Learn more about our latest book release First Steps in Financial Accounting in SAP S/4HANA by Maddie Allenspach.

This book provides an overview of Financial Accounting in SAP S/4HANA across the key process areas — General Ledger, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, and Fixed Assets.

Explore the user experience in SAP S/4HANA and learn how to navigate the SAP Fiori front-end and obtain details on the various reporting methods available in SAP S/4HANA. Explore Financial Accounting Master Data to obtain an overview of the core master data elements a user needs to understand within Financial Accounting. Dive into each of the core process areas of Financial Accounting for an overview of what is included in the end-to-end business process, how SAP S/4HANA has improved upon these processes, and which SAP Fiori applications can be utilized to facilitate both day-to-day tasks and closing tasks for accountants.

• Explore key process areas in Financial Accounting in SAP S/4HANA
• Delve into key SAP Fiori applications
• Look at key SAP S/4HANA concepts such as master data,
• SAP Fiori screens, the universal journal, Central Finance, and reporting tools
• Learn how to tailor the user experience in SAP Fiori

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Author Maddie Allenspach is an SAP Finance Manager, who has been with Deloitte Consulting since 2014.

She graduated summa cum laude from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with a concentration in finance and minor in Spanish.

Maddie has global, cross-industry client experience in Utilities, Consumer Products, High Tech, and Life Sciences across 100+ countries. She has undergone the full lifecycle of SAP implementations, including experience in implementation strategy and post-production support. She has become a trusted advisor for her clients as both a finance and localization subject matter expert and in overall project delivery and management.

Learn more about our latest book release SAP S/4HANA Delta for CO Configuration.

This book focuses on customizing and design changes for Controlling in SAP S/4HANA.

Understand the changes to the functionality in SAP S/4HANA Finance, and how to configure them for Controlling. Compare the features of SAP Controlling in ECC and in SAP S/4HANA. Learn about modifications in SAP S/4HANA that are specific to Controlling. Obtain detailed guidelines for ledger and currency types in SAP S/4HANA. Find out about important design and configuration changes, including: cost elements now part of G/L Account, cost of goods sold (COGS) split in FI, production variance split in FI, profitability analysis in SAP S/4HANA, and Material Ledger in SAP S/4HANA. Discover more about embedded analytics and other innovations. By using practical examples, tips, and screenshots, this book brings readers up to speed on:

• Key changes to Controlling with SAP S/4HANA
• Customizing updates in SAP S/4HANA
• Ledger and currency types in S/4HANA
• Five important design configuration changes

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Author Ashish Sampat is a qualified finance and costing professional with nearly two decades of industry experience in the SAP Finance and Controlling space.

Ashish has been an SAP consultant for most of his career with various consulting organizations and now works as an independent SAP FI/CO consultant. He has provided solutions in several areas of SAP Controlling including product costing, material ledger, and cost center accounting to global clients in consumer packaged goods, life sciences, and industrial sectors.

Born and educated in India, Ashish now lives in suburban Chicago with his wife and two kids.

Learn more about our latest book release available exclusively in the SAP eBook Library Introduction to New Asset Accounting in SAP S/4HANA (FI-AA).

See what SAP S/4HANA can do for your asset accounting (FI-AA) processes!

 Learn about the new data structure that enables you to manage and monitor your fixed assets. This book is chock-full of descriptions and screenshots of key functionality, from capitalization, retirements, and transfers to postings, period-end processing, and reporting. Preview the migration process from SAP ERP and third-party systems to start your SAP S/4HANA project!

• Explore new asset accounting (FI-AA) functionality in SAP S/4HANA
• Learn about the new data structure
• Unlock key fixed asset transactions for capitalization, retirement, and more
• Plan your migration from third-party or SAP ERP systems

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Oona Flanagan is an Anglo-Irish freelance SAP FICO and SAP S/4HANA consultant, as well as a qualified accountant and published author.

She has over 20 years of global implementation experience across multiple industries (pharma, fashion, food, beverages, consumer goods, media, packaging, shipping containers, banking, and transportation), as well as many years accounting experience.

Oona loves languages and has worked in multiple countries during her SAP career. Oona owns her own company, Jazzmore Solutions Limited, has an MBA, and is a Fellow of both the Chartered Institute of Certified Accountants and the British Computer Society.

