FICO

configuration
document
Step by step FICO
SAPSHARKS
configuration
www.sapsharks.com
document

Owner:
Sapsharks
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FICO configuration document from Sapsharks

This document will show you how to configure SAP FICO step by step

Learn more by visiting sapsharks.com

If you have any questions please email us at [email protected]

All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever
without our express permission except for the use of brief quotations in a book review or
blogs. Please, give us credit if you decide to quote our book.
© 2019 zazam inc

Create a company code

To start configuring, enter /nspro in the menu path to go to the SPRO screen.

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Click on reference IMG

Click on Edit, Copy, Delete, Check copmany code

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Double click on Copy, Delete, check company code.

It is easier to copy a company code from another one rather than creating one from
scratch.

Click on the copy icon

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You will see message which shows you the tables that SAP is reading.

Once that finishes, you will get a popup box where you have to enter the from and the to
company code.
Enter a company code from which you want to copy the settings. The standard one
0001 can be used.
Enter the new company code that you want to create in the To Company code

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You will get a popup box which will ask you whether you want to copy G/L accounts
from the company code.

You can click on no and create your own G/L accounts. Choose yes if the company
code that you are copying from has the right G/L accounts and you already know how to
create G/L accounts.

Click on the green check box when the information message pops up.

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You can also click on the question mark next to the check box to get details of the
message.
It is a good practice to double click on any error and warning message and click on the
question mark to get more details.

Once you click on the green check box, the system will start copying the tables

You will notice the percentage going up

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and ocne all the data is coped you will get a message stating the at comany code has
been copied.

You will see two tabs, one for selected activities.

This shows the company code that you copied from

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The completed activites tab show you the new company code that was created.

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Click on the green arrow back to go back to the previous screen.

Click on Edit copmany code data so you can change the name, company code and any
other details.

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Doubel click on the company code. Notice that the description says SAP A.G as that
was the description of the copmany code you copied from

Change the description of this newly created company code.

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New description and address

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Click on the icon to change the address of the company code.

Enter the new address.

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Once you enter all the info, click on the green check box and click on the save icon

You will see a message that the data was saved.

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Chart of Accounts

Chart of accounts contains the G/L accounts that you will be using for this company
code.
A chart of accounts is the highest level in the financial structure.
One chart of accounts can be assigned to many company codes.
Each company code can only be assigned to one chart of accounts.

Just like with creation of a company code, it is easier to copy a chart of accounts

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Select a chart of accounts and click on the copy icon.

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Once you copy the chart of accounts, you need to enter the new 4 character identifier
for the chart of accounts.
Enter the description and specify the length of the G/L account numbers.

G/L account numbers are buckets that contain different types of expenses and
revenues.
E.g.. you can have one G/L accounts for salaries, one for revenues etc.
The number here ( Lengthg of G/L account number )specifies how long this GG/L
account number will be
e.g. will it be 123456 or 1234567( number of characters)

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Enter the new values and hit enter.

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Click on enter and you will see a message at the bottom of the screen showing you the
number of screens copied.

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Click on save to save your new chart of accounts.

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Assign chart of accounts to company code

in SAP the usual sequence of creating anything is that first you create it and then you
assign it.
You created a company code and a chart of accounts, but how does SAP know that
they are linked to each other.
You need to link them together in this step.

Enter the chart of accounts next to the company code

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Click on save

You will get a message that the data was saved.

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Fiscal year variant

The fiscal year variant determines the accounting periods that a company uses. e.g. is it
calendar dependent i.e. January will be the first accounting month for this company code
and December will be last month.
If it is year dependent, then a company could have April as month 1 of its accounting
period.
Note- The steps that are being listed are not necessarily in chronoligcal order i.e. there
is no correct order in which you have to create these things. It is possible for e.g. to
create the posting period before the fiscal year variant etc.
It is required to finish all the steps before you start posting.

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To make things simple, pick a fiscal year variant that is calendar dependent
You don't need to create a new one. You can just view this and assign this to your
company code in the next step.

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Assign company code to fiscal year variant

How does SAP know that our company code uses a calendar dependent fiscal year?

We need to assign our company code to a fiscal year variant in this step.

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Enter the Fiscal year variant K4 next to your company code

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Posting period variant

Each company code will only allow one or two months(during month end) to be open at
any give time.
This is controlled by a posting period variant.
E.g. if you are in January 2018, you don't want anyone to post in June 2018. The users
should get an error message if they accidentally post to a wrong month.
First, we need to define a variant for the company code.

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Select an existing variant

Click on copy

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Enter the new description for the variant

Click on Save

Posting period variant-OB52

The next step is to assign values to the posting period variant.

This is done in tcode OB52.
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Enter the variant that you created in the previous step.

