SAP® ERP Financials and FICO Handbook

Book description

This up-to-date quick reference guides the reader through the most popular SAP module. It includes material on SAP ERP Financials, SAP FICO, and SAP R/3. Unlike most books that only provide questions and answers for certification or interview preparation, this book covers fifty common business situations related to ERP Financials/FICO and provides practical solutions for them. In addition, the book begins with over 200 FAQs and certification questions for those who need a quick review of the material. A CD-ROM with FICO templates, short cuts, and color figures from the book is included with the text.

Table of contents

  1. THE JONES AND BARTLETT PUBLISHERS SAP® BOOK SERIES
  2. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
  3. TABLE OF CONTENTS
  4. AN INTRODUCTION TO SAP SOFTWARE
  5. PREFACE
  6. Chapter 1 INTERVIEW QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
    1. 1.1 SAP-GENERAL
      1. 1. What is the SAP® implementation roadmap and what steps are involved in it?
      2. 2. What does system landscape mean?
      3. 3. What are specs?
      4. 4. How many versions of the implementation guides (IMGs) are available in SAP? What are they?
      5. 5. In SAP solutions, is it possible to have a self-defined transaction code?
      6. 6. What is the best practice for transporting configuration requests? How can you transport a configuration request?
      7. 7. After configuration you have to transport the configuration to the QAS or PRD. Can you transport number ranges of documents, assets masters, customer masters, and vendor masters in the same transport request?
      8. 8. How can you find the menu path when you know the transaction code?
      9. 9. How can you extend the SAP Easy Access Menu?
      10. 10. What do you do with errors in batch data conversion (BDC) sessions?
      11. 11. Where do you find all of the transaction codes, including custom transaction codes?
      12. 12. What is gap analysis?
      13. 13. What is SAP Business One?
      14. 14. How can you configure the FICO module without using the IMG menu?
      15. 15. What is the International Demonstration and Education System (IDES)?
      16. 16. Describe the major areas within the SAP environment.
      17. 17. Describe the data types that can be used in SAP solutions.
      18. 18. What are the highest organizational units in Sales and Distribution (SD), Materials Management (MM), Production Planning (PP), Financial Information (FI), and Controlling Area (CO)?
    2. 1.2 FI-GENERAL
      1. 19. When you copy the chart of accounts (COA), only one financial statement version (FSV) is being copied. However, a COA can have more than one FSV. Why does copying the COA allow only one FSV?
      2. 20. Describe some generally used FI submodules.
      3. 21. What information will not be copied to a new company code when you copy the company code?
      4. 22. Can one group COA be assigned to two operational charts?
      5. 23. What is accrued cost?
      6. 24. What is the difference between the Enjoy SAP document entry screens (FB50, FB60, FB70) and the old general posting transaction?
      7. 25. What is the credit control area? How is it related to the company code?
      8. 26. Explain the relationship between the Sort key and the Assignment field.
      9. 27. Do substitution and validation work the same way when parking a document and posting a document?
    3. 1.3 ENTERPRISE STRUCTURE (FI-ES)
      1. 28. Tell me about the FI organizational structure.
      2. 29. How many normal and special periods will be there in a fiscal year, and why would you use special periods?
      3. 30. Why and when would you use a year-specific fiscal year variant?
      4. 31. There is a Company field in the company code global settings. The SAP R/3 help says that it is used for consolidation. You can use the group COA to do the same. What is the significance of this field?
      5. 32. What is the difference between the company and the company code?
      6. 33. What is a fiscal year variant?
      7. 34. What do you mean by year dependent in fiscal year variants?
      8. 35. What do you enter in company code global settings?
      9. 36. What does the screen of a COA contain?
      10. 37. What is field status group (FSG) and what does it control?
      11. 38. What is an account group and what does it control?
      12. 39. What are the country and operational COA? Why do you use the group COA?
      13. 40. What does the FSG assigned to a G/L master record control?
      14. 41. What is a business area? Can you assign it to a company?
      15. 42. What are FSVs?
      16. 43. How are year-dependent fiscal year variants usually used?
      17. 44. What is the difference between a participating and nonparticipating currency?
    4. 1.4 G/L ACCOUNTING (FI-G/L)
      1. 45. What is open item management?
      2. 46. What are the types of currencies?
      3. 47. Are any FI documents created during purchase order (PO) creation? If yes, what is the entry?
      4. 48. There are many banks in a house bank. If a payment is to be made from a particular bank G/L account, how is it carried out?