Learn more about our latest book release Decision-Maker’s Guide to SAP S/4HANA Cloud, essentials edition by Anurag Barua.

This guide introduces readers to the fundamentals of cloud computing with SAP technologies and applications and dives deep into SAP S/4HANA Cloud, essentials edition, formerly known as SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud or multitenant edition (MTE).

Explore and evaluate SAP S/4HANA deployment models and compare and contrast the similarities and differences between them. Obtain a multi-dimensional understanding of SAP S/4HANA Cloud, essentials edition, including business functionality coverage, landscape and systems, configuration and extensions, release strategy, user experience, and the implementation framework, SAP Activate. Walk through the detailed criteria and arm yourself with the information you need to make a fully informed decision on whether S/4HANA Cloud, essentials edition is the right choice for your organization.

• Basics of cloud computing in SAP and SAP Cloud strategy
• Analysis of SAP S/4HANA deployment models
• DNA of S/4HANA Cloud, essentials edition
• SAP S/4HANA Cloud assessment criteria and considerations  

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Anurag Barua is an SAP expert and currently works in the Business Transformation Services (BTS) group at SAP. He has 25 years of experience in conceiving, designing, managing, and implementing complex software solutions, including more than 20 years of experience with SAP applications. He has led enterprise-wide business and digital transformation programs using SAP across nearly 30 enterprises globally and a broad swathe of industry verticals including Public Sector, Media, Manufacturing, Utilities, Financial Services, and Pharmaceuticals. In the last couple of years, Anurag has been heavily involved in advising and leading SAP S/4HANA digital transformation programs for his global clients. His core SAP competencies include FI and controlling; logistics; SAP BW; SAP BusinessObjects; enterprise performance management (EPM); SAP Solution Manager; SAP Fiori; governance, risk, and compliance (GRC); and project management. He is a frequent speaker at SAP conferences globally and contributes to several publications. He has written three books on SAP, including First Steps in SAP Fiori for Espresso Tutorials. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and an MBA in Finance. He is a PMI-certified PMP, a Certified Scrum Master (CSM), and is ITIL V3F certified. You may contact Anurag via email at Anurag.barua@gmail.com.

Book excerpt from Practical Guide to SAP Business Partner by Robin Schneider.

In this chapter, we will look at the various options for merging the number ranges of the customer, vendor and business partner objects/roles in a synchronization (Section 7.3.1).

The number ranges of the individual objects must be set up and the account groups must be monitored. I will show you the parameters to be set in Customizing for the following number range constellations:

• Business partner, customer and vendor have the same number
• Business partner and customer have the same number—vendor has a different number
• Business partner and vendor have the same number—customer has a different number
• Business partner, customer and vendor each have their own number

Start reading now

With the conversion from SAP ERP to SAP S/4HANA, the concept of classic customers and vendors is a thing of the past. SAP Business Partner is now the leading object for processing master data information for customers and vendors. Transactions such as FD01/FK01, FD02/FK02 and XK01/XK02 are automatically redirected to the leading transaction BP. In this practical guide, learn step by step how to work with SAP Business Partner, including primary customization settings, and the creation of an SAP business partner with single and grouped roles. Specialized topics such as search help, field attributes, and authorizations are also covered. A comparison of greenfield and brownfield approaches is an essential aspect of this book. For readers who want, or need, to migrate their current data, guidance is provided on business partner conversion types. This guide pays special attention to master data synchronization via the CVI Cockpit, including the assignment of number ranges and intervals.

• The SAP Business Partner concept
• SAP Business Partner integration in SAP ERP and SAP S/4HANA
• SAP Business Partner synchronization and Customer-Vendor Integration (CVI)
• Overview of customization settings and master data maintenance

Author Robin Schneider works as a management consultant and project manager with a focus on project management, as well as business processes and mapping them to ERP systems, especially SAP.

In addition, he regularly leads and moderates seminars and training courses on a wide range of topics.

Robin has been a certified “Project Management Professional – PMP” (by PMI®) since 2009 and was certified as an “SAP S/4HANA Finance” consultant in 2016.

Explore our newest video tutorials Debugging SAP ABAP Code for Non Programmers and Debugging SAP S/4HANA Technologies for Non Programmers by Omar Lucero and Abdul Maulud. Available exclusively in the SAP eBook Library.

