Sunday, September 29, 2013

SAP FICO Interview Questions and Answers - 2






101. What is a ‘Posting Period Variant’?
A ‘Posting Period Variant’ is useful in ‘opening/closing’ posting periods across many Company
Codes at one time. You define a posting period variant and assign it to various Company Codes.
Since the posting period variant is cross-Company Code, the opening and closing of the posting
period is made simple. Instead of opening and closing individually for different Company Codes,
you just need to open or close the posting period variant.
102. Can You Selectively ‘Open’ and ‘Close’ accounts?
Yes. It is possible to selectively control the ‘opening’ and ‘closing’ for various types of accounts.
Usually, a ‘+’ is mentioned in the top-most entry indicating that all the account types are allowed
for posting. Now, for the GL(S) accounts, you will need to specify the period which needs to be
opened. This ensures that all the account types are open for the current period, indicated by ‘+,’
and only the GL accounts are open for the previous period.
Select account types can also be opened or closed for a specific period; select accounts within an
account type can also be opened or closed.
103. Why is it not Possible to Post to a Customer A/C in a
Previously Closed ‘Period’?
When you want to selectively ‘close’ or ‘open’ the posting period of some accounts (account
range), there will be no problem with that if you are doing it for GL accounts. But, if it is a
subledger account (such as the customer), it has to be achieved via opening or closing the
account interval of the ‘reconciliation account’ of that account type.
104. Can You Open a ‘Posting Period’ only for a Particular User?
Yes. SAP allows you to open or close the posting period only for specific users. This can be
achieved by maintaining an authorization group at the document header level.
105. What is a ‘Special Period’? When do You Use it?
Besides the normal posting periods, SAP allows for defining a maximum four more posting
periods, which are known as ‘Special Periods’ as these are used for year-end closing activities.
This is achieved by dividing the last posting period into more than one (maximum four) period.
However, all the postings in these special periods should fall within the last posting period.
The special periods cannot be determined automatically by the system based on the posting date
of the document. The special period needs to be manually entered into the ‘posting period’ field in
the document header.
106. What is the Maximum Number of ‘Posting Periods’ in SAP?
Under GL accounting, you can have a maximum of 16 posting periods (12 regular plus 4 Special
Periods). However, you can have up to a maximum of 366 posting periods as is the case in
‘special purpose ledgers.’
107. What is a ‘Special Purpose Ledger’?
‘Special Purpose Ledgers’ (FI-SL) are used in reporting. These are basically user-defined
ledgers, which can be maintained either as GL or subsidiary ones with various account
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assignment objects (with SAP-dimensions such as cost center, business area, profit center, etc.,
or customer-defined dimensions such as region, area, etc.).
Once defined, this functionality helps you to report at various levels. Ideally you collect the
information, combine it, and create the totals. This is something such as an additional reporting
feature, and use of this feature will have no effect on the regular functionalities of SAP.
108. What Variations are Possible when Defining a ‘Fiscal Year’?
􀂃 The Fiscal Year is the same as a Calendar Year
The fiscal year starts on January 1 and there are 12 posting periods; the posting periods
correspond to the calendar months; there is no need to define each of the posting periods.
Open table as spreadsheet Posting Period Start Date End Date
1 1–Jan 31–Jan
2 1–Feb 28/29 Feb
3 1–Mar 31–Mar
4 1–Apr 30–Apr
5 1–May 31–May
6 1–Jun 30–Jun
7 1–Jul 31–Jul
8 1–Aug 31–Aug
9 1–Sep 30–Sep
10 1–Oct 31–Oct
11 1–Nov 30–Nov
12 1–Dec 31–Dec
􀂃 The Fiscal Year is NOT the same as a Calendar Year
In this case, you need to specify how many posting periods you want and how the system
should derive the posting period. Since the posting period does not correspond to the
calendar month, the start and end date of each of the posting periods need to be maintained.
109. What is known as ‘Year Shift/Displacement’ in a Fiscal Year?
When the fiscal year is not the same as the calendar year, we need to define a ‘displacement
factor’ for each of the posting periods to correctly identify the number of posting periods.
For example, consider the fiscal year variant V3 (Figure 25). The fiscal year starts on April 1st and
ends on March 31st of the next calendar year so the displacement factor or year shift from April to
December is ‘0,’ and for January to March, it will be ‘􀃬1’. By defining it this way, the system is
able to recognize the correct posting period. A posting made on January 25th, 2006 will then be
interpreted as the 10th posting period in fiscal year 2005.
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Figure 25: Year shift/displacement in Fiscal Year Variant
110. Can You have ‘non-Calendar’ Months as ‘Periods’ in a ‘non-
Calendar’ Fiscal Year?
Yes. The ‘non-calendar fiscal year’ can either correspond to calendar months or to noncalendar
months.
In the case of non-calendar months as the posting periods, you need to specify the start and end
date of these posting periods. Consider a fiscal year starting on April 16th, 2005 and ending on
April 15th, 2006. Here, the posting period-1 starts on April 16th and ends on May 15th and so on.
Note that the posting period-9 will have 2 displacements (0 and 􀃬1) as indicated below in the
Table:
Open table as spreadsheet
Posting Period
Start
Date
End
Date
Year Year
Displacement
1 16–Apr 15–May 2005 0