Enter the from per1 and the from year and the to period and the to year. This is the
period that you can post to.
Under the column 'A' enter the type of account for which this to and from period applies.
There are many different entries, D is for customers, K is for vendors, S is for G/L etc.
You can have different periods open for each of these categories.
After creating all the entries, click on save.

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Assign posting period variant to company code

You have to ask yourself, how does the system know which posting period your
company is using?
For this you have to assign the posting period variant to your company code.

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Enter the posting period variant next to the company code.

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Retained earnings account

A retained earnings account is assigned to each P/L account. This is used to carry
forward the balances from one Fiscal year to another.

All the total of the P/L accounts gets sent to this account when the carryforward
program is run.

Create a retained earnings account using the tcode OB53 or by using the path below.

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Enter a two character identifier in the and P&L statemenet field e.g. enter 01 and then
enter the G/L account that you want to use in the Account field.
SAP will give a warning message that this account is not created. You can ignore this
message if you get this in your golden client where you do not make any postings.
Create this account in the client where you will be making some postings.

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Click on the save icon after entering the information.

and you will get a message that the changes have been saved.

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Document types

Document types are used to distinguish one posting from another. E.g. if you see that a
document type is KR, you will know that this is a vendor invoice whereas KG is a vendor
credit memo.
Create a custom document type based on your requirement e.g. if there is an interface
with a third party system, create a document type do distinguish these postings.

Use the menu path below or use the tcode OBA7

Double click on any of the standard document types to view more details of it.
If you want to create a new one, you can select a document type and the click on the
copy icon.

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once the document type is copied, enter the new document type e.g. ZZ interface with
Chase
1-Number range Enter the number range that this document type is linked to.
Having unique number ranges makes it easy to identify any kind of posting.
E.g. number range one is linked to a manual journal entry and the number range is
between 100000-1999999.
Just by eyeballing a document number, you can tell that this was a manual journal entry
based on the number range.
2-Reverse document type-Each document type can be linked to a reverse document
type. e.g. when a SA document type is reversed, SAP uses the document type AB for
the reversal.
3- Account types allowed- A document type can be restricted for certain postings.
E.g. if you are using a document type AA which is meant for asset accounts, you can
uncheck the box of customer if you do not want any customer information on your asset
postings.
This serves as a control for you. Users will get an error message if they try to post to an
account type that is not enabled in here.
4- Batch input only- you can flag a document type as batch input only if you do not
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want anyone to be using this document type during their manual postings.
E.g. if you created a new document type that is meant to be for the interfaces between
a legacy system and SAP( batch postings), you can restrict this document type to Batch
input only, so that all the postings to this document type come from the interface only.
5- Control data- you can make further settings to a document type by using the control
data.
E.g. if you check the box for enter trading partner, anytime you use this account, it will
require a trading partner and it will not allow you to post without it.
6- Required during document entry- Make certain fields required by checking fields in
this section. E.g. for vendor invoice you may want to make the reference number
mandatory and the users have to enter the vendor invoice number in this anytime them
create a vendor invoice.

Click on the Number range information field to view the number range details.
The document type can be selected when you are posting a document. E.g. for a vendor
invoice, the default document type KR appears.

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Number range

Create a number range using the menu path below or by using the tcode FBN1

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Click on the change intervals icon

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and then click on add intervals and enter a number range. e.g. 01 and enter a from and
to year.
The year controls if the number range is year dependent.
E.g. if you enter the number range as 01 and then the from number as 10000 and the to
number as 1999999 and the year as 2018, then you need to create the same number
range for 2019. You can have number 1000000 in 2018 as well as in 2019.
If you enter the year as 9999, then you don't need to create a number range every year
as this number range is year independent. You cannot use the same number across
years.

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You can also copy number ranges from another copmany code by entering the company
code you want to copy from and then click on the copy icon.
This is very handy when you created one company code with all the number ranges and
then a new company code is required which will need the same number ranges.

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Define tolerance groups

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This is a mandatory step. Each company code has to be added to this table for
tolerance groups for G/L accounts.

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Define tolerance groups for employees

This is another mandatory step. Define a tolerance group for employees by adding your
company code in this table

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Click on new entries and add the company code

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Double click on the company code and enter maximum amount per document and other
information.

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Posting keys

Posting keys determine the type of posting that will take place. It tells the system
whether to debit or credit an item and what kind of account can be used with this posting
key.
During posting you will enter a posting key. e.g. if you enter 40, the system knows to
debit this item and only allows a G/L account to be posted with this posting key.

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The standard posting keys should be sufficient if you are just learning FICO. You can
create a new one by clicking on the create icon based on your client's requirement.

Double click on a posting key to view its details. You can see whether it is a debit
posting key or a credit posting key, what kind of account is allowed to post to it etc.

