(Created as of release SAP S/4HANA 1909)
This blog post provides you enhancement information on Universal Allocation based on SAP S/4HANA 1909 on-premise (includes enhancements with SAP S/4HANA 1909 FPS01). If you interested in Universal Allocation in SAP S/4HANA 2020 and 2021, please see SAP blog post (2020) and SAP blog post (2021). Let’s focus on the harmonization of allocation functionality within SAP S/4HANA on-premise and you will see how Universal Allocation impacting the area of Financial accounting and Management accounting.
From a planning and budgeting perspective, a first step towards a single allocation model and execution framework was launched as Universal Allocation with SAP S/4HANA 1809 on-premise focusing on Cost center planning. Universal Allocation is new allocation functionality and plan data is stored in ACDOCP table.
With SAP S/4HANA 1909 on-premise, Universal Allocation is enhanced. It is not only used to cover the Actual overhead allocations in addition to the Plan allocations use case that was already delivered with SAP S/4HANA 1809 on-premise. The same Universal allocation is also the basis for molding and executing Top-down distribution of Margin analysis with SAP S/4HANA 1909 FPS01.
Please note:
Before going into the details, let's have a look at motivation of Universal Allocation. As you can see above slide, companies struggle to oversee their complex allocation process and have difficulties to analyze the result. It’s challenging to get a full traceability and clear understanding on how specific costs are allocated through their specific area of responsibility. As a result, there's a necessity for state-of-the-art visualization for both the allocation process as well as the results after the execution. In addition to the overall need for a process transparency and results traceability, today's companies need the ability to simulate how would the results look like by changing allocation rules on their financial data.
As you can see above slide regarding “Our Vision of Universal Allocation”, the overall aim is to simplify Allocations by combining various capabilities under one umbrella providing a single architecture for financial and managerial Allocations, like Cost center allocation, Profit center allocation, Top-down distribution and so on. A combined approach for actual and plan including simulation capabilities and predictive data as well. Executing this commonly structured Universal Allocation is to include all required reporting currencies providing full traceability of the entire value flow.
As you see right-hand side, Blue parts are in the scope of Universal Allocation (Yellow parts are out of scope). An important note to make is that Universal Allocation is not initially designed for activity allocations nor different types of settlements like for IO and WBS elements.
With SAP S/4HANA 1809 on-premise, you could perform Plan allocation of Cost center by using 4 Apps (“Manage Plan overhead allocation Cycles”, “Run Plan overhead allocation”, “Manage Plan distribution cycles”, “Run Plan distribution”). These 4 Apps are SAP GUI for HTML Transactions. These classic transactions are available in the SAP Fiori theme to support a seamless user experience across the SAP Fiori launchpad (so called SAP Fiori Theme Classic UI). New Fiori apps are released with SAP S/4HANA 1909 on-premise and so it is not necessary to use 4 Apps available from S/4HANA 1809 on-premise.
<Available Apps from SAP S/4HANA 1809 on-premise>
On the left-hand side, there are many transaction codes for different types of Allocations in SAP ECC. This caused the complexity of Allocation functionality. When we look at Vison of Universal Allocation, on the right-hand side we expect to see 10 Fiori apps to cover transaction codes in SAP ECC.
As of SAP S/4HANA 1909 FPS01, 3 Fiori apps are available.
Additional applications already identified for future development:
(* Please note: we cannot mention exact release date for any of above mentioned except Allocation Flow app.) Allocation Flow app is already available in SAP S/4HANA Cloud.
As you can see the above slide, it summarized what is ready in S/4HANA 1909 FPS00 (Initial Stack) and FPS01.
Allocation contexts & types available
Cost Center & Profit Center allocation is enabled for both Actual and Plan data allocation.
Margin Analysis is currently available for Top Down Distribution of Actual data.
For details, please see SAP Help for SAP S/4HANA 1909:
Useful Features of Fiori Apps are described in below (as of FPS01)
Manage Allocations app:
＊New Fiori app released with FPS00. Most significant enhancement with FPS01 is new Context/Type Margin Analysis (Top Down Distribution).
Run Allocations app:
＊New Fiori app released with FPS00. There is quite significant change in FPS01, because in previous FPS00, Allocation run result report was part of Run Allocation app functionality. In FPS01, SAP have decided to split run execution part (Run Allocations) and run result analysis (Allocation Results).
Allocation Results app:
＊New Fiori app released with FPS01. In previous FPS00, Allocation run result report was part of Run Allocation app functionality.
As you can see above, recent innovations are listed.
