General Ledger
Accounting
140. What is a ‘Document’
in SAP?
SAP is based on the ‘document
principle’ meaning that a document is created out of every
business transaction in the system. The
Document is the result of a posting in accounting in SAP,
and is the connecting link between
various business operations. There are two types of
documents:
1. Original Documents: these
documents relate to the origin of business transactions such
as invoices, receipts, statement of
accounts from bank, etc.
2. Processing Documents: These
include ‘accounting documents’ generated from
postings in the system, ‘reference
documents,’ ‘sample documents,’ etc. The
processing documents other than the
accounting ones are also known as ‘special
documents’ and they aid in the simplification
of document entry in the system.
Every document consists of:
A
Document Header
Two or
more Line Items
Before attempting to enter a document,
call up the relevant document entry function as the
system provides a variety of ready-made
document entry templates suited to different
transactions such as regular GL entry,
customer invoice posting, etc. The details entered in a
document can be simulated and displayed
before the document is actually posted in the system.
You may also choose to ‘park’ the
document and post it later.
141. What is a ‘Document
Header’?
The ‘Document Header’ contains
information that is valid for the whole document such as:
Document
Date
Document
Type (Control Information)
Document
Number
Posting
Date
Posting
Period
Company
Code
Besides the above, the document header
also has information (editable, later on) such as (a)
trading partner, (b) document
header text, (c) reference, (d) cross-Company Code number, etc.
142. What is a ‘Document
Type’?
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SAP comes delivered with a number of ‘Document
Types,’ which are used in various postings.
The document type helps to classify an
accounting transaction within the system, and is used to
control the entire transaction and
determine the account types a particular document type can
post to. For example, the document type
‘AB’ allows you to post to all the accounts, whereas
type ‘DZ’ allows you to post only the
customer payments. Every document type is assigned a
number range.
The common document types include:
Open
table as spreadsheet
Doc. Type
Description Doc.
Type
Description
AA Asset posting KG Vendor credit
memo
AB Accounting
document
KN Net vendors
AF Depreciation
postings
KR Vendor invoice
DG Customer credit
memo
KZ Vendor payment
DR Customer invoice KG Vendor credit
memo
DZ Customer payment SA GL account
document
X1 Recurring entry
doc.
X2 Sample document
143. How is ‘Account
Type’ Connected to ‘Document Type’?
The ‘Document Type’ is
characterized by a 2-character code such as AA, DG, etc., whereas an
‘Account Type’ is denoted by a
1-character code such as A, D, etc., specifying which accounts a
particular document can be posted to.
The common account types include:
A Assets
D Customer (Debtor)
K Vendor (Creditor)
M Materials
S GL
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Figure 30: Document and Account
Types
144. What do You mean
by ‘Net’ Postings’?
Usually, when a transaction is posted,
for example, a vendor invoice (document type: KR), the
system posts the ‘Gross’ amount with
the ‘tax’ and ‘discount’ included. However, SAP provides
you the option of posting these items
as ‘Net.’ In this case, the posting excludes ‘tax’ or
‘discounts.’ Remember to use the
special document type KN. (Similarly, you will use the
document type DN for ‘customer
invoice-Net’ compared to the normal invoice postings for the
customer using the document type DR.)
For using this ‘net method’ of posting you should have
activated the required settings in the
customization.
145. Explain the
Various ‘Reference Methods.’
SAP recommends ‘Reference Methods’ as
a ‘document entry tool’ to facilitate faster and easier
document entry into the system, when
you are required to enter the same data time and again.
Besides making the document entry
process less time-consuming, this also helps in error-free
document entry.
The various Reference Methods used in
SAP include:
1. Reference Documents
2. Account Assignment Models
3. Sample Documents
146. What is the ‘Document
Change Rule’?
The functionality ‘Document Change
Rules’ configured in the system maintains the information
relating to ‘what fields can be
changed?’ and ‘under what circumstances?.’ As you are already
aware, SAP’s document principle does
not allow changing the ‘relevant’ fields once a document
is posted; any changes can only be
achieved through ‘Reversal’ or additional postings. Fields
such as company code, business area,
account number, posting key, amount, currency, etc., can
never be changed once the document is
posted. However, SAP allows changing some of the
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fields in the line items such as
payment method, payment block, house bank, dunning level,
dunning block, etc. These can be
changed document by document or by using ‘mass change’
for a number of documents in a single
step.
The changes to ‘master data’ are
tracked and stored per user for an ‘audit trail.’