2 16–May 15–Jun 2005 0
3 16–Jun 15–Jul 2005 0
4 16–Jul 15–Aug 2005 0
5 16–Aug 15–Sep 2005 0
6 16–Sep 15–Oct 2005 0
7 16–Oct 15–Nov 2005 0
8 16–Nov 15–Dec 2005 0
9 16–Dec 31–Dec 2005 0
9 1–Jan 15–Jan 2006 􀃬1
10 16–Jan 15–Feb 2006 􀃬1
11 16–Feb 15–Mar 2006 􀃬1
12 16–Mar 15–Apr 2006 􀃬1
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As a result, a posting made on December 27th, 2005, as well as the posting made on January 14th,
2006 are correctly identified as postings corresponding to period-9.
111. What is a ‘Year-dependent’ Fiscal Year?
A calendar year fiscal variant, when defined as ‘year-dependent,’ is relevant and valid only for
that year.
112. What Precautions should you Take while Defining a
‘Shortened Fiscal Year’?
Note that the ‘Shortened Fiscal Year’ is always year-dependent. This has to be followed or
preceded by a full fiscal year (12 months). Both the shortened and the full fiscal year, in this case,
have to be defined using a single fiscal year variant.
113. Tell me more about a ‘Shortened Fiscal Year.’
As mentioned already, a ‘Shortened Fiscal Year’ is one containing less than 12 months. This
kind of fiscal year is required when you are in the process of setting up a company, or when you
switch over one fiscal year (e.g., calendar year) to another type of fiscal year (non-calendar).
114. How do You Open a new ‘Fiscal Year’ in the System?
You do not need to ‘open’ the new fiscal year as a separate activity. Once you make a posting
into the new fiscal year, the new fiscal year is automatically opened. Or, the new fiscal year is
automatically opened when you run the ‘balance carry-forward’ program.
However, you need to have (1) the relevant posting period already open in the new fiscal year, (2)
completed the document number range assignment if you are following a year-dependent number
range assignment, and (3) defined a new fiscal year variant if you follow the year-dependent
fiscal year variant.
115. How do you ‘Carry-Forward’ Account Balances?
If you have already posted into the new fiscal year, you do not need to ‘carry-forward’ the
balances manually. But you can use the various ‘carry-forward’ programs supplied by SAP for this
task.
116. Can You Explain how ‘Carry-Forward’ Happens in SAP?
Sure. For all the Balance Sheet items, the balances of these accounts are just carried forward to
the new fiscal year, along with account assignments if any. This also true for customer and
vendor accounts.
In the case of Profit & Loss accounts, the system carries forward the profit or loss (in the local
currency) to the Retained Earnings account, and the balances of these accounts are set to ‘0.’ No
additional account assignments are transferred.
117. Is there a Prerequisite for ‘Carry-Forward’ Activity?
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Yes, for Profit & Loss accounts, you should have defined the Retained Earnings account in the
system. Additionally, you should have also specified the ‘Profit & Loss Account Type’ in the
master record of each of these for Profit & Loss accounts.
There are no such requirements for GL accounts, customer and vendor accounts.
118. How many ‘Retained Earnings’ A/C can be Defined?
You can define as many ‘Retained Earnings Accounts’ as you need. But normally, companies
use only one retained earnings account. Remember, to define more than one, you should use the
profit & loss account type.
119. Can You have Multiple ‘Retained Earnings’ A/C?
Normally it is sufficient if you use one ‘retained earnings’ account. However, if you are
configuring for a multinational company where the legal requirements require treating some of the
tax provisions differently from other countries, then you will need more than one retained earnings
account.
120. How do You Maintain ‘Currency’ in SAP?
‘Currency’ (the legal means of payment in a country) in SAP is denoted by a 3-character
Currency Code, maintained per ISO standards. Example: USD (U.S. Dollars), INR (Indian
Rupee), GBP (Great Britain Pound), etc. Each currency code in the system will have a validity
defined.
A currency is defined in SAP using the IMG path: General settings>Currencies >Check exchange
rate types.
121. What is a ‘Local Currency’?
When you define a Company Code, you also need to mention in which currency you will be
maintaining the accounts/ledgers in financial accounting. This currency is called the ‘Local
Currency.’ This is also known as ‘Company Code Currency.’
122. What is a ‘Parallel Currency’?
When defining the currencies for a Company Code, it is possible to maintain, for each of these
company Codes, two more currencies in addition to the ‘Local Currency.’ These two currencies
are called the ‘Parallel Currencies,’ which can be the:
􀂃 Group Currency
􀂃 Hard Currency
􀂃 Global Company Currency
􀂃 Index-based Currency
To translate the values from one currency to the other, you will need to maintain an exchange
rate for each pair of the defined currencies in the system. When parallel currencies are defined,
the system maintains the accounting ledgers in these currencies as well, in addition to the local
currency.
123. What is a ‘Group Currency’?
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This is the currency defined at the Client level.
124. What is the ‘Global Company Code Currency’?
The currency defined for the Company (or the Consolidated Company) is called the ‘Global
Company Code Currency.’
125. What is an ‘Account Currency’?
When defining the GL accounts in the system, you are required to define a currency in which an
account will be maintained, and this is called the ‘Account Currency.’ This is defined in the
‘Company Code’ area of the GL master record, and is used for postings and account balance
display.





                                                                                                                  

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