New GL documentaion in ECC 6.0

Question

I appreciate if someone can post some notes or documentation on New GL in 6.0.
Thank you
Kumar K

Answer 1

Hello
Take a print out or copy desktop and go through the below documentation:
General Ledger Accounting (FI-GL) (New) 
Purpose
The central task of G/L accounting is to provide a comprehensive picture of external accounting and accounts. Recording all business transactions (primary postings as well as settlements from internal accounting) in a software system that is fully integrated with all the other operational areas of a company ensures that the accounting data is always complete and accurate.
Beyond fulfilling the legal requirements, General Ledger Accounting also fulfills other requirements for modern accounting:
•        Parallel Accounting
General Ledger Accounting allows you to perform parallel accounting by managing several parallel ledgers for different accounting principles.
•        Integration of Legal and Management Reporting
In General Ledger Accounting, you can perform internal management reporting in parallel with legal reporting. For this purpose, the  Profit Center Accounting functions are integrated with General Ledger Accounting. Furthermore, you can generate financial statements for any dimension (such as profit center).
•        Segment Reporting
General Ledger Accounting supports the segment reports required by the accounting principles IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards) and US GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles). For this purpose, General Ledger Accounting contains the Segment dimension.
•        Cost of Sales Accounting
You can perform cost of sales accounting in General Ledger Accounting. For this purpose, General Ledger Accounting contains the Functional Area dimension.
Integration
General Ledger Accounting is integrated with all application components of the SAP System that generate posting data of relevance to General Ledger Accounting:
•         Asset Accounting (FI-AA)
•         FI Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable
•         Controlling (CO)
•         Materials Management (MM)
•         Human Capital Management (HCM)
•         Treasury and Risk Management (TRM) 
•         Travel Management (FI-TV)
•         Public Sector Management - Funds Management Government (PSM-FM)
When you activate the business function set Public Sector (EA-PS) and the global functions Funds Management (PSM-FM), you obtain a separate set of tables containing the Public Sector account assignments, such as fund and grant.
Features
General Ledger Accounting comprises the following functions for entering and evaluating posting data:
•        Choice between group level or company level
•        Automatic and simultaneous posting of all subledger items in the appropriate general ledger accounts (reconciliation accounts)
•        Simultaneous updating of the parallel general ledgers and of the cost accounting areas
•        Real-time evaluation of and reporting on current posting data, in the form of account displays, financial statements with different balance sheet versions, and additional analyses.
In this way, General Ledger Accounting automatically serves as a complete record of all business transactions. It is the central and up-to-date component for reporting. Individual transactions can be checked at any time in real time by displaying the original documents, line items, and monthly debits and credits at various levels such as:
•        Account information
•        Journals
•        Totals/transaction figures
•        Balance sheet/profit and loss evaluations
Configuring New General Ledger Accounting 
Purpose
Before you can start working with the functions of New General Ledger Accounting, you have to activate them and make the general settings for Accounting. Furthermore, you have to configure the ledgers you use in General Ledger Accounting. On the basis of this data, you set up the integration with Controlling (CO) and, where applicable, your parallel accounting.
Process Flow
1.     ...
1.            1.      Activate New General Ledger Accounting. For information on this, see Activating General Ledger Accounting.
2.            2.      Make the general settings for the fiscal year, the posting periods, and the currencies.
You find the settings for the fiscal year and posting periods in Customizing for Financial Accounting (New) under Financial Accounting Global Settings (New) ® Ledgers ® Fiscal Year and Posting Periods.
3.            3.      Configure your ledgers.
4.            4.      Define the integration with Controlling.
5.            5.      Where applicable, set up parallel accounting.
Activating General Ledger Accounting 
Use
To make the settings and use the functions in General Ledger Accounting, you have to activate it. To do this, in Customizing choose Financial Accounting ® Financial Accounting Global Settings ® Activate New General Ledger Accounting.
Features
Activating General Ledger Accounting has the following effects:
●     The Customizing settings for General Ledger Accounting appear in the SAP Reference IMG. You access the settings under Financial Accounting (New) ® Financial Accounting Global Settings (New) and General Ledger Accounting (New).
●     The General Ledger Accounting functions appear in the SAP Easy Access menu under Accounting ® Financial Accounting ® General Ledger.
●     The tables for new General Ledger Accounting are activated and updated.
In the standard system, the tables from classic General Ledger Accounting (GLT0) are updated as well as the tables in new General Ledger Accounting during the activation. This enables you to perform a ledger comparison during the implementation of new General Ledger Accounting to ensure that your new General Ledger Accounting has the correct settings and is working correctly. To compare ledgers, in Customizing choose Financial Accounting Global Settings (New) ® Tools ® Compare Ledgers.
We recommend that you deactivate the update of tables for classic General Ledger Accounting once you have established that new General Ledger Accounting is working correctly. To do this, in Customizing choose Financial Accounting Global Settings (New) ® Tools ® Deactivate Update of Classic General Ledger.
In some of the General Ledger Accounting functions, you can use the Ledger Group field, such as for posting.
●     The following functions are available:
Document Splitting
Real-Time Integration of Controlling with Financial Accounting
Functions for Profit Center Accounting (such as statistical key figures and transfer prices)
Fiscal Year 
Definition
Usually a period of twelve months for which a company regularly creates financial statements and checks inventories.
