1. Consolidated Financial Reporting with Special Ledger
Srividhya Vaidyanathan Shell Oil Products US 1612
Hello
Welcome if needed ??
I am Sri Vaidyanathan from Houston TX
I am currently working for for Shell Oil Products US in the SAP Development area specializing in the FICO module , I am starting to do a little bit of HR as well
Have been working with SAP as an end user / configurator for over 6 years now . Prior to that I was a financial analyst
The topic for our discussion today is the use of FI-SL module of SAP for doing consolidated financial reporting .
I was part of the shell team that implemented the reporting solution and this presentation is based around my experiences on our
FI_SL implementation

2. Learning Objectives
Advantages of the FI-SL module for consolidated group reporting
Review the use of FI-SL in group reporting with a working example
Special Ledger Tips and Tricks
Here are our learning objectives from this presentation
We will understand how the FI-SL module provides the functionality and capability for group reporting
We will Use the Shell reporting solution to understand how the FI-SL module can be customized to deliver a group reporting solution
Learn a few tips and tricks around using the tools of the FISL module to provide a customized reporting solution

3. Overview Review requirements for group reporting at Shell
Briefly discuss approaches and possible solutions
Discuss the advantages of FI-SL module for implementing the group reporting solution
An outline of the Shell SPL solution
Discuss customizing tools in FISL
User Exits , Rules, Roll -UP
This is how my presentation for for today is structured
We will start off by reviewing the requirements we had around which the reporting solution had to be designed
And then look at some of the options we had to meet those requirements
The reporting solution was implemented based on the FISL module . We will discuss some of the inherent advantages of the FISL module for putting together a group reporting solution
Look very briefly at the shell SPL design
Provide examples of customizing tools that were used. I would mainly like to concentrate on the different areas were user exits can be used to customize the SPL module and talk a little bit about using rules and Roll up

4. The Challenge
Generate a Quarterly Financial report for group reporting to Royal Dutch Shell London by
“Area of Operations Entity” (Equivalent to company codes)
Across sectors (e.g. Oil Products, International Aviation)
By GFI (Group Financial Information) line items (Equivalent to account codes, with sub-analyses)
With primary, secondary and tertiary analyses & statistical data
Rolled up to reporting lines and validated through a standard software package (CERES or CLIME).
Subject to external audit and audit report
The requirements we had when we went about designing the reporting solution were to
Area of operations – we had to roll up our company codes into area of operations – which was how the business entities are organized at the global level
We had to have grouping by sector
And roll up the General Ledger accounts to GFIM line items – which is the equivalent to GL accounts in our global reporting system
We had to have Different levels of analysis on certain items
All of the data had to rolled up to an external reporting package called clime / CERES which had their own validations
And last but not the least the group report was subject to external audit – so the data backing up the report had to have an audit trail

5. Solutions Use existing reports and map “manually” to GFI
Build new non-intrusive ABAP reports to supplement existing information
Build more complex ABAP reports which map to GFI from SAP User Tables
Use SAP Special Ledger to collate and prepare GFI
Use an external tool to collate and prepare GFI
Build reports using the data warehouse
Given those requirements we evaluated many options to see what would be the most robust solution
One of the first reactions was – well can we do this manually using existing reports to map to GFIM
The second approach was - lets run abap queries from SAP and load them into a database application
The the thinking was if we are doing abap – why not build complex programs that would write data into Z tables from which we could do our mapping
At this point the special ledger was not a tool we had much expertise in – however the Global solution was to
And finally there was the option to use an external tool to prepare the report or use the Data warehouse to build the consolidated report

6. Pros & Cons Manual ABAP – Data Warehouse Reporting External tools
Time consuming and cumbersome , inability to meet reporting deadlines
ABAP –
Complex programming
Run time
Difficult to reconcile
Data Warehouse Reporting
– Lag time between data creation and Data upload to DW
External tools
May not have the desired capability
We weighed the Pros and Cons of our approaches and we found
The manual solution was dismissed out of hand
We did ponder over using ABAP – however the the thought was it would
It would take complex programming
There were concerns around the run time and it was going to be difficult to reconcile
The main reason for not going the data warehouse route was –
And if we were going to use external tools – there was not much chance of finding something that would meet all our needs