Cross Component Functionality so called Situation Handling is also available in Universal allocation from SAP S/4HANA 1909 on-premise. As of now, Situation Framework notifies user if error/warning occurs. More enhancements are planned with future release.
For details, please see SAP Help for SAP S/4HANA 1909:
SAP Help for SAP S/4HANA 1909:
SAP Fiori Apps:
SAP Best Practices for SAP S/4HANA (on premise):
SAP Note (relevant for SAP S/4HANA 1909):
Finally, I would like to thank experts at SAP for their support.
Brought to you by the S/4HANA RIG
This blog post provides you enhancement information on Universal Allocation based on SAP S/4HANA 1909 on-premise (includes enhancements with SAP S/4HANA 1909 FPS01). If you interested in Universal Allocation in SAP S/4HANA 2020 and 2021, please see SAP blog post (2020) and SAP blog post (2021). Let’s focus on the harmonization of allocation functionality within SAP S/4HANA on-premise and you will see how Universal Allocation impacting the area of Financial accounting and Management accounting.
From a planning and budgeting perspective, a first step towards a single allocation model and execution framework was launched as Universal Allocation with SAP S/4HANA 1809 on-premise focusing on Cost center planning. Universal Allocation is new allocation functionality and plan data is stored in ACDOCP table.
With SAP S/4HANA 1909 on-premise, Universal Allocation is enhanced. It is not only used to cover the Actual overhead allocations in addition to the Plan allocations use case that was already delivered with SAP S/4HANA 1809 on-premise. The same Universal allocation is also the basis for molding and executing Top-down distribution of Margin analysis with SAP S/4HANA 1909 FPS01.
Please note:
- Universal Allocation does not cover all of the use cases mentioned in the “Vision” slides (“Our vision of Universal Allocation” and “Process harmonization driven by the Universal Journal”).
- There is no new features on Universal Allocation with SAP S/4HANA 1909 FPS02.
- No future additions on Universal Allocation will be ported down to SAP S/4HANA 1909 on-premise.
Before going into the details, let's have a look at motivation of Universal Allocation. As you can see above slide, companies struggle to oversee their complex allocation process and have difficulties to analyze the result. It’s challenging to get a full traceability and clear understanding on how specific costs are allocated through their specific area of responsibility. As a result, there's a necessity for state-of-the-art visualization for both the allocation process as well as the results after the execution. In addition to the overall need for a process transparency and results traceability, today's companies need the ability to simulate how would the results look like by changing allocation rules on their financial data.
As you can see above slide regarding “Our Vision of Universal Allocation”, the overall aim is to simplify Allocations by combining various capabilities under one umbrella providing a single architecture for financial and managerial Allocations, like Cost center allocation, Profit center allocation, Top-down distribution and so on. A combined approach for actual and plan including simulation capabilities and predictive data as well. Executing this commonly structured Universal Allocation is to include all required reporting currencies providing full traceability of the entire value flow.
As you see right-hand side, Blue parts are in the scope of Universal Allocation (Yellow parts are out of scope). An important note to make is that Universal Allocation is not initially designed for activity allocations nor different types of settlements like for IO and WBS elements.
With SAP S/4HANA 1809 on-premise, you could perform Plan allocation of Cost center by using 4 Apps (“Manage Plan overhead allocation Cycles”, “Run Plan overhead allocation”, “Manage Plan distribution cycles”, “Run Plan distribution”). These 4 Apps are SAP GUI for HTML Transactions. These classic transactions are available in the SAP Fiori theme to support a seamless user experience across the SAP Fiori launchpad (so called SAP Fiori Theme Classic UI). New Fiori apps are released with SAP S/4HANA 1909 on-premise and so it is not necessary to use 4 Apps available from S/4HANA 1809 on-premise.
<Available Apps from SAP S/4HANA 1809 on-premise>
- Manage Plan Overhead Allocation Cycles (App ID FINS_ONEALLOC_A8)
- Run Plan overhead allocation (App ID FINS_ONEALLOC_AB)
- Manage Plan distribution cycles (App ID FINS_ONEALLOC_D8)
- Run Plan distribution (App ID FINS_ONEALLOC_DB)
On the left-hand side, there are many transaction codes for different types of Allocations in SAP ECC. This caused the complexity of Allocation functionality. When we look at Vison of Universal Allocation, on the right-hand side we expect to see 10 Fiori apps to cover transaction codes in SAP ECC.
As of SAP S/4HANA 1909 FPS01, 3 Fiori apps are available.