The fiscal year may correspond exactly to the calendar year, but this is not obligatory.
Under certain circumstances a fiscal year may be less than twelve months (shortened fiscal year).
Structure
A fiscal year is divided into posting periods. Each posting period is defined by a start and a finish date. Before you can post documents, you must define posting periods, which in turn define the fiscal year.
In addition to the posting periods, you can also define special periods for year-end closing.
In General Ledger Accounting, a fiscal year can have a maximum of twelve posting periods and four special periods. You can define up to 366 posting periods in the Special Purpose Ledger.
Use
In order to assign business transactions to different time periods, you must define a fiscal year with posting periods. Defining the fiscal year is obligatory.
You define your fiscal year as fiscal year variants which you then assign to your company code. One fiscal year variant can be used by several company codes.
You have the following options for defining fiscal year variants:
•     Fiscal year same as calendar year
•     Fiscal year differs from calendar year (non-calendar fiscal year). The posting periods can also be different to the calendar months.
You define your fiscal year variants in Customizing for Financial Accounting as follows: Financial Accounting Global Settings  Fiscal Year  Maintain Fiscal Year Variant (Maintain Shortened Fiscal Year)
Integration
When you enter a posting, the system automatically determines the posting period. For more information, see Determining Posting Periods During Posting
In the general ledger, the system saves the transaction figures for all accounts for each posting period and each special period separately according to debits and credits. In the Special Purpose Ledger component (FI-SL), you can save the transaction figures as a balance.
Currencies 
Definition
Legal means of payment in a country.
Use
For each monetary amount that you enter in the SAP System, you must specify a currency. You enter currencies as the ISO standards, for example, USD for US dollar.
You define currencies in Customizing. To do this, choose General Settings  Currencies  Check Currency Codes.
In Financial Accounting, you have to specify for each of your company codes, in which currency ledgers should be managed. This currency is the national currency of the company code, that is, the local currency (or company code currency). From a company code view, all other currencies are then foreign currencies.
You can manage ledgers in two parallel currencies in addition to the local currency, for example, group currency or hard currency. For more information, see Parallel Currencies.
In order for the system to translate amounts into various currencies, you must define exchange rates. For each currency pair, you can define different exchange rates and then differentiate between them by using exchange rate types.
Integration
In Financial Accounting, currencies and currency translation are relevant in the following circumstances:
     General Ledger      Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable
Account master data     Defining account currencies
Defining reconciliation accounts
Posting      Posting documents in foreign currency
Clearing     Clearing open items in foreign currency
Foreign currency valuation      Foreign currency valuation
Parallel Currencies in Financial Accounting 
Use
In Financial Accounting, you can define up to two parallel currencies in addition to the local currency. Your ledgers are thereby managed in these parallel currencies in addition to the local currency.
You can use various different currency types as parallel currencies.  You define the currency for a currency type when you define the organizational units.
•        Group Currency
You define the group currency when you define your client.
•        Company Currency
You define the company currency when you define the company that is assigned to your company code.
•        Hard Currency
You define the hard currency when you define the country that your company code is assigned to.
•        Index-Based Currency
You define the index currency when you define the country that your company code is assigned to.
You can use a maximum of two parallel currencies (second and third local currencies).
If you have defined the group currency as the second local currency, this has no additional effects.  In all other cases, in the application component  Special Purpose Ledger you have to define an additional ledger in which transaction figures are managed.
Features
If you manage your ledgers in parallel currencies, this has the following effects:
•        During posting, the amounts are also saved in the parallel currencies.  The amounts are translated automatically, but you can also enter them manually.
•        G/L account transaction figures are also updated in the parallel currencies.
•        Exchange rate differences also arise in the parallel currencies.
•        You can also carry out a foreign currency valuation in the parallel currencies.
Activities
To define parallel currencies, proceed as follows in Customizing for Financial Accounting: Financial Accounting Global Settings ® Company Code ® Parallel Currencies.
Local Currency Changeover (FI-GL) (New) 
Use
In New General Ledger Accounting, you can change your local currencies to the euro. For more information, see the general documentation for  Local Currency Changeover.
Prerequisites
You find these reports in Customizing for Cross-Application Components once you have activated New General Ledger Accounting.
Features
Translating local currency amounts can lead to rounding differences, which can mean that the converted currency amounts for each document do not produce a balance of zero. This is corrected automatically with the insertion of a correction document item with an account assignment relevant to general ledger accounting. These processes are run automatically for all phases of the local currency changeover.
If you migrate data from classic General Ledger Accounting into New General Ledger Accounting, note that you do not perform the euro changeover in the year of the migration. Clear all migrated open items in the migration year and perform the local currency changeover in the year following the migration. Consequently, in the year in which you then perform the local currency changeover, you no longer have any open items prior to the migration event.
Activities
You find the programs for the local currency changeover in the Implementation Guide for Cross-Application Components under European Monetary Union: Euro ®Local Currency Changeover.
See the important notes in the  general documentation and in the documentation of the IMG activities.
Configuring Ledgers 
Purpose
Before you can start working with the functions of new General Ledger Accounting, you have to configure the ledgers. When you have planned the data structure for General Ledger Accounting, you can reflect it in Customizing in your SAP system.
You configure ledgers. The term ledger describes a technical view of a database table and it is used in this documentation as a synonym for a general ledger.
