SAP Simple Finance

© 2014 ERP Corp. All rights
reserved.
What is SAP
Simple Finance?
Carsten Hilker
SAP

Introduction
3
• Since the official release of SAP Simple Finance during
SAPPHIRE, there has been tremendous interest in the latest,
next generation SAP Finance solution
• We’ll cover:
• A quick overview
• Simple Finance, SAP Accounting powered by SAP HANA, Central
Journal scenario
• Simplifications and innovations
• Technical components and prerequisites
• Deployment options
• Make sure to join / attend:
• Controlling 2014 September 21-24 San Diego
• Financial Excellence Forum, October 7-8 Philadelphia
• Customer Engagement Initiative: Simple Finance / Central
Journal

© 2014 SAP AG or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved. 4
Aligned
Single Source of Truth
Provide one-stop access to
all financial and non-financial
data
Ensure harmonized data
without manual reconciliation
Enable flexible data drill-
down to actionable
information

One data instance as common basis
for Transactions, Analysis, and
Reporting
• A single data copy in a shared data model
• Aggregation of elementary records in real time
• From serial processes to event driven
collaboration
• Various copies of data in different data models
• Inherent data latency and alignment issues
• Serial processes to ensure data quality
Separation of Transactions, Analysis,
and Accelerated Reporting
SAP HANA
(DRAM)
Transact Analyze Accelerate
Cache
SAP HANA Enables a Single Source of Truth

Architecture of SAP Accounting powered by SAP HANA
Logistics
Document
CO
Document
FI
Document
Totals & Indices
Financial Accounting
Totals & Indices
Management Account.
From … Stability
Processing
Analytics
CO Document
FI Document
Flexibility
Aggregation on the fly
via HANA views
Pre-Defined Aggregates
Flexibility
Stability
Processing
Analytics
Logical document
Logistics
Document
… To
Customer Benefits
• Harmonized internal
and external
reporting
• Higher flexibility in
reporting and
analysis
• Significantly reduced
reconciliation effort
• Significantly reduced
memory
consumption
• Central journal for
heterogeneous
system landscapes

FI
SAP HANA Live (Virtual Data Model – Logical Documents)
CO CO-PA
Master
Master Data
Web
Dynpro
Fiori Apps
Business
Objects BI
Physical Documents
Reporting Interfaces
Embedded BW (queries)
Reporting Architecture

Reporting with Fiori Applications
Customer
Benefits
• Reporting of
the Financial
Statement,
Balances, Line
Items
• Simple and
easy to use
experience
• Work
seamlessly
across devices
– desktop or
tablet
• Collaboration
functionality

Discovery and analysis
 Lumira
 Explorer
 Analysis for Office / for OLAP
Discover. Predict. Create.
Dashboards and apps
Build engaging experiences
Reporting
 Crystal Reports
 Web Intelligence
Share information
 Design Studio
 Dashboards
Reporting with SAP BusinessObjects Business
Intelligence

Reporting and Analysis Flexibility
User-defined reporting
• Users can explore data on the fly by
restricting financial statements to self-
defined data sub-segments
• SAP will continue to provide standard
reports but with focus on frequently used
reports
Available information
• All record dimensions can be used for
segmentation
• Unrestricted selection of multiple
dimensions for segmentation
• Customer-specific dimensions can be
easily added and are available for
segmentation *
* planned

Harmonized Internal and External Reporting – Example
WIP
Customer Benefits
• Insight into the
“work in process”
account
in the balance sheet
• Detail by production
orders not finished
at period-end
• Drilldown to deeper
levels like cost
elements

Significantly Reduced Reconciliation Effort
 Obsolete – Reconciliation of multiple ledgers ** – because redundancy has been eliminated
 Obsolete – Reconciliation Ledger ** – due to real-time integration from CO to FI
 Obsolete – Reconciliation of totals vs. line items – because totals are dropped
 Obsolete – Reconciliation of OLTP and OLAP – due to real-time analytics on OLTP
 Drastically simplified – FI versus CO – due to 1:1 link on line item level
 Drastically simplified – FI versus CO-PA * – due to link to CO-PA characteristics table
 Faster financial close and lower costs
* for account-based CO-PA and primary cost elements ** already available with New G/L in SAP ERP

Significantly Reduced Memory Consumption
 HANA data base compression
 No more persistent indices and aggregates/totals
 No replication to OLAP system for operational reporting
 Lower TCO and higher through-put
18,5x
Smaller data
footprint observed
based on real
customer data

Agile
Real time finance
processes
Run event-driven processes
with real-time execution
Provide instant insight to
action based on real-time
information
Enable comprehensive
process oversight and risk
management

The Real Time Process Revolution
Process status
analytics
Transactio
n
monitoring
Control
and risk
analytics
Real-time process
oversight
Personal
analytics
Elimination of
batch execution
Real-time
reporting
Intra-period
simulations
Continuous
intra-
period execution
Acceleration of
bottleneck steps
Instant
insight to
action
Real-time
process
execution
Continuous
Process

