High- Level Specification

Functional Overview

This enhancement is to ensure that manual journals posted in the system have adequate supporting documents attached before they get routed for review and approval.

The primary purpose is to increase the degree of compliance with internal controls around journal entry management (also with view to potential SOX compliance requirements upon listings in the US) and to drive up efficiency in the journal review process in the new S/4 HANA systems.

Internal controls exist at Syensqo around the existence of supporting documents for manually posted journals in the system. This is currently monitored via detective mechanisms at period-end that requires manual execution and monitoring. With the proposed enhancement it is safeguarded that

1.) the internal control is adhered to in all cases in a preventive and efficient manner rather than via detective, manual monitoring activities at period-end

2.) Approvers/Reviewers don’t need to spend time rejecting journals that lack supporting documents which should lead to efficiency gains compared to the current state.

Scope and Objectives

Detail the functional scope and objectives of the Enhancements. Please also describe the gap that will be addressed by this enhancement (Compared to SAP Standard)

This enhancement shall be applicable to manual journals posted via the below two Fiori applications and its respective successor apps in future S/4 HANA releases:

• F4670A - Verify Currency Adjustment- New Version
• F2547A - Verify General Journal Entries - New Version
• FB70 - Create Outgoing Invoices

Please note that Fiori app 'F4670A - Verify Currency Adjustment-New Version' also allows for bulk upload processing via Excel upload functionality. As part of this process, another enhancement (ERP-558) automatically attaches the Excel upload template as supporting document to all journals submitted for review in the respective upload batch. As such, the existence of a supporting document is system-assured if journal entries are entered via this mode of entry and therefore doesn't require further validation via this enhancement. Journals uploaded via Excel upload functionality shall be exempted from the validations proposed in this enhancement.

SAP standard does not provide similar validation features in its current S/4 HANA releases and also doesn't intend to implement any in the foreseeable future. An incident with SAP was logged to query about possible inclusions in the future roadmap designs for journal entries. While the request was acknowledged and generally understood as a legit requirement, SAP also pointed out that there is no roadmap item planned out currently to embed this feature into the standard product offerings in the foreseeable future. Please refer to OSS incident 858195/2025 for further reference.

Assumptions

The following assumptions are taken for this custom development:

• Fiori applications evolve over time as SAP is constantly improving its current product offerings. At the time of writing, the enhancement is applicable to journal entries posted via Fiori apps F4670A and F2547A and FB70 which are the latest journal entry and customer invoicing apps available in S/4 private cloud environments. If new apps are released by SAP in future releases that offer significantly better useability for journal entry processing, Syensqo may adopt these applications as new default entry methods for journal entries. The enhancement may need to be extended to those successor applications as well in future releases.
• The enhancement shall be withdrawn once SAP adds the built feature into its scope of standard functionalities for journal entry processing.
• The enhancement shall remain in place even if Syensqo decides to move away from a mandatory review process for high-value G/L journals to ensure compliance with internal controls and best practices for journal entry processing. Journals posted without adequate levels of support invite audit queries that may be difficult to resolve without proper justifications.
• The enhancement shall not be triggered for journal entries created in the background via integrated accounting interfaces from SAP standard or custom applications to not impede ongoing business operations. It is assumed that journal entries created from other applications have been properly validated via process controls in the upstream processes.

Dependencies

No dependencies other than

• Fiori apps need to be deployed with all required Odata services actively running.
• Master data readiness for posting journal entries in S/4 HANA systems.
• Base configuration for posting journal entries needs to be in place to commence testing.

Security, Integrity and Controls

No specific security or export control requirements applicable to this enhancement. The standard authorization checks of the calling programs shall be followed and accesses as well as authorizations to the underlying Fiori applications shall be granted according to the swim lane assignments in Signavio.

Configuration Requirements

Not applicable. Enhancement spot will be implemented and embedded in program logic. Call-up of enhancement is not dependent on system configurations.

Language Requirements

The error message issued by the enhancement shall be translated into the four logon languages defined in 'KDD055 - Multi-Language Support'. The four core languages endorsed in the KDD are:

• English
• French
• Italian
• Mandarin

Special Requirements

Not applicable. No special requirements identified for this custom development.

Design Rationale

Functional Requirements

The rationale behind this enhancement is to build preventive controls into the journal entry process in S/4 HANA to avoid manual controls and manual re-work for accounting managers at period-end by ensuring that journal entries cannot be submitted for review/posted unless supporting documents were furnished and attached to the journal entry document.

In the current SAP systems, this is ensured via a detective, after-the-fact type of control where users execute custom reports to identify journals without proper supporting documentation and/or journal justifications. This is a manual process at period-end that can be time-consuming for the accounting managers. Efficiency gains for the accounting departments are therefore expected from this custom development,

Proposed Technology to Use

The proposed technologies for this enhancement are pre-delivered enhancement spots from SAP in the underlying programs behind the Fiori applications. 

A first analysis performed together with the technical team revealed that enhancement spots (BAdI) in the business context FINS_GLJE_VERIFICATION may be the most suitable technology to meet the requirements of the enhancement request.

As part of enhancement, we will implement a custom function which will validate attachment of a journal entry, this will be implemented in Manage Substitutions and Validations Rules for Journal App (F4406).