- Manage Allocation
- Run Allocation
- Allocation Results
Additional applications already identified for future development:
- Allocation Flow (planned to release with S/4HANA 2020 on-premise)
- Allocation Changes*
- Manage Allocation Tags*
- Manage Run Groups*
(* Please note: we cannot mention exact release date for any of above mentioned except Allocation Flow app.) Allocation Flow app is already available in SAP S/4HANA Cloud.
As you can see the above slide, it summarized what is ready in S/4HANA 1909 FPS00 (Initial Stack) and FPS01.
Allocation contexts & types available
- Allocation Contexts
- Cost Center Allocation
- Profit Center Allocation
- Margin Analysis – new context enabled with FPS01
- Allocation Types
- Overhead Allocation
- Distribution
- Top Down Distribution (Margin Analysis) – new type enabled with FPS01
Cost Center & Profit Center allocation is enabled for both Actual and Plan data allocation.
Margin Analysis is currently available for Top Down Distribution of Actual data.
For details, please see SAP Help for SAP S/4HANA 1909:
<Available Fiori Apps from SAP S/4HANA 1909 on-premise>
- With SAP S/4HANA 1909 FPS00 (Initial Stack), New Fiori app “Manage Allocations” and “Run Allocations” are released.
- With SAP S/4HANA 1909 FPS01, Fiori app “Manage Allocations” and “Run Allocations” are enhanced. New Fiori app “Allocation Results” is released.
Useful Features of Fiori Apps are described in below (as of FPS01)
Manage Allocations app:
- Single point for maintenance of allocation cycles and segments
- Initial screen provides list report of existing cycles for all authorized contexts (If user is authorized only for cost center allocation, other contexts are not available for user)
- Multiple types of allocation rules manageable on segment level
- Where used function for Cost Center/Profit Center objects
＊New Fiori app released with FPS00. Most significant enhancement with FPS01 is new Context/Type Margin Analysis (Top Down Distribution).
Run Allocations app:
- Single point for triggering allocation run
- User can define Run worklist containing standalone cycles or cycle groups
- Cycle groups can be defined in Manage Global Hierarchies Fiori Application
- Order of cycles in worklist defines order of processing
- In run dialogue for actuals data user can define journal entry type for posting data
＊New Fiori app released with FPS00. There is quite significant change in FPS01, because in previous FPS00, Allocation run result report was part of Run Allocation app functionality. In FPS01, SAP have decided to split run execution part (Run Allocations) and run result analysis (Allocation Results).
Allocation Results app:
- Provides analysis over the completed Allocation Runs/Test Runs
- 3 user views :
- By Run – list of completed run jobs and statuses, so as dril down to detailed run report
- By Cycle - view of cycles run statuses for selected fiscal periods
- Run Report - Run report provides details of sender, receivers journal entries and messages. Run report contains also new Network Graph control for visualization of allocation interactions between senders (on the left side) and receivers (on the right side), with filtering option on both sides of relation
＊New Fiori app released with FPS01. In previous FPS00, Allocation run result report was part of Run Allocation app functionality.
<Recent Innovations>
As you can see above, recent innovations are listed.
Cross Component Functionality so called Situation Handling is also available in Universal allocation from SAP S/4HANA 1909 on-premise. As of now, Situation Framework notifies user if error/warning occurs. More enhancements are planned with future release.
For details, please see SAP Help for SAP S/4HANA 1909:
<Additional Information>
SAP Help for SAP S/4HANA 1909:
SAP Fiori Apps:
- Manage Allocations (App ID: F3338)
- Run Allocations (App ID: F3548)
- Allocation Results (App ID: F4363)
- Allocation Flow (App ID: F4022) - Already available in SAP S/4HANA Cloud
SAP Best Practices for SAP S/4HANA (on premise):
SAP Note (relevant for SAP S/4HANA 1909):
- 2936255 - FAQs on CO-FIO Fiori apps (includes limitations for Manage Allocations (F3338))
- 2874087 - Fixed amount specified in allocation rule is divided by 100
- 2918795 - [F3548] Run Allocation Correction - Order of cycle execution
- 2931059 - F3338 Variable portion deleted
- 2931673 - Manage Allocations WBS Element External Value
- 2934446 - Manage Allocations - Company code can not be changed
- 2946764 - F3338: WBS element conversion before save
- 2949320 - Variable portion copied incorrectly
- 2954522 - [F4363] Allocation Results - reversal browser timeout
Finally, I would like to thank experts at SAP for their support.
Brought to you by the S/4HANA RIG
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