S4 Hana 2021 - What's new in Finance

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This article is focused on what is being offered new functionalities in Finance which are beneficial to the users as part of their daily business or month end or year end processes. They tend to smoothen the complex processes which critical to business like Depreciation posting, Reversal of journals, invoice management, Balance carry forward and so on. SAP has introduced new Fiori Apps for few complex config and functions in Finance.

Let's have quick look at these functions and Apps introduced as part of S4 Hana 2021 upgrade pack.

Asset Accounting

1. Depreciation can be posted again for the periods prior to the periods last posted.

Type	Changed
Functional Localization	Not applicable
Scope Item	1GB; J62
Application Component	Asset Accounting (FI-AA)
Available As Of	SAP S/4HANA 2021

2. A new tile to be used Make Company Code Settings – Asset Accounting-Specific instead of the tile Execute/Undo Year-End Closing (will be deleted in the next release)

Title - Subtitle	Execute/Undo Year-End Closing
App ID (= Transaction)	FAA_CMP
Business Catalog	Asset Accounting - Periodic Activities (SAP_SFIN_BC_AA_PER_ACT)

Lease Accounting

3. Two new Apps are available

• Contract Management - search and filter for existing contracts, create new contracts, and edit contracts.

Type	New
Functional Localization	Not applicable
Scope Item	1T6 (Lease-In Accounting), 21P (Lease-In Accounting - Group Ledger IFRS), 21Q (Lease-Out Accounting), 21R (Service Contract), 2O9 (Intercompany Process for Sublease Accounting), 2SA (Lease-Out for Sublease Accounting - Group Ledger IFRS), 2SB (Lease-Out for Sublease Accounting), 34N (Lease-In Accounting - Group Ledger US GAAP), 34O (Lease-Out for Sublease Accounting - Group Ledger US GAAP)
Application Component	RE-FX-FIO ()
Available As Of	SAP S/4HANA 2021

• Contract cash flow – detailed cash flow for contracts that have been calculated with cash flows.

Type	New
Functional Localization	Not applicable
Scope Item	1T6 (Lease-In Accounting), 21P (Lease-In Accounting - Group Ledger IFRS), 21Q (Lease-Out Accounting), 21R (Service Contract), 2O9 (Intercompany Process for Sublease Accounting), 2SA (Lease-Out for Sublease Accounting - Group Ledger IFRS), 2SB (Lease-Out for Sublease Accounting), 34N (Lease-In Accounting - Group Ledger US GAAP), 34O (Lease-Out for Sublease Accounting - Group Ledger US GAAP)
Application Component	RE-FX-FIO ()
Available As Of	SAP S/4HANA 2021

Advanced Compliance Reporting

4. Enhanced Apps are available with new release

• Run Compliance Reports


• Define Compliance Reports

Type	Changed
Functional Localization	Not applicable
Scope Item	1J2 (Advance Compliance Reporting)
Application Component	Run Compliance Reports app: FI-LOC-SRF-RUN Define Compliance Reports app: FI-LOC-SRF-DEF
Available As Of	SAP S/4HANA 2021

GL Accounting and Financial Close (GL)

5. Changes in Account determination – Target accounts config for automatic postings

Type	Changed
Functional Localization	Not applicable
Scope Item	J58 (Accounting and Financial Close)
Application Component	FI-FIO-GL-CA (Cross Application Configuration in General Ledger)
Available As Of	SAP S/4HANA 2021

6. Changes in verification Workflow   – to check the sanctity of the data and error free Journal entries

Type	Changed
Functional Localization	Not applicable
Scope Item	J58 (Accounting and Financial Close)
Application Component	FI-FIO-GL-TRA (Transaction Apps)
Available As Of	SAP S/4HANA 2021

7. Change in Manage Journal entries– enables you to analyze your journal entries and create reversals to make any necessary adjustments

Type	Changed
Functional Localization	Not applicable
Scope Item	J58 (Accounting and Financial Close)
Application Component	FI-FIO-GL-TRA (Transaction Apps)
Available As Of	SAP S/4HANA 2021

8. Option to delete the Journal entry template

Type	Changed
Functional Localization	Not applicable
Scope Item	J58 (Accounting and Financial Close)
Application Component	FI-FIO-GL-TRA (Transaction Apps)
Available As Of	SAP S/4HANA 2021

(Note - The journal entry templates that SAP per-delivered can't be deleted)

9. Changes in Purchase Orders Accruals

• Posting history of accruals sub objects


• Email notification for reviewing purchase order accruals

Type	Changed
Functional Localization	Not applicable
Scope Item	2VB (Purchase Order Accruals)
Application Component	FI-GL-GL-POA (Purchase Order Accruals)
Available As Of	SAP S/4HANA 2021

10. Purchase order Deferrals - Introduces deferred expense and purchase order deferrals

Type	New
Functional Localization	Not applicable
Scope Item	2VB (Purchase Order Accruals)
Application Component	FI-GL-GL-POA (Purchase Order Accruals)
Available As Of	SAP S/4HANA 2021

11. Amount in global currency and freely defined currency - In addition to the amount in transaction currency and company code currency, you can view the amount in global currency and freely defined currency in the apps for journal entry verification.