Debug SAP ABAP code to identify and fix bugs by yourself.

Understand how custom ABAP code is used in SAP developments.

Produce better SAP design documents, based on your understanding of ABAP.

Understand what the ABAP code does, so you understand the behaviour of a program.  

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The new HANA technologies, CDS (Core Data Services) and AMDP (ABAP Managed Database Procedures).

We will explain what they are, how to use them and how to debug them in ERP and Eclipse.

How to navigate and debug in Eclipse.

Debugging SAP Fiori.

Start watching now

Did you know that Espresso Tutorials also has Japanese-language SAP publications? Learn more about two of our latest book releases.

First Steps in SAP CO

ファーストステップSAP CO入門

First Steps in ABAP

ファーストステップABAP入門

Excerpt from New Fixed Asset Accounting in SAP S/4HANA by Kees van Westerop.

Using SAP Asset Accounting correctly starts with creating asset master data correctly. Although this sounds very simple, in reality it is quite a complex task.

This is because Asset Accounting must fulfil all kinds of different requirements simultaneously.

Requirements can be:

• Reporting: It must be possible to report according to accounting principles such as IFRS, local GAAP, tax, and group reporting. This must all be possible simultaneously.
• Type of assets: A distinction must be made between different types of assets—low-value assets, leased assets, machinery, buildings, etc. Furthermore, reporting should be possible for each type of asset.
• Depreciation: Several methods for calculating depreciation may be required. The depreciation method depends on the accounting principles applied: for example, straight-line depreciation, declining balance, percentage of useful life, etc.
• Posting of depreciation: Depreciation must be posted according to the applicable accounting principles using the correct general ledger accounts and calculation of the amounts.
• Integration with other SAP modules: Asset Accounting can be integrated in other SAP modules, such as Project System (PS), Investment Management (IM), Internal Orders (IO), Plant Maintenance (PM), and Cost Accounting (CO).
• To make data migration as simple as possible.

There can be many more requirements that need to be taken into consideration when setting up Asset Accounting.

Therefore, before setting up asset master data, it is important to understand how you can control all your requirements and what tools enable you to do so. This starts with familiarizing yourself with the SAP terminology.

In this chapter, we will discuss everything you need to understand when creating and maintaining asset master data.

Keep reading in New Fixed Asset Accounting in SAP S/4HANA.

Explore SAP Fixed Asset Accounting module functionality in SAP S/4HANA. Review the complete lifecycle of an asset — from acquisition and construction to retirement. Identify the differences between “classic” Asset Accounting and the new SAP S/4HANA Asset Accounting. Review organizational setup requirements and learn how to classify assets according to fiscal and company requirements. Clarify how asset-related transactions are posted in the general ledger. Delve into asset master data, including the organizational structure, integration with the general ledger, and the creation and maintenance of asset master data. Identify how to disinvest assets and adjust their values. Find out what options are available for asset depreciation. Learn how to calculate depreciation, how to post in the ledgers according to accounting principles, and how G/L accounts are determined for the postings. Dive into asset reporting functionality, including key tools, as well as depreciation simulation to predict future depreciation costs. Look at migration requirements and considerations. By using practical examples, tips, and SAP Fiori screenshots, this book:

Describes SAP Fixed Asset Accounting functionality in SAP S/4HANA with SAP Fiori examples

• Explores the complete lifecycle of an asset in SAP
• Identifies differences between classic Fixed Asset Accounting and the new SAP S/4HANA Fixed Asset Accounting
• Examines how Fixed Asset Accounting is integrated with other SAP modules

Author Kees van Westerop has been working as an SAP Financials consultant for more than 30 years, for the last 12 years as an independent consultant.

He has an MSc degree in mathematics, a degree in financial accounting and several SAP certificates.

Kees has worked on many global SAP projects in Europe, USA, and Asia. These projects covered various industry segments, such as chemicals, electronics, consumer goods, and pharmaceuticals.

Free ebook copy! 

Newcastle University went live with SAP S/4HANA 1709. Completing the project, itself part of a much larger programme of work, has been the culmination of several years of planning and a massive, concerted team effort. Newcastle University has been an SAP customer since 1999.

This ebook explores the SAP S/4HANA project scope (the ‘what’), the business case and motivation behind the implementation (the ‘why’), and the approach taken to deliver this project (the ‘how’).  

