Fiscal Year Variant Implementation - Overview

SAP S/4HANA Cloud

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mickaelquesnot/
SAP
July, 2022
Version 2208
Customer
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Agenda

Fiscal Year Variant Implementation

▪ Overview

Set Fiscal Year Variant

▪ Guidance on Implementation
▪ Functional Overview

Configure Customer Defined Fiscal Year Variant

▪ Guidance on Implementation
▪ Functional Overview

Implement Alternative Fiscal Year Variant

▪ Solution Overview
▪ Guidance on Implementation
▪ Applicability for Customers already using Alternative Fiscal Year Variant Solution
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Fiscal Year Variant Implementation
Overview

The purpose of this presentation is to familiarize you with the process for adapting the standard Fiscal Year Variant (FYV) to your needs.

By default SAP S/4HANA Cloud instance is provisioned with

▪ One single controlling area
▪ Leading ledger with country specific GAAP and optionally a parallel ledger with IFRS or USGAAP for group reporting
▪ One unique Fiscal Year Variant (FYV) K4 - January to December with 4 special periods - applying for all company codes

Fiscal Year Variant Implementation Options Implementation Description

Standard Delivery Select a suitable FYV when you set up your SAP S/4HANA Cloud system or choose the template variant SZ to
Determine unique FYV for your entire system configure your own FYV in a later configuration phase.
Configuration phase: during initial system setup - Explore phase of your system implementation
Caution:
The FYV that you select will apply to your entire system and can't be changed Configuration activity: Specify Primary Finance Settings (SAP Central Business Configuration Project Experience – User Guide)
after it has been activated.
List of Supported Fiscal Year Variants
Customer specific FYV Prerequisite: Configurable template SZ chosen as the FYV during the initial setup of the system (see above)
Configure your own FYV (such as 4-4-5 or any other year-dependent FYV), if
Configuration phase: Realize phase of quality system - before any posting is made
the available FYVs do not meet your needs.
Configuration activity: Maintain Fiscal Year Variants (ID 102712) Product Assistance

Alternative Fiscal Year Variant Prerequisite: New company code - no existing data, local GAAP assigned to non-leading ledger
Implement alternative FYVs in addition to the common FYV for company
Configuration phase: During the initial implementation or later in productive mode, the company code requiring the
codes due to legal requirements (for example, in countries like Australia,
alternative FYV must not have any data.
Japan, and India) for local accounting.
Configuration activity: Assign Fiscal Year Variants to Ledgers and Company Codes (ID 105409)

Caution:
Industry-specific fiscal year variants, such as the 4-4-5 variant, are not supported as the alternative FYV.

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Set Fiscal Year Variant
- Guidance and Functional Overview
Set Fiscal Year Variant - Implementation

What is available in SAP S/4HANA Cloud

You can set a pre-configured FYV or choose SZ as configurable FYV template as part of the Finance pre -activation steps using the ‘Specify
Primary Finance Settings’ app in the Explore phase of your system implementation project. The selected FYV then is assigned in your
entire system as common corporate FYV and cannot be changed after the initial activation of your quality/development system.

List of pre-configured FYVs: Supported Fiscal Year Variants

To configure your own specific Fiscal Year Variant, first you need to set SZ as the corporate FYV using the ‘Specify Primary Finance
Settings’ app in the Explore phase of your implementation project. Only then you can configure SZ according to your needs using the
“Maintain Fiscal Year Variants” configuration activity (ID: 102712) after activation of your quality/development system, whic h is then set to
Realize phase.

Please check also SAP Central Business Configuration Project Experience – User Guide.

Things to consider
The maximum number of periods for customer specific FYV is 16, whereas the posting periods are restricted to a maximum of 12 and
the special periods to maximum 4. The special periods can be used for organizing the year closing activities with data based on the last
period of the fiscal year. Maximum of 12 posting periods cannot be exceeded.