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Posting keys are using during postings.

Some transactions only have debit/credit option on the front end, but even these
transactions are tied to a posting key in configuration. These are known as enjoy
transactions. E.g. FB60 just has a debit and credit option, but if you view document that
is posted, you can see that it has a posting key of 31 and 40

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Other transaction codes for e.g. Fb01 have the posting key that you can select. These
types of transactions allow any kind of posting based on the posting key selected.
E.g. you can make a vendor, g/l, asset and other kinds of postings through this.
This is where the posting key comes into the picture.

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Field status variant

A field status variant contains a list a of field status groups.

The field status groups determine which fields are optional, required or suppressed at
the time of a posting.

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Select a field status variant and click on field status groups on the left.
A field status variant contains field status groups.

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SAP provides a lot of field status groups by default. You can create a new field status
by clicking on new entries at the top or by copying one of the standarad field status and
changing it to something new.

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This field status group controls the fields that are optional, supressed or required while
posting.
For e.g. for certain G/L accounts, if you want to make the assignment field as a required
field, you can change the field status group to make this field required.
The users will not be able to make a posting without entering an assignment field.
A field status group is very important to keep your data accurate. Users can forget to
enter certain fields. There should be system checks to ensure that the data is clean.

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Go inside a field status group by double clicking on it to see the settings of the field
status group.

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select a different radio button if you want to change the settings around from suppress,
required or optional.

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Assign Field status variant to company code

After creating the field status variant, you need to assign it to a company code. By now
you should have gotten comfortable with creating something and then assigning it to your
company code.
This is how the system knows which field status groups are available for your company
code.
A field status variant is assigned to a company code and a field status variant contains
field status groups.
The Field status groups are then assigned to your G/L account.

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Enter the field status variant next to your company code.

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Global parameters OBY6

OBY6 is a tcode that you will be using often. It contains a lot of the settings that we did
reviously in one step. You can check a lot of your settings over here.
You can also maintain them directly over here.
Settings like posting period variant, field status variant etc. are assigned here.

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Double click on your company code to view the details.

You will see the Fiscal year variant, field status variant and other settings over here.

G/L Account groups

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G/L accounts groups are created so we can havea certain rules for a certain range of
accounts and distinugish easily between accounts.
You can have different type of account groups e.g.
1- Balance Sheet Accounts
2- Material Accounts
3- Asset Accounts
4 - Revenue Accounts
and so on.
In the account groups, you define which range a certain account can be created in.
E.g. if you define that Balance sheet accounts fall in the range of 10000-20000, then if
an end user tries to create a balance sheet account using the account number 40000,
he/she will get an error message.
You can also define which fields appear on the G/L creation screen based on the
Account group that you are using. There is a field status group setting at the G/L level as
well.

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Create an account group using the menu path above or by using tcode OBD4
Click on new entries to create an account group or select existing account groups and
click on the copy icon

Enter the new characters for your account groups along with your chart of accounts and
assign a from and to account.

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Click on save after you create the entries and double click on the account groups to view
the field status settings of these account groups.

This field status controls the list of fields that show up on a G/L account master (tcode
FS00) and do not control the list of fields that show up when you are making a posting.
Double click on any of the fields under Select group to view the settings of this group

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In the screen shot above you can see that reconcliation account is set to suppress.
If there was a separte account group for Reconciliation accounts, then it shoul be set to
required.
This ensures that your master data is setup correctly and not dependent entirely on the
users making the right decissions.

In the screen shot below, there is not short and long text for this G/L account. If the
users forgets to enter this information, then we will face issues later on as we won't
know the purpose of a G/L account.
This should be set to required.

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Accounts Payable

The accounts payable module deals with creation of vendors, creating invoices and
paying them on time.

First step- Let's create account groups in order to create vendors.

Account groups help you in grouping vendors together.

You can have different field status group settings based on the vendor group i.e. make
certain fields required, suppressed or optional based on the vendor account group.

Create a vendor acccount group following the menu path below.

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First step- Let's create

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SAP provides many account groups by default.

Double click on a vendor group to view details.

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Click on the Field status section to view the settings for this vendor group.
This helps in keeping your data clean. If certain vendors require a po box for e.g to be
entered everytime, else you face errors later on, you can make it as a required field so
that your data is setup correctly.

Having clean data is ciritical for smooth functioning of the business.

If you do not control these fields through the system, you will end up having bad data as
the users might not always remember to enter certain details.
Click on the group that you want to view on the left of the screen.

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You will see all the fields that are under this group.
Change it by clicking on the appropriate radio button.

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If you want to create a custom account group, select the account group by clicking on
the left and clik on the copy icon.

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Enter the new account group and enter a description for the new account group and click
on save to create the new account group.