      5. 49. What is the difference between Account Assignment Model (AAM), recurring entries, and sample documents?
      6. 50. In the G/L master you have the options Only balances in local crcy and Account currency. What do these mean?
      7. 51. How many charts of account can be attached to a company code?
      8. 52. What are substitutions and validations? What is the precedent?
      9. 53. What are special periods used for?
      10. 54. What is a shortened fiscal year? When is it used?
      11. 55. What are posting periods?
      12. 56. What are document types and what are they used for?
      13. 57. What is an employee’s tolerance group? Where is it used?
      14. 58. What are posting keys and what is the purpose of defining them?
      15. 59. How many FSVs can be assigned to the company code?
      16. 60. What is a reconciliation ledger? Can you directly enter documents in that A/C?
      17. 61. What are the segments of the G/L master record?
      18. 62. What are residual payment and part payment?
      19. 63. What are internal and external number ranges? Why is it generally not a good idea to have external numbering on transactions?
      20. 64. What are the customization steps for cash journals?
      21. 65. What is the main purpose of parking a document? Why would you use this?
      22. 66. What is a baseline date? Where is it used? Can it be changed?
      23. 67. What is a special G/L transaction?
      24. 68. Why do you use special-purpose ledgers (SPLs)?
      25. 69. After entering a document, can you delete the entry? Can you change the document? Which fields cannot be changed?
      26. 70. Why and when would you use business areas?
      27. 71. How does FI-MM integration take place? Please explain in detail.
      28. 72. What does the FSG assigned to the G/L master record control?
      29. 73. What is a house bank, bank key, bank ID, and account ID?
      30. 74. How do you identify a document? How many line items can one document have?
      31. 75. What are some examples of standard document types?
      32. 76. How do you control document line item fields?
      33. 77. Can several companies use one posting variant?
      34. 78. What is a tolerance group?
      35. 79. When the currency of the cash journals are the same, is it possible to attach more than one cash journal to one G/L account?
      36. 80. How do you reverse cleared documents?
      37. 81. Can you configure cash discount terms?
      38. 82. What is a parked document and a held document? What are the differences between the two?
      39. 83. What additional setup is required if more than one cash journal is maintained in a location?
      40. 84. Explain the document currency and local currency fields when posting a document in SAP FI.
      41. 85. What configurations steps are required for a special-purpose ledger?
      42. 86. What is normal reversal and negative reversal?
      43. 87. Explain the reversal process in SAP solutions.
      44. 88. What is a noted item in the SAP solution?
    5. 1.5 ACCOUNTS PAYABLE (FI-AP)
      1. 89. How is the due date of a document calculated?
      2. 90. What is an automatic payment program? What are the steps to configure it?
      3. 91. What are the steps for configuration of withholding tax?
      4. 92. What journal entries are passed in the system from the time of good receipt until payment is made to the vendor?
      5. 93. What is a GR/IR account? Why is it maintained?
      6. 94. What is the difference between withholding taxes and extended withholding taxes?
      7. 95. What are segments in the vendor master?
      8. 96. If a document type is configured for a vendor, can you use that document type in the line item posting key meant for a customer?
      9. 97. What do you test in an automatic payment program? How is it done and what type of errors are you likely to get?
      10. 98. What settings do you need to adjust before running the automatic payment program?
      11. 99. What are sensitive fields with reference to customer and vendor masters? How do they work?
      12. 100. You have four house banks. The end user has to use the third bank (rank order) only for check payments. Can you make payments through the third house bank? If so, how is it possible?
      13. 101. What are the steps for linking customers and vendors?
      14. 102. How do you make an advance payment to a vendor through the APP?
      15. 103. How can you clear two general ledgers?
      16. 104. Is it possible to update the reference field in the header of a payment document when the check numbers are generated by the system? If so, what is the procedure to do it?
      17. 105. What is an alternative payee?
      18. 106. How can you prevent a duplicate vendor master from being created?
      19. 107. Your client indicates they would like to allow for alphanumeric number ranges on vendor accounts. What type of number range would you recommend? Why?
    6. 1.6 ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE (FI-AR)
      1. 108. What is dunning? What is a dunning level?
      2. 109. What factors differentiate one dunning level from another dunning level?
      3. 110. What is the maximum number of dunning levels that can be created?
      4. 111. Explain the steps of dunning configuration.
      5. 112. What is a sub ledger? How is it linked to the G/L?
      6. 113. Why do you use “bank type” in customer/vendor master records?