Further information can be found on help.sap.com

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Configure Customer Defined Fiscal Year Variant
- Guidance and Functional Overview
Customer Defined Fiscal Year Variants (e.g. 4-4-5) - Implementation

Business Context
Beside the SAP pre-configured Fiscal Year Variants (FYV), some customers need to define their own FYV. Most prominent example is “4-4-
5” calendar which is common in Retail or Manufacturing Industry: The fiscal year often starts with the first Sunday of the ye ar. Each quarter
is grouped into 4 weeks / 4 weeks / 5 weeks, giving quarters of nearly equal length. Such a FYV has to be defined each year f rom scratch.

What is available in SAP S/4HANA Cloud

To configure your own specific Fiscal Year Variant, first you need to set SZ as the corporate FYV using the ‘Specify Primary Finance
Settings’ app in the Explore phase of your implementation project. Only then you can configure SZ according to your needs usi ng the
“Maintain Fiscal Year Variants” configuration activity (ID: 102712) after activation of your quality/development system, whic h is then set to
Realize phase.

Please check also SAP Central Business Configuration Project Experience – User Guide.

Further information can be found on help.sap.com

Note
Industry-specific fiscal year variants, such as the 4-4-5 variant, are not supported as the alternative FYV.

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Customer Defined Fiscal Year Variants – Things to Consider

▪ The maximum number of periods is restricted to 16, whereas a maximum of 12 periods can be defined as posting periods and maxi mum
4 periods as special periods. If you need to use closing periods, specify the number of special periods in the field “No. spe cial periods”
when defining the Fiscal Year Variant. In sum you cannot exceed a maximum of 16 periods (12 posting periods and 4 special periods).

▪ If you have selected the United States as one of your countries, and assigned SZ as your corporate FYV in the Explore phase o f your
quality/development system, the additional Asset Accounting specific FYV SA will be assigned for Fixed Assets. SA permits half months
periods to fulfill the mid-month convention for fixed assets required for US company codes. Once quality/development system has been
activated, you need to configure also SA in addition to SZ using the “Maintain Fiscal Year Variant” configuration activity in the Realize
Phase of your quality/development system .

▪ Definition of periods, period controls and period control methods can be maintained in the quality/development system only be fore the
first posting is entered in your production system.

Note
We recommend that you involve an experienced Finance consultant to prepare definition of period controls and period control m ethods,
which is relevant for depreciation in Asset Accounting and required for your customer specific FYV definition, and that you s tart this exercise
as early as possible.
To help you maintain the period control and period control methods, which is data relevant for depreciation in Asset Accounting, we
recommend using the “Depreciation keys: Display details” app to display details about the factors that impact a certain depre ciation key in a
given chart of depreciation (for example, the depreciation type and period control method). To access the app in your system, follow
Accounting Configuration business group on the FLP → Depreciation keys: Display details

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Overview of Depreciation Keys: Period Control Methods used for a certain Depreciation Key

Fiori App named “Depreciation keys: Display details”

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Implement Alternative Fiscal Year Variant
Alternative Fiscal Year Variant – Solution Overview

Business Context
Due to legal reasons, you might need an alternative fiscal year variant (FYV) for selected company codes for your local close or your group
close in the initial implementation phase or later. For example, you might need an alternative FYV in addition to the main FYV if your company
operates globally but your financial statements must include local close with an alternative FYV other than the one used for group close.

What is available in SAP S/4HANA Cloud

With this feature, you can define a fiscal year in addition to the main fiscal year for company codes in a simplified way. If you require an
alternative FYV for your local close, we recommend using the non-leading, parallel ledger for local accounting and the leading ledger for group
accounting.
Note
▪ Alternative FYVs can be assigned on company code level only to the parallel, non-leading ledger.
▪ Alternative FYVs can be assigned only to a company code in which no journal entries have been posted in the entire system landscape.
▪ If you want to use your own custom FYV as the alternative FYV, its period (posting period) start and end dates must be the same as in the common FYV that is
assigned to the leading ledger.
▪ Industry-specific fiscal year variants, such as the 4-4-5 variant, are not supported as the alternative FYV.

Further information can be found on

▪ SAP Product Assistance help.sap.com.
▪ SAP Note 3169537 - SAP S/4HANA Cloud: Release Restriction Note for the Alternative Fiscal Year Variant.