Financial Close: Transition to Continuous Processing
Processes designed for real-time operations
eliminate close bottlenecks
Real-time analytics for
process oversight
Close processes involve >100 tasks per entity with
complex dependencies and batch bottlenecks
Benefit Drivers
• Eliminate end of period batch bottlenecks
• Continuous intercompany reconciliation
• Continuous financial reporting visibility
• CO-PA & line item detail reconciliation
• Automation for routine tasks
• Full management visibility of close tasks
Challenges
• Multiple batch run dependencies
• Batch bottlenecks delay downstream activities
• High error correction efforts
• Complex issues delayed till post close
• Time pressured resolutions
• Delayed visibility to reporting
Entity
Close
Corporate
Close
Period End
Close
Within the
period
Traditional Financial
Close
Reporting
on-
demand
Financial Close on SAP HANA
Within the
period Period End
Close

Financial Close: Intercompany Reconciliation on the Fly
FBICR3
Reconcile Documents
FBICS3
Select Documents
FBICA3
Assign Documents Automatically
New user experience Improved data drill
down
Reduced time to
close books
• Improved and
accelerated automated
matching
• No more batch jobs, real
time analysis supports
continuous intra-period
process execution
• Improved user
experience and
enhanced data drill down
reduce manual
reconciliation effort
• Better process oversight
through new
management dashboard

Next Gen User Experience
Fully Renewed User
Roles
• General Ledger
Accountant
• Cost Center
Manager
• Collection Specialist
• Credit Manager
More roles planned to
follow

Transactional
Insights to Action Search and Explore
SAP Smart Business Factsheet
Task-based Access
*
Next Gen User Experience – Types of Fiori Applications

Transaction Fiori Applications – Examples
20
Collections Worklist
Prioritize activities automatically based on
collections strategies
Track progress against daily collections goals
Trigger reassignment of items to balance
workload Process Receivables
Dive deep into details of customer account
View receivables aging information
Capture and track customers’ promises to
pay invoices

Smart Business Cockpits
Available Cockpits for
• Financial Close
Manager
• Receivables Manager
Planned Cockpits for
• Chief Financial Officer
• Cash Manager
• Payables Manager

SAP Smart Business for Financial Close
• Cockpit to monitor the
progress of the entity close
via KPI’s, also on a mobile
device
• Analyze the completion rate of
closing tasks by multiple
dimensions like region,
country, company, milestone,
working day, etc.
• Monitor the tasks delayed and
tasks in error with easy
collaboration to respective
task owners
• Analysis of historic closing
cycles
• Solution shall expanded to
other SAP solutions for the
financial close

New Solutions for Real Time Receivables Management
SAP Receivables Manager
supporting the Receivables Manager in
Finance to monitor a continuous process
SAP Customer Financial Fact Sheet
enabling sales representatives to resolve
open issues directly with the customer
Real
time

Introducing SAP Cash Management powered by SAP
HANA
• Analyzing global bank
balances and cash positions
based on data from SAP and
non-SAP systems
• Integrated liquidity forecasting
including cash flow analysis
using multi dimensional real-
time analytics
• Central Bank Account
Management including
overdraft limit analysis, bank
risk analysis, signatory
management and workflow
support
• Smart Business for Cash
Managers, a cockpit to
monitor critical KPI’s, also on
a mobile device

Easy Migration to
SAP Accounting
powered by SAP
HANA
 Install Financials add-on for SAP
ERP 6.0 EhP 7
 Compatibility of new accounting
solution with other SAP ERP
modules*
 Current SAP ERP processes and
reporting run on new accounting
solution with little or no changes
 Migrate to new solution at any
month end with low effort
* SAP Accounting powered by SAP HANA does not provide all capabilities
of current FI/CO

SAP Business Planning and Consolidation 10.1
• Unification of current BPC and BW capabilities in a
single model for planning and consolidation
• Unified models based on BW meta-data utilizing
proven data harmonization services provided by BW
• Seamless integration with SAP Accounting powered
by SAP HANA (no data replication, business
content)
• End-user centric plan configuration and planning
capabilities (incl. UI) provided by BPC NW 10.1
• Support for integrated business planning, dynamic
modeling and simulation
• HTML5 UI support for device-independent planning
SAP HANA Platform
SAP ERP / 3rd party ERP
SAP NetWeaver /SAP Business
Warehouse
EPM Excel Add-in / Analysis for Office
/ HTML 5 Web UI
SAP Business Planning and
Consolidation 10.1, version for SAP
NetWeaver
BPC NW and BW-IP come together in Unified BW-based
model
SAP Planning and Consolidation
BPCBW

