G/L account renumbering for secondary cost elements

[ai_takahashi]

Hello Cloud experts,

I would like to ask your help regarding the G/L account renumbering specifications on CE 2502.

SAP help "Renumbering G/L accounts: Before You Start" describes;

• G/L accounts not needed must be marked as Not Used during mapping.
  Check all delivered 99999* (secondary cost element) accounts before marking them as Not Used.

• If you modify the G/L accounts for secondary cost elements, your allocation cycles will not work correctly.

Question;

1. Is it technically possible to mark "Not used"  to Secondary cost elements ?
2. What does it means by "MODIFY" the G/L account for secondary cost elements ?
   Renumbering is not permitted? All customers have to use the delivered "9***" secondary cost elements ?

Thank you for your support & Kindly Regards,
Ai

[Jeremy_Deo]

Hello dear user,

And thank you for asking your question in the SAP Community blog.

SAP G/L account renumbering in CE 2502 (Cloud Edition) has strict constraints, especially around secondary cost elements (SCEs), and I’ll clarify each point for you:

Is it technically possible to mark "Not Used" for Secondary Cost Elements?

Yes, it is technically possible, but SAP strongly recommends against doing so unless you're absolutely certain the account is unused and not required by standard allocation processes.

• Secondary cost elements are critical for internal cost allocations (e.g., assessments, distributions, overhead).
• Many standard processes rely on predefined 9** accounts** (like 943000 for assessments).
• If you mark a delivered SCE as "Not Used", it can break allocation cycles, causing runtime errors or failed job executions.

Conclusion: Only mark SCEs as Not Used if you have confirmed they are truly unused and not required by any standard app or cycle.

What does it mean by "MODIFY the G/L account for secondary cost elements"?

“Modify” in this context means:

• Renumbering the SCE accounts (e.g., changing 943000 to 853000)
• Changing account types or attributes (e.g., account type from Secondary Cost Element to Primary)
• Altering the cost element category in a way that differs from SAP's delivery (e.g., changing category 43 – Internal Activity Allocation)

SAP Cloud Edition does not allow free design of secondary cost elements like in ECC. They must be strictly aligned with what is delivered.

Conclusion: “Modifying” SCEs includes renumbering them or altering their nature. This is not supported and can lead to functional issues.

Is renumbering of secondary cost elements permitted?

No, renumbering of secondary cost elements is not permitted in CE 2502.

• All customers must use the delivered 9** series** for secondary cost elements.
• These are pre-integrated into SAP standard allocation cycles (like overhead allocation, assessments, distributions).
• Allocation logic often hardcodes certain cost element categories and expects specific account patterns (9*****).

Conclusion: You must retain SAP-delivered 9*** accounts for SCEs — these are mandatory and cannot be renumbered or removed.*

I hope this will help you answer your questions.

Best regards,

Jeremy

[ai_takahashi]

Dear Jeremy Deo,

Thank you very much for your detail clarification.

It is an issue for my customer not permitted for Renunbering secondary cost elements.
The legacy system accounts includes the account number which starts 90xxxxxx, 92xxxx, 9509xx with 6 digit.

If the renumbering is not permitted, does it mean that customer have to define All the G/L account number length as 8 digit on SAP system ?

I would appreciate for your support, 
Ai