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:

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 application find below all the workbooks available:

Reports	Definition	Prompts	BW Workbook Query	Query Technical Name
FC - Cost center master data (Core Query)	This report  is used to display the master data of all cost centers in WP1 & PF1 including the ZCBS hierarchy, the GBU and the plant code.	Mandatory: N.A Optional: CCtr Category; Change date; CO area; Company Code; Cost center; Created by; Creation date; Author. scope of Comp. Code; Source System.	BW_WBK_FC_0003	BW_QRY_C_COSTCTR_0001
FC - End month - P&L reconciliation COPA (Core Query)	The report  The field Fixed Group 1 as the default values: ZRCS-ABCNP; ZRCS-ABAMO; ZRCS-ASDIS; ZRCS-9999.	Mandatory: Fiscal Year/Period; BFC GBU - Resp Cost Center. Optional: Auth Scope on Resp Cost Center; BFC Geo/Zone; Company Code; Fixed Group 1.	BW_WBK_FC_0001	BW_QRY_MPR_FC003_0003
FC - End month - P&L select - Monthly P&L Impact (Core Query)			BW_WBK_FC_0007
FC - End month - P&L select - P&L Impact (Core Query)			BW_WBK_FC_0006

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 FC - GBU Fixed Costs folder
Provider	MPR_FC003

In this section we will approach: SAP BW High Level View Hierarchy Restrictions Special Case: mixed cost center Plant vs Responsible Plant Workbook Details Related contents FC - Cost centers master data FC - Fixed costs report - P&L impact

The GBU Fixed Costs it's based in an existent model since many years ago exist a controlling model to be more accurate for the GBU needs. We take the model already developed and it was enhanced to follow the fixed costs specially in the cost center at GBU level. 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 (This scope is explained in the "Corporate Business Services 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. The GBU Fixed Cost application are using COPA data's for reconciliation purpose

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

All cost centers for this scope are stored in a unique hierarchy ZCBS.

• The cost centers for the fixed costs are identified by an unique sub-folder in ZCBS hierarchy : ENTRP (some others filters are done). See more details for the structure for cost centers hierarchy ZCBS.
  • For GBU fixed costs, only cost centers included in the group
    • ENTRP – Enterprise Fixed Costs follow up are displayed

• • As only Fixed Costs Cost Centers are included, the following groups  (Filtered via the 2 – Function group) are excluded:
    • ECP – Variable Costs
    • EACAR – Other Operating Expenses
    • EPSRO – Post Operating Result
    • ECPVSE – Variable Sales Expenses
    • EDISC – Discontinued
    • ESERV – Services

• The cost elements for the fixed costs are identified by specific  folder (ZRCS-FC) and sub folder. See more details for the the structure of cost elements group ZRCS-FC.

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Restrictions

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

• Cost center
• Cost element
• Miscellaneous filters 

Restriction on cost center 

For GBU Fixed Cost we only analyse ENTRP (1 Organisation attribute = ENTRP of the Responsible Cost center )

By default we must excluded some “2 Function”  attributes values in the reports. The users can delete these default filters.

Cost center hierarchy ZCBS : restrictions

Restriction on cost element:

In the cost element BW object the cost element hierarchy was denormalized (levels of the hierarchy are translated as attributes of cost element).

By default we must excluded some “Fixed cost group “  attributes values in the reports. The users can delete these default filters.

Cost element hierarchy ZRCS-FC : restrictions:

Miscellaneous filters:

Order Type : we exluded (investment) :

• ZPM4
• ZPM6

Project Type we exluded (investment) :

• II
• FD

Value type

• 10- Real
• 20-plan

Currency type

• 10 company code currency 

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Special Case: mixed cost center

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Plant vs Responsible Plant

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Workbook Details 

FC - Cost center master data (Core Query)

The workbook BW_WBK_FC_0003 FC - Cost center master data is used to display the master data of all cost centers in WP1 & PF1 including the ZCBS hierarchy, the GBU and the plant code. It is used to control the consistency of the cost centers master data and ensure the FC - Create a fixed costs report is working well.

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FC - End month - P&L reconciliation COPA (Core Query)

FC - End month - P&L select - Monthly P&L Impact (Core Query)

FC - End month - P&L select - P&L Impact (Core Query)

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Related Contents

In this section we can find some links where can help to understand some concepts:

FC - Create a fixed costs report — This page explains how you can create step-by-step an accurate fixed costs report for a plant or a GBU.

FC - Cost centers master data — This page explains how you can display cost centers master data. It is a useful tool for preparing and validating master data to ensure the accuracy of fixed costs reports.

FC - Fixed costs report - P&L impact — The P&L impact fixed costs query is used when a cost center is shared with several GBUs.

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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

The loads for the GBU Fixed Costs application is the following:

Closing Time:

Outside of Closing: it's one time on a daily basis.