Prerequisites
•        You have activated New General Ledger Accounting .
•        You have made the general settings for the fiscal year, the posting periods, and the currencies.
Process Flow
To configure the ledgers for General Ledger Accounting, proceed as follows:
2.     ...
6.            1.      Define the standard fields that you require. You make the settings in Customizing for Financial Accounting (New) under Financial Accounting Global Settings (New) ® Ledgers ® Fields ® Standard Fields.
7.            2.      You can also define your own fields. For more information, see Customer Field.
8.            3.      Create your ledgers and ledger groups and configure them. See Ledger and Ledger Group.
9.            4.      Assign the desired scenarios to your ledgers. Read the information under Scenario in General Ledger Accounting.
Result
You have configured ledgers in General Ledger Accounting and can now create your master data (such as chart of accounts, G/L accounts, segment, and profit center).
Totals Tables 
Definition
A totals table is a database table in which totals records are stored.
A totals table is used in General Ledger Accounting as the basis for your parallel ledgers. It offers a number of dimensions. SAP delivers the totals table FAGLFLEXT for General Ledger Accounting in the standard system.
Use
Standard Totals Table
When you activate new General Ledger Accounting, the totals records in General Ledger Accounting are updated in the standard totals table FAGLFLEXT. This totals table is deployed in functions such as planning and reporting.
SAP recommends working with the standard totals table delivered. In this way, you ensure that you can use the functions based on the standard totals table.
Own Totals Table
If the standard totals table delivered does not fulfill your requirements, you can define your own totals table. To do this, in Customizing for Financial Accounting (New), choose Financial Accounting Global Settings (New) ® Ledgers ® Fields ® Customer Fields® Include Fields in Totals Table. Choose Extras ® Create Table Group.
When a totals table is created, the system simultaneously generates the corresponding line items table. For more information on creating table groups, see the SAP Library under Financials ® Financial Accounting ® Special Purpose Ledger ® Configuration ® Database Tables ®  Database Definition and Installation.
You can include your own dimensions in the totals table. For more information, see Customer Fields.
Ledger 
Definition
A ledger is a section of a database table. A ledger only contains those dimensions of the totals table that the ledger is based on and that are required for reporting.
Use
In General Ledger Accounting, you can use several ledgers in parallel. This allows you to produce financial statements according to different accounting principles, for example. You create a ledger for each of the general ledgers you need.
A ledger uses several dimensions from the totals table it is based on. Each dimension of the totals table represents a subset of the coding block. You can also include customer fields in your ledgers. To do this, you have to add the customer field to the coding block and then include this field in the totals table that the ledger is based on. For more information, see Customer Fields.
You define your ledgers in Customizing for Financial Accounting (New) under Financial Accounting Global Settings (New) ®  Ledgers ®  Ledgers. When you create a ledger, the system automatically creates a ledger group with the same name.
Structure
You must designate one ledger as the leading ledger.
Parallel ledgers:
•        Leading ledger
The leading ledger is based on the same accounting principle as that of the consolidated financial statements.
If you use the account approach for parallel accounting, you post all data to the leading ledger.
This leading ledger is integrated with all subsidiary ledgers and is updated in all company codes. This means that it is automatically assigned to all company codes.
In each company code, the leading ledger receives exactly the same settings that apply to that company code: the currencies, the fiscal year variant, and the variant of the posting periods. You can define a second and third parallel currency for your leading ledger for each company code. In Customizing for Financial Accounting (New), choose Financial Accounting Global Settings (New) ® Ledgers ® Ledgers ® Define Currencies of Leading Ledger.
•        Non-leading ledger
The non-leading ledgers are parallel ledgers to the leading ledger. They can be based on a local accounting principle, for example. You have to activate a non-leading ledger for the individual company codes.
Posting procedures with subledger or G/L accounts managed on an open item basis always affect all ledgers. This means that you cannot perform ledger-specific postings to subledger or G/L accounts managed on an open item basis. If you manage G/L accounts on an open item basis to monitor accounting aspects such as reserve allocations and reversals, you need to take additional measures in your internal controls system.
Non-leading ledgers can have different fiscal year variants and different posting period variants per company code to the leading ledger of this company code. The second and third currency of the non-leading ledger must be a currency that is managed as second or third currency in the respective company code. However, you do not have to have a second and third currency in the parallel ledgers; these are optional. Alternative currencies are not possible.
For more information about parallel currencies, see Managing Parallel Currencies in Parallel Ledgers.
Rollup ledgers:
In addition to your parallel ledgers, you can also define a rollup ledger for special reporting purposes. In a rollup ledger, you can combine summarized data from other ledgers in General Ledger Accounting. This enables you to compile cumulated reports on different ledgers.
Day ledgers:
You use a day ledger to create a day ledger if you want to create reports for average balances (reports for displaying average daily balances). You can activate the day ledger for drilldown reporting.
You may not define day ledgers as the leading ledger or as the representative ledger in a ledger group.
Example
You create your consolidated financial statements in accordance with the IAS accounting principles. Your individual company codes apply the local accounting principles US GAAP or German HGB to produce their financial statements. You therefore create three ledgers:
•        Ledger LL (leading ledger) that is managed according to the group accounting principle
•        Ledger L1 (non-leading ledger) that you activate for all company codes that apply US GAAP
•        Ledger L2 (non-leading ledger) that you activate for all company codes that apply HGB
Making Settings for Ledgers 
Use
In General Ledger Accounting, you can use several parallel general ledgers. You do this to produce financial statements according to different accounting principles, for example. You create a ledger for each of the general ledgers you need. You must check the settings of your leading ledger even if you do not use parallel ledgers.