Number ranges for Account groups

You have created an account group, the next step is to create a number range for this
account group.
This tells us SAP which number it should use when it creates a vendor under a certain
account group.
E.g. Foreign vendors could be between 3000-3999, domestic vendors between 4000-
4999. This makes it easier for you to identify the type of vendor it is by just looking at
the vendor number.
Create a number range for a vendor account group using XKN1 or the menu path
below.

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Click on the intervals tab to view/change the existing intervals

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Click on the plus icon to create new number range intervals.

Enter the new number range

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and click on save

Make sure that there is no overlap, else you will get a mesage.

Fix the overlap and hit enter

you will get a message about transporting number ranges.

It is best practice to create the number ranges manually in each client.

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Assign number ranges to Account groups

Once you create the number ranges and account groups, you need to link them together
so SAP knows which number range goes with which account group.
Go through the menu path below.

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Assign a number range against each vendor account group.

Number range XX means the number rnage is external and needs to be entered by the
user and it is not determined by SAP.

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Define Tolerance for vendors

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In this step you define the maximum different in payments etc. It is a mandatory step
that you must complete before you can make outgoing payments.
Click on Save

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FBZP configuration

The most important step in AP is setting up a payment program. All inovices gets paid
through this program.
In order to run the automatic program F110, you need to first setup baseline
configuration.
Use tcode FBZP to setup all the APP configuration.
Configure in the sequence below.

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First step is to setup the company code for the automatic payment program.

Enter the new company code by clicking on new entries

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Select a company code by selecting the from the left

and click on the copy icon.

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Enter the new company code and click on save.

Double click on the company code to view details of it.
Since we haven't created a paying company code yet, we can't add it yet. We will return
to this step to define the relationship between sending company code( the one on which
the invoice is created) and the paying company code which will be paying the invoices.
Paying company codes-In this step you define the copmanies that will be paying
invoices.
Not all company codes have their own bank account and do not pay their own invoices.
Many company codes' invoices are paid by another company code that has a bank
account.
Click on the paying copmany codes.

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After selecting an existing entry, click on the copy icon.

Note-Copying an entry is easier than clicking on new entries and entering details from
scratch, especially if the company you are copying is already in production and working
fine.

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Enter the standard forms and click on save.

Once this step is done, go back to the first step

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Double click on your company code

and enter the company code as the paying company code.

If this company code was paying another company code's invoices, then you would enter
that company code as the sending copmany code and the paying company code in the
paying company code field.

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Click on Save and move on to the next step.

Payment methods in country- In this step you define the valid payments for each
country.
E.g. you will define that
C- Checks
W- Wires
A- ACH
are valid payment methods for the country 'US'
if you use any paying method apart from this, you will get an error message.

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Select a payment method and click on the options on the left

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Enter the currencies allowed for this payment method.

Leave it blank if all currencies can use this payment method.

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Click on Save and move on to the next step.

Payment methods in copmany code
In the previous step, we defined the valid payment methods by country. In this step we
need to define teh valid payment methods for each company code.
If a payment method that is not listed here is used in the payment program, you will get
an error message.

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The easiest way to set this up is to copy the payment methods from an existing
company code and change the payment method if required.
Select the payment methods by selecting them from the left and click on the copy icon.

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copy this payment method to your company code.

Enter a minimum and a maximum amount.
Click on save. You will need to do this for all the payment methods that you copied.

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After you have copied the payment methods that you need , move on to the next step of
setting up a House bank.
A house bank contains all the bank data. The bank key(routing number) and the bank
account is contained in a house bank.
you need to setup a house bank and then create bank keys and account numbers below
this.

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Enter the company code for which you want to setup a House bank

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Click on New entries

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Enter a house bank description e.g. Chase and enter the Bank key and Country and click
on Create

Enter the address details for the bank and click on the green arrow.

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Next- Click on Bank accounts on the left.

Click on new entries

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Enter the house bank that you created in the previous step and enter an accoud ID.
An accound ID further breaks down a House bank. E.g. You can have one account ID
for Check and another for Wire.
Enter the bank account number, the currency and the G/L account.

If SAP gives you an error that the G/L account doesn't exist, go to FS00 and create a
G/L account.

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and go back and save.

Click on no when it asks you if the IBAN should be transported.

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The final step is to setup the bank determination.

Note- You have to setup the House bank first and then come back to the bank
determination.
You will see the House bank is listed last, but the bank determination needs to be your
final step.
Click on bank determination to get started.

Select your copmany code and click on the options available on the left.