    7. 1.7 FI-AA
      1. 114. Suppose in 2005 I have depreciation key AB and in 2006 I have changed to depreciation key CD. In what ways would my balances be affected, e.g., accumulated depreciation, assets, etc.?
      2. 115. How do you calculate depreciation retroactively from its acquisition date after changing the depreciation key?
      3. 116. What is an asset class?
      4. 117. How do you process fixed asset depreciation?
      5. 118. What is an asset master? What does it control for sub asset masters?
      6. 119. How many depreciation areas can be defined for a company code?
      7. 120. What are the types of depreciation methods?
      8. 121. How do you upload assets in SAP solutions without creating single assets through T-code AS01?
      9. 122. What is AA company code?
      10. 123. What are depreciation areas?
      11. 124. Is it possible to create an asset class automatically?
      12. 125. How can you create multiple assets?
      13. 126. Explain various ways to acquire assets and the corresponding accounting entries.
      14. 127. Explain various ways assets may be retired and the related accounting entries.
      15. 128. What is acquisition and production cost (APC)?
      16. 129. Explain the assets organization structure from company code to sub-assets.
      17. 130. How do you reverse depreciation posting?
      18. 131. Which activities should be done before the production startup? Give a brief description of each of them.
      19. 132. Describe the asset history sheet.
      20. 133. What is periodic processing, and what is it used for in AA?
      21. 134. What are the three direct types of depreciation that are supported by the system?
      22. 135. Define derived depreciation area.
      23. 136. Explain the difference between the methods for distributing forecast depreciation to the posting periods.
      24. 137. How many ways can you create the asset master record?
      25. 138. Is it possible for an asset acquisition to be posted in two steps? How do the two entries clear?
      26. 139. What is the difference between the COA and the COD?
      27. 140. Describe the function of depreciation areas.
      28. 141. What significance does depreciation key 0000 have?
    8. 1.8 GENERAL CO
      1. 142. What is a controlling area?
      2. 143. Define the relationship between a controlling area and a company code.
      3. 144. What is an operating concern?
      4. 145. How many statistical objects can be selected when you post an FI document where cost center accounting (CCA), PCA, and internal order (IO) are active?
      5. 146. What is accrual?
      6. 147. Describe the major differences between managerial accounting and FI.
      7. 148. Define the term cost object.
      8. 149. Describe overhead costs and provide an example.
      9. 150. What are the two major components of CO?
      10. 151. List the five CO submodules.
      11. 152. True or False? Activity-based costing (ABC) is primarily used to capture the costs of internal events, such as travel costs and trade fairs.
      12. 153. True or False? PCA is generally used for margin reporting and cost of sales accounting.
      13. 154. What is the primary integration point between the CO and FI modules?
      14. 155. What are the differences between business areas and profit centers?
      15. 156. What is the work breakdown structure (WBS)?
      16. 157. How can you tell an FI document from a CO document?
      17. 158. How many documents are created when primary costs are posted to CO from another module?
    9. 1.9 CO-CEL
      1. 159. What are the different types of cost elements? What is the difference between primary and secondary cost elements?
    10. 1.10 FI-CCA
      1. 160. Where do you assign the activity type in cost centers?
      2. 161. For statistical key figures, what is the significance of sender and receiver cost elements and cost centers?
      3. 162. What is periodic reposting?
      4. 163. What is the difference between periodic reposting, distribution, and assessment? And which would you use under what situations?
      5. 164. What is allocation structure?
      6. 165. What is the difference between reposting and allocation?
      7. 166. What is the standard hierarchy?
      8. 167. What is the basic difference between cost centers and IOs?
      9. 168. What is a statistical key figure?
      10. 169. What is reposting?
      11. 170. What is the difference between assessment and reposting?
      12. 171. It is said that both activity type and SKF act as a tracing factor for cost allocations. Explain what the difference is between these two and when each is used.
      13. 172. How are cost centers populated with financial data?
      14. 173. How can you allocate depreciation expenses to multiple cost centers?
      15. 174. What are segments and cycles?
      16. 175. What is the purpose of variance analysis?
      17. 176. List the two main types of actual postings to CO.
      18. 177. Define direct internal activity allocation.
      19. 178. Explain both the iterative and cumulative form of cycle processing.
      20. 179. Describe the use of the reconciliation ledger.
      21. 180. Describe imputed cost calculation in CO.
      22. 181. Define activity dependent cost, activity independent cost, and mixed cost.
