sexta-feira, 16 de junho de 2023

ECC to S/4HANA – Pre-Projects

 Are you planning to move to SAP S/4HANA and looking for some additional tips?  Besides the different migration scenarios (brownfield / shell conversion / mix & match / greenfield), you need to investigate which tasks you could do upfront as a pre-project.

Phases

Phases

A first starting point is to execute the readiness check & process discovery / Signavio Process Insight.  There are multiple blogs / support notes how to run and interpret these reports.

I often get the question from customers what to do next in case of a system conversion?  Which things can be done before the migration to reduce the conversion effort and to reduce the risk during the migration.

I’ve tried to list a few of the most common pre-projects which you can do and where to find further info.

 

1.    Archiving

How much data do you want to take into your new system depends on what you have planned to do with it.  Some customers tend to leave as much as possible behind in their current ECC system and put it in a vault mode / archive system.  Other customers would like to take their historical data along, e.g. to train their embedded SAP S/4HANA AI scenarios.

Here are some of the tools you can use to archive:

If you are planning to keep your current ECC running in a read-only mode to access historical data, you might look for the cheapest solution to do so.  One of the options would be to run it on your already available infrastructure or VMware.  The OS system and DB version you use depends a little bit on the licenses and knowledge you already have.

 

2.    Unicode conversion

Most systems already run on Unicode, but good to check it out.  If you need to support multiple local language characters, then individual code pages enable the display of specific character sets. This comes with limitations which can be taken away with the Unicode conversion.  This enables:

  • Support of multilingual data without restrictions
  • Ability for IT systems to support multiple local languages simultaneously
  • The software can take full advantage of XML and Java
  • Possibility to integrate SAP and non-SAP system landscapes, enabling universal business collaboration.

This blog gives you a holistic view of Unicode conversion: https://blogs.sap.com/2018/09/13/holistic-view-of-unicode-conversion/

For more information on Unicode you can consult the following SAP support notes:

The relevant guides are attached to these notes.

 

3.    Customer / Vendor Integration (CVI)

SAP S/4HANA provides a new data model for business partners which is more flexible and optimized for HANA.  Each business partner can have one or multiple roles, e.g. a customer and supplier at the same time.  In the ECC concept you had to create 2 separate master data records which were not linked by default.

In order to move to the new data model, you need to convert your current customer and vendor master data.  It is recommended to do this as a pre-project in ECC.  After the conversion in ECC, the new customers and vendors are created in the same way and synchronised with the BP data model (see picture below).  When migrating to SAP S/4HANA, the BP model is already available and filled and can be taken over in the new system.

 

CVI

CVI

 

How to start with this?  First read the S/4HANA Cookbook Customer Vendor Integration – link.  Another must read is this blog on the CVI cockpit for the master data consistency check.  After going through the required steps in this guide, the BP master data will be converted.

 

4.    General Ledger Migration

To use Finance in SAP S/4HANA, you have to migrate the existing data from the General Ledger, Asset Accounting, Controlling and Material Ledger. The migration is necessary because Finance in SAP S/4HANA rests on a uniform data model for all accounting areas. The comprehensive ACDOCA data table contains all line item documents. After the migration, all postings of the named applications are written into the ACDOCA table.

A topic which requires quite some effort is the migration from Classic G\L to New G\L.  In a nutshell, New G\L provides a simpler setup in order to achieve the same business insight.  For example, profit center characteristics are also maintained in the general ledger.  Besides that, a new entity called “Segment” is available to carry out segment reporting.  Document splitting provides a way to further detail out the financial posting.

New G\L provides the ability of parallel accounting via parallel ledgers – leading ledger + 1 or more other ledgers.  The following support note contains a document describing the tasks you need to do to convert your accounting components to S/4HANA: https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/2332030

Here’s a brief non-exhaustive list of the tasks you’ll find back:

  • Before you start you should check, reconcile and correct inconsistencies in the data with the following reports:
    • FIN_CORR_RECONCILE (inconsistencies in G\L and AR + AP subledgers)
    • FIN_CORR_MONITOR (analyse inconsistencies found)
    • FIN_AA_CORR_RECON (AA reconciliation + database inconsistencies)
    • RAABST02 + RAABST01 (G\L with AA reconciliation for leading and parallel valuation)
    • RGUCOMP4 (G\L with subledger comparison)
    • RM07MBST + RM07MMFI (MM reconciliation)
  • Perform a period-end closing including the storage of reporting key figures and closing the posting periods.
  • Resetting the foreign currency valuation
  • Introducing parallel valuations (if required) in your ECC system before the S/4HANA conversion.

During the readiness check and when executing the Software Update Manager, a simplification item check is executed to identify the simplification items relevant for your controlling and general ledger components.

