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Author's profile photo Shakeel Ahmed

Chart of Accounts in S/4 HANA Public Cloud (Cloud ERP)

 

Purpose of this Document

This document will help you understand all the available types of Chart of Accounts in S/4HANA Public Cloud (Cloud ERP) how they are managed in the system.

What types of Chart of Accounts are available in S/4HANA Cloud

 Operating Chart of Accounts (YCOA)

  • Group Chart of Accounts (YGR1)
  • Alternative/Local Chart of Accounts (e.g., YIKR for Germany)
  • Consolidation Chart of Accounts (Y1)

 Operating Chart of Accounts (YCOA)

  • The operating chart of accounts contains the G/L accounts that you use for daily financial postings in your company codes.
  • This is applicable for all the company codes in S/4HANA Cloud system.
  • Assignment of YCOA- operating chart of account to company codes cannot be changed.
  • However, you can make small modifications to YCOA such as Description of Chart of Accounts, Maintenance Language (English, German etc.), and Length of G/L account number such 6, 8, 10 etc.

 Edit Chart of Accounts List (102422)

  • You can create additional Account Group by copying for operating chart of accounts and do the maintenance as per your requirement for GL Accounts fields. However, you cannot change the existing account group.

 

Define Account Group (103508)

  • G/L Accounts are created by copying the existing G/L Accounts only.

 

Group Chart of Accounts (YGR1)

    • The group chart of accounts contains the G/L accounts that are used by the entire corporate group, and it is needed if you use external consolidation and reporting for your group.
    • It is not used for S/4HANA Group reporting function which comes from scope item 1SG. It is different from Consolidation chart of Accounts (Y1) which is used in S/4HANA Group Reporting.
    • Group Account number is assigned to an Operating G/L Account in the chart of account section. Which means, you can not have different Account Group for single Operating G/L Account at company code level.

 

Manage G/L Account Master Data


Alternative/Local Chart of Accounts (e.g., YIKR for Germany)

  • Alternative chart of accounts is specific to a country/region and contains the G/L accounts that meet specific legal reporting requirements in that country/region.
  • It might be possible that alternative chart of accounts may not be available for your country as standard delivery, in that case you have the possibility create one. You can create alternative chart of accounts in S/4HANA Cloud
  • You need to assign Alternative/local chart of accounts to company code

 

(Assign Company Code to Chart of Accounts – 103659)

  • Alternative G/L Account is assigned to Operating G/L Account in company code section. Which means you can assign different Alternative G/L to the same Operative G/L Accounts at company code level.

 

Consolidation Chart of Accounts (Y1)

  • A consolidation chart of accounts (COA) is a systematic grouping of financial statement (FS) items that belong together and are used for group reporting (1SG).

 

Maintenance (Creation and Change) of Chart of Account

  • G/L account can only be created by copying the existing G/L Accounts. So, it is very important to select the right G/L (similar nature G/L Account) to copy from so that you have all the field available in your G/L account that you want to create with. You can create G/L Account via Manage G/L Account Master Data App (it is available as App and configuration node). The same app will be available in production system as well, but you can only display G/L accounts and won’t be able to change or create in.
  • Roles and authorisation for G/L Creation and Change and its movement to production system:
    • Configuration Expert – Business Process Configuration (SAP_BR_BPC_EXPERT) business role template
    • General Ledger Accountant (SAP_BR_GL_ACCOUNTANT) business role template
    • Administrator (SAP_BR_ADMINISTRATOR) business role template

 

  • G/L Accounts are now part of configuration activity which means you must create/change in Test system/development system (depending upon your 2SL and 3SL). It is moved to production with Transport request.

 

 

Adapting the Standard Chart of Accounts to Your Needs in 3 System Landscape (3SL)

When setting up SAP S/4HANA Cloud system you can adapt a pre-delivered standard Chart of Account to your needs and implement it synchronized across the systems in a consistent and lifecycle compliant way. It can be done for 1) Operating Chart of Accounts 2) Alternative/Local Chart of Accounts 3) Group Chart of Accounts

  • Renumber G/L Accounts

As a configuration expert, use the Renumber G/L Accounts app to renumber the delivered G/L accounts according to your requirements.

  • Convert Renumbered G/L Accounts

As an administrator, use the Convert Renumbered G/L Accounts app to convert the renumbered G/L accounts in the system.