Procedure
You make the settings listed below in Customizing for Financial Accounting (new) under Financial Accounting Global Settings (New) ® Ledgers ® Ledgers.
3.     ...
10.            1.      Define Ledgers for General Ledger Accounting
Define your ledgers and designate one ledger as leading ledger (see also Ledgers).
When you create a ledger, the system automatically creates a ledger group with the same name.
11.            2.      Define Currencies of Leading Ledger
If necessary, define a second and third parallel currency for your leading ledger for each company code.
For more information, see Managing Parallel Currencies in Parallel Ledgers.
The following settings are optional:
12.            3.      Define and Activate Non-Leading Ledgers
If you use parallel ledgers, define your non-leading ledgers. If necessary, create alternative additional currencies or an alternative fiscal year variant.
13.            4.      Assign Scenarios and Customer Fields to Ledgers
Here you can assign the following to your ledgers:
•             Scenarios
•             Customer Fields
•             Versions
In versions, you define general settings for the ledger that are fiscal year-dependent. You specify whether actual data is recorded, whether manual planning is allowed, and whether planning integration with Controlling is activated.
14.            5.      Activate Cost of Sales Accounting
Activate cost of sales accounting for your company codes if required. If you do this, the functional area is derived and updated for postings in these company codes. For information about the prerequisites for cost of sales accounting, see the documentation for this IMG activity.
15.            6.      Define Ledger Group
You can combine any number of ledgers in a ledger group. In this way, you simplify the tasks in the individual functions of General Ledger Accounting.
For more information, see Ledger Groups.
Result
You have made all of the settings required for your ledgers.
For parallel accounting, you can now assign an accounting principle to your ledgers.
Ledger Groups 
Definition
A ledger group is a combination of ledgers for the purpose of applying the functions and processes of General Ledger Accounting to the group as a whole.
Use
You can combine any number of ledgers in a ledger group. In this way, you simplify the tasks in the individual functions and processes of General Ledger Accounting. For example, you can make a posting simultaneously in several ledgers.
In some General Ledger Accounting functions, you can only specify a ledger group and not individual ledgers. This has the following consequences for the creation of your ledger groups:
•        Each ledger is also created automatically as a ledger group of the same name. You can use these automatically created ledger groups to process an individual ledger.
•        You only have to create those ledger groups that you want to process together in a function using processing for several ledgers.
•        If you do not enter a ledger group, processing is performed automatically for all ledgers. You therefore do not need to create a ledger group for all ledgers.
You define your ledger groups in Customizing for Financial Accounting (new) under Financial Accounting Global Settings (New) ® Ledgers ® Ledgers ® Define Ledger Group.
Structure
Representative Ledger of a Ledger Group
When you define each ledger group, you have to designate one of the assigned ledgers as the representative ledger for that ledger group. The system uses the representative ledger to determine the posting period during posting and to check whether the posting period is open. The posting is then made to the assigned ledgers of the ledger group using the appropriate fiscal year variant for each individual ledger.
When the posting periods of the representative ledger are open, the postings are made to all other assigned ledgers, even if their posting periods are closed.
The following rules apply for the specification of the representative ledger of a ledger group:
•        If the ledger group has a leading ledger, the leading ledger must be designated as the representative ledger.
•        If the ledger group does not have a leading ledger, you must designate one of the assigned ledgers as the representative ledger. During posting, the system uses the fiscal year variant of the company code to check whether the selection is correct:
•             If all ledgers in the ledger group have a different fiscal year variant to that of the company code, you can designate any ledger as the representative ledger.
•             If one of the ledgers in the ledger group has the same fiscal year variant as that of the company code, you must designate that ledger as the representative ledger.
You may be unable to use the same ledger group for all company codes. In that case, you have to create separate ledger groups and, in each one, designate a different ledger as the representative ledger.
Day Ledger 
Definition
A day ledger is a totals table with a fiscal year variant of 366 periods and containing all original postings for the general ledger.
Use
You create a day ledger if you want to create reports for average balances (reports for displaying average daily balances). You can activate the day ledger for drilldown reporting. For more information, refer to SAP Note 599692.
You may not define day ledgers as the leading ledger or as the representative ledger in a ledger group.
Example
When defining a cycle for a ledger, you can specify a ledger group.
You can define this ledger group so that it contains the source ledger and the day ledger.
Note, however, that an allocation is posted as period-end closing on the last day of the period.
Let us assume that you have made the following postings:
Date     Amount in EUR
January 5     100
January 8     200
January 17     300
February 5     400
This results in the following balances in the ledgers:
Leading Ledger (16 Periods)
Period/Amount     Day Ledger
Period/Amount
1 /  600      5 /  100
2 /  400      8 /  200
     17 /  300
     36 /  400
If you perform the allocation for January (postings up until January 31), you distribute EUR 600 to other units:
Leading Ledger (16 Periods)
Period/Amount     Day Ledger
Period/Amount
1 /      0      5 /  100
2 /  400      8 /  200
     17 /  300
     31 / -600
     36 /  400
For more information on allocation in New General Ledger Accounting, see Allocation.
