2.0 Business Process

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To understand the business process it's important to know the basic concept for the SAP CO module and how it's applicable in Solvay organization. 

The SAP CO module in the SAP ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system focus on financial controlling and management accounting functions within an organization. SAP CO is designed to provide tools and capabilities to effectively manage and control costs, perform internal and external accounting, and support decision-making processes related to financial aspects of the business. SAP CO is tightly integrated with other SAP modules, such as SAP FI (Financial Accounting) and SAP MM (Materials Management), providing a cohesive and comprehensive solution for managing financial data, controlling costs, and supporting financial decision-making throughout the organization.

CO Structure in Solvay:

Overview of the business process for CBS functions fixed costs

For the GBU fixed costs we use the SAP information from the controlling part to analyze the fixed costs at GBU level. For this it's important to understand the structure behind and how the business see the costs and be able to analyze the information to perform their activities during and end of month.

Model behind for PF1 and WP1:

Curently we have the WBS, cost centers and orders objects with values coming from the purchase orders and accounting entries. Each object is linked to a cost center which we call it "Responsible Cost Center" and this cost center is linked to a GBU. 

We have the primary postings and during the closing process we have the settlements cycles (which will allocate the costs to a final cost center) and the final cost centers has the correspondent cost element for COPA line items to be present in the P&L report for PF1 and WP1 and in here we have also the respective value field. Additionally for PF1 with this information for the responsible cost center and GBU associated in the final cost center this will allow to the users to perform the analysis in PCA (Profit Center Accounting). 

Reporting fixed costs challenges : reconciliation SAP/BFC:

In the controlling side we have primary posting in the CO objects for the fixed costs and during the closing we have the settlement cycles to transfer/allocate the costs to a final CO object and to be in the respective lines in P&L.

3.0 Application Feature Overview

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For this scope we are using queries instead of workbooks. See below all the queries available:

1 - Solvay Group Fixed Costs

Reports	Definition	Prompts	BW Workbook Query	Query Technical Name
CBS - Functions - during month (Core query)	Default filters: 1 Organization ZCBS-CORPO ZCBS-FUNCT ZCBS-PROJ	Mandatory: Period/Fiscal Year. Optional: Auth Scope on Company Code; 1 Organization; GBU Function; Function Grouping; Function; 3 Sub-funct Grouping; 4 Sub-function; Company Code; Prompt Currency.	N.A	BW_QRY_MPR_FC001_0003
CBS - Functions - end of month (Core query)			N.A	BW_QRY_MPR_FC001_0001
CBS - Functions by Companies - during month (Core query)			N.A	BW_QRY_MPR_FC001_0004
CBS - Functions by Companies - end of month (Core query)			N.A	BW_QRY_MPR_FC001_0002
CBS - Synthesis of the Functions (Core query)			N.A	BW_QRY_MPR_FC001_0005

2 - Solvay Group detailed Fixed Costs

Reports	Definition	Prompts	BW Workbook Query	Query Technical Name
BW - Detail costs by Orders - Rhodia (Core query)			N.A	BW_QRY_MPR_FC002_0001
BW - Detail costs by Orders - Solvay (Core query)			N.A	BW_QRY_MPR_FC002_0002
BW - Detail costs by WBS Elements - Rhodia (Core query)			N.A	BW_QRY_MPR_FC002_0003
BW - Detail costs by WBS Elements - Solvay (Core query)			N.A	BW_QRY_MPR_FC002_0004

4.0 Functional Specification

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4.1 General Data/Calculations 

For these reports, it’s important to understand some general concepts which are transversal to all the reports which allows the users to work with the reports in the same way as the SAP system and BFC tool.

GBU	Refer to the Global Business Unit and it's a concept used in our officil reporting tool. To know how we get the GBU for PF1 and WP1 systems this is detail in the Process Definition section.
Cost Center	A cost center is a specific organizational unit within a company that is responsible for incurring costs. It represents a location, department, or function where expenses are generated. Cost centers are used for tracking and controlling costs, allocating expenses, and monitoring budget compliance.
Responsible Cost Center	A responsible cost center is a subcategory of a cost center that is responsible for specific cost incurrences within the main cost center. It allows for more detailed tracking and allocation of costs within a broader cost center. Responsible cost centers help organizations drill down into expenses for greater accuracy in cost analysis and control. Responsible Cost center is :  -    the cost center linked to the Order and WBS of the line item (CO-OM, PS) -    the cost center of the line item for CO-CCA
Cost element	It's a categorization used to track and classify expenses incurred by an organization. It represents a specific type of cost, such as wages, materials, rent, or utilities, and serves as a fundamental building block for cost accounting and reporting. Cost elements are essential for allocating and analyzing costs within the SAP CO module. It's the P&L account used to post the amounts in SAP CO document.
Plant	Refers to a specific physical location or facility within a company's organizational structure.
Cost Center Hierarchy	Refers to a structured arrangement or organization of cost centers within a company. It establishes a hierarchical relationship among cost centers, typically based on their functions, responsibilities, or reporting structures. This hierarchy helps in organizing and managing cost centers efficiently for accounting, budgeting, and reporting purposes, allowing for better control and analysis of costs across the organization.

4.2 Process Detail 

4.2.1.  Report/Process Definition 

Domain	Finance
Application	BW reports under CBS - Function Costs folder (queries option)
Provider	MPR_FC001 and MPR_FC002.

In this section we will approach: SAP BW High Level View Hierarchy Restrictions Characteristics available in CBS reports

For the CBS function costs application we have the PF1 and WP1 systems and we are using the main CO objects cost centers, WBS and orders and with this information extracted we the data is splitted in two BW tools one side the GBU fixed costs and the other solution is CBS for the functions (For the GBU fixed costs scope the explanation it is in the "GBU Fixed Costs application"). For both applications we use the same data base and the same cubes but the multiproviders are different also because of the authorization part.

SAP BW High Level View 

To see the data from the source systems see below how the information is organized in the BW perspective: 

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Hierarchy 

The below costs are included in the Corporate Business:

• Actual costs only: Statistical costs are not taken into account
• IFRS rules only: Costs posted using local gaap accounts are excluded (Brazilian entities)
• Costs posted on CBS (Corporate Business Services) cost centers (directly or through orders or WBS). It corresponds to the cost centers included in the following groups of the cost centers hierarchy ZCBS: 

• • ZCBS-CORPO = Corporate
  • ZCBS-FUNCT = Function services
  • ZCBS-PROJ =Projects
  • ZCBS-ICO = Interco double check with Charlotte and Ludovic
• Costs are organized with the cost elements group ZRCS-FC
• Inter-company re-invoiced function service costs should be posted on cost centers of the group ZCBS-ICO

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Restrictions 

To determine CBS Fixed Costs perimeters, there is restrictions on: 

• Cost center
• Cost element
• Miscellaneous filters 

In CBS application the CBS hierarchy was denormalized (levels of the hierarchy are translated as attributes of cost center and responsible cost center):

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Characteristics available in CBS reports

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5.0 Non-functional Descriptions 

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5.1 Usability

5.2 Regulatory Compliance

5.3 Security

5.4 Performance

5.5 Reliability

5.6 Scalability

5.7 Compatibility

5.8 Availability

5.9 Refresh of the Data

Loading frequency

Daily, twice a day.