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Author's profile photo Swati Balani

SAP S/4HANA Cloud: G/L Account Master Data-FAQs

Welcome. Are you new to SAP S/4HANA Cloud and have questions regarding G/L Account Master Data? This blog post will answer some of the common questions and will give you relevant informational links for details and deep dive.

Here we go.
1) G/L Account is a master data, but I don’t see a Template in Data Migration Cockpit. Where do I go?
This is not part of Data Migration Cockpit but part of Configuration. As a configuration expert you can go to Manage your solution app and configure your solution to review and adapt the Standard COA to your needs.

2) What do I do to upload G/L Accounts from Legacy system?
SAP S/4HANA Cloud comes with a pre-delivered standard, operating COA which is YCOA. YCOA contains standard G/L accounts, account determination settings, and the configuration for pre-delivered processes in the SAP Best Practices reference content. You can use YCOA as delivered for your operating COA, or you can use it as a template and adapt it as needed using the Configuration. There are the SSCUIs available like SSCUI 150002 Manage Chart of Accounts, SSCUI 150001 Manage G/L Account Master Data.

3) What COA types are available with SAP S/4HANA Cloud?
The three different types of pre-delivered COA available are:
• Operating chart of accounts – YCOA – contains G/L accounts for your daily postings.
• Group chart of accounts – YGR1 – contains the G/L accounts used by the entire corporate group. This allows you to provide reports at the entire corporate group level and is activated in your SAP S/4HANA Cloud system if you have selected scope item 3AF.
• Alternative chart of accounts – Local COA (e.g. YIKR) – specific to a country/region and contains the G/L accounts that meet specific legal reporting requirements in that country/region. Using this type of chart of accounts is optional.

4) What G/L Account types are available in SAP S/4HANA Cloud?
G/L account master data are classified into the following types.
• Balance Sheet Account
• Nonoperating Expense and Income
• Primary Costs or Revenue
• Secondary Costs
• Cash Account
Click here for more details on each account type.

5) What can I do with the Manage G/L Account Master Data App/SSCUI?With the Manage G/L Account Master Data app, you can perform actions to master data of G/L accounts depending on your role and the system that you access.

As a G/L accountant (business template role: SAP_BR_GL_ACCOUNTANT), you can view G/L account master data and where the account is used in a financial statement version or in the Automatic Account Determination app.

As a configuration expert (business template role: SAP_BR_BPC_EXPERT), you can display and edit the master data of G/L accounts. You can also add new G/L accounts based on existing accounts and make mass changes to account descriptions and attributes.

Following tasks can be done with this app:
• View G/L account master data
• Create a new G/L account by copying and editing an existing G/L account
• Mass change descriptions and other attributes of multiple accounts from the following views:
– Chart of Accounts View
– Company Code View
– Controlling Area View
You can select up to 5000 G/L accounts for each mass change action.
• Mass create G/L accounts that are in the same chart of accounts by copying and editing existing G/L accounts (using the Company Code view)
• Mass create G/L accounts by copying and editing existing G/L accounts (using the Chart of Accounts view)
• View where the account is used in a financial statement version or in the Automatic Account Determination app

6) Can I delete the G/L accounts from the pre-delivered list in YCOA Chart of account?
No. You cannot delete the pre-delivered G/L accounts in the standard Chart of account YCOA. If you do not want any G/L account, you can mark it as Not Used in the app Manage G/L Account Master Data app or SSCUI or in the Renumber G/L Accounts SSCUI.

As a caution – You should not be deleting any standard content given pre-delivered as Best Practice Content with SAP S/4HANA Cloud.

7) Can I renumber G/L Accounts? How?
As a configuration expert, you can renumber and rename the G/L accounts that are part of the pre-delivered chart of accounts, so that the accounts conform to your numbering and naming conventions. You can renumber the accounts included either in the standard or group chart of accounts or in a local one. You can use Renumber G/L Accounts SSCUI to renumber the G/L Accounts.

8) How do I move the G/L Accounts to Production system?
You can save all changes to G/L accounts in Q system in an open business change project(BCP) as you do with other configurations and the G/L account changes will move to P system when you move the project/transport.9) What do I do if I need a new G/L account or some change urgently in Production system?
Newly created G/L accounts and financial statement versions (FSV) or changes to G/L account master data are normally transported from your quality system to the production system with the currently open business change project (BCP). However, when a new or changed object is urgently needed in your production system and you cannot wait for that BCP to be released and transported, the Synchronize G/L Account Master Data app helps you to copy these changes into your production system earlier.

10) Can I change the open item management setting for the G/L account? How do I do it?
Yes, with 2008 release it is recommended to use ‘Schedule Accounting Data Corrections’ app and select the job template ‘Activate Open Item Management for G/L accounts’. You should be logged in as a Configuration Expert to access this app. The procedure consists of two major steps: First you run the job in your quality (Q) system to select the G/L accounts that you want to switch, and then you run it in your production (P) system so that the changes take effect. We recommend that you always schedule a test run first, especially in the P system so the errors if any can be seen in the log of the test run. Thus, it is now possible to deactivate/activate open item management even when postings exist in your production system.