Customer Field 
Definition
A customer field is a database table field that is created and defined by the customer.
Use
You can include your own fields (such as the field Region) in the data structure of General Ledger Accounting. To do so, you have to make various Customizing settings. For more information, see Defining Customer Fields.
During posting, you can fill your customer fields in the following ways:
•        Automatic Derivation
You can have the system derive your customer fields automatically for all postings that are relevant for General Ledger Accounting.
•        Manual Posting
In the G/L account posting functions delivered in General Ledger Accounting, you find your customer fields as account assignment objects. For these fields to be available in the G/L account posting (Enjoy) as well, you need to assign your customer fields to the entry variant that you use during posting. For this, choose in Customizing General Ledger Accounting (New) ® Business Transactions ® G/L Account Posting - Enjoy ® Include Customer Fields in Enjoy Transactions.
In other application components (such as Logistics and Controlling), however, you cannot make postings directly to your customer fields.
Defining Customer Fields 
To include a customer field in the data structure of General Ledger Accounting, you have to make various settings in Customizing for Financial Accounting (New):
4.     ...
16.            1.      Include the field in the coding block.
For this, choose in Customizing Financial Accounting Basic Settings (New) ® Ledgers ® Fields ® Customer Fields ® Edit Coding Block.
17.            2.      Include the field in the totals table that your ledgers are based on.
For this, choose in Customizing Financial Accounting Basic Settings (New) ® Ledgers ® Fields ® Customer Fields ® Include Fields in Totals Table.
18.            3.      Assign the field to the desired ledgers.
For this, choose in Customizing Financial Accounting Basic Settings (New) ® Ledgers ® Ledger ® Assign Scenarios and Customer Fields to Ledgers.
Scenario in General Ledger Accounting 
Definition
The scenario combines Customizing settings from different business views. Each business view specifies which posting data is transferred from different application components in General Ledger Accounting, such as cost center update or profit center update.
Use
You assign the desired scenarios to your ledgers. For each ledger, you define which fields are filled with posting data from other application components.
•        To assign a scenario to a ledger, in Customizing for Financial Accounting (New), choose Financial Accounting Global Settings (New) ® Ledgers ® Ledgers ® Assign Scenarios and Customer Fields to Ledgers (see also Making Settings for Ledgers).
SAP delivers a number of scenarios in the standard system. You cannot define your own scenarios.
•        To display the fields for a scenario, in Customizing for Financial Accounting (New), choose Financial Accounting Global Settings (New) ® Ledgers ® Fields ® Display Scenarios for General Ledger Accounting.
Structure
For each scenario, the system transfers the posting data relevant for General Ledger Accounting from the actual and plan documents.
Overview of the Scenarios Delivered by SAP
Scenario     Fields Filled     Technical Field Name
Cost center update     Cost center
Sender cost center     RCNTR
SCNTR
Preparation for consolidation     Trading partner
Transaction type     RASSC
RMVCT
Business area     Business area
Trading partner business area     RBUSA
SBUSA
Profit center update     Profit center
Partner profit center     PPRCTR
PRCTR
Segmentation     Profit center
Segment
Partner segment     PRCTR
PSEGMENT
SEGMENT
Cost of sales accounting     Functional area
Partner functional area     RFAREA
SFAREA
You have to set up cost of sales accounting. The Functional Area field is not filled automatically by the assignment of the scenario to your ledger. For more information, see Activating Cost of Sales Accounting.
Integration
If you use document splitting, define the fields of a scenario that you have assigned to the ledger as document splitting characteristics.
For more information, see Making Settings for Document Splitting.
Cost of Sales Accounting 
Use
The profit and loss statement of an organization can be created according to two different procedures:
•        Period accounting
•        Cost of sales accounting
Cost of sales accounting compares the sales revenue for an accounting period with the manufacturing costs of the activity. The expenses are allocated to the commercial functional areas (manufacturing, sales and distribution, administration, and so on). Expenses and revenues that cannot be assigned to the functional areas are reported in further profit and loss items, sorted according to expense and revenue type.
With this type of grouping, cost of sales accounting identifies where costs originate in a company. It therefore portrays the commercial purpose of the expense.
Prerequisites
You have made the required settings in Customizing. For more information, see Activating Cost of Sales Accounting.
Real-Time Integration of Controlling with Financial Accounting 
Use
During allocations in Controlling, most of the postings created do not affect Financial Accounting. These postings do not update any G/L account transaction figures; they are postings within Controlling. If, however, an allocation in Controlling leads to a change in the functional area or any other characteristic (such as Profit Center or Segment) that is relevant for evaluations in Financial Accounting, a shift occurs between the affected items in the profit and loss statement. For this reason, this information has to be transferred to Financial Accounting. This reconciliation between Controlling and Financial Accounting takes place by means of real-time integration.
As a result of real-time integration, all Controlling documents that are relevant for General Ledger Accounting are transferred from Controlling to General Ledger Accounting in real time. This means that Financial Accounting is always reconciled with Controlling.
A document is created in Financial Accounting for each posting in Controlling. This means that the detailed information contained in the CO documents is always available in reports in New General Ledger Accounting. This information can be sorted by the following, for example:
●     Functional area
●     Cost center
●     Internal order
Integration
Real-time integration replaces the  reconciliation postings from the reconciliation ledger. Consequently, you do not need a reconciliation ledger.