7. Advantages of FI - SL
Std SAP integration interface to all SAP modules for on-line analysis. - full drill-down audit functionality thru documents, - but can create significant database volume.
Collates data by financial period
Provides reversible/repeatable mapping to GFI codes and aggregation of values / volumes
Allows for manual adjustments, with ready audit trail.
All GFI data in one area, for export to Group Return.
Facilitates reconciliation & control reports
All of which made us go to the FI_SL module given its inherent advantages
Standard integration to all SAP modules
If we had chose to do drill down we would have full audit capability
the data can be collated by financial period
We could reverse and repeat out mapping and had the functionality to aggregate $ amounts and Volumes
Manual adjustments were easy and there was an audit trail to back it ip
All of the data would be collected in one place for the group return
And control reports were available to faciliate easy reconciliatoion

8. SL Design Overview 5 ledgers to capture activity at the GL level AR/AP
Fixed assets and Expenses
Sales
Cost of Sales
Equity and Other
One Roll up Ledger
Additional ledger to capture adjustments on the roll up table
Two translation tables to
Translate GL account Numbers to GFI Codes
Translate company codes to Area of Operations entities
Extract report out of roll up table
For all of the reasons we discusses in the previous slide we ended up choosing the FISL solution
Here is a bried overview of the design
There are 5 ledgers to capture GL level activity
Ledgers were designed keeping in mind the characterestics that would be needed to map to the group report
All the GL data is rolled up into one roll up ledger -during the roll up process the GL data is mapped to the group characterestics like AOO and GFI codes
To do the mapping the are two traslation tables
The final group report is extracted out of the roll up table

10. Customizing the Special Ledger for Consolidation
Using User Exits in Field Movements to populate the ledger with data needed for classification and consolidation
Ledger posting rules to restrict data posted to Special Ledger
Managing Roll up
The SPL module provides some powerful tools that can provide flexibility help customize the reporting solution
Tools have have helped us put together the solution are –
User exits
Restricting / directing the data into the ledgers by using ledger porting rules
Using the roll Up to consolidate the data and map it to group financial requirements

11. User Exits – Adding functionality to FI-SL
User Exits in Special Ledger are a valuable tool for adding functionality to the Special Ledger without modifying standard code
Field Movements in FI-SL control how fields defined in FI-SL tables are populated
The fields can either be populated directly from other fields or, van be populated with user exits
User Exits can be used with
Variable Field Movements
Fixed Field Movements
Roll Up
User exits – Valuable tool
Field movements control how the fields defined in FI-SL module are populated
It could a direct one to one mapping like field A in the table is populated with the GL account in the line item or can be populated using exits – igf the one to one mapping does not meet the needs

12. User exit in Variable field movement
Business Scenario : Identify whether a sale is a Domestic sale or export sale
Solved by
Adding a field to the sales ledger for type sale
Implement a Variable field movement user exit to populate the field from the customer
One of the business scenarios we had was to identify whether a sale was a domestic or an expot sale
This was solved by adding a field to the sales ledger for type sale and populating it with an indicator for domestic or export sale
The field movement is shown on this slide

13. Implementing the user exit
Variable field movement exists must be added to delivered program RGIVU000
Copy Program RGIVU000 to a Z program ZGIVU000
Add the code in form
FORM e09_mvc USING from_field to_field.
Tip : The EXX number must match the UXX number in the Field movement configuration
Call up transaction GCX2 or IMG path Financial Accounting – Special Purpose Ledger – Basic Settings – User exits – Maintain client specific user Exits
Maintain the entry in application area GIMV
GIMV ZGIVU00 Variable field movement
To implement an exit in a variable field movement you need to do the following
Step 1
Step 2
With the Z porgram are several forms – Add code in
After coding the exit – It must be mainted in configuration so that the exit can be called during the SL posting
To do that
Call transaction GCX2
Create an entry for the application area for variable field movements which is GIMV and add the name of the Z program against the application area