Type	Changed
Functional Localization	Not applicable
Scope Item	J58 (Accounting and Financial Close)
Application Component	FI-FIO-GL-TRA (Transaction Apps)
Available As Of	SAP S/4HANA 2021

12. Recalculate local currency amounts for automatic reversal- you can choose to recalculate the reversal amount in local currencies with a new exchange rate based on your business requirements

Type	Changed
Functional Localization	Not applicable
Scope Item	J58 (Accounting and Financial Close)
Application Component	FI-FIO-GL-TRA (Transaction Apps)
Available As Of	SAP S/4HANA 2021

13. Extended open item management for goods receipt/invoice receipt (GR/IR) accounts - It enables the posting of journal entries with more than 999-line items on these accounts.

Type	Changed
Functional Localization	Not applicable
Scope Item	J58 (Accounting and Financial Close), O58 (Accounting and Financial Close), 2OO (External Tax Audit)
Application Component	FI-FIO-GL-IS (Reporting Apps)
Valid as Of	SAP S/4HANA 2021

14. GR/IR Automatic Clearing

• clear open items from GR/IR clearing accounts automatically


• when you use extended open item management, this program must be used for clearing

Type	New
Functional Localization	Not applicable
Scope Item	J58 (Accounting and Financial Close)
Application Component	FI-GL-GL-A (General Ledger Accounting - Basic Functions - Posting/Clearing)
Valid as Of	SAP S/4HANA 2021

15. GR/IR Process insights -Reconciliation activities

Type	New
Functional Localization	Not applicable
Scope Item	2V7 (Monitoring of Goods and Invoice Receipts)
Application Component	FI-FIO-GL-IS (Fiori UI for General Ledger Accounting - Information System)
Available As Of	SAP S/4HANA 2021

16. Open item management in the GL master data App

Type	Changed
Functional Localization	Not applicable
Scope Item	J58 (Accounting and Financial Close)
Application Component	FI-FIO-GL-MD (Master Data Apps)
Valid as Of	SAP S/4HANA 2021

17. Tax Fulfillment Date for post cash journal entry - Tax Fulfillment Date field appears at the header level of the financial accounting document generated from the cash journal

Type	New
Functional Localization	Not applicable
Scope Item	1GO (Cash Journal)
Application Component	FI-BL-PT-CJ (Cash Journal)
Available As Of	SAP S/4HANA 2021

18. Year-to-date Balances - Helps in analyzing data in a grid table and report on balances for certain dimensions of the universal journal for a specific fiscal year

Type	New
Functional Localization	Not applicable
Scope Item	J58 (Accounting and Financial Close)
Application Component	FI-FIO-GL-IS (Fiori UI for General Ledger Accounting - Information System)
Valid as Of	SAP S/4HANA 2021

19. Balance Carryforward application job

• you can run the balance carryforward using the Schedule General Ledger Jobs app to schedule the Balance Carryforward application job


• Carry Forward Balances app will be removed from the launchpad with new release

Type	New
Functional Localization	Not applicable
Scope Item	J58 (Accounting and Financial Close)
Application Component	FI-GL (General Ledger Accounting)
Valid as Of	SAP S/4HANA 2021

20. Balance Carryforward Status app - details about a balance carryforward, such as the status- when it was run, and more.

Type	New
Functional Localization	Not applicable
Scope Item	J58 (Accounting and Financial Close)
Application Component	FI-GL (General Ledger Accounting)
Valid as Of	SAP S/4HANA 2021

Invoice Management

1. Managing payment plans centrally for different company codes and payment methods


2. Define reasons for your payments to classify the different types of payment transactions, for instance: salary payment, purchase of goods/services.


3. Monitoring different payments with their status


4. View your payments in functional currency


5. CDS views for Payment Proposal


6. Payment Advice template

Summary - This blog is intended to provide an bird's eye view of the Finance functionalities which are newly offered. Excellent features are provided which would address the needs of current business requirements which are fast paced and ease the complex processes to be managed smoothly. Let's discuss these features in detail in my next upcoming blog.

For further information on S4 Hana 2021 new functionalities, feel free to use the below links for referring to the SAP documentation.

https://help.sap.com/doc/b870b6ebcd2e4b5890f16f4b06827064/2021.000/en-US/WN_OP2021_EN.pdf