Introduction
The purpose of this blog is to provide a brief overview of Initial Load of documents into Central Finance (CFIN) from source Legacy systems. It provides a commonly seen challenges during CFIN Initial Load.
Overview of Initial Load
Initial Load is used to transfer postings from a particular period from source system to CFIN.
Initial Load of FICO posting is carried out via customizing in Central Finance using RFC
Initial load of CO Posting, posting to secondary cost elements, is carried out via SLT
Before executing initial load to transfer posting
- All relevant master data should be created in CFIN
- All relevant mapping should be maintained in CFIN
- Initial load of cost objects should be executed to replicate cost objects that exists in source system.
- Projects and WBS should also be replicated from source system
- View VFCIN_SOURCE_SET needs to be configured in source system which controls balances from which months are transferred and what documents are transferred to CFIN.
- Once Initial load is completed Real Time Replication can be activated.
Initial Load – Considerations & Challenges
Upgrade the SAP source systems to current. Fixes for issues will be in place. Otherwise, notes must be individually installed, which can be time consuming and increases risk of notes being missed out.
Data volume should be considered when deciding on timeframe for transferring documents . Business should be involved in discussion to determine how much of history should be really transferred to CFIN.
Insufficient time and resources allocated to test cycles. Many errors related to master data, CFIN mapping and FI base configuration are seen in initial testing cycles so appropriate functional and technical resources should be allocated for test cycles.
Not considering full volume of data during initial test cycles can lead to incorrect estimate of time required to actual cutover and go live.
Challenges loading old open items where GL Master attributes might be changed over time and is not same as the time of open item. E.g. OIM flag
Initial Load – Lessons Learned
Pro-actively resolve errors with Standard consistency checks and simulation. This can help eliminate many errors related to GL account setup and FI/CO configuration.
Include reconciliation activity after initial load during test cycles. This will help validate the quality of data being loaded and bring out any issues/risk during early testing.
Scope for the testing should be defined clearly along with the entry and exit criteria for each test cycle.
Functional and technical resources should be planned to support testing cycles to fix the CFIN mapping and master data errors.
Execute the simulation of mapping and posting, even though they are optional.
Data cleansing in source systems for Open Items reduces the amount of data to be loaded during initial load
GL Reconciliations flag should only be checked in the Initial load customizing when CO secondary postings are not planned to be replicated for the company code.
Changing mappings after the initial load is complete and ongoing replication is started may lead to serious inconsistencies in follow-on processes.
Standard DFV reports are good starting point as reconciliation report but based on business requirement additional check might be required.
Copy of production should be used for initial load testing cycles as that will closest to production data.
Conclusion:
Plan ahead, solid foundation for further phases
The lessons learned during Initial load execution will help, how it can be utilized to make future CFIN implementation more efficient