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SAP FI – Overview SAP FICO

SAP FI stands for Financial Accounting and it is one of important modules of SAP ERP. It
is used to store the financial data of an organization. SAP FI helps to analyze the financial
conditions of a company in the market. It can integrate with other SAP modules like
SAP SD, SAP PP, SAP MM, SAP SCM, etc.

SAP FI comprises of the following sub-components:

 Finance Accounting General Ledger

 Finance Accounting Accounts Receivable and Payable
 Finance Accounting Asset Accounting
 Finance Accounting Bank Accounting
 Finance Accounting Travel Management
 Finance Accounting Fund Management
 Finance Accounting Legal Consolidation

Where Do We Use SAP FI?

SAP FI module enables you to manage financial accounting data within an international
framework of multiple companies, currencies, and languages. SAP FI module mainly deals
with the following financial components:

 Fixed asset
 Accrual
 Cash journal
 Accounts receivable and payable
 Inventory
 Tax accounting
 General ledger
 Fast close functions
 Financial statements
 Parallel valuations
 Master data governance

SAP FI consultants are mainly responsible for implementing Financial Accounting and Cost
Accounting with SAP ERP Financials.

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 2. SAP FI – Submodules SAP FICO

SAP FI has a collection of submodules, as depicted in the following screenshot:

Finance Accounting – General Ledger

A General Ledger contains all the transaction details of a company. It acts as the primary
record to maintain all accounting details. Common general ledger entries are customer
transactions, purchases from vendors, and internal company transactions.

Common T-codes that are used to maintain G/L accounting:

 F-06
 F-07
 FBCJ
 FB50
 FB02

Finance Accounting – Accounts Receivable and Payable (AR / AP)

It includes the details of amount that is paid by the customer and the amount that is paid
by company to the vendors. In other words, AP includes all the vendor transactions and
AR includes all the customer transactions.

Common SAP AR T-codes:

 FD11
 FD10
 FRCA
 VD01

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Common SAP AR Tables:

 KNA1
 KNVV
 BSIW

Common SAP AP T-codes:

 XK01
 MK01
 MK02
 FCHU

Common SAP AP Tables:

 LFA1
 LFM2
 LFBK

Finance Accounting Asset Accounting

Asset Accounting deals with all the fixed asset of the company and provides all the
transaction details about fixed assets. The asset accounting module of Finance Accounting
works closely with other modules like SAP MM, SAP Plant Management, EWM, etc.

Common T-codes used for Asset Accounting:

 AT01
 AT03
 AUN0
 ASEM

Example: When a company purchases an item that can be considered as an asset, the
details will be passed to Asset accounting module from the SAP MM module.

Finance Accounting Bank Accounting

It deals with all the transactions done through bank. It includes all the incoming and
outgoing transactions performed, balance management and bank transaction master data.

You can create and process any type of bank transactions using the Bank accounting
component.

Common Bank Accounting module tables that are used for this are:

 LFBK
 BNKA
 KNBK

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Common T-codes with bank accounting:

 FIBLAROP
 OBEBGEN
 FI13
 FF_6
 RVND

Finance Accounting Travel Management

This module is used to manage all the travel expenses of a company. It involves all the
travels request, their planning and expenses involved in all the requested trips.

It helps an organization to manage travel expenses in an efficient manner, as it provides

integration with all the other modules of SAP.

Common Travel Management T-codes:

 PR05
 PRTS
 TRIP
 PR00

Common Travel Management tables:

 TA22B
 PTRV_HEAD
 FTPT_PLAN
 FTPT_ITEM

Finance Accounting Fund Management

This module is used to manage funds in a company. Fund Management module interacts
with other modules like Bank accounting, General Ledger (G/L, SAP AR/AP, and SAP
Material Management, etc. to get fund details.

It involves all the transactions for fund receiving, fund expenditure, and future expenses.
It helps a company to create budget forecasting and to use the funds in a proper way.