 

5.    New Asset Accounting

As the asset accounting data model is changing with New G\L, you need to convert your old asset accounting data model.  You can do this in ECC and by this reducing the migration effort and risk during your S/4HANA conversion.

Before the migration, activate the new depreciation calculation in your source ECC system. To do so you must activate the EA-FIN business function. Make sure the new depreciation calculation is active in your productive system before you start the conversion to S/4HANA.

Perform the following activities:

  • Archive as much asset accounting data as possible to reduce the number of documents to be migrated, so you encounter fewer problems and errors during the migration.
  • Make sure that only 1 fiscal year is open in asset accounting.

Here as well the readiness check / SUM will do a pre-check for asset accounting simplification items you need to take care of before migrating to S/4HANA.

Following SAP note will provide much more details on what is changing when going to the new asset accounting data model: 2270388 – S4TWL – Asset Accounting: Parallel valuation and journal entry

Another interesting note to read is 2368280 – FAQ in a S/4HANA implementation in Asset Accounting

 

6.    Material Ledger

The material ledger activation is mandatory in S/4HANA.  Either you have it already up and running in your ECC environment or it is not in use.  In the first case (already active in ECC + system conversion) you need to do some preparation activities to adapt the current customizing to run it in S/4HANA.  In the second case (material ledger is not active), you could do some things in advance in your source ECC system.

  • Archive old records on prices and quantities on materials as it will improve the conversion performance.
  • If actual costing is also active in your ECC system, make sure that costing runs are finished and contain no errors (after the conversion, you’re not able to correct them due to changes in the data model – this might lead to inconsistencies in prices).
  • All issues during the simplification item check need to be solved before running the software update manager (SUM).

The following SAP notes give some deeper insight:

 

7.    Credit Management

If you are currently using credit management in ECC (FI-AR-CR) and / or SAP Credit Management (FIN-FSCM-CR) in ECC and planning a conversion to SAP S/4HANA, you need to take the following into account:

  • Start with reading SAP note 2270544 – S4TWL – Credit Management
    • This explains the transactions and reports which are no longer available in S/4HANA.
    • It also outlies the required and recommended actions you need to do based on the scenario that is applicable to you.
    • There are 2 pdf documents attached which explain the migration steps and provide a task list for the conversion.
  • Evaluate possible add-ons & custom developments for ECC 6.0 credit management that you currently use:
    • The add-ons will not work anymore 1:1
    • Functional scope of current developments may be covered by SAP Credit Management (i.e. workflow, automatic limit determination, …)

One important element in the credit management functionality is the business partner concept.  So as this a new concept, also the master data for the credit management check is built upon this new concept.  Besides the master data you might also need to migrate the configuration data, credit exposure data and credit decision data.

As SAP Credit Management is already available on ECC 6.0 (without any EHP), you have the option to activate this in your current ECC system – taking out the complexity + risk in the S/4HANA migration.

The FI-AR Credit Management / FIN-FSCM Credit Management migration is embedded in the migration tools that are provided in order to migrate from ECC 6.0 to S/4HANA.

 

8.    Revenue Recognition

ERP SD Revenue recognition is no longer available in SAP S/4HANA and the newly available SAP Revenue Accounting and Reporting functionality should be used instead.  The new functionality supports the new revenue accounting standard as outlined in IFRS15 and adapted by local GAAPs.  The migration to the new solution is required to comply with IFRS15 even if no upgrade to S/4HANA is performed.  So if you are using SD RR you need to migrate to the new solution prior to the conversion in S/4HANA.

Here are also some required and recommended actions:

 

9.    Cash and Liquidity Management

SAP S/4HANA Finance for cash management is the only compatible cash management product to be used.  The classic Cash and Liquidity Management on ECC is not available on SAP S/4HANA.

SAP Note 2270400 – S4TWL – Cash Management – General describes the following:

  • Which functionality you had in ECC and how it’s replaced in S/4HANA
  • Which transaction codes no longer work in S/4HANA

There is no conversion needed as there are just different Fiori apps developed in S/4HANA replacing the ECC transaction codes.

 

10.    Rebates Processing

The ECC SD Rebate Processing component is no longer available in SAP S/4HANA and is replaced by Settlement Management.  Existing rebate agreements can only be processed up until the end of the validity date of the agreement and must then be closed by a final settlement.  New agreements can only be created based on condition contracts.

Here you can find further info if you are using SD-Rebates in ECC and want to convert to SAP S/4HANA:

The above topics are probably the most common ones to look at when doing a system conversion.  However, if you have further elements which you want to check, start with the readiness check (https://me.sap.com/readinesscheck).   You could search the SAP Notes with the keyword S4TWL + the component that you want to check.

 

If you find the above info useful, please like and share this blog!  Stay tuned – more ECC to S/4HANA topics will be covered!


Source: ECC to S/4HANA – Pre-Projects | SAP Blogs

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