Hope this Blog post addressed some of the basic questions regarding the G/L account master data. For more information kindly refer to information links given below.

More related Information –

Chart of Accounts Maintenance: Overview

Chart of Accounts Maintenance: FAQ

Financial Statement Versions: FAQ

Manage G/L Account Master Data: FAQ

How to add additional account assignments

Do let me know if you have any more questions or comments.

Do like the blog post if you find it useful.

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      16 Comments
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      Author's profile photo Cora Phelan
      Cora Phelan

      for activation of open item management see Activate Open Item Management for G/L Accounts

      Author's profile photo Mark P Burke
      Mark P Burke

      To implement a Financial Statement Version (FSV) in SAP S/4HANA which is focused on Financial Planning & Analysis, implement SAP S/4HANA scope item 2FM, which supplies an FP&A account hierarchy on top of YCOA chart of accounts.

      Author's profile photo Bill Bartley
      Bill Bartley

      Are the links below internal to SAP users only?    I am logged into my S ID, but when I attempt to follow any of the linked I receive a 403 not authorized error.

      More related Information –

      Chart of Accounts Maintenance: Overview

      Chart of Accounts Maintenance: FAQ

      Financial Statement Versions: FAQ

      Renumbering G/L Accounts: FAQ

      Manage G/L Account Master Data: FAQ

      How to add additional account assignments

      Author's profile photo Swati Balani
      Swati Balani
      Blog Post Author

      Hello Bill,

      Those links are now updated to latest 2105 release in the blog post. You should be able to open them now. Thanks for informing.

      Best Regards,

      Swati

      Author's profile photo Katherine Tenesaca
      Katherine Tenesaca

      Thank you for the information.

      We are implementing a project in Brazil and they want to post directly on the local / alternative accounts. It's possible?

      Regards

      Author's profile photo Swati Balani
      Swati Balani
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Katherine,

      For many countries/regions where an alternative COA is required, SAP delivers standard content for the alternative COA.

      Posting to Alternative Accounts - if you have company codes that use an alternative COA, you can opt to use the alternative G/L account for the posting. To set this up, you first activate the use of alternative accounts in the Edit Options for Journal Entries app. After activation, when you manually create a journal entry, for example, in the Manage Journal Entries app, you enter a company code that has been assigned to the alternative COA. The app then allows you to enter the alternative account from the alternative COA. The alternative account number is displayed in the G/L Account field. The corresponding account in your operating COA is shown in the G/L Account (Company Code CoA) field.

      All this information is available on this help site.

      Hope this answers your question.

      Best Regards

      Swati

      Author's profile photo Katherine Tenesaca
      Katherine Tenesaca

      Thanks for the quick reply.

      So can I posting to directly to an alternative account? In other words, I can posting to on the operating plan using alternative accounts, is it possible?

       

       

      Author's profile photo Swati Balani
      Swati Balani
      Blog Post Author

      Yes, posting to alternative accounts is possible with the steps detailed above.

      The Best Practices Explorer has a list of the available alternative COAs for specific countries/regions. If no pre-delivered COA is available for a country/region, you can also create your own alternative COA.

      Author's profile photo Katherine Tenesaca
      Katherine Tenesaca

      Thank you so much for your help.

      Author's profile photo Katherine Tenesaca
      Katherine Tenesaca

      Thank you so much for your help.

      Author's profile photo Lucy Gray
      Lucy Gray

      Hi Swati Balani

      Thank you for providing this helpful information. But the below SAP help links which you shared are still not accessible, I got that 403 error with my S-user ID. Please help.

      Chart of Accounts Maintenance: Overview

      Chart of Accounts Maintenance: FAQ

      Financial Statement Versions: FAQ

      Renumbering G/L Accounts: FAQ

      Manage G/L Account Master Data: FAQ

      Regards,
      Lucy

      Author's profile photo Swati Balani
      Swati Balani
      Blog Post Author

      Thanks to inform, they worked before, will try to get them fixed asap.

      Author's profile photo Lucy Gray
      Lucy Gray

      Hi Swati Balani ,

      Is it possible to create a custom 'Field Status group' and assign it to the pre-delivered G/L accounts?

      Also, is it possible to change the 'G/L Account Type' of the pre-delivered G/L accounts?

      Thank you,
      Lucy

      Author's profile photo Swati Balani
      Swati Balani
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Lucy,

      It is possible to create custom FSG, you can see the steps on how to do it in this blog post.

      Editing G/L master is possible.

      Thanks to inform about the links, I am trying to get the updated ones asap

      Regards

      Swati

      Author's profile photo Paresh Vaghasiya
      Paresh Vaghasiya

      Hi Swati,

       

      Can we download and upload FSV in the public cloud? Please note we have not migrated to the COA transport concept yet.

       

      Regards,

      Author's profile photo Swati Balani
      Swati Balani
      Blog Post Author

      Hello Paresh,

      Best Practice Explorer - Scope item J58 gives the details on how you can manage financial statement versions. You can replicate, edit, add, delete items, also download in pdf format.

      In the Manage Global Hierarchies app, open the FSV and choose Export/Import  Export to Spreadsheet

      Regards,

      Swati