If, however, you do not set the Reconciliation Ledger Active indicator in Customizing for the controlling area, you cannot use the reports belonging to report groups 5A* (5AA1-5AW1). You set this indicator in Customizing for Controlling under General Controlling ® Organization ® Maintain Controlling Area. The reconciliation ledger serves as the data source for reports belonging to the report groups 5A*. You find these reports in the SAP Easy Access menu under Accounting ® Controlling ® Cost Element Accounting ® Information System ® Reports for Cost and Revenue Element Accounting.
Replacement reports are available as follows:
●     You find the reports in the SAP Easy Access menu under Accounting ® Controlling ® Cost Element Accounting ® Information System ® Reports for Cost and Revenue Element Accounting (New).
●     You can create additional reports in report group 5A21. You can assign the report group to any drilldown report of New General Ledger Accounting using the report-report interface.
●     From the report Financial Statements Actual/Actual Comparison, you can call up the report Cost Elements: Breakdown by Company Code. You find the report Financial Statement: Actual/Actual Comparison in the SAP Easy Access menu under Accounting ® Financial Accounting ® General Ledger ® Information System ® General Ledger Reports (New) ® Balance Sheet/Profit and Loss Statement/Cash Flow ® General ® Actual/Actual Comparisons.
You can define account determination for each controlling area. You do this in Customizing for Financial Accounting (New) under Financial Accounting Global Settings (New) ® Ledgers ® Real-Time Integration of Controlling with Financial Accounting ® Account Determination for Real-Time Integration. In this way, you use the same  account determination as for the reconciliation ledger (transaction OK17). You can then use the reconciliation ledger reports to compare FI balances with CO balances.
Prerequisites
If you use real-time integration in at least one company code, you need to have activated company code validation for the related controlling area. You do this in Customizing for Controlling under General Controlling ® Organization ® Maintain Controlling Area ® Activate Components/Control Indicators. Otherwise, the reconciliation between Financial Accounting and Controlling at company code level is not possible.
In Customizing for Financial Accounting (New), you have processed the IMG activities under Financial Accounting Global Settings (New) ® Ledgers ® Real-Time Integration of Controlling with Financial Accounting.
Activate real-time integration for all company codes between which you want to make CO-internal allocations.
In the IMG activity Define Variants for Real-Time Integration, do not select all CO line items for transfer. If the same line items are to be transferred as through the reconciliation posting from the reconciliation ledger, select the following line items:
•     ●      Cross-Company Code
•     ●      Cross-Business Area
•     ●      Cross-Functional Area
•     ●      Cross-Fund (if you use Public Sector Management)
•     ●      Cross-Grant (if you use Public Sector Management)
Features
Value flows within Controlling that are relevant for General Ledger Accounting – such as assessments, distributions, confirmations, and CO-internal settlements – are transferred immediately. The FI documents are posted with the business transaction COFI. They contain the number of the CO document. This means that you can call up the CO document from the FI document, and vice versa.
Activities
If a document could not be transferred because the posting period was blocked in Financial Accounting or no account was found, for example, the document is included in a postprocessing worklist. You need to check this worklist regularly and process any documents in it. From the SAP Easy Access menu, choose Accounting ® Financial Accounting ® General Ledger ® Corrections ®Post CO Documents to FI.
Example
An internal order for business area 0001 is settled to a cost center of business area 0002. The document from this allocation is transferred in real time to Financial Accounting.
Parallel Accounting 
Purpose
You can portray parallel accounting in your SAP System. This enables you to perform valuations and closing preparations for a company code according to the accounting principles of the group as well as other accounting principles, such as local accounting principles.
To simplify matters, this documentation assumes two parallel accounting principles.
Implementation Considerations
You can use the following approaches to portray parallel accounting in your SAP System.
•        Portrayal Using Additional Accounts
•        Portrayal Using Parallel Ledgers
You can also continue to use the option for portraying parallel accounting using an additional company code. However, this approach is not supported by all application components. For more information, see Portrayal Using Additional Company Code.
The solution scenarios described require that you have customized the application components that you use consistently.
For information about the settings for parallel accounting for the individual components, see the links in the list under “Integration”.
Integration
Parallel accounting is supported by the following application components:
•        Financial Accounting (FI)
•        Asset Accounting (FI-AA)
•        Corporate Finance Management (CFM)
•        Controlling (CO)
•        Inventory Accounting (MM and ML)
For information about the general settings for parallel accounting, see Defining and Assigning Accounting Principles.
Example
Parallel accounting is necessary for a German subsidiary of an American group. The German subsidiary has to create financial statements according to the accounting principles of the group (such as US GAAP) as well as according to German commercial law (HGB).
Portraying Parallel Accounting 
Use
You can use the following approaches to portray parallel accounting in your SAP System:
•        Portrayal Using Additional Accounts
•        Portrayal Using Parallel Ledgers
You can also continue to use the option for portraying parallel accounting using an additional company code. However, this approach is not supported by all application components. For more information, see Portrayal Using Additional Company Code.
Portrayal Using Additional Accounts 
Use
You can portray parallel accounting in your SAP System by creating additional accounts. This means that you have different account areas:
•        One joint account area for postings that are the same for both accounting principles
•        One area with specific accounts for each accounting principle. Each business transaction that, dependent on the accounting principle, leads to a different posting, is posted to the corresponding specific account area.