Common tables that store Funds management data:

 FMFCTR
 FMIFIIT
 FMIT

Common SAP Funds Management T-codes:

 FM5I
 FMWA

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 FMEQ

Finance Accounting Legal Consolidation

It helps an organization to treat its multiple units as a single company, hence it enables
to view all the details as a single financial statement for all the companies under that
group. An organization can get a clear idea of its financial conditions as a single entity.

Common tables in FI Legal Consolidation module:

 FILCP
 MCDX
 GLT3
 T000K

Note: FI-Legal Consolidation module was supported in older versions of SAP ERP
implementation. This work is performed by SAP Business Process Consolidation BPC and
SEM-BCS now.

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 3. SAP FI – Company Basics SAP FICO

A company is defined as the smallest unit for which financial statements can be created in
accordance with commercial legal regulations.

In SAP FI, a company can comprise of multiple codes, however it acts as a single unit for
which financial statements are available. All the company codes must use the same chart
of accounts list and fiscal year, however each code can have a different local currency.

A chart of accounts list consists of all the chart of accounts that can be used and each code
must have one chart of account.

A fiscal year normally consists of twelve months’ time period where company creates the
financial statements.

SAP FI – Create Company

Login to SAP FICO

Use T-code SPRO -> click on SAP Reference IMG -> New window will open

Expand SAP Customizing implementation guide -> Enterprise Structure -> Definition ->
Finance Accounting -> Define Company -> click on Execute (see the pointer in the
screenshot).

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A new window will open -> click on New Entries -> New Entries: Details of added entry

You need to provide the following details to create a new company:

 Enter the company code to represents group of company.

 Enter the company name
 Enter the full address-street, PO Box, postal code, city
 Enter the Country
 Enter the Language key
 Enter the currency

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The next step is to save the company details -> CTRL+S or as shown in the above
screenshot.

SAP FI – Create Company Code

In SAP FI, a company can comprise of multiple codes, however it acts as a single unit for
which financial statements are available. Company code is the smallest unit in an
organization for which financial statements (profit-loss statement, etc.) can be generated.

Create, edit, delete a company code

Let us discuss how to create, edit, and delete a company code. Take a look at the following
screenshot.

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Expand Enterprise Structure as mentioned in the previous topic -> Definition -> Financial
Accounting -> Edit, Copy, Delete, check company code -> Execute using click on the watch
image -> New window will open -> You can create a new company code by selecting both
the options.

Select Edit, Copy, Delete, and Check Company Code. It allows you to copy all the
configurations and tables automatically.

If you select Edit company code, you will get the following window –> click on New Entries
and update the code details.

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You can click on the Address button and update the following fields. Once the Address field
is updated, click the Save button.

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 4. SAP FI – Define Business Area SAP FICO

Business Areas are used to differentiate transactions that come from different lines of
business in a company.

Example
There is a big company XYZ which runs multiple businesses. Let us assume it has three
different domains like manufacturing, marketing, and sales.

Now you have two options:

 First is to create different company codes

 And the other better option is to create each of these business lines into the
business areas

The benefits of using Business Areas in this case are as follows:

 You can use these business areas if other company codes require the same areas.

 It is easy to configure if you use a Business Area, as you just need to attach to the
company code and the other details in that business area will get attached
automatically.

 By using Business Areas in controlling, you can create Profit and Loss statement,
Balance Sheet, etc. for business areas. Hence it is used for management accounting
in a few companies.

Note: Business areas are used more in Controlling as compared to Finance Accounting.

How to create a new Business Area in SAP FI?

Expand Enterprise Structure as mentioned in the previous topic -> Definition -> Financial
Accounting -> Define Business Area -> Execute -> Go to New Entries

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Enter the 4 digit Business Area code and save the configuration.

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 5. SAP FI – Define Functional Area SAP FICO

Function Areas in finance accounting are used to define the expenses in a company
according to individual function units. The most common Functional Areas are:

 Manufacturing
 Sales and Distribution
 Production
 Administration

How to Define a Functional area in SAP FI?

You can define a Functional Area using the T-code FM_FUNCTION (Earlier it was OKBD,
but this is obsolete). It will open a new window.

