Account Assignment Change and Follow-Up Posting in Asset Master Data in UPA

[wallace_yao]

Purpose

In the past, Account Assignment Change was known as Re-organization in Asset Master Data. It is used to transfer asset balance to a different profit center / segment. 

This article describes this feature in Universal Parallel Accounting (UPA), with a concrete example, focusing on the improvements since its earlier version.

⚠️Hint: For more information about the account assignment objects in time-dependent data of asset master record, please refer to this page: https://community.sap.com/t5/enterprise-resource-planning-blog-posts-by-sap/account-assignment-objec... 

Example

In this example,

• The company code has 2 open fiscal years: 2024 & 2025.
• The asset has an acquisition on Jan 1st of 2024, with amount 12,000 EUR. 
• The depreciation amount in each period is 100 EUR.

This asset has two time-intervals.

• The first one is assigned to the profit center YB600, up to Jan 31 of 2024.
• Next, you want to add the 2nd time-interval starts from Feb 1st of 2024, with the profit center YB700.

Limitations in Early Days

In the early days, the so-called re-organization shall be executed in exactly the following steps. 

• Post depreciation up to the period right before the re-organization.
  In this example, you must post depreciation in period 1 first. This is to ensure all asset transactions under YB600 are fully booked in FI documents.
• Add the new time-interval with the re-organization.
  In this example, add the new time-interval starting from Feb 1st of 2024, with the profit center YB700.
  By doing this, the complete asset balance is transferred from YB600 to YB700.
• Post depreciation in period 2
  Now, the depreciation will be posted to YB700.

Limitation 1: You cannot trigger the re-organization without posting depreciation in period 1. That is because asset transactions under YB600 haven't been fully booked yet.

Limitation 2: After the re-organization, you cannot post any document back in period 1. Otherwise, the balance in previous profit center YB600 cannot remain zero anymore. ➡️And that is why you must post depreciation in period 1 beforehand.

Limitation 3: Re-organization can only happen in 1st open fiscal year. ➡️ Otherwise, you have to face the problems mentioned in 'Limitation 2'.

Account Assignment Change and Follow-up Posting Today

With the improvements in UPA, all limitations above have been removed.

You can make account assignment change without posting depreciation in period 1 beforehand.

That is because after account assignment change, the depreciation postings in period 1 can be automatically transferred to the YB700.

With that, the limitation 3 disappears automatically. You can make account assignment change in the upper open fiscal year too.

⚠️Hint: Your new time-interval with the account assignment change shall not cover any existing postings. In this example, if there is any posting existing on / after Feb 1st of 2024, you are not allowed to trigger this account assignment change. ➡️The reason is clear: these existing documents have been posted to the previous profit center YB600. If you want to transfer all the balance from YB600, you need a new time-interval with a later starting date. 

Summary

The improvements in Account Assignment Change in UPA benefit customers a lot, with all limitation from early days removed.

One thing worth mentioning here is about how to cancel the account assignment change. That means you don't want to have any balance under YB700. Instead, you want to go back to YB600.

• The first thing you must make sure that there is no document posted after the date of account assignment change, i.e. no new transactions for YB700. 
• If there is any, reverse them.
• Now, as the last step, delete the time-interval for this account assignment change.

⚠️Hint: To reversel normal asset postings, you can simply do it by clicking on the document number in 'Value Display' of Manage Fixed Assets app. And then, click on 'Reverse Journal Entries - In Asset Accounting' from the context menu. However, to revese an account assignment change, you must delete the corresponding time-interval for this account assignment change. This is the only way.