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Welcome back to the next blog in the SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2-tier ERP blog series.
In the last one, we discussed about various financial consolidation concepts, I think are relevant in a 2 Tier deployment model.
In this blog, let’s take a look at financial planning, API based approach to consolidation and cash management in a 2-tier deployment model.
To recollect from my last blog, we were looking at the following options for financial consolidation
In this list, I covered the first 3 in my previous blog. So lets get started with the fourth option in this blog.
API based approach to make subsidiary running S/4HANA Cloud, financial data available to Headquarters for group consolidation
In many customer environments, the landscape would be a hybrid one (SAP + non SAP systems). For such cases, I can think of a more open standards based approach like APIs to help connect subsidiaries with OnPremise systems. This is where SAP’s approach to whitelist APIs would help.
For list of all available whitelisted APIs, refer to SAP API Business Hub https://api.sap.com
In the SAP API Business Hub, the API packages which would be of special interest for this topic are:
Under SAP S/4HANA Finance, category Accounting API, we have APIs to read Trail balance, read journal entries, financial master etc..
You would need a platform like SAP Cloud Platform to “prepare” the data read from S/4HANA Cloud system and make it available to an Onpremise system for final group consolidation.
With this, I feel we have covered all possible options for enabling financial consolidation at Headquarters.
The next usecase we will look at is Cash Management in a 2 Tier deployment.
Central Cash Visibility at Headquarters
The core usecase for this topic, is a need for headquarters to have a real time view of cash positions across all its subsidiaries. Currently is a tedious, offline, batch based mechanism and not a real-time view.
This enables cash pooling and even zero-balancing to be carried out at the headquarters more effectively and reduces the manual tasks needed in loading subsidiary cash position individually into headquarters.
I also see a possibility to have a SCP app which can collate cash positions across all subsidiaries and provide a central, real-time view of consolidated cash potions. (I will pen some thoughts on this in another blog)
API for this use case:
https://api.sap.com/#/shell/discover/contentpackage/SAPHCPManagementAccountingServices/api/cash_api
Financial Planning functions in 2-Tier deployment
Financial Planning can be either a Top-down approach or a Bottom-Up approach. In case of Top-down, we have central planning and KPIs are tricked down/cascaded to various entities including subsidiaries. Planning can be done either in SAP BusinessObjects Planning and Consolidation in OnPrem world or using SAP BusinessObjects Cloud for planning part of SAP BusinessObjects Cloud.
In case of top down planning, I would leverage central planning function either in SAP BusinessObjects Planning and Consolidation in OnPrem world or SAP BusinessObjects Cloud for planning part of SAP BusinessObjects Cloud and upload the plan data into a subsidiary running S/4HANA Cloud. In case of bottom up planning, wherein the local subsidiaries would plan for their own functions based on the business case/plan and is consolidated centrally at HQ, the local plan at subsidiary can be persisted and can used to perform planned vs actual comparisons. For such Plan Vs Actual comparison, I would leverage SAP RealSpend SAP Cloud Platform app.
With this, I would like to end this blog in which we discussed the API based approach to enable Financial consolidation, Cash Visibility at HQ via API and Financial planning in a 2-tier deployment model.
Stay tuned for the next blog in this series on Procurement in 2Tier model.
For more information on SAP S/4HANA Cloud, check out the following links:
Follow us via @SAP and #S/4HANA or connect with me via srivatsan.santhanam
In the last one, we discussed about various financial consolidation concepts, I think are relevant in a 2 Tier deployment model.
In this blog, let’s take a look at financial planning, API based approach to consolidation and cash management in a 2-tier deployment model.
To recollect from my last blog, we were looking at the following options for financial consolidation
- Connectivity to Central Finance system running OnPremise with embedded planning and consolidation from a subsidiary running S/4HANA Cloud
- Connectivity to OnPremise SAP BPC on SAP BW from a subsidiary running S/4HANA Cloud
- Cloud based consolidation on S/4HANA Cloud
- API based approach to make subsidiary running S/4HANA Cloud, financial data available to Headquarters for group consolidation
In this list, I covered the first 3 in my previous blog. So lets get started with the fourth option in this blog.
API based approach to make subsidiary running S/4HANA Cloud, financial data available to Headquarters for group consolidation
In many customer environments, the landscape would be a hybrid one (SAP + non SAP systems). For such cases, I can think of a more open standards based approach like APIs to help connect subsidiaries with OnPremise systems. This is where SAP’s approach to whitelist APIs would help.
For list of all available whitelisted APIs, refer to SAP API Business Hub https://api.sap.com
In the SAP API Business Hub, the API packages which would be of special interest for this topic are:
- SAP S/4HANA Cloud
- SAP S/4HANA Finance
Under SAP S/4HANA Finance, category Accounting API, we have APIs to read Trail balance, read journal entries, financial master etc..
You would need a platform like SAP Cloud Platform to “prepare” the data read from S/4HANA Cloud system and make it available to an Onpremise system for final group consolidation.
With this, I feel we have covered all possible options for enabling financial consolidation at Headquarters.
The next usecase we will look at is Cash Management in a 2 Tier deployment.
Central Cash Visibility at Headquarters
The core usecase for this topic, is a need for headquarters to have a real time view of cash positions across all its subsidiaries. Currently is a tedious, offline, batch based mechanism and not a real-time view.
This enables cash pooling and even zero-balancing to be carried out at the headquarters more effectively and reduces the manual tasks needed in loading subsidiary cash position individually into headquarters.
I also see a possibility to have a SCP app which can collate cash positions across all subsidiaries and provide a central, real-time view of consolidated cash potions. (I will pen some thoughts on this in another blog)
API for this use case:
https://api.sap.com/#/shell/discover/contentpackage/SAPHCPManagementAccountingServices/api/cash_api
Financial Planning functions in 2-Tier deployment
Financial Planning can be either a Top-down approach or a Bottom-Up approach. In case of Top-down, we have central planning and KPIs are tricked down/cascaded to various entities including subsidiaries. Planning can be done either in SAP BusinessObjects Planning and Consolidation in OnPrem world or using SAP BusinessObjects Cloud for planning part of SAP BusinessObjects Cloud.
In case of top down planning, I would leverage central planning function either in SAP BusinessObjects Planning and Consolidation in OnPrem world or SAP BusinessObjects Cloud for planning part of SAP BusinessObjects Cloud and upload the plan data into a subsidiary running S/4HANA Cloud. In case of bottom up planning, wherein the local subsidiaries would plan for their own functions based on the business case/plan and is consolidated centrally at HQ, the local plan at subsidiary can be persisted and can used to perform planned vs actual comparisons. For such Plan Vs Actual comparison, I would leverage SAP RealSpend SAP Cloud Platform app.
With this, I would like to end this blog in which we discussed the API based approach to enable Financial consolidation, Cash Visibility at HQ via API and Financial planning in a 2-tier deployment model.
Stay tuned for the next blog in this series on Procurement in 2Tier model.
For more information on SAP S/4HANA Cloud, check out the following links:
- S/4HANA cloud release information: http://www.sap.com/s4-cloudrelease
- SAP S/4HANA Cloud use case series
- Best practices for SAP S/4HANA Cloud here
- S/4HANA Cloud 2-Tier ERP series: The Collection here
Follow us via @SAP and #S/4HANA or connect with me via srivatsan.santhanam