14. User Exits – Fixed field Movement
Fixed Field Movements are client independent
Table T800M stores fixed field movements. This table is updated automatically when an FI-SL table is installed
Fixed Field Movements are used for fields such as Currency / Quantities
Entries from this table must never be deleted
Fixed Field movements are client independent field movements .
In SAP those field movements are stored in table T 800M. And whenever an FISL table is installed SAP automatically updates the T800M table
General fixed field movements are used in fields like currencies and quantities
A note of caution . Entries from the T800M table must never be deleted

15. Business Scenario
All quantities must be reported in barrels for the consolidated group report
Solution : Input the quantity in barrels in the additional quantity field and use an exit to convert the unit of measure into Barrels
Fixed Field movements are client independent field movements .
In SAP those field movements are stored in table T 800M. And whenever an FISL table is installed SAP automatically updates the T800M table
General fixed field movements are used in fields like currencies and quantities
A note of caution . Entries from the T800M table must never be deleted

16. Implementing the Exit
Copy SAP program RGIFU000 to ZGIFU099 ( or any Z Program)
Input the code for conversion into barrels in
FORM E03_MVC USING FROM_FIELD TO_FIELD.
Activate the user exit by transaction code GCX1 or IMG path Financial Accounting – Special Purpose Ledger – Basic Settings – User exits – Cross client user Exits
Create a new entry under application area GIMF
The steps for implementing an exit in the fixed field movements is similar to what needs to be done for a variable field movement

17. Implementing the Exit - Contd
Assign the user exit to the fixed field movement
Call up transaction GCI4 or IMG path
Special Purpose Ledger – Basic Settings – Maintain Fixed field Movement
Assign the User exit to the field movement for field ASL
Caution – Never delete any entries from this table
And once the exit is coded it needs to be added to the field movement
The transaction code for doing that is GCI4
And to repeat the caution – entries must never be deleted from this table

18. Ledger Selection Rules
Ledger Selection Rules can be used to restrict data that flows into the special Ledgers
Ledger selection rules can be configured in transaction code GCVZ
The rule must be assigned to an activity in the configuration of the ledger
Ledger selection rules is another tool to restrict data that flows into the ledger
Once the rule is configured it must be assigned to an activity in the ledger config

19. Assigning the Rule
For instance the accounts that flow into the sales ledger restricted by
In the configuration after the activities are assigned – highlight the activity and hit ledger selection button on the screen
On the screen that opens up – add the rule

20. Rules - Checkpoint
Another point to note is that on the far left there is a column for required posting – If this is checked then the ledger selection rules are ignored
This is how we could restrict some activities while not doing that for some others
If the required posting indicator is checked then the activity
will not be controlled by the ledger selection rules

21. Configuring Roll Up The configuration for Roll Up is under
Financial Accounting –Special Purpose Ledger-Periodic Processing – Roll up
And finally for consolidates roll up is a tool that helps combine data from several sources into one –
The roll up is used for consolidated financial reporting to
- combine several company codes into one reporting entity
Combine several GL accounts into one reportable item
The configuration for roll up is under

22. Settings for Rollup
Create Roll Up Field Movements – Transaction Code GCR1
Maintain any user exits under Financial Accounting- Special Purpose Ledger – Basic Settings - User exits
Application Area : GBRU
Standard Delivered program RGLVU00 needs to be copied
to a Z Program
Two key areas in roll up are
creating roll up field movements
And maintain exits

23. Other Capabilities of FISL
Perform Allocations
Configuration steps that are needed for allocations are
GCS1 – Update integrated master data table
GCA1 – Update Field Usage for Allocations the settings on fields that would be used in assessments’
GA11 – Create Assessment cycles
Balance Carry forward
A retained earnings account needs to be defined for balance carry forward
Some of the other capabilities of the SL module are
Perform allocations

24. In the Closing ……
Reviewed the capabilities of the FI-SL module for group reporting
Reviewed customizing settings in FI-SL to help meet reporting needs
That brings me to the end of this presentation to sum up
we reviewed the -
And looked at some of the customizing settings that can be used to meet reporting needs

25. Srividhya Vaidyanathan
For More Information
SAP Release notes 4.6C
On the WEB
help.sap.com
Srividhya Vaidyanathan
For more information on the FISL module you could look at
You are welcome to contact me at
Shell Oil Products US

26. Thank you for attending!
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The session code for this session is – 1612
Thank you all
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