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Implementation of Alternative Fiscal Year Variant for Local Close

Configuration Activity: Assign Fiscal Year Variants to Ledgers and Company Codes (ID 105409) in the quality/development system within the Realize Phase of
your implementation project. Please check also SAP Central Business Configuration Project Experience – User Guide.

Business Roles Required: SAP_BR_BPC_EXPERT

Apps for Postings Period Settings: Business group Periodic Activities for General Ledger on the SAP Fiori launchpad
▪ Manage Posting Period Variants.
▪ Manage Posting Periods.

Things to consider
▪ If you require an alternative FYV for your local close, your leading ledger must be assigned to your corporate accounting principle (such as IFRS).
▪ Company codes that require an alternative FYV must not have any postings.
▪ Industry-specific fiscal year variants, such as the 4-4-5 variant, are not supported as an alternative FYV.
▪ If you want to use an own defined FYV as the alternative FYV, the start and end dates of its period (posting period) must be the same as the dates in the FYV of the
leading ledger. To configure your own FYV either use FYV SZ or create a new FYV using the “Maintain Fiscal Year Variants” configuration activity (ID: 102712).
▪ Request the creation of a new posting period variant, if required, using the Worldwide Customer Requests Repository (WCR), see SAP Knowledge Base
Article 3012991.

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Technical Implementation of Alternative Fiscal Year Variant for Local Close

Prerequisite: Mandatory Assignment of Ledger to

Accounting Principle

Leading ledger assigned to group accounting principle

Non-leading, parallel ledger assigned to local accounting
principle

i Configuration Activity: Assign Accounting Principles to Ledger (ID 103556)

→ Assign the group accounting principle to your leading ledger.

Alternative FYV Configuration

Info: FYV cannot be changed in the leading ledger.

Configuration Activity: Assign Fiscal Year Variants to Ledgers and

Company Codes (ID 105409)

Assign the alternative FYV for the company code in the parallel (non-
leading) ledger
i 1. Choose Change.
2. Select the alternative FYV that the company code requires for the
parallel ledger.
3. Enter the new posting period variant.
4. Save your data.
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Manage Posting Period Variant for Alternative Fiscal Year Variant

1. Open the Manage Posting Period Variants app.

2. Choose Complete Posting Period Variant.

3. Enter the posting period variant provided by SAP (SAP Knowledge Base Article 3012991) and specify a reference posting period variant.

4. Choose OK.

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Manage Posting Period for Alternative Fiscal Year Variant

1. Open the Manage Posting Period Variants app.

2 2. Select your new posting period variant provided by SAP
(SAP Knowledge Base Article 3012991).
3. Go to the Manage Posting Periods app.
4. Choose Set Posting Periods.
5. Choose Open Periods.

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Applicability for Customers already using Alternative Fiscal Year Variant Solution

In previous releases, before the Assign Fiscal Year Variants to Ledgers and Company Codes configuration activity was
made available with SAP S/4HANA 2208, you had to create an additional ledger using the Create Ledger for Alternative
Fiscal Year Variant configuration activity as a prerequisite. You then assigned the alternative fiscal year variant to this
additional ledger. This procedure was sometimes referred to as the "lean solution".

If you are already using an alternative fiscal year variant that was created using the Create Ledger for Alternative Fiscal
Year Variant configuration activity, you continue to use this combination of additional ledger and assigned alternative fiscal
year variant. These settings remain unchanged and will not be migrated to the standard ledgers used with the new feature.
You can continue to use this configuration activity to assign new company codes to this additionally created ledger or to
maintain existing company code settings.

Caution relevant for Customers already using alternative FYV

Do not create new company codes with reference to company codes that have been implemented with the Create Ledger
for Alternative Fiscal Year Variant configuration activity. Only create new company codes with reference to company
codes to which the alternative fiscal year variant has not been assigned using the Create Ledger for Alternative Fiscal
Year Variant configuration step.
For further guidance on the Create Ledger for Alternative Fiscal Year Variant configuration activity, please refer to SAP
Notes 2568382, 2640035.

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