Universal Journal FAQ
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chellapathiUniversal Journal FAQ
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chellapathi2022-08-03 2428741
2428741 - Universal Journal FAQ
Version 2 Type SAP Note
Language English Master Language English
Priority Recommendations / Additional Info Category FAQ
Release Status Released for Customer Released On 09.09.2020
Component FI-GL ( General Ledger Accounting )
Please find the original document at https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/ 2428741
Symptom
You want basic information on the Universal Journal in SAP S/4HANA Finance, on its effects on the
accounting architecture and on changes in the functionality.
Other Terms
journal entry, accounting document
Solution
General Questions
What is the Universal Journal?
In SAP S/4HANA Finance, the Universal Journal captures all accounting-relevant transactions in Financial
Accounting (FI) and Controlling (CO) as journal entries. It thus represents the single source of truth for both
financial accounting and management accounting. The result is a fully integrated accounting system in which
all line items from business transactions, regardless of where they occur, are located in one place. The
Universal Journal contains all fields (columns) required by the business processes and the individual
components. The first release of the Universal Journal was SAP Simple Finance 2.0. SAP Simple Finance
has since been renamed SAP S/4HANA® Finance.
Why was the Universal Journal introduced?
The Universal Journal was developed in order to guarantee the integrity of financial data, eliminate
redundancy and reconciliation effort between FI and CO, and provide significantly higher levels of
performance, transparency, and financial insight. Combining the data structures of the different components
into a single line item table (ACDOCA) results in a single source of truth that replaces the previously separate
physical tables.
What application areas within FI and CO are integrated with the Universal Journal?
Every business transaction in one of the following application components generates a journal entry:
• General Ledger Accounting (FL-GL)
• Asset Accounting (FI-AA)
• Controlling (CO)
• Profitability Analysis (CO-PA), except costing-based*
• Material Ledger (CO-PA-ACT)
*Only account-based CO-PA is fully integrated with the universal journal. Costing-based CO-PA can
nevertheless be used in parallel.
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How does the Universal Journal affect Controlling?
A major change in Controlling is that cost elements are no longer stored as separate master data in CO. They
are now a special type of G/L account, maintained as master records within General Ledger.
How many parallel currencies can the Universal Journal handle?
The Universal Journal in SAP S/4HANA can handle up to 10 currency fields. Two of them are preconfigured,
and 8 are freely-definable currencies.
The preconfigured currencies are company code currency and controlling area currency. These two
currencies cannot be changed. Controlling area currency is only available if you use the Controlling
application component.
You can use the freely-defined currencies to configure further local currencies and to map transfer prices, for
example.
Each posting fills all currency fields according to the configured currency conversion rules.
What happened to New General Ledger Accounting (also known as "New G/L" or "FI-GL (new)")?
The New General Ledger Accounting functions (which are still available for SAP ERP) were at the time
introduced to enable parallel accounting as well as planning and reporting on the basis of profit centers,
segments, and business units. These functions are now available using the Universal Journal which
combines FI and CO within table ACDOCA.
Doesn’t the real-time integration of FI and CO exist anymore?
Statements such as “the FI-CO real-time integration is obsolete” may sound confusing, since real-time
integration of the two application components FI and CO is essential in an integrated accounting system. But
such statements only mean that the technical communication technique between the two components is not
needed anymore because they are inherently integrated within the same table ACDOCA. Since the two
components are no longer separated, the data is always available in real time.
Have all Accounting-relevant tables been replaced by table ACDOCA?
No. Many tables have been replaced by table ACDOCA but not all.
For example, the former “G/L-only” table BSEG still exists as it is needed to store the source documents that
serve as the basis for journal entries into table ACDOCA. In addition, it stores entries relating to open item
management.
Also, table BKPF that stores the header for journal entries remains unchanged.
The entries of the following tables are now completely contained in table ACDOCA:
• The tables making up New General Ledger Accounting known in classical ERP:
FAGLFLEXA, FAGLFLEXT, JVGLFLEXA, JVGLFLEXT, FMGLFLEXA, FMGLFLEXT
• The actual data of the Controlling tables: COEP, COSS, COSP
The data for statistical postings and target data remain in the tables COEP, COSS, and COSP.
• The Material Ledger table: MLIT
• The Fixed Assets table: ANEP
(Please note that this list is not exhaustive and only lists some of the most important tables.)
Why is there no primary key on the database for table ACDOCA?
In order to reduce its memory footprint and allow flexible partitioning as described in Note 2289491, table
ACDOCA is created without a primary key on the database.
Although fields .RCLNT to DOCLN are marked as primary keys in SE11, there is a special setting in the
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DDIC that prevents creation of the primary key on the database. To verify that there is no inconsistency (that
is, the primary key does not exist on the database), you can use Database object -> Check in transactions
SE11 or SE14.
The primary key of table BKPF is always inserted in the same transaction when new journal entries are
posted. This prevents the unintended insertion of duplicate document numbers in table ACDOCA.
Terminology
What is the difference between journal entries and accounting documents?
In SAP ERP, accounting documents (also known as G/L account documents, G/L documents, or simply
documents) represented the Financial Accounting view of business transactions. They were complemented
by CO documents which represented the Controlling view. It was not possible to navigate directly between an
accounting document and the corresponding CO document as they were stored in different parts of the
system.
With SAP Simple Finance, On-Premise Edition 1503 (SAP S/4HANA® Finance), accounting documents and
CO documents have been superseded by journal entries.
Documentation
General information on the Universal Journal is available on the Help Portal in the Application Help for SAP
Simple Finance, On-Premise Edition under Financial Accounting (FI) > General Ledger Accounting (FI-GL)
(New) > Business Transactions > Posting > Document > Universal Journal.
For detailed information on cost elements, see the Application Help for SAP Simple Finance, On-Premise
Edition under Controlling (CO) > Cost Center Accounting (CO-OM-CCA) > Master Data in Cost Center
Accounting (CO-OM-CCA) > Cost Elements.
For an overview of the changes introduced by the Universal Journal, see the Help Portal for SAP Simple
Finance, On-Premise Edition under What's New - Release Notes > SAP Simple Finance, On-Premise Edition
> Initial Shipment > SAP Accounting powered by SAP HANA > Universal Journal Entry.
Software Components
Software Component Release
SAP_FIN 720 - 720
SAP_FIN 730 - 730
S4CORE 100 - 100
S4CORE 101 - 101
S4CORE 102 - 102
S4CORE 103 - 103
S4CORE 104 - 104
S4CORE 105 - 105
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This document is referenced by
SAP Note/KBA Title
3002739 Collective note: Japanese translation of terms changed in SAP S/4HANA
2527020 G/L accounts with the G/L account type "Secondary Costs" in general ledger accounting
