SAP GTS vs S4 HANA for Intrastat reporting

[former_member703324]

Hello to all,

I would like to ask for some pointers from the community on the following:

-Intrastat reporting, it can be done on SAP ECC and SAP GTS and now on S4 HANA

What should be the choosing factor I should consider between GTS vs S4 HANA system for pulling this report every month?

Thank you, looking forward to hearing from you,

Apostolos

[mouaz_benredjeb · Accepted solution]

Hi Apostolos,

Not sure I can give you a definitive answer as there is no one-size-fits-all answer, I will however try to give you some guidance and key considerations for the selection between S/4HANA and GTS for the Intrastat reporting.

Both Intrastat solutions in S/4HANA and GTS are meant to be the same solution i.e. share same logic, same coding (at least most of it), same features, etc...

That's in theory.

From my experience, I have noticed 2 possibilities were the above "theory" fails, may be other people on the forum would probably add others possibilities:

(1) A new feature or correction is deployed for S/4HANA but only later for GTS or the other way around. We are talking here only about a delay in the implementation of a new feature or correction but after this delay both solutions are again aligned

(2) There is one feature which I believe was added to the Intrastat solution in S/4HANA but as far as I know is not available in GTS (at least this was the case the last time I checked, may be this has been included in the standard solution since then). This feature is the handling of the Service Code (only needed for Intrastat declarations in Italy).

That being said, the assumption is both solution are the same (except for the Service code in Italy, but again may be this gap has been fulfilled in GTS since last time I had a look).

I would say the criteria to choose between using S/4HANA and GTS are multiple:

(1) Do you already have or plan to use GTS? It is heavy and far fetched to implement GTS in order to only use it for Intrastat declaration. If the only feature of GTS you are interested in is the Intrastat reporting, then you better stick with S/4HANA (as any how both solutions are the meant to be the same). On the other hand, if you already have GTS (and especially use it for classification, see below), then it becomes interesting to consider GTS for the reporting.

(2) Most of the data that you need for the Intrastat reporting is pulled either from the Billing document or the PO/GR documents, all of these data is hence pulled from S4/HANA. However, the product classification can be handled in different ways: Classification in S4/HANA using Internal Trade module, classification in GTS, redistribution of the classification from GTS to S4/HANA (or not, depends if this is activated), etc... In other words, a key question is: where/how do you handle the classification of products (the Combined Nomenclature codes)? Again, if you are using S/4HANA International Trade to achieve this, then you have everything in S/4HANA (Documents to pull data, classification, etc...). But now if you are using GTS for the classification of products, then it becomes interesting to consider GTS for the Intrastat reporting. Of course, you could still use GTS for the classification and then re-distribute the classification to S/4HANA...

(3) Finally, one last consideration to take into account is the technical aspect. If you only have S/4HANA for Intrastat reporting, then all OSS notes, corrections, improvements, authorizations, developments, etc... have to be done only in 1 box. This has advantages (only 1 box to maintain) but drawbacks as well (how to install critical Intrastat OSS notes without disrupting the other modules/users?). On the other hand, if you use GTS for Intrastat reporting, then the process of issuing an Intrastat reporting is split between S/4HANA (Data selection) and GTS (Data processing). This again has advantages (the data selection is stable and needs less maintenance and the data processing could lead to numerous upgrades depending on countries regulations for the Intrastat reporting, so it is easier to plan the OSS notes installations/SP upgrades in GTS without disrupting the rest of the S/4HANA). On the other hand, this means you need to handle 2 systems/boxes with possibly OSS notes to install in both systems, developments in both systems, authorizations in both systems, etc...

Hope this help.

Please help the GTS community by posting here the choice you have made and the reasons that lead you to that choice. As said in the introduction of this answer, there is no one-size-fits-all answer, but by giving your feedback this will help the others with the different considerations to take into account when choosing between S/4HANA and GTS for Intrastat reporting.

Thanks and Regards.

Mouaz BEN REDJEB

[former_member703324 · Accepted solution]

Dear Mouaz,

Thank you so much for your detailed reply. I will discuss it with the team and update the thread with our software of choice. Till now we are looking at S/4 Hana for Intrastat reporting purposes (as we were doing in ECC). For all other screening activities, we will keep GTS as is.

Thank you and I will update the thread once we have a final decision,

Apostolos