• Create a class with interface IF_FIN_RE_CUSTOM_FUNCTION and implement methods GET_NAME (name of the custom function to be used in validation rule), GET_PARAMETERS (parameters needed for validation) , GET_RETURNTYPE, EXECUTE (method to validate attachment in the journal)
• Once the methods are implemented, navigate to F4406 app and create a new validation rule
• Select Business context as Journal entry and select rule type as Validation rule
• Enter validation rule name, error/warning message to be displayed on validation failure
• Enter Preconditions (if any) and Select validation function created in custom function class and enter the parameters
• Save and activate the validation rule 

Alternatively, we can also check BADIs FIN_ACDOC_HEADER_VALIDATION, FIN_ACDOC_ITEM_VALIDATION.

The following BADI's can be implemented as part of business context FINS_GLJE_VERIFICATION to add start conditions for workflow which will stop the approval process of the workflow if there is no attachment

1. SWF_WORKFLOW_CONDITION_DEF - To define start conditions for the workflow
2. SWF_WORKFLOW_CONDITION_EVAL - To validate the start conditions for the workflow

• Add additional start up condition in the SWF_WORKFLOW_CONDITION_DEF Badi and give the filter condition(s) w.r.t the app workflow task id ( Workflow id for app F4670A - WS78500019, Workflow id for app F2547A - WS02800046)

• In the workflow definition, add the custom start condition in the workflow header of respective apps.

• Check if the attachment is available in the journal entries (for app F2547A) / in the currency adjustments (for app F4670A) in the SWF_WORKFLOW_CONDITION_EVAL Badi
• If the attachment is missing, update CV_IS_TRUE = ABAP_FALSE (' ') and raise exception.

Data Source Considerations

This section is not applicable to this custom development.

Data Validation Considerations

This section is not applicable to this custom development.

Custom Tables

This section is not applicable to this custom development.

Selection Screen Enhancement

This section is not applicable to this custom development.

Processing Logic

The processing logic of the enhancement shall follow the below sequence of events:

1.) The enhancement shall be prompted by a user action within the respective Fiori applications. Once a user decides to submit a journal entry for review/posting by clicking button 'Submit' in the application screens, the enhancement must be called. The enhancement must not be called for processing options 'Hold' or 'Simulate'.

2.) Upon submission request, the enhancement needs to check if an attachment has been uploaded to the journal entry in the attachments tab of the respective Fiori applications.

3.) If an attachment has been provided, no further action is required by the enhancement and the journal entry shall be passed on to the next processing routine.

4.) If no attachment has been uploaded, the following error message shall be output in the form of a pop-up and submission of the journal entry shall be blocked:

• Error Message: 'Journal Entry requires adequate supporting documentation. Please upload at least one supporting document explaining the purpose of the journal entry'.
• Translation of the error messages into the other logon languages will be provided by translation service providers selected for the SyWay program.

5.) The user shall subsequently be able to return to the entry mode of the journal entry by closing the pop-up in order to upload the required documentation. Once uploaded, the journal shall be re-submitted for review/posting which must call the enhancement again for another round of validation.

6.) Upon successful validation, no further action is required by the enhancement and the journal entry shall be passed on to the next processing routine.

Volumetrics

The volume of manually posted journal entries are expected to decrease sharply in S/4 HANA due to new process designs implemented across all areas that will lead to a reduced need for manual adjustment journals at period-end. 

The current volume of manual journals per period ranges between 8,000 to 10,000 journals per accounting period. This is expected to drop by a significant amount in S/4 HANA, assuming an 80% reduction of manual journals due to process re-designs in S/4 HANA this would result in a range of 1,500-2,000 journals per period across all S/4 HANA instances.

Performance Considerations

During peak days for manual journal entries, typically towards the end of an accounting period especially during quarterly or yearly closes, the volume of manual journal can spike up. The enhancement should be able to handle such sudden spikes of concurrently processed journals in an efficient manner.

Error Handling

Special error handling is not required. IT support tickets must be raised should the user detect any journal entries that bypassed the validation implemented via this enhancement. This would need to be investigated further by the technical team to identify glitches in the coding that allow users to bypass the implemented checks of this custom development.

Testing

How to Test

1.) Ensure the necessary roles for accessing Fiori apps F4670A and F2547A and FB70 are assigned to your user ID.

2.) Launch the Fiori launchpad and search for the respective applications.

3.) In the landing page of the Fiori applications, search for button 'Create' in order to create journal entries in the foreground.

4.) In the journal entry screen, enter the following details:

Document Header:

Posting Date and Document Date: <Today's date>

Document type: 'SB'

Company Code: '1010'

Transaction Currency:  'EUR'

Header Text: 'Test for ERP-557'

(For Fiori app F4670A only: Debits/Credits Currency: '10')

Line Items:

1: G/L Account: '5310090', Profit Centre: 'Selection from Drop-down', Debit Amount: '10'

2: G/L Account: '5310090', Profit Centre: 'Selection from Drop-down', Credit Amount: '10'

5.) Switch to tab 'Attachment' to upload supporting documents.

6.) Press 'Simulate' and check for errors. Connect with functional consultant in case of errors.

7.) Press 'Submit' to trigger enhancement.

Test Conditions and Expected Results

Test Considerations/Dependencies

No dependencies other than overall dependencies of basic FI configurations and master data to be in place before testing can be commenced.

Other Information

This section is not applicable to this custom development.

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

Insert links and references to other documents which are relevant when trying to understand this decision and its implications. Other decisions are often impacted, so it's good to list them here with links. Attachments are also possible but dangerous as they are static documents and not updated by their authors.

Change log