    11. 1.11 CO-PCA
      1. 182. What is a dummy profit center?
      2. 183. What is a cost center and a profit center?
      3. 184. Describe how cost and revenue flow to PCA.
    12. 1.12 CO-IO
      1. 185. What is IO?
      2. 186. What is order type? What are the parameters it controls for IO?
      3. 187. What is an order category?
      4. 188. What is a settlement profile?
      5. 189. What is a planning profile?
      6. 190 What is a budget profile?
      7. 191. What are reference orders and model orders?
      8. 192. What is a settlement rule?
      9. 193. What is availability control in IO?
      10. 194. What is a budget manager?
      11. 195. What is IO status management?
      12. 196. What settlement types are available for IO?
      13. 197. Define statistical IOs.
    13. 1.13 CO-PA
      1. 198. What are the characteristics of PA?
      2. 199. What are value fields?
      3. 200. What is characteristic derivation?
      4. 201. What are the differences between account-based CO-PA and costing-based CO-PA?
    14. 1.14 PRODUCT COSTING (CO-PC)
      1. 202. What are costing variants?
      2. 203. List several major functions of the PC module.
    15. 1.15 SD
      1. 204. What is a credit control area? What relationship exists between credit control areas and company codes?
      2. 205. What is the difference between an inquiry and a quotation?
      3. 206. What is a condition technique in SAP solutions?
      4. 207. What is the item category group? Where do you maintain it?
      5. 208. What is the access sequence in SD?
      6. 209. Which three organizational elements make up a sales area? Briefly explain their function.
    16. 1.16 MM
      1. 210. What is meant by materials requirements planning (MRP)?
      2. 211. What are special stocks in SAP MM?
      3. 212. What is meant by consignment stock?
      4. 213. What is the difference between a contract and a scheduling agreement?
      5. 214. What is the use of configurable material?
      6. 215. Is it possible to generate a purchase requisition (PR) with reference to a scheduling agreement?
      7. 216. What is a standard price and a moving average price?
    17. 1.17 TECHNICAL QUESTIONS
      1. 217. What is Open SQL versus native SQL?
      2. 218. What is a workflow and what is its importance?
      3. 219. How can you find out what transaction codes a user used within a particular time span?
      4. 220. What is structure and what are its advantages?
      5. 221. What are internal tables?
      6. 222. What is IDOC?
      7. 223. What is application linking and enabling (ALE)?
  7. Chapter 2 CERTIFICATION QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
    1. 2.1 QUESTIONS
    2. 2.2 ANSWERS
  8. Chapter 3 ISSUES AND RESOLUTIONS
    1. 3.1 SAP GENERAL
      1. Issue No.: 1
    2. 3.2 GENERAL LEDGER (G/L) ACCOUNTING
      1. Issue No.: 2
      2. Issue No.: 3
      3. Issue No.: 4
      4. Issue No.: 5
      5. Issue No.: 6
      6. Issue No.: 7
      7. Issue No.: 8
      8. Issue No.: 9
      9. Issue No.: 10
      10. Issue No.: 11
      11. Issue No.: 12
      12. Issue No.: 13
      13. Issue No.: 14
    3. 3.3 ACCOUNTS PAYABLE (AP)
      1. Issue No.: 15
      2. Issue No.: 16
      3. Issue No.: 17
      4. Issue No.: 18
      5. Issue No.: 19
      6. Issue No.: 20
      7. Issue No.: 21
      8. Issue No.: 22
      9. Issue No.: 23
      10. Issue No.: 24
