High- Level Specification

Functional Overview

The main purpose of this custom development is to facilitate detailed cost and spend reporting based on material group information in financial reports in S/4 HANA. Due to limitations of SAP standard as explained further in SAP note '2843578 - S/4 HANA Finance: Attribute assignment for material inventory lines' the material group is now available as a table field but it is only populated for specific posting scenarios which is insufficient for comprehensive cost analysis on financial reporting. By implementing this custom development, the material group will be available for all material movements recorded in the system and all financially-relevant relevant sales as well as purchasing transactions and therefore allows for a holistic and flexible reporting of financial costs and spend based on the material group classification defined in S/4 HANA.

Scope and Objectives

In SAP standard, the material group is only captured for integrated, sales-related financial postings in the financial line item tables used for Financial reporting in S/4 HANA. The material group is equally if not more important for cost and spend analysis in integrated, procurement-related financial postings as it provides further and more detailed insights into the nature of the costs that may not always be obvious from just looking at the G/L account used for the financial posting. The Chart of Accounts in S/4 HANA has been condensed to a large extend under the premise that auxiliary reporting dimensions such as the material group can be used for a more detailed and granular analysis of costs incurred in the operational activities of an organization in financial reporting. The material group 

The scope of this development therefore includes the following components:

• Derivation and capture of material group attribute from the material master data where available in the universal journal ledger (technical table name: ACDOCA) in S/4 HANA
• Derivation and capture of material group attribute from purchase order line item where no reference to a material is provided in the universal journal ledger
• Derivation and capture of material group description in universal journal ledger in custom field.
• Ensure custom field added to universal journal ledger is available for reporting across all key Finance reporting applications used in S/4 HANA.

Assumptions

• All purchase order line items are created in the system with at least a material group assignment.
• All materials are assigned to exactly one material group in the material master.
• If the purchase order line item is pointing to a material group which is different to the material group defined in the material master record of the purchased material, the material group used in the purchase order line item shall be taken for updating the Financial line item table. This is to keep the Financial reporting in sync with the Procurement spend reporting by material group.
• Financial cost and spend reporting in S/4 HANA will be based on the universal journal ledger (ACDOCA) and not the classic FI line item table (BSEG)

Dependencies

• Testing of this functionality will only be possible with a representative set of materials and material groups created in the system that follow the target design of those objects in the new S/4 HANA systems.
• All necessary configurations for procure-to-pay processing needs to be set up in the system to commence testing of the implemented custom development features.
• Key financial reporting Fiori applications need to be available to test the availability of the material group in them main reporting views used for Financial reporting in S/4 HANA.

Security, Integrity and Controls

No specific requirements for authorization checks identified. For the CUI instance, the overarching export control principles shall apply and data shall be masked as per CUI classifications.

Apart from that, for this custom development the calling program's s authorization checks shall be followed.

Configuration Requirements

Materials Management:

• Material Groups need to be set up in the system and assigned to materials with extended purchasing views.
• Basic configurations for testing procure-to-pay processes end-to-end needs to be in place. 

Sales and Distribution:

• Basic configurations for testing order-to-billing process end-to-end needs to be in place. 

Financial Accounting:

• Basic configurations for Financial Accounting and Controlling needs to be in place to post financial accounting entries via integrated MM/SD processes.
• Automatic account determinations for procure-to-pay and sales processes needs to be maintained.

Language Requirements

No specific language requirements for this custom development. Material groups shall be translated as per rules defined in KDD055 - Multi-Language Support.

Special Requirements

No other special requirements identified for this custom development. 

Design Rationale

Functional Requirements

Proposed Technology to Use

Data Source Considerations

Data Validation Considerations

Custom Tables

Master Data

Configuration Table

Selection Screen Enhancement

Processing Logic

Volumetrics

Performance Considerations

Error Handling

Testing

How to Test

Test Conditions and Expected Results

Test Considerations/Dependencies

Other Information

Development Details

Package

Enhancement Implementation

Other Development Objects

Appendix

Custom Authorization Group Naming Convention

This table is based on the Syensqo development standards document. It provides the naming conventions for authorization groups to associated with custom reports and tables to comply with security requirements.

See also

Change log