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Click on new entries

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Add the following

Payment method-Enter all your payment methods over here.
Currency- Enter the currency in which you will be making the payment methods.
Rank Order- Enter 1 if the same payment method doesn't appear in more than one
house bank.
When the payment program (F110) runs, the system tries to determine which house
bank it needs to make the payment from.
Eg.. if you are paying by check and the payment method C is listed in House bank as
well as House bank B, the system needs to know which house bank it needs to use to
make this payment.
If you define the ranking order as 1 for House bank B, the sytem will always use House
bank B to make the payments and only use House bank A if there aren't enough funds
available in House bank B.
House bank -Enter the house bank that this payment method belongs to.

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Bank Accounts- The next step is to click on Bank accounts ( on the left)
Click on new entries and add the following
House bank-The house bank that you added in the previous step.
Payment method- The payment method added in the previous step.
Currency- The currency you added in the previous step.
Account ID- Enter the account ID that you configured in the House bank step. Each
House bank could be further broken down by an account ID. E.g. you have one called
checks that is mapped to account 123456 and another called wire that is mapped to
67890
Bank subaccount- This is the clearing account that the system will use when you are
paying using a payment method corresponding to it.

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Available amounts- Enter the House bank, account ID , days and currency.
Enter 99999999 as the avaialable for outgoing payments value.
Enter 999 in the days field
Click on save and you are done.
You should be able to run your payment program now.

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Terms of Payment

Terms of payment dictate how quickly we need to pay the vendor e.g.do we need to pay
within 30 days, 60 days or immediately
Do we get a discount for paying within a certain time frame.
Whatever the terms you have negotiated with the vendor, need to be created in there.
Follow the menu path below to create a new terms of payment and to view the SAP
defined terms of payment.

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Click on execute and view the standard payment methods.

before creating a custom method, check if there is a standard method that is available.

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Double click on any payment method to view the details of it.

The description of a payment method should reflect how it is setup.
E.g. 0002 shows us a few things
1- Customer- If you check this box, it tells the system that this payment term can be
used for a customer.
2- Vendor- If you check this box, it tells the system that this payment term can be used
for a vendor.
3- Default for baseline date-The default for baseline date determines how the system
calculates the baseline date.
The baseline date determines the start date for calculating the discount date.
E.g. if you create an invoice in the system with a document date of 1/1/2018 and a
posting date of 1/5/2018 and if your payment terms provide you with a discount of 5% if
you pay within 30 days, from what date should the system calcualte the 30 days?
Should it be from the document date or invoice date etc.
We mostly use the document date to calcualte the baseline date.
4- Payment terms - Here you specify the terms. E.g. if you pay within 14 days, you get
a 2% discount and the entire invoice is due within 30 days.

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You can copy a payment method and create a custom one if required.
The payment terms show up when you are creating a vendor invoice.

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Asset Accounting configuration

Asset Accounting is a very popular submoduel in FICO. It helps a company manage its
fixed assets.
Asset accounting involves creation of fixed assets, depreciating them, trasnfering assets,
retiring them etc.
The asset accounting module syncs with the G/L module.
the first step in configuring is to setup a chart of depreciation.
Create a chart of depreciation using the menu path below

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Click on copy reference Chart of Depreciation

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Click on the copy icon

Enter thr chart of depreciation you are copying from. You can use a standard SAP
delivered chart of depreciation and enter the to company code which is your new chart
of depreciation.

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You will see a message which shows the new chart of depreciation.

Click on enter. You will see on the completed activites, chart of depreciation copied to
1000.

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next go back to the next step, specify description for chart of depreciation.

Change the description of the chart of depreciation.

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Depreciation Areas

A chart of depreciation is the highest level under asset acounting.

The depreciation areas are assigned to a chart of depreciation.
Create new depreciation areas by going back and selecting the next option of
copy/delete depreciation areas.

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You will see a list of depreciation areas that were copied when you copied the chart of
depreciation.
Area 1 is the one that posts to the G/L. The rest of the ones are for tax reporting i.e.
there is no actual posting to the G/L. The values are just calculations.

Double click on a depreciation area to view its details.

For book area 01, you will notice that the posting in G/L is set to Area posts in Realtime.
Do a drop down and explore the other optinos.
Under value maintenance, you can specify what types of values are allowed for this
depreciation area.

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Compare this with the tax depreciation areas.

Create your own depreciation areas based on your client's requirements.

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Assign chart of depreciation to company code

You should be used to creating something and then assigning it in the next step by now.
After creating the chart of depreciation, you have to assign it to your company code.

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Enter your chart of depreciation next to the company code and click on save.

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Number range assignment

Next- assign the company code from where the number range will be picked up for this
company code.
Enter the same company code that you created.

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Asset classes

Asset classes are used to group assets together. E.g. you can have one asset class for
vehicles, one for buildings etc.
Each asset class can have different fields show up on the asset master( simialr to the
field status group setting of G/L) and the asset classes can be linked to a different
number range so you can easily differentiate between them just by looking at the asset
number.
Click on define asset classes using the menu path below.