When you perform closing according to a specific accounting principle, the common accounts and the specific accounts for this accounting principle are evaluated.
Account Areas for Portraying Parallel Accounting Using Additional Accounts
All methods of parallel valuation in the SAP System (such as value adjustments or results analysis) support parallel accounting using additional accounts.
The additional accounts approach is particularly useful if the number of valuation differences in your accounting principles is limited and a larger number of general ledger accounts is acceptable.
Prerequisites
If you introduce this approach, note the following:
•        Systematic Assignment of Account Numbers
Before you create the general ledger accounts for the specific account areas, you should set up a concept for number assignment.
•        Retained Earnings Account and Balance Carryforward
You can manage a separate retained earnings account for each accounting principle. This means that, at a fiscal year change, you can carry forward the balances of the profit and loss accounts from the specific account areas to the retained earnings account specified. You only have to carry forward the balances once.
When you create the general ledger accounts for the specific account areas, make sure that you assign a separate P&L statement account type for each account area. Then assign a separate retained earnings account to each P&L statement account type.
For more information, see Balance Carryforward.
Features
•        Financial Statement Versions
You can create a separate financial statement version for each accounting principle. This means that when you create financial statements, you can select a separate structure for each accounting principle.
•        Complete Postings versus Difference Postings
You can perform parallel postings in the specific account areas either as complete postings in both areas or as difference postings:
•             In Asset Accounting (FI-AA), both difference postings and complete postings are supported.
•             All other application components (FI, CO, CFM) support only complete postings.
•             The Material Ledger supports only difference postings.
•        Reporting
For reporting, you can use the following tools in this approach:
•              Drilldown Reporting
•              Report Painter/Report Writer
•             To create financial statements, you can use the report Financial Statements (RFBILA00)
Activities
Create accounts that can be posted to in the company code. From the SAP Easy Access screen, choose Accounting ® Financial Accounting ® General Ledger ® Master Data ® General Ledger Accounts ® Individual Processing ®
•        Centrally
•        In Chart of Accounts
•        In Company Code
Portrayal Using Parallel Ledgers 
Use
In General Ledger Accounting, you can perform parallel accounting by running several parallel ledgers (general ledgers) for different accounting principles. During posting, you can post data to all ledgers, to a specified selection of ledgers, or to a single ledger:
The data required according to the accounting principle for the consolidated financial statements is managed in the leading ledger of the general ledger (see also Ledgers). This leading ledger is integrated with all subsidiary ledgers and is updated in all company codes. This means that it is automatically assigned to all company codes.
For each additional (parallel) accounting principle, create an additional (non-leading) ledger in General Ledger Accounting.
SAP recommends that you implement this parallel ledger approach if the number of general ledger accounts would be unmanageable for the scenario using additional accounts.
Advantages:
1.     You manage a separate ledger for each accounting principle.
2.     You can use standard reporting for the leading ledger and all other parallel ledgers.
3.     With this solution scenario, you can portray different fiscal year variants.
4.     The number of general ledger accounts is manageable.
Disadvantage:
1.     The use of parallel ledgers increases the volume of data.
Integration
You can post to the parallel ledgers from various different SAP application components:
Financial Accounting (FI)
Asset Accounting (FI-AA)
Treasury and Risk Management (TRM)
Controlling (CO)
Materials Management (MM)
Prerequisites
To portray parallel accounting using parallel ledgers, you have to make various settings in Customizing.
For information about the general settings, see Defining and Assigning Accounting Principles.
For information about the settings in the components, see the documentation for parallel accounting in the listed application components.
Features
You can use the following functions for your parallel ledgers:
Complete ledger
Parallel ledgers are always managed as complete ledgers. This means that all postings where there are no valuation differences are posted to the leading and the non-leading ledgers in each company code.
Ledger group
You can combine any number of ledgers in a ledger group. In this way, you simplify the tasks in the individual functions and processes of General Ledger Accounting. This means that you can enter a posting for several ledgers simultaneously (see also Ledger Group).
Ledger selection
2.     Postings where no ledger or ledger group is specified are always updated in all ledgers.
3.     In the case of manual valuation postings, you can enter the ledger group. This posting is then only updated in the ledgers contained in this ledger group.
4.     Documents created by automatic valuations, such as the foreign currency valuation and currency translation, contain the account assignment Accounting Principle. You can assign this account assignment to a ledger group and thereby control in which ledgers this posting is to be updated.
SAP recommends that you define a separate document type for the manual postings that are only to be updated in specific ledgers.
Reporting
For reporting, you can use the following tools in this approach:
5.      Drilldown Reporting
6.      Report Painter/Report Writer
7.     To create financial statements, you can use the report Financial Statements(RFBILA00) for all ledgers.
Activities
The system performs all postings automatically according to the Customizing setting made.
Manual Postings:
You can post manual postings that are only relevant for one individual ledger using the following function in General Ledger Accounting:
From the SAP Easy Access screen, choose Accounting ® Financial Accounting ® General Ledger ® Posting ® Enter General Posting for Ledger Group.
Portrayal Using Additional Company Code 
Use
You can portray parallel accounting in your SAP System by defining an additional company code. Difference postings are created for additional accounting and posted to the additional company code. Reporting covers the actual company code and the additional company code.
