The Customer Influence Portal for Advanced Financial Closing – A Status Update

[Ying1]

Dear SAP S/4HANA Cloud for advanced financial closing customers,

In the name of the product and development team of advanced financial closing,  I wish you a happy new year!

Time passes fast. Since the first release of SAP S/4HANA Cloud for advanced financial closing (AFC) on BTP in Dec. 2020,  AFC has been significantly innovated, owing many of these innovations and improvements to your voice and influence. To systematically listen to customers' voices, we introduced the Customer Influence Portal for AFC in July 2021. Since then, 76 improvement requests and over 180 votes have been raised, demonstrating your engagement in improving the product. Many thanks for your contribution!

Here is the status summary of those requests:

Eleven requests are with the status "Delivered" (solution requested is now available) or "Already Offered" (solution requested or similar solution supporting the business purpose is already available):

Request ID	Idea Title
277459	SAP AFC - Planned end date does not consider assigned calendar
282763	Flexible job variant mgmt, seamless change of job parameter values via "Process Closing Tasks" app
289341	CO Distribution or Assessment Cycle tasks could not be created as Job
282682	AFC: Dependency Maintenance - Add Fields Folder & Company Code
277852	AFC on BTP - Status <Ready for Execution>
276565	AFC: SAP PaPM Integration with AFC
279430	AFC: Enhancement of static roles
269830	Advanced Financial Close - Field display on all screens
277456	Report output formats in AFC
277458	AFC - Parameters can be changed for completed tasks
292760	Provide programs for cycle TC's 3KE5&4KE5 analog to program for cycle TCs KSU5&KSV5 for ECC 6.0

Six requests are with the status "Accept" (considered for development in the short term):

285010	Critical path/longest path recalculated during ongoing month end close – real time visibility
282683	AFC Jobs to run under the User ID of the real processor in the connected communication system
280644	AFC Mass Change on task level
289365	Job chain stops when status of one task is "completed with errors"
281528	AFC: email notification for task list release
277854	AFC on BTP - mass data change offset days / starting time

Six requests are in status "Planned Long Term" (considered for development in the long term):

Request ID	Idea Title
282693	AFC Manage Closing Task Lists App_Closing Structure, additional features required
292513	non-consistent adjustment of successor tasks' status
282772	Addition of Custom fields to Financial Close Overview report
284707	AFC: Deletion / Recreation of Task Lists for Testing in Dev/Quality System
282773	AFC - Flexibility to mark tasks as N/A in the released task list

There are seven items are in "Long Term Consideration", which will be further evaluated by SAP and are not reflected in portfolio planning yet:

Request ID	Idea Title
276564	AFC: Enablement of Automated Error Resolution for Closing Programs
284779	AFC: Task List Model Backend - Support of Move / Drag & Drop of Folder/Items between Hierarchy Level
282761	List of fields required for closing tasks setup(“task details”) at backend SPRO AFC-Local Settings
277252	AFC - Attachments to task list template
285007	AFC on BTP to be connected to SAC [SAP Analytics Cloud]
276566	AFC: DEV/PROD System segregation & "transport" by copy
277996	AFC on BTP: Process Closing Task - Sort order in flat list view

Additionally, six requests are merged with other AFC requests to remove duplications.

You may notice that almost half of the requests are in status "Acknowledged" or "Need More Information". These either need more customer votes to prove they are generic requests or are still under evaluation, so they are not considered in the latest portfolio planning yet.

Your voting is one of the crucial factors for us to prioritize the backlogs. Therefore, you are encouraged to regularly check the unresolved requests and vote on those items critical for your business.

To better understand your request, please also create the request from the business users' perspective. Please let us know who from the business requires the features, what are the business cases and features they need, and the potential business benefits. Very ofter samples and screen copies can help a lot.

AFC has just been released for two years, and many essential features still need significant development efforts. However, we are listening to you and are trying our best to be agile to follow your identified priority.

At last, we would like to thank you for your continuous interest and look forward to receiving your requests.

Ying on behalf of the SAP S/4HANA Cloud for advanced financial closing team

 

For more information about SAP S/4HANA Cloud for advanced financial closing, check out the following links:

• SAP Community Page for Advanced Financial Closing: here


• SAP Help Portal for AFC: here


• AFC in the SAP Roadmap Explorer: here


• SAP.com page about AFC: here

Follow us via @Sap and #AdvancedFinancialClosing