      11. Issue No.: 25
      12. Issue No.: 26
      13. Issue No.: 27
    4. 3.4 ASSETS MANAGEMENT (AM)
      1. Issue No.: 28
      2. Issue No.: 29
      3. Issue No.: 30
      4. Issue No.: 31
      5. Issue No.: 32
      6. Issue No.: 33
      7. Issue No.: 34
      8. Issue No.: 35
      9. Issue No.: 36
      10. Issue No.: 37
      11. Issue No.: 38
      12. Issue No.: 39
      13. Issue No.: 40
      14. Issue No.: 41
      15. Issue No.: 42
      16. Issue No.: 43
      17. Issue No.: 44
      18. Issue No.: 45
      19. Issue No.: 46
      20. Issue No.: 47
      21. Issue No.: 48
      22. Issue No.: 49
      23. Issue No.: 50
      24. Issue No.: 51
      25. Issue No.: 52
    5. 3.5 COST CENTER ACCOUNTING (CCA)
      1. Issue No.: 53
      2. Issue No.: 54
    6. 3.6 PROFIT CENTER ACCOUNTING (PCA)
      1. Issue No.: 55
    7. 3.7 NEW G/L
      1. Issue No.: 56
  9. Chapter 4 CONFIGURATION STEPS
    1. 4.1 ENTERPRISE STRUCTURE (FI-ES)
    2. 4.2 GENERAL LEDGER ACCOUNTING (FI-G/L)
    3. 4.3 ACCOUNTS PAYABLE (FI-AP)
    4. 4.4 ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE (FI-AR)
    5. 4.5 BANK ACCOUNTING (FI-BL)
    6. 4.6 ASSETS ACCOUNTING (FI-AA)
    7. 4.7 CONTROLLING AREA (CO)
    8. 4.8 COST CENTER ACCOUNTING (CO-CCA)
    9. 4.9 INTERNAL ORDER (CO-IO)
    10. 4.10 PROFIT CENTER ACCOUNTING (CO-PCA)
    11. 4.11 PROFITABILITY ANALYSIS (CO-PA)
    12. 4.12 PRODUCT COSTING (CO-PC)
  10. Chapter 5 USER TRANSACTION CODES
    1. 5.1 GENERAL LEDGER (G/L) ACCOUNTING
    2. 5.2 ACCOUNTS PAYABLE (AP)
    3. 5.3 ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE (AR)
    4. 5.4 ASSETS MANAGEMENT (AM)
    5. 5.5 COST ELEMENT ACCOUNTING (CO-CEL)
    6. 5.6 COST CENTER ACCOUNTING (CO-CCA)
    7. 5.7 INTERNAL ORDER (CO-IO)
    8. 5.8 PROFIT CENTER ACCOUNTING (CO-PCA)
    9. 5.9 PROFITABILITY ANALYSIS (CO-PA)
    10. 5.10 PRODUCT COSTING (CO-PC)
  11. Chapter 6 FICO QUICK TOUR
    1. 6.1 SAP GENERAL
    2. 6.2 FI GENERAL
    3. 6.3 GENERAL LEDGER (G/L) ACCOUNTING
    4. 6.4 AP AND AR
    5. 6.5 ASSET ACCOUNTING (AA)
    6. 6.6 CO GENERAL
    7. 6.7 CEL
    8. 6.8 COST CENTER ACCOUNTING (CCA)
    9. 6.9 IO
    10. 6.10 PA
    11. 6.11 PCA
    12. 6.12 PCC
  12. Chapter 7 SPECIAL AREAS
    1. 7.1 FOREIGN CURRENCIES
    2. 7.2 INTERCOMPANY TRANSACTIONS
    3. 7.3 BANK RECONCILIATION
    4. 7.4 LOCKBOX CONFIGURATION
    5. 7.5 REVENUE RECOGNITION
    6. 7.6 AUTOMATIC PAYMENT PROGRAM
    7. 7.7 THREE-WAY MATCH
    8. 7.8 P2P
    9. 7.9 VENDOR DOWN PAYMENT AND CLEARING
    10. 7.10 ORDER TO CASH (OTC)
    11. 7.11 MAKE TO ORDER
    12. 7.12 SUMMARIZATION LEVELS IN CO-PA
  13. Chapter 8 NEW G/L
    1. 8.1 DOCUMENT SPLITTING
    2. 8.2 TRANSACTION CODES
  14. Chapter 9 TABLES IN THE SAP SYSTEM
    1. 9.1 ENTERPRISE STRUCTURE (FI-ES)
    2. 9.2 GENERAL LEDGER ACCOUNTING (FI-G/L)
    3. 9.3 ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE (FI-AR)
    4. 9.4 ACCOUNTS PAYABLE (FI-AP)
    5. 9.5 ASSETS MANAGEMENT (FI-AA)
    6. 9.6 GENERAL (CO)
    7. 9.7 COST CENTER ACCOUNTING (CO-CCA)
    8. 9.8 PROFIT CENTER ACCOUNTING (CO-PCA)
    9. 9.9 PROFITABILITY ANALYSIS (CO-PA)
  15. Chapter 10 SAP MM CONFIGURATION
  16. Chapter 11 SAP SD CONFIGURATION
  17. INDEX

Product information

  • Title: SAP® ERP Financials and FICO Handbook
  • Author(s): S. N. Padhi
  • Release date: December 2009
  • Publisher(s): Jones & Bartlett Learning
  • ISBN: 9780763792060