147. Differentiate
between ‘Account Assignment Model,’ ‘Recurring
Entries,’ and ‘Sample
Document,’
‘Account Assignment
Model’ is
a ‘reference method’ used in document entry when the same
distribution of amounts to several
Company Codes, cost centers, accounts, etc., is frequently
used. Instead of manually distributing
the amount among accounts or Company Codes, you may
use equivalence numbers for
distributing both the credit and debit amounts. A cross-Company
Code account assignment model can also
be created.
The account assignment model may
contain any number of GL accounts. The GL account items
need not be complete. The model can be
used across several Company Codes, and can even
include Company Codes from non-SAP
systems.
Figure 31: Account Assignment
Model
You can
use the account assignment model while ‘parking’ a document (but you cannot
use a ‘reference document’ for ‘parking’).
The use
of account assignment models is limited to GL accounts.
Unlike a ‘Sample Document,’ an
account assignment model may be incomplete and can be
completed during document entry by
adding or deleting or changing the data already saved in the
model.
The ‘Recurring Entry’ original
document is used by the system as a ‘reference document’ for
enabling posting of periodically
recurring postings such as loan repayments, insurance premium
payments, rent, etc. Since this
document is not an accounting document, the account balances
are not affected. In a recurring entry
original document, you will not be able to change the (a)
posting key, (b) account, and (c)
amount. The recurring entry documents are defined with a
special number range (X1).
Unlike an account assignment model, these documents cannot be
used for cross-Company Code postings.
The recurring entry document does
not update transaction figures, per se, but acts only as a
reference and as the basis for creating
accounting documents. The SAP program SAPF120
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creates the accounting documents from
the recurring entry original document. There are two
ways to set the exact date when this
document should be posted to:
Posting
frequency: enter
the day of the month and the period (in months) between two
postings.
Scheduled
run: configure
the ‘run schedule’ specifying the calendar days on which the
program should post these documents.
A Sample Document is like a
template, which is created and stored so that the information
contained therein can be easily copied
into new documents and posted in the system. But once a
sample document is created note that
you will not be able to change the ‘line items’ already
contained in that document; all you can
do is change the amounts in that sample document. But
you can overcome this by defining a new
sample document that can contain other line items or
you may add new line items to the FI
document, which is created by copying from the original
sample document.
Sample documents have separate number
ranges (X2).
148. What is a ‘Line
Item’?
The ‘Line Items’ contain
information relating to account number, amount, debit/ credit, tax code,
amount, etc. SAP allows a maximum of
999 line items in a single document. Besides the one
entered by you during an document
entry, the system may also create its own line items called
‘system generated line
items,’ such
as tax deductions, etc. Irrespective of the number of line
items entered, ensure that the total of
these is always zero (that is, total debits should equal total
credits). Otherwise, the system will
not allow you to post the document.
149. What is a ‘Posting
Key’?
A ‘Posting Key’ in SAP is a
2-digit alphanumeric key that controls the entry of line items. SAP
comes with many posting keys for
meeting the different business transaction requirements: 40
(GL debit), 50 (GL credit), 01
(customer invoice), 11 (customer credit memo), 21 (vendor
credit
memo), 31 (vendor payment), etc.
The posting key determines:
1. What account can be posted to
2. Which side of the account (debit or
credit) to be posted to, and
3. What ‘layout’ screen needs to be
used for that particular transaction. OB41
It is a normal practice not to change
any of the default posting keys in the system, as you would
very rarely require additional posting
keys.
150. Differentiate
between the ‘Parking’ and the ‘Holding’ of
Documents.
The ‘Parking of a Document’ in
SAP is one of the two preliminary postings (the other being
the ‘Holding’ of documents) in the
system and refers to the storing of incomplete documents in
the
system. These documents can later be called on for completion and posting.
While ‘parking’a
document, the system does not carry out
the mandatory ‘validity checking.’ The system does notalso carry out any
automatic postings (such as creating tax line items) or ‘balance checks.’ As a
result, the transaction figures
(account balances) are not updated. This is true in the case of all
financial transactions except in the
area of TR-CM (Cash management) where ‘parked’
documents will update the transactions.
The parking of documents can be used to
‘park’ data relating to customers, vendors, or assets
(acquisition only). When a
cross-Company Code document is ‘parked,’ only one document is
created in the initial Company Code;
when this ‘parked’ document is posted all other documents
relevant for all other Company Codes
will also be created. However, it is to be noted that
substitution functionality cannot
be used with document ‘parking,’ as substitution is activated
only on transaction processing.
The added advantage is that a document ‘parked’
by an accounting clerk can be called on for
completion by someone else. The ‘parked’
documents can be displayed individually or as a list
from where the required document can be
selected for completion and posting. The number of
the ‘parked’ document is transferred to
the posted document. The original ‘parked’ document, if
necessary, can be displayed even after
it has been posted to.
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