Mismatch in GL balance between FAGLB03 and FAGLL03

Issue:

General Ledger account balance displayed in transaction FAGLB03, may not match with balance for the same period shown on double clicking any cell in FAGLB03. or with transaction FAGLL03.

Causes:

There could be various reasons for mismatch between FAGLB03 and FAGLL03, Below are some of  the common reasons 

Reason One: Transaction Figures not updated 

Some documents were posted in entry view, but did not update the ledger totals  

Solution:

To identify and correct such documents, follow the steps below 

• Execute t-code FAGLF03 ( Program: TFC_COMPARE_VZ) to compare document and transaction figures in order to identify the documents in error
• If FAGLF03 identifies documents which are not posted to one or more ledgers, Execute t-code GLGCU1 (Program: RGURECGLFLEX) to update the transaction totals for the documents in error in the corresponding ledgers 

Reason Two: Incorrect negative postings 

Due to a program error, some debit line items may be displayed as credit line items in transaction FAGLL03 or some credit line items may be displayed as debit line items as shown in the screenshot below.This is usually for negative postings made due for reversals

Solution:
There could be various causes for this error,
Check the following SAP notes for resolution according to your system conditions

Note 1113114 - FAGLL03: Incorrect plus/minus signs for negative postings
Note 1163346 - FAGLL03: Incorrect plus/minus signs for negative postings(2)
Note 1170400 - Document splitting: Incorrect posting key in new G/L

Reason Three: Database Inconsistencies 

Inconsistencies in the database at various levels may cause the transaction totals and balance to differ.

Solution:

Several reports are provided by SAP to analyze database inconsistