Dear finance experts,
are you new in this topic and did you ever wonder which materials are actually available for SAP Advanced Financial Closing (AFC)? Notes? Documentation? Learning?
In this blog, I want to guide you through the different information sources and let you know how to best access and use them, and also how to provide us with your feedback.
To find SAP Notes and KBAs relevant for advanced financial closing, simply go to the Knowledge Base Search and search for "advanced financial closing".
For advanced financial closing, SAP Training offers a self-pace e-learning that provides an overview of the solution. For more details, you can check the corresponding entry on SAP Training.
For AFC, we offer several materials to support you in the daily use of our application. Some of them are located right in the application, others are located on the SAP Help Portal.
All of the product assistance available outside of the solution itself can be accessed through one single entry point, the advanced financial closing product page on the SAP Help Portal:
From this product page, you can access the following product assistance:
The biggest part of product assistance is currently covered by our documentation. It consists of the following materials:
Our documentation offers several procedural topics, guiding you through a specific process with step-by-step instructions, including additional information for a better understanding of the process.
Especially the user guide also provides more background knowledge about the solution. Check out our General Concepts and Settings section for an overview.
Apart from the documentation, we offer the following materials for more hands-on learning:
If you face any issues and didn't find a solution in the product assistance provided, you can contact support using the information in the Support section. In this section, you can also find information about SAP Notes.
The following in-app help materials are available for you by navigating to the corresponding tab in the sidebar:
For some hotspots, we may decide to set them as instant help. They're still available as normal hotspots. However, they are also visible as hotspots if you haven't opened the in-app help yet:
You can provide feedback for all our product assistance materials. The means to do this, however, vary:
In addition to the publicly available material, we offer additional webinars and demo solutions to SAP implementation partners. To access these resources, simply navigate to the SAP Partner Portal and search for “Advanced Financial Closing”.
Several materials are available for AFC. While some are more text-based, others provide more visual help; some are within the solution, others are located outside of the solution, but can still be accessed from within the in-app help. Familiarize yourself with the materials and feel free to provide feedback for product assistance – we are always very happy to improve our offerings.
To stay current, you can follow the what's-new information released with each release. And finally an expert hint that many of the implementation consultants have found to be very useful: Updates to the user guide and administration guide are also listed in the corresponding document history – so go and check that history from time to time.
If you are a system admin, we recommend you to also sign up for email notifications about system updates. You can find more information about this in this section of the administration guide.
For more information on SAP Advanced Financial Closing, check out the following links:
Follow us via @Sap and #AdvancedFinancialClosing, or myself via evelyn.fromm.
are you new in this topic and did you ever wonder which materials are actually available for SAP Advanced Financial Closing (AFC)? Notes? Documentation? Learning?
In this blog, I want to guide you through the different information sources and let you know how to best access and use them, and also how to provide us with your feedback.
What are the materials and who are the target groups?
| Material | Target Group | Release Cycles |
| SAP Notes | System admins and implementation experts | On demand |
| E-Learning | Implementation experts and key users | On demand |
| SAP Help Portal Documentation | System admins, implementation experts, key users and business users | With each new AFC release |
| In-App Help | System admins, implementation experts, key users and business users | With each new AFC release |
| How-to Videos | Business users | On demand |
| Interactive Tutorials | Implementation experts, key users, and business users | On demand |
| Partner Webinars | SAP partners | On demand |
Which SAP Notes are available?
To find SAP Notes and KBAs relevant for advanced financial closing, simply go to the Knowledge Base Search and search for "advanced financial closing".
Which e-learnings are available?
For advanced financial closing, SAP Training offers a self-pace e-learning that provides an overview of the solution. For more details, you can check the corresponding entry on SAP Training.
Which product assistance is available?
For AFC, we offer several materials to support you in the daily use of our application. Some of them are located right in the application, others are located on the SAP Help Portal.
One Entry Point for Product Assistance
All of the product assistance available outside of the solution itself can be accessed through one single entry point, the advanced financial closing product page on the SAP Help Portal:
SAP Help Portal Product Page for Advanced Financial Closing
From this product page, you can access the following product assistance:
Documentation
The biggest part of product assistance is currently covered by our documentation. It consists of the following materials:
- User Guide to explain processes in the application for business end-users, including general concepts and AFC-related terms.
- Administration Guide to explain the system landscape, technical prerequisites, the setup process of the system, user management, the business configuration, security information and troubleshooting.
- What's New to inform you about any changes released, including preliminary feature updates for upcoming releases.
- Feature Scope Description to describe the core features of AFC.
- Additional Configuration Documents explaining, for example, the local settings in the communication system or the migration from AFC as part of SAP S/4HANA Cloud.
Our documentation offers several procedural topics, guiding you through a specific process with step-by-step instructions, including additional information for a better understanding of the process.
Especially the user guide also provides more background knowledge about the solution. Check out our General Concepts and Settings section for an overview.
Learning Materials
Apart from the documentation, we offer the following materials for more hands-on learning:
- How-to Videos guiding you through different processes of our solution. How-to videos consist of animations and screen recordings. They're equipped with voice-over in English and captions in all languages available for advanced financial closing. All videos are available in a playlist on SAP Media Share.
Get a first glance in the following video: - Interactive Tutorials guiding you through different processes in an interactive manner. Instructions show you how to navigate the solution and provide the required information. All tutorials are available under SAP BTP - Advanced Financial Closing.
- E-Learning on SAP Learning Hub that provides an overview of the solution. Follow this link to the SAP Learning Hub to access the training. Please note that you need to have a valid subscription to SAP Learning Hub (professional edition or solution edition) for Finance and that you need to be logged on.
Support
If you face any issues and didn't find a solution in the product assistance provided, you can contact support using the information in the Support section. In this section, you can also find information about SAP Notes.
In-App Help
In-App Help Icon
The following in-app help materials are available for you by navigating to the corresponding tab in the sidebar:
- In-App Help offering specific information about UI elements. In-app help for a specific UI element is shown on the user interface directly as a hotspot (circle or - for buttons and tabs - rectangle). The in-app help also includes links to concept topics or to more information located on the SAP Help Portal.
- In-App What's New offering app-specific information about changes that were added with the last release.
- Guided Tour guiding you through the app explaining the structure of an app. This is currently available for the Manage Closing Task Lists app.
- Learning Center which navigates you to the interactive tutorials located outside of the system, but they're linked to the corresponding apps they refer to. If a tutorial is available for an app, you'll find the direct link to the tutorial. If none is available, you'll find the link to the learning center showing you all tutorials available for this solution.
Instant Help
For some hotspots, we may decide to set them as instant help. They're still available as normal hotspots. However, they are also visible as hotspots if you haven't opened the in-app help yet:
Instant Help Hotspot
Feedback
You can provide feedback for all our product assistance materials. The means to do this, however, vary:
- SAP Help Portal documentation: Feedback can be given for each individual topic of documentation using the standard feedback function. Remember to provide additional information, especially if you feel that a topic doesn't fulfill its purpose. We're happy to look into this and improve our documentation.
- Administration Guide on the SAP Help Portal: The administration guide has been outfitted with an enhanced feedback option using GitHub. This also allows for active contributions using GitHub. Please be aware that a GitHub account is required for this. For more information, see the Provide Feedback and Contribute (Administration Guide Only) section on the advanced financial closing product page.
- Interactive Tutorials: Feedback can be sent using the envelope icon in the in-app help sidebar.
What information is available for SAP partners?
In addition to the publicly available material, we offer additional webinars and demo solutions to SAP implementation partners. To access these resources, simply navigate to the SAP Partner Portal and search for “Advanced Financial Closing”.
Conclusion
Several materials are available for AFC. While some are more text-based, others provide more visual help; some are within the solution, others are located outside of the solution, but can still be accessed from within the in-app help. Familiarize yourself with the materials and feel free to provide feedback for product assistance – we are always very happy to improve our offerings.
To stay current, you can follow the what's-new information released with each release. And finally an expert hint that many of the implementation consultants have found to be very useful: Updates to the user guide and administration guide are also listed in the corresponding document history – so go and check that history from time to time.
If you are a system admin, we recommend you to also sign up for email notifications about system updates. You can find more information about this in this section of the administration guide.
For more information on SAP Advanced Financial Closing, check out the following links:
Follow us via @Sap and #AdvancedFinancialClosing, or myself via evelyn.fromm.
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