How to adopt Group Reporting for existing public cloud accounting customers

[TinaHao]

If you already live for years and you are now looking forward to getting your corporate close supported with S4HC Group Reporting, this article may help you adopt the solution quickly and efficiently. We will explain which general activities needs to be done to be ready using S4HC Group Reporting. 

Firstly you need activate the main scope item 1SG(Group Reporting - Financial Consolidation) in your system.

Master Data

You may prepare your master data, 

Activity - Description	related area	SSCUI or App	Description of Fiori apps / SSCUI	General Comment
Create Company IDs	Master Data	SSCUI	Create Company	Ensure all companies are prepared. Usually this is done when creating company code, but check if this activity is done.
Assign Company ID to Company Code	Master Data	SSCUI	Assign company code to company	In assumption there is no flexible derivation of consolidation units, ensure 1:1 assignment to company codes.
Assign Company ID to vendor / customer/ GL account	Master Data	App	Maintain Business Partner	Ensure all intercompany customers/vendors/GL accounts with correct company assignment.
Decide which additional data should be released from FI and how is the setup of these master data (e.g. decide for matrix consolidation, master data and hierarchy setup)	Master Data	SSCUI	Define Consolidation Master Data Fields	In case customer want to maintain master data and / or hierarchy for the respective field(s).
Adjust or create a new version	Master Data	SSCUI	Create Version from Reference Version / Define Version	Copy and adjust a version if you cannot use a pre-delivered version.
Create FS items	Master Data	App	Define FS Items	Scope items 1SG deliver appr. 210+ FS items to be used directly. Check if additional FS Items are needed and copy similar FS Items from pre-delivered content. Make sure the correct attributes are assigned.
Create and assign mapping GL accounts to FS items	Master Data	App	Map FS Items with GL Accounts Import FS Item Mappings Assign FS Item Mappings	Ensure all FI accounts are mapped to FS item. There is a recommendation to mapp even secondary cost elements to a clearing FI item.
Define consolidation units for each company with the same technical key Define consolidation units for none integrated company codes	Master Data	App	Define consolidation units	You may consider to prepare this based on the company ID
Assign consolidation units to consolidation group	Master Data	App	Manage Group Structure - Group View	Set the period and year for technical first consolidation
Create subitems based on new transaction types	Master Data	SSCUI	Define Subitem Categories and Subitems	adjust 19 transaction types with respective number of subitems, in case customer define the new transaction type, you need create additional subitem (s). Check if new selection for breakdown category are needed. If yes adjusted breakdown category with copied selection.
Create subitems based on new functional areas	Master Data	SSCUI	Define Subitem Categories and Subitems	adjust 21 function areas with subitems, in case customer create new function areas, then you need create additional subitem.
Specify Account Numbers for Annual Net Income and Balance Carryforward	Master Data	SSCUI	Specify Account Numbers for Annual Net Income and Balance Carryforward	You need this activity if customer does not want to use the predefined GL account and FS item.
Define Group Reporting Preparation Ledgers	Master Data	SSCUI	Define Group Reporting Preparation Ledgers	if not already set

Process adjustments

If best practice setting is not sufficient design task groups(for Data Monitor and Consolidation Monitor), you may 

1. copy existing task group(s) and
2. adjust based on customer needs
3. insert new task(s) or exclude tasks which are not needed
4. assign task group(s) to respective version(s) 

Activity - Description	related area	SSCUI or App	Description of Fiori apps / SSCUI	General Comment
Import Foreign Exchange Rates	Process Preparation	App	Import Foreign Exchange Rates
Adjust task group or task group assignment for Data Monitor if needed	Process Adjustment	SSCUI	copy task group, assign task group, assign new task, delete not used task => several SSCUI's
Adjust task group or task group assignment for Consolidation Monitor if needed	Process Adjustment	SSCUI	copy task group, assign task group, assign new task, delete not used task => several SSCUI's
Adjust selections if customer specific selections are needed.	Process Preparation	App	Define Selections	Copy already existing selections to customer namespaces (refer to note 2326112 for Namespace restriction in SSCUI. • S, Q, R, X, P, Y for alphanumeric fields • 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0 for numeric fields

Reporting

Activity - Description	related area	SSCUI or App	Description of Fiori apps / SSCUI	General Comment
Adjust Reporting capabilities	Reporting	App	Manage Global Hierarchies	Adjust the hierarchies for : - Type FS Items (if new FS Items are created) - Type Transaction Type - Type document Type
Adjust Reporting Rule	Reporting	App	Define Reporting Rules / Assign Reporting Rules to Versions	Adopt the reporting rule

Initial Load of Reported Financial Data

After all setting is prepared, you may need consider to prepare your initial reported data. In this article, we introduce the technical first consolidation starting point that can be different from your cutoff date. The starting point is the time(period/year) for the initial technical consolidation of the capital and the investment values. After starting point onwards, the correct consolidated financial statements including all consolidation entries should be carried out and posted in a correct period ranking in S4HCGR.

There is no migration of already posted consolidation financial statements. If consolidation results needs to be available(for comparison purpose) in your S4 system, that have already been completed in the past, these closing must be processed/executed and posted again in the Group Reporting environment.

Here is an example, 

Go live is 004/2024, and starting point is 012/2023, periods 012/2023, 001/2024, 002/2024, 003/2024 need to be processed and finished in Group Reporting. And we need to provide as of the starting point the initial load of reported financial data in 012/2023 based on YTD(year to date) value.

There are several customer situations together with examples we would like to explain.

Customer Case 1

Customer Case 2

Customer Case 3

Customer Case 4

Customer Case 5(initial load via flexible upload of reported financial data)

Customer Case 6(initial load via flexible upload of reported financial data)

This will not cover each every customer situation, and your feedback or best practice is warmly welcome!