• SAP S/4HANA project scope
• SAP digital transformation tools
• Project planning, resourcing, and validation
• Go live steps and lessons learned

Author Alan Cecchini is an SAP Architect at Newcastle University where he has helped deliver many implementation projects, most recently playing a lead role in the University’s successful conversion to S/4HANA. He has over 21 years of experience developing, configuring, managing and architecting SAP solutions across many lines of business within a higher education setting.

Alan specializes in application and interface development within complex enterprise system landscapes. He is passionate about leveraging technology innovations to deliver business transformation. Being a lifelong learner and avid reader he loves to keep abreast of IT industry developments.

Learn more about our latest book release New Fixed Asset Accounting in SAP S/4HANA by Kees van Westerop.

Explore SAP Fixed Asset Accounting module functionality in SAP S/4HANA. Review the complete lifecycle of an asset — from acquisition and construction to retirement.

Identify the differences between “classic” Asset Accounting and the new SAP S/4HANA Asset Accounting. Review organizational setup requirements and learn how to classify assets according to fiscal and company requirements. Clarify how asset-related transactions are posted in the general ledger. Delve into asset master data, including the organizational structure, integration with the general ledger, and the creation and maintenance of asset master data. Identify how to disinvest assets and adjust their values. Find out what options are available for asset depreciation. Learn how to calculate depreciation, how to post in the ledgers according to accounting principles, and how G/L accounts are determined for the postings. Dive into asset reporting functionality, including key tools, as well as depreciation simulation to predict future depreciation costs. Look at migration requirements and considerations. By using practical examples, tips, and SAP Fiori screenshots, this book:

• Describes SAP Fixed Asset Accounting functionality in SAP S/4HANA with SAP Fiori examples
• Explores the complete lifecycle of an asset in SAP
• Identifies differences between classic Fixed Asset Accounting and the new SAP S/4HANA Fixed Asset Accounting
• Examines how Fixed Asset Accounting is integrated with other SAP modules

Author Kees van Westerop has been working as an SAP Financials consultant for more than 30 years, for the last 12 years as an independent consultant.

He has an MSc degree in mathematics, a degree in financial accounting and several SAP certificates.

Kees has worked on many global SAP projects in Europe, USA, and Asia.

These projects covered various industry segments, such as chemicals, electronics, consumer goods, and pharmaceuticals.

Excerpt from Building Demand-Driven Supply Chains with SAP SNC Responsive Replenishment by Sonal Dhawan.

In the CPG industry, you can take advantage of the following SAP SNC process:

• Creating a statistical forecast based on shipment histories
• Developing a collaborative forecast with the customer (e.g., comparing the vendor’s forecast with the customer’s forecast)
• Disaggregating and adapting daily forecasts based on actual POS data in the customer’s stores or distribution centers, and adjusting histories based on stockout information
• Promotions planning ranging from fixed replenishment to stores versus dynamic replenishment, which is based on the actual movement of promotions in the stores and adapting accordingly
• Replenishment based on sophisticated rules to consider past demand, advanced safety stock planning (considering demand and supply variability), and parameters such as whether baseline stock is allowed to be used for promotion, and so on
• TLB considering ordering constraints and truck loading algorithms, sophisticated route building strategies, and so on

Keep reading in Building Demand-Driven Supply Chains with SAP SNC Responsive Replenishment.

Vendor-managed inventory enables replenishment using real-time demand signals from consumers. Get a bird’s-eye view of Customer Collaboration and dive into industry-specific configuration techniques.  Set up customer messages and forecasting and use consigned and non-consigned inventory in replenishment planning. Dig into background processing with the Planning Service Manager and configure validation checks in your system.

• Explore demand-driven supply with SAP Supply Network Collaboration
• Configure vendor-managed inventory in Customer Collaboration
• Get step-by-step instructions and tips for the CPG and high-tech industries
• Get guidance on industry-specific configuration

Author Sonal Dhawan is a solution architect specializing in the area of supply chain planning and collaboration.

She has been involved in various end-to-end implementations and rapid prototypes, and has industry expertise in consumer packaged goods (CPG), high-tech, life sciences, and automotive domains.

Sonal has led the global SAP SNC community as a topic owner for field services, and has conducted multiple trainings for SAP SNC in India through SAP Education.