Architecture for Integrated Business Planning
SAP HANA Platform
Single source of truth
SAP ERP SAP BPC
BW
Additional customer
benefits
• Fully harmonized master
data and data between
accounting, planning, and
financial risk
management
• Seamless integration of
planning into SAP ERP
user interface and
workflows
• End-to-end simulation
capabilities
Shared data and methods
• Master data (e.g., cost centers)
• Planning model
• Actuals, plans, budgets, forecasts
• Planning engine
• Entry of
transactional and
master data
• Variance analysis
actuals vs. plan
• Entry of planning
models and plan
data
• Flexible reporting
and analysis of
actuals

Architecture for Integrated Business Planning – Detail
HANA Views
ERP Tables:
Actual Data
MultiProvider
VirtualProvider
HANA Views
InfoObjects
In-Memory Cube:
Plan Data
ERP Tables:
Master Data
SAP Accounting powered by SAP HANA
SAP Planning and Consolidation 10.1
Same Architectural
Design as Actuals
• Single Planning application
resulting in real time plan
integration
• Fully supports top down /
bottom up at desired level of
detail
• Pure Line Item Data Storage
• FI and CO Dimensions
combined into a single record
• 100% Account based
planning concept - even for
CO-PA plan data.
• Shares Master data directly
with SAP ERP
• Can apply standard ERP
derivation logic.

Example: Integrated Financial Planning
• Single planning solution for group P&L
plan and individual cost center plans,
fully embedded in ERP
• Real time access to ERP master data
and actuals
• Planning for years or entire account
segments and disaggregation to
periods and individual accounts
Plan data from departmental plans
roll up into group plan in real time,
no batch updates required

© 2014 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved. 30Public
ERP
Central Journal Whiteboard
A traditional BW option also does not allow for central transaction execution, shared
use of data between transaction processing, planning, consolidation and reporting,
or process optimizations
BWERP
source system(s) central BW system
process optimizations
reporting
business transactions

latency, aggregation
shared data, planning / consolidation features

A consolidation ledger also does not allow for central transaction execution, shared
use of data between transaction processing, planning, consolidation and reporting,
or process optimizations
Consolidation
Ledgers
like Hyperion
ERP
source system(s) consolidation ledger
latency, aggregation
reporting, consolidation

ERP
ERP

ERP
plan,consolidate,report*
* requires respective SAP products and licenses
Central transaction execution, shared use of data between transaction processing,
planning, consolidation and reporting, or process optimizations with central journal
Suite on
HANA
SAP HANA
(platform)
ERP
source system(s) central journal instancesource system(s)
Financial
Add-ons

consolidated financial reporting



Real-time
Reconciled

Value Driver: Central process execution
Accounting and
Financial Close
Financial Planning
and Analysis
Treasury and
Financial Risk
Management
Collaborative
Finance Operations
Enterprise Risk
and Compliance
Management
Collaborative
Invoice to Pay
Travel Management
Receivables
Management
Enterprise Risk
Management
Controls & Compliance
Management
Access Governance
Accounting
Entity Close
Corporate Close
Develop and Translate
Strategy
Planning, Budgeting
and Forecasting
Profitability and Cost
Analysis
Payments and Bank
Communications
Cash and Liquidity
Management
Debt and Investment
Management
Monitoring and
Reporting
Reporting and
Disclosure
Financial Close
Governance
Commodity Risk
Management
Shared Services
Framework
Financial Risk
Management
International Trade
Management
dark blue = prime candidate (straight-forward, few customizing or MD requirements), light blue = customer option (more difficult, higher
customizing and MD requirements, closer to logistics processes / operational nature, grey = not applicable or recommended
Fraud Management
Audit Management

Value Driver: Central execution (process categories)
 Financial reporting
 Management reporting
 Tax reporting
 Master Data Governance
 Group cash management
 Planning and Budgeting
 Treasury Management
 Risk Management
 Fraud Management
 Shared Services
 Travel Management
 Intercompany
 Cash Management
 Receivables Management
 Billing & Invoicing
 Collections Management
 Dispute resolution
 Payments processing
 Accounts Payable
 Bank Communication
Reporting Analysis / Processing Optimization

Customer Engagement Initiative: Simple Finance /
Central Journal
35
https://influence.sap.com/ct/s.bix?c=55C80A75-EBD7-481B-A4B6-6C2F8C214248
Contact carsten.hilker@sap.com to participate

Upcoming Events for SAP Controlling
Professionals
• Financial Excellence
Forum
• October 7 – 8, 2014
• Newtown Square, PA
• http://fm.sap.com/1mo
bile/SECHPE512_388
70_ban.htm
36
• Controlling 2014
• September 21-24,
2014
• San Diego, CA
• http://controlling2014.e
rpcorp.com/

Questions
• Now:
• Ask questions now for immediate answers
• Later:
• carsten.hilker@sap.com
37
Q&A

Disclaimer
SAP®, R/3, mySAP, mySAP.com, xApps, xApp, SAP NetWeaver®, Duet®, PartnerEdge, and other SAP® products and
services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP AG in
Germany and in several other countries all over the world. All other product and service names mentioned are the
trademarks of their respective companies. ERP Corp is neither owned nor controlled by SAP.

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