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You will see the existing asset clases.

Select an asset class and click on the copy icon to create your own asset class.

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Enter the new class value and description.

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Account determination- This determines the G/L mapping for this asset class. The
account determination is linked to G/L accounts in AO90. The asset acquisition account,
retirement account etc. are entered in here.
This field determines which account determination this asset class is linked to.
Generally each asset class will have its own account determination. In some cases you
can share one account determination across many asset classes.
Screen Layout Rule- The screen layout rule is like the field status group for G/L
accounts. This controls which fields appear on the screen for this asset class. You can
make the fields optional required or suppressed.
Each asset class can have its own screen layout rule or if the requirement is the same
for all the asset classes, then you can use one screen layout rule for all.
Click on Save and your new asset class is setup.

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Account determination

As explained in the previous step, the account determination ties an asset class to the
G/L accounts.
In AO90 you link the account determination to various accounts.
If you are creating a new asset class, you may need to create a new account
determination as well.
Create an account determination by following the menu path below.

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Copy an account determination by selecting it and click on the copy icon.

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Enter the new value and description.

Have a good naming convention for this. This could be the same number as the Asset
class or you can have another number but make the number consistent, so if you want to
look up the G/L acount info for an asset class, you can easily tell what the account
determination for an asset class is by looking at the asset class number.
E.g if the asset class is 12000, the account determination can also be 12000 or it can be
z1200 so if you find another asset class as 11000, you can easily tell that the account
determination is 11000 or z1100.

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Screen Layout rules

Screen layout rules are like the field status groups for an asset.
This controls which fields appear on the asset master.
Create a screen layout rule by going through the menu path below.
Note- if you are creating a new asset class, you can either create the asset class and
assign dummy values in the screen layout rules and account determination and then go
back and update them after you create the account determination and screen layout
rules or create the screen layout rules and account determination first and then create
the asset class.

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Copy an existing screen layout rule by clicking on the button the next and click on the
copy icon.

Enter the new values for the screen layout rule along with a description and clic on save
to create the new screen layout rule.

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Update the asset class

This step is required if you initially setup an asset class with dummy values.
Go back and update the asset class with the new screen layout rule and account
determination

Double click on your asset class

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and update the new values

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Ao90- How depreciation posts to the G/L

In this step, you link your Account determination to G/L accounts. Basically, this step
determines what is your G/L when depreciation posts for Asset class trucks, which is
the account that SAP should post to when you retire an asset.

Note- There is no direct relationship between an asset class to a G/L account.

An Asset class is linked to an Account determination and the account determination is
linked to a G/L account.
Use the path below or use the tcode A090.

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Select the chart of depreciation from the right of the screen and click on Account
determination on the left.

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You will then see the list of Account determinations that you created for this depreciation
area.
Select the account determination for which you want to assign G/L accounts and click on
Balance sheet accounts field to assign the acquisitions account etc. and click on the
Depreciation field to assign the depreciation account.

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Once you click on Balance sheet accounts you will see this list which shows you the
accounts that you can enter.
Enter the Balancce sheet APC- This is the account that SAP posts to when you post an
acquisition.
Enter an account in the retirement section.
Save after entering this.
You can come back to the rest of the accounts if you are getting an error message. The
error message will tell you that the account is not found.

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Once you are done with entering the Balance sheet Accounts, click on the depreciation
tab and enter the depreciation values.
Enter the Acc. dep account for ordinary depreciation- This is the account that the
accumulated depreciation gets posted to .
Expense Account for ordinary depreciation- This is the expense account that gets hit
when you run depreciation.
These are the two important accounts that get hit when you run depreciation.
You can come back to the rest when you get an error message. E.g. if you run
unplanned depreciation, SAP will give you an error message as there is no account that
it can post to.
I prefer getting more errors while learning as that helps you relate an error message to
a place in configuration.

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Assign tax indicator for non taxable transactions.

This is a mandatory step- Enter a tax indicator and hit save.

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Specify document types for depreciation postings

When you post depreciation, the system will use a document type. This document type
has settings that we covered earlier. The tcode for maintain a document type is OBA7.
Click on execute in the menu path below.

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Click on Define document types if you want to go back to OBA7 where you define all
document types.
Click on Specify Document type for posting of depreciationto assign a document type for
depreciation posting.

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The standard document type AF is generally used for this purpose. Enter the document
type AF next to your company code and click on save.