Integration
The additional company code approach is only supported by the application component Financial Accounting (FI). It is no longer possible to post to an additional company code from any other application component.
If you are an upgrade customer from an R/3 Enterprise release, you can continue to use this obsolete approach in Asset Accounting (FI-AA). However, you cannot make new settings in Customizing or reconfigure the approach.
SAP recommends that you only use this approach if it is already implemented and you have no additional requirements.
Features
You can post to an additional company code with the following valuation reports:
•        Value Adjustment
•        Reclassification and Sorting of Receivables and Payables
•        Foreign Currency Valuation
In addition to the automatic postings created by the valuation reports, you can perform manual postings to the additional company code.
For more information about the settings for these reports, see Parallel Accounting in Financial Accounting.
Reporting
For reporting, you can use the following tools in this approach:
•         Drilldown Reporting
•         Report Painter/Report Writer
•        To create financial statements, you can use the report Financial Statements (RFBILA00)
Parallel Accounting in the Application Components 
Use
If you want to create financial statements according to parallel accounting principles, this means that the system has to perform different postings for each accounting principle for some business transactions. In the individual SAP application components, various functions and valuation reports are affected by the use of parallel accounting.
Integration
The following SAP application components support parallel accounting in their valuation reports and functions:
•        Financial Accounting (FI)
•        Asset Accounting (FI-AA)
•        Treasury and Risk Management (TRM)
•        Controlling (CO)
•        Materials Management (MM) and Material Ledger:
•              Material Price Change (MM-IV-MP)
•             Balance Sheet Valuation (MM-IM-VP)
•              Actual Costing/Material Ledger (CO-PC-ACT)
Parallel Accounting in Financial Accounting 
Use
In Financial Accounting, the following functions or valuation reports are affected by parallel accounting:
•        Reclassification and Sorting of Receivables and Payables
•        Value Adjustments
•        Foreign Currency Valuation
•        Currency Translation
•        Accruals
•        Provisions
Prerequisites
Prerequisites for Reclassification and Sorting of Receivables and Payables
You can use the reclassification/sorting report to reclassify and sort your receivables and payables according to sort methods that you define, such as for due date periods.
If you want to sort and reclassify the receivables and payables for different accounting principles, you have made the following settings:
5.     ...
19.            1.      You have defined the valuation areas.
To do this, in the Implementation Guide for Financial Accounting (New), choose General Ledger Accounting (New) ® Periodic Processing ® Valuate ® Define Valuation Areas.
20.            2.      You have defined the account determination for each valuation area.
To do this, in the Implementation Guide for Financial Accounting (New), choose General Ledger Accounting (New) ® Periodic Processing ® Valuate ® Reclassify ® Transfer and Sort Receivables and Payables ®
•             Define Adjustment Accounts for Receivables/Payables by Remaining Term
•             Define Adjustment Accounts for Changed Reconciliation Accounts
•             Define Adjustment Accounts for Investments
Double-click a transaction to select it. The Enter Chart of Accounts dialog box appears. Choose   with the quick info text Change Valuation Area.
21.            3.      You have defined a sort method for each valuation area.
To do this, in the Implementation Guide for Financial Accounting (New), choose General Ledger Accounting (New) ® Periodic Processing ® Valuate ® Reclassify ® Transfer and Sort Receivables and Payables.
22.            4.      To enable the execution of the postings resulting from the sorting and reclassification for your parallel accounting principle, you have made the following settings depending on the approach you have selected:
1.                                 a.      Portrayal Using Additional Accounts:
You assign an accounting principle to the valuation areas. You have already assigned accounts to the valuation areas under point 2. You create separate accounts for each type of accounting.
To do this, in the Implementation Guide for Financial Accounting (New) choose General Ledger Accounting (New) ® Periodic Processing ® Valuate ® Assign Valuation Areas and Accounting Principles.
2.                                 b.      Portrayal Using Parallel Ledgers:
You have defined the additional accounting principles and assigned them to the parallel ledgers (or ledger group) (see Defining and Assigning Accounting Principles). You then assign these accounting principles to the valuation areas as described under 4.a).
Run the sorting/reclassification valuation report separately for each accounting principle (see also Reclassification and Sorting of Receivables and Payables).
Prerequisites for Value Adjustments
If you want to perform value adjustments for doubtful receivables, you have the following options:
•        You can post the value adjustments manually.
•        You can post the value adjustments automatically using the flat-rate individual value adjustment. To do this, you have to define rules in Customizing. In these rules, you define when the system should adjust which receivables, and when the corresponding provisions are to be posted.
For more information, see Value Adjustments.
If you want to perform the value adjustment for different accounting principles, you have made the following settings:
•        You have defined the account determination for each valuation area (as in point 1 above).
•        To enable the execution of the postings resulting from the value adjustment, you have made the following settings depending on the approach you have selected:
•             Portrayal via additional accounts:
You have made the settings as described in 4.a).
•             Portrayal via parallel ledgers:
You have made the settings as described in 4.b).
Prerequisites for Foreign Currency Valuation
You use the foreign currency valuation to valuate open items posted in a foreign currency and balances of G/L accounts and balance sheet accounts managed in foreign currency. The report creates the postings that result from the valuation automatically. You have defined the account determinat