S4HANA 1709 Finance Professional Exam Study Notes

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Disclaimer: All the information mentioned in the blog are from the publicly shared course indexes of S4F01 (here), S4F02 (here) ,S4F03 (here) and the publicly shared certification topics (here), this article will simply guide you through the study topics.

 

Every SAP Finance Consultant should prove his skill by passing the S4HANA Finance Professionals Exam which according to SAP "validates a candidate's ability to independently lead an implementation project of Financials in SAP S/4HANA and that he has at least 5 years of project experience"

 



 

This article will increase your odds of passing the certification exam for S4HANA 1709 Finance Professionals (P_S4FIN_1709)

 

When I decided to study for this exam, I had a false expectation that it would be similar to the Finance Application Associate exam but with higher difficulty, the reality is they are completely different, as the Professional Exam won't test your basic configuration knowledge in the different finance areas, it is mainly focused on the below 3 topics.

 

The main topics of the Professional exam are:

1. Intro to S4HANA


2. The new S4HANA Finance functionalities


3. Finance Migration to S4HANA 1709

 

The  topics are covered in SAP Courses S4F01, S4F02, and S4F03, you can check the official exam details here, and I've created an Excel sheet with the courses index and the number of pages in each lesson to be used for study planning from the course indexes  here.

 

The exam is part of the SAP Certification in the Cloud, so everyone has got at least 2 chances in passing this exam with no extra cost, so don't worry if you fail once.

 

Below is a checklist of the points you should be aware of before attending the exam

 

Intro to S4HANA:

You should know the difference between classical ERP and S4HANA including the new innovations in the HANA database such as no aggregate tables and having OLAP and OLTP in the same DB

 

You should also know the major updates from S4HANA 1610 to 1709

 

The new/updated S4HANA Finance Functionalities:

• The Universal Ledger


• Cost Elements: are no longer separate from GL accounts which enhances FI/CO reconciliation


• FIORI


• Central Finance


• Cash Management


• Fixed Assets: New tables, transactions, programs and configuration activities


• Parallel Ledgers for different accounting principles and the setup required in Fixed Assets


• Parallel Currencies, the setup for currency conversion and the setup required in Fixed Assets


• Accounting Based COPA


• Material Ledger


• House Bank Setup


• Credit Management


• CO Document Type Mapping and other concerns since CO is posting same as FI in S4HANA


• COGS and Variance Splitting in FI posting through mapping cost components to different GL Accounts


• Updates in Product Costing period end closing activities and in ML closing


• Transfer Pricing: Legal, Group and Profit Center valuation and how this is integrated with Ledgers


• Planning in CO (BPC)


• Difference between Lumira, Design Studio, Crystal Reports

 

 

Finance Migration to S4HANA 1709:

• Migration phases and what's done in each phase: the SAP ACTIVATE Methodology


• Migration prerequisites


• What data should be archived and what should be migrated


• Customer Vendor Integration (CVI): Business Partners are replacing both vendors and customers


• Finance Migration preparation activities


• Installation activities: Removing totals tables, creating views, and other activities


• Migration of GL, Cost Elements, Material Ledger, Fixed Assets and House Banks


• Migration of Line Items and Balances


• Post Migration activities


• Migration limitations

 

If you're not able to cover all the above points and is running out of time, you should at least focus on the important parts as per the SAP certification page which are Financials and Controlling configuration changes and the New Fixed Assets Accounting which I found to be the most difficult part in the exam

 

In the end, passing the professional exam shouldn't be easy otherwise it would lose its meaning, and know that once you pass, your name will be published in the SAP Consultants Registery as a Professional S4HANA Finance Professional which is totally worth it.

The certificate can also help you find better opportunities in the market if you use it correctly in your CV and in interviews, check these very useful articles:

How to write the perfect SAP CV: Top 10 tips and SAP CV sample template

How should I prepare for an SAP Interview? – SAP Interview Tips

 5 ways to improve your chances of securing an SAP Job

Enjoy the challenge!