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Creating a depreciation key

A depreciation key is the most important step in Asset accounting. This determines how
the asset depreciates.
Depreciation is the reduction in the value of an asset.
The depreciation key determines how the asset depreciaties.
There are various steps in the creation of a depreciation key. Let's go to one of the
steps
Define Base methods

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A base method is assigned to a depreciation key. It contains functions like is this used
for normal depreciation or special depreciation. What is the dep method and so on.
SAP has a lot of standard depreciation keys. Please see if the standard ones meet your
requirement before you create a custom one.
Your business will give you the requirements of a depreciation key and you can ask them
questions based on what you see in the configuration screens before proceeding with
creating it.
After you click on execute, you will see a list of methods.

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Double click on any base method to see the settings it has. The text here gives you a
good idea of how this base method operations.
E.g. in base method 0012, you specify a percentage.
In base method 001, SAP calculates a percentage from useful life and so on.

Base method 0011

Type of depreciaiton -Do a drop down to see the types of depreciation, ordinary
depreciation, special depreciation etc.
Dep method - Here you pick whether this is percentage from userful life, explicit
percentage etc.
Initially, when you are getting started, you don't have to know what each and every box,
drop down does. Start with a standard key and then create a custom one and change
one of the settings and see how it impacts the depreciation that you post.

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Declining balance methods

Delclining balance methods controls how depreciaiton is calcualted. E.g. if an asset is

worth 10,000 and it depreciaties 10%, then the depreciation would be $1000 after 10
months, but if the depreciation key has a double declining method, then it will be
$1000*2.
Many of the tax depreciation keys are set to double declining etc.
When you et a request from the business to setup a tax key, they will specify if there is
no declining balance, double decline etc.
Click on execute from the menu path below to access the Declining balance methods

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Here you can see the decimal factor, this controls the value with which the depreciation
gets multiplied.
in our previous example, we discussed how an asset gets assigned a double declining
method. You would select the declining balance method 002 as it has a declining factor
of 2. SAP will multiply the depreciation by 2.
If you don't want any declining balance method, then select the first method. This is
mainly used for book area 01( the one that posts to the G/L)

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Declining balance methods

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A multi level method controls other factors of a depreciation key e.g. should it start
depreciation from the acquisition value or the netbook value etc.
You can assign many levels to this method. Here you specify how the depreciation
works in year 1, 2 etc.
You can have different percentages for every year.
Click on execute and you willl all the multilevel methods.

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Select the multilevel method and click on levels on the left.

Here is where you assign a different percentage by year.

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Always do a drop down on the values to see the available options.

Do a drop down on the base value to see what all the options are.
You mainly use the acquisition value or netbook value to calcualte depreciation.
Talk to your business if you have questions on which value the depreciation should be
calculated on.

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Maintain period control

Period control determines the period from when depreciation should start. E.g. if you
purchase an asset on 1/1/2018, when do you start depreciating it?
This varies based on the tax laws. E.g you might be required to depreciate from the
start of the year regardless of when you purchased it or you might start depreciating it
only from the start of the month from when you purchased it.
Click on execute in the menu path below.

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SAP provides a lof of period controls. You can identify their settings by the description.
In this step you are creating the shell.

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After this, you can define the calendar settings for a period control.
Here you specify the dates that tell the system what dates it should be using for each
period control.

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Enter the Fiscal year variant and the period control and then enter the month from which
it should start calculating depreciation.
The period control controls your depreciation start date. Create an asset using a
depreciation key that uses a period control that uses start of the year dereciation and
assign another key that uses a period control that uses mid year convention. Assign this
key to another depreciation area.
You will notice that the depreciation start date on the asset master is different for these
depreciation areas.
This is what determines the depreciation start date, but note that you can override the
depreciation start date.

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After creating all the components that link to a depreciation key, you can put this
altogether in a depreciation key.
Use the tcode AFAMA to the menu path below ot create a depreciation key.
A depreciation key determines how an asset depreciates.

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After you click on execute, you are brought to the main configuration screen of a
depreciation key.

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You can double click on the key to view some of its details and you can also select it
and click on the assignment of calculation on the left to see what is assigned to this key.
A depreciation key is linked to a multilevel method, period control and other components
that we previously saw.
View all the calculation methods that this key is linked to.
If you make a change, it is better that you first copy the depreciation key to a zkey and
then make a change to one of the calculation methods.

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Specify transfer of Apc values

In this step you assign if a depreciation area inherits Acquisition values from another
depreciation area and if one depreciation area is identical to another area.
Some tax areas inherit APC values from another tax area and are identical. E.g. if area
11 inherits values from area 10, then you can't add a separate value to area 11. The
field will be grayed out and area 11 will get the same value as area 10.

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Here we see that all the tax depreciation areas inherit the values from book area 01.
E.g. if you enter an acquisition as $10,000 for book area 01, then this $10,000 gets
carried over to all the other depreciation areas.
You can still change these values on the other areas.
Identical checkbox- If the identical checkbox is checked, then that depreciation area
cannot have an acquisition value that is different from the one it inherited from.
The field becomes grayed out so you can't make any changes when this box is checked.