  • Export Customizing Transports

As a configuration expert, open the Export Customizing Transports App. Select the customizing request and choose Execute.

  • Import Collection/Transport
  • Then open the Import Collectionin Test System and select your collections or name of the mapping. The renumbered G/L accounts are transported to the test system.
  • After successful testing, open the Import Collectionapp again. Select the collection and choose Forward.
  • Then open the Import Collectionin Production System and select your collections or name of the mapping. The renumbered G/L accounts are transported to the Production system.
  • Key points Related Renumbering G/L Accounts:
    • As a configuration expert, you need to have the Renumber G/L Accounts – Configuration(SAP_CA_BC_IC_LND_GL_MAP_PC) business catalog assigned to your user. Also, Configuration Expert – Business Process Configuration (SAP_BR_BPC_EXPERT) business role template.
    • You can only renumber G/L accounts for which no postings have been made in the production system yet.
    • All G/L accounts in the delivered chart of accounts should be mapped to your own accounts. Accounts that are not mapped might lead to errors in your business processes later.
    • Do not reuse G/L accounts for purposes other than the original description.
    • G/L accounts not needed must be marked as Not Usedduring mapping.
    • Check all delivered 99999* (secondary cost element) accounts before marking them as Not Used.
    • If you modify the G/L accounts for secondary cost elements, your allocation cycles will not work correctly.
  • G/L Account conversion process video:

https://cdnapisec.kaltura.com/html5/html5lib/v2.99/mwEmbedFrame.php/p/1921661/uiconf_id/37285991/entry_id/1_w1xuj24t?wid=_1921661&iframeembed=true&playerId=kaltura_player&entry_id=1_w1xuj24t

 

 

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Relevant Blog:

GL Account Write-Up in S/4 HANA

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      5 Comments
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      Author's profile photo Ramon Chacon
      Ramon Chacon

      Hello Shakeel Ahmed;

      Many thanks for this Blog, very important and good to know, hope you can help me with some doubts, I already have some GL accounts that We do not need in production so I will set this accounts as Not Used, but also I found this note:

      Don't select this field for accounts that are used for automatic posting. For more information, see Automatic Account Determination.

      Also I see the app Manage Chart of accounts and found the link where some accounts have some Automatic Account Determination customazing, so I need to remove this customazing before mark this GL accounts as Not Used?

      Also I have some accounts with postings in the Q system, but with no records in productino so I think I can set this ones as Not used.

      Hope you can give some clues.

      Thanks and Regards

      Ramon Chacon

      Author's profile photo Shakeel Ahmed
      Shakeel Ahmed

      Hi Ramon,

      Query: Don't select this field for accounts that are used for automatic posting. For more information, see Automatic Account Determination.

      Reply: It is recommended that you should not put 'Not Used' for G/L accounts used in account determination. If you renumber them, they will replace the config (account determination) also in backend without much effort. However, you are free to put 'Not Used' against these G/Ls also but later on you will have to do the config manually with new G/L accounts if that functionality (of account determination) will be used in your system.

      Query: Also I see the app Manage Chart of accounts and found the link where some accounts have some Automatic Account Determination customazing, so I need to remove this customazing before mark this GL accounts as Not Used?

      Reply: No, you do not need to remove any config to do so.

       

      Query: Also I have some accounts with postings in the Q system, but with no records in productino so I think I can set this ones as Not used.

      Reply: Yes, as long as there is no transaction in production you would be able to set 'not used'

       

      Regards

      Shakeel

       

       

      Author's profile photo Ramon Chacon
      Ramon Chacon

      Many thanks Shakeel

      Regards

      Author's profile photo Ray Ceasar Darang
      Ray Ceasar Darang

      Thanks again, Shakeel, for this informative blog on the Chart of Accounts.

      Just a question regarding the "downtime" during the Conversion process in a 3-system landscape: If I renumbered some delivered GL accounts and subsequently executed the conversion in the Development system, only the Development system will have a downtime? If yes, how long? Thanks!

      Author's profile photo Shakeel Ahmed
      Shakeel Ahmed

      Hi Darang,

      Yes, conversion will happen in Dev system and via Transport Request this change will be moved to Quality and Production.

      Secondly, I do not think if there is any official downtime. This entire G/L conversion process will not be more than 1 hour, you can stop transaction for one hour or so in Development.

      Regards

      Shakeel