Click on Create Functional Area as shown below and a new window will open.

Enter the following details:

 Name of Functional Area

 Description
 Validity to and from date
 Expiration date and Authorization.

Once all the details are provided, click the Save button at the top. Once you click Save,
you will see a message at the bottom that a new functional area has been created.

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Functional Areas are used to create Profit and Loss statements using the cost of sales
accounting and they are also used to analyze the cost of sales accounting. For this, you
need to activate the cost of sales accounting as follows:

Go to SPRO -> SAP Reference IMG -> Financial Accounting -> FI Global Settings ->
Company Code -> Cost of Sales Accounting -> Activate cost of sales accounting for
preparation.

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 6. SAP FI – Define Credit Control SAP FICO

Credit Control in FI is used to check the credit limit for the customer and it can use one or
more codes. It is used for credit management in Application components such as Account
Receivable (AR) and Sales and Distribution.

The credit control area is determined in the following sequence:

 User exit
 Distribution channel
 Customer master
 Company code for the sales organization

How to define a Credit Control Area?

A Credit Control Area is defined in accordance with the areas of responsibility for credit
monitoring. Use the T-code SPRO -> click SAP Reference IMG. It will open a new window.

Expand SAP Customizing implementation guide -> Enterprise Structure -> Definition ->
Finance Accounting -> Define Credit Control Area -> Execute.

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Click Execute -> New entries -> Enter the below details -> Save. Now you have
successfully configured the Credit Control Area.

Once you create the Credit Control Area, the next step is to assign a company code to the
credit control area.

Expand Enterprise structure -> Assignment -> Finance Accounting -> Assign company
code to credit control area -> Execute.

A new window will open -> click Position -> it will open another new window. Enter the
company code and click Continue.

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Enter the Credit Control Area in CCAR and save the details.

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 7. SAP FI – General Ledger SAP FICO

The General Ledger is used to record all the business transactions in a software system.

SAP FI – Chart of Accounts

The FI chart of accounts represents the list of GL accounts that are used to meet the daily
needs and the operating country’s legal requirement in a company. The master chart of
accounts must be assigned to each company code.

Chart of accounts (COA) can be divided into the following types:

 Operating Chart of Accounts – It contains all the General Ledger accounts that
are used to meet the daily needs in a company. The operating chart of accounts
has to be assigned to a company code.

 Country Chart of Accounts – It contains a list of all General Ledger accounts that
are required to meet the operating country’s legal requirements. You can also
assign a company chart of account to the company code.

 Chart of Accounts Group – This COA group contains a list of all the G/L accounts
that are used by the entire company.

How to create a new Chart of Accounts?

You can create a new Chart of Accounts by using the T-code OB 13 or by going to Finance
Accounting -> G/L accounts.

Type the T-code OB13 in SAP Easy Access and it will take you to the following screen:

This window can also be opened by following the path:

T-code SPRO -> SAP Reference IMG -> Financial Accounting -> General Ledger
Accounting -> G/L accounts -> master data -> Preparations -> Edit Chart of Account Lists
-> Execute -> New Entries to create a new charts of account.

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You can choose Controlling Integration as manual creation of cost elements or automatic
creation of cost elements. (Recommended to use manual creation).

Group Chart of Accounts is used for report consolidation. Uncheck the Blocked checkbox
under the status tab and click the Save option.

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 8. SAP FI – COA Group SAP FICO

You can create a SAP FI chart of accounts group as per your requirement. To effectively
manage and control a large number of G/L accounts, you should use COA groups.

How to define Chart of Accounts Group?

There are two ways you can create a new COA group. The first method is to use the T-
code OBD4.

You can also reach to this screen by following the path:

T-code SPRO -> SAP Reference IMG -> Financial Accounting -> General Ledger
Accounting -> G/L Accounts -> Preparations -> Define Account Group -> Execute -> New
window will open -> New Entries

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Populate the following fields in the COA group: Chart of Account Key, Acct Group, Name,
From Acct. and To Account details.

After providing the required details, click the Save Configuration option to create the COA
group.

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