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Specify transfer of depreciation terms

This step is very similar to the previous step, but instead of specifying which depreciation
areas inherit APC values from the other, you specify the depreciation terms that get
transferred from one depreciation area to another.

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For e.g. Area 12 is inherting from area 11. You can always change this as the identical
checkbox is not flagged.

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In this step you can define which depreciation areas are applicable for an asset class.
The default depreciation key and useful and layout is also specified in this step.

Number ranges for Asset Classes

Create number ranges for an asset class in this step. Some of these steps repeat in a
few places.

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Enter your company code for which you are creating the number range

Create a number range and enter a from and to number range

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Click on save.

Transaction types for acquisitions

Transaction types determine what kind of posting it is. In this step we are going over the
transaction types for acquisitions. E.g. is it a transacsation type for acquisition in the
current year, is it a transaction type for an acqusition on a prior year asset.

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After you click on execute you will see two options, click on the first option.

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view the existing transaction types.

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Double click on the transaction type and this gives you the behind the scenes of this
transaction type.
Is it a debit transaction or a credit transaction, should it post net or should it post gross
etc.

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As usual, select an existing transaction type and copy it to make your own transaction
type.

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Enter the new transaction type and customize any of the settings.

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your new transaction type is created

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Limit Transaction type to depreciation area

A lot of times you create a new transaction type to limit it to one depreciation area.
This transaction type is usually a copy of a standard transaction type, but the standard
transaction type posts to all the depreciation areas and you may need this new
transaction type to post an adjustment to one of the depreciation areas only.

Double click on limit transaction type to a depreciation area from the screen below. This
is the same screen as creating a transaction type, but you are limiting it to a
depreciation area.

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select the transaction type that you want to limit to a depreciation area and click on
depreciation area specifications on the left.

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Click on new entries to enter the depreciation area that you are restricting this
transaction type to.

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Enter the depreciation area.

Display for selection- Click on the display for selection if you have more than one
depreciation area and you want to give the user the ability to pick the depreciation areas
rather than post to all of them.
Always post-Click on always posts if this depreciation area should always have
postings for this transaction type.

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When you post to an asset using this transaction type, click on the simulate or change
line items

and see that it is only posting to depreciation area 01 that you restricted it to.

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Transaction types for retirements

Just the same way you defined transaction types for acquistions, in this step you can
define transaction types for retirements.
The exact same principles apply to this transaction type.
the standard SAP retirement transaction types are generally sufficient, but there might
be cases where you need to create a custom one.
A custom transaction type might also be required or you can change a standard one for
reporting purposes. Each transaction type maps to a certain place in the asset history
sheet. You can change where it maps to in this setting.

Click on Execute to view the standard transaction types.

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Click on define transaction types for retirements to view the standard transaction types.

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Double click on a transction type to view its details.

The settings here are the same as the transaction types for acquisitions.
At the bottom of the screen, you will see which section of the asset history sheet this
maps to.

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Limit retirement transaction type to a depreciation

area

Just the same way you limited the transaction type for acuqisitions, you can also limit the
transaction types for retirements to a certain depreciation area.
Click on the Limit Transaction types to depreciation areas

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Select the transaction type from the right and click on depreciation area specifications on
the left.

Click on new entries to enter the transaction type that you are limiting.

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Enter the depreciation area and the other settings if required that we discussed in the
previous step.

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Asset transfer from a legacy system

There are a few settings to be maintained when we transfer assets from a legacay
system.
We need to specify a legacy transfer date. This is the date on which the assets were
valued in the legacy system. e.g. if you are going live with fixed assets in SAP on
1/1/2018, then you need to enter 12/31/2017 or 1/1/2018 as your legacy transfer date
as the value of the assets that you are brining over is as of this date.
In some cases you might be in the middle of the year e.g. 3/1/2018 in a legacy system,
but you decide to bring the asset balances as of 12/31/2017 and then calculate
depreciation for periods 1-3 in SAP.

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Enter your legacy transfer date here. You use trasnaction code AS91 to bring over
legacy assets. The capitalization date of this asset cannot be after this legacy transfer
date. If it is after this transfer date, then you will use the standard tcode as01 to create
teh asset shell.

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The error message that you will receive if an incorrect capitalization date is used.

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Period in which depreciation was last posted

Once you enter the legacy transfer date, enter the last period in which depreciation was
posted in the legacy system. This tells SAP when it should start posting depreciation.

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Select your company code and click on period which depreciation was last posted from
the left

Enter the fiscal year and the period. The system will look to post from the next period in
SAP.

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After this you can start creating legacy assets and post depreciation to these legacy
assets.

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