud.
As usual, in the video below you can find a short summary of the three most important highlights of this release, but in this blog, you will also find more innovations than just the three highlights.
If you are also interested in the previous blogs of this series or just more information on professional services in SAP S/4HANA Cloud, please also visit my collection blog.
Let us jump right into the fun with the new customizable project roles.
Up until the 2002 release there were 4 standard roles on the project header (project manager, project partner, project controller, project accountant). As our SAP S/4HANA Cloud customers requested that there is more flexibility in this area, we are now enabling functionality to customize more roles on the project header.
You may be familiar with the SSCUI for partner determination, which is the first step for creating these additional roles. Let’s say you want to add a “regional lead” to your roles on project header.
This role has to be added in the sales document header and item level, as well as billing item level. Also, sales document header and item level need to be mapped to the partner determination procedure SO01, while the billing item has to be mapped to CII1.
The next step is to leverage the new section of the customer and internal project management SSCUI “Define Project Role Types”. You can add the previously created role there and decide whether this role should be reflected in internal or customer projects, or both.
After this has been set up once, every project manager can leverage these roles in the header information of their project and even bring it down to the billing item level. Even though it was possible before to add different responsible names on the sales order items, now the project manager can do this already directly in the project under the billing tab. Of course, project managers can leverage the customizable roles there as well.
Next up, is the new functionality to block work packages for postings.
This functionality is meant to give the project manager more possibilities to control the project progress. If there are scenarios for instance a renegotiation of the project contract, in which the margin has to remain stable, the project manager has the option now to block work packages for all postings.
If you click on the work package on the header the project manager can find a choice of the 4 blocking options:
This blocking can be started and ended by the project manager.
As a side note, if a consultant wants to record time on a blocked work package, there is a error note that will inform him or her that the time recording can not be created as the work package is blocked. Currently a Concur user will not be informed about the blocking status of the work package, so they will be able to create the expense report, but it will not go through in SAP S/4HANA Cloud.
We are planning to enhance this with further releases.
In addition, let us quickly talk about the non-billable expenses.
Some of our customer probably already are familiar with the non-billable functionality when it comes to the resources on the project.
With this recent release we are extending this functionality to the expenses on the work package as well. So, if planning a project, the manager can now label certain expenses as “non-billable”. When this is the case, the system will take the postings coming in for the marked expense and immediately will write off the amount in the billing proposal.
As usual though there still is the option to reverse this write off before creating the billing proposal.
This functionality will really support the project manager and save time getting from the project plan to the actual invoice.
Some smaller, but still interesting innovations coming with 2002:
Thanks for taking the time and reading this summary.
Follow us via @Sap and #S4HANA, or myself via @KStopf or LinkedIn.
With this release we are addressing some amazing innovations that will further the benefits that project managers can leverage with the professional services functionality in SAP S/4HANA Cloud.
As usual, in the video below you can find a short summary of the three most important highlights of this release, but in this blog, you will also find more innovations than just the three highlights.
If you are also interested in the previous blogs of this series or just more information on professional services in SAP S/4HANA Cloud, please also visit my collection blog.
Let us jump right into the fun with the new customizable project roles.
Up until the 2002 release there were 4 standard roles on the project header (project manager, project partner, project controller, project accountant). As our SAP S/4HANA Cloud customers requested that there is more flexibility in this area, we are now enabling functionality to customize more roles on the project header.
You may be familiar with the SSCUI for partner determination, which is the first step for creating these additional roles. Let’s say you want to add a “regional lead” to your roles on project header.
This role has to be added in the sales document header and item level, as well as billing item level. Also, sales document header and item level need to be mapped to the partner determination procedure SO01, while the billing item has to be mapped to CII1.
The next step is to leverage the new section of the customer and internal project management SSCUI “Define Project Role Types”. You can add the previously created role there and decide whether this role should be reflected in internal or customer projects, or both.
After this has been set up once, every project manager can leverage these roles in the header information of their project and even bring it down to the billing item level. Even though it was possible before to add different responsible names on the sales order items, now the project manager can do this already directly in the project under the billing tab. Of course, project managers can leverage the customizable roles there as well.
Next up, is the new functionality to block work packages for postings.
This functionality is meant to give the project manager more possibilities to control the project progress. If there are scenarios for instance a renegotiation of the project contract, in which the margin has to remain stable, the project manager has the option now to block work packages for all postings.
If you click on the work package on the header the project manager can find a choice of the 4 blocking options:
- Time Recordings – time postings on a work package using the “Manage my timesheet” app
- Activity Allocations – Manual activity allocations to a work package using the “Enter direct activity allocation” or “Manage direct activity allocation” apps
- Concur Expense Postings – expense posting from SAP Concur
- Other Expense Postings – Manual cost postings to a G/L account using the “Enter Manual Cost Allocation”, “Reassign Costs and Revenues”, “Post General Journal Entries”, “Create Supplier Invoice” apps
This blocking can be started and ended by the project manager.
As a side note, if a consultant wants to record time on a blocked work package, there is a error note that will inform him or her that the time recording can not be created as the work package is blocked. Currently a Concur user will not be informed about the blocking status of the work package, so they will be able to create the expense report, but it will not go through in SAP S/4HANA Cloud.
We are planning to enhance this with further releases.
In addition, let us quickly talk about the non-billable expenses.
Some of our customer probably already are familiar with the non-billable functionality when it comes to the resources on the project.
With this recent release we are extending this functionality to the expenses on the work package as well. So, if planning a project, the manager can now label certain expenses as “non-billable”. When this is the case, the system will take the postings coming in for the marked expense and immediately will write off the amount in the billing proposal.
As usual though there still is the option to reverse this write off before creating the billing proposal.
This functionality will really support the project manager and save time getting from the project plan to the actual invoice.
Some smaller, but still interesting innovations coming with 2002:
- Tax Field Modification in Sales Documents: There is a new BAdIs available (Sales Header Tax Field Modification & Sales Item Tax Field Modification) that can be used to create custom logic which affects tax determination in sales documents. This allows the user to determine the correct tax settings based on the type of service provided.
- Revenue Recognition Simulation: There is a new simulation function in the apps “Manage Revenue Recognition Issues – Projects” and “Run revenue Recognition – Projects”
- Cross Company Supplier Invoices: In the G/L account section of the app “Create Supplier Invoice” a company code field has been added, which allows for cross company supplier invoices.
Thanks for taking the time and reading this summary.
For more information on SAP S/4HANA Cloud, check out the following links:
- SAP S/4HANA Cloud release info: http://www.sap.com/s4-cloudrelease
- Sven Denecken’s SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2002 Release Blog
- Best practices for SAP S/4HANA Cloud here
- SAP S/4HANA Cloud User Community: register here
- Feature Scope Description here
- What’s New here
- Help Portal Product Page here
Follow us via @Sap and #S4HANA, or myself via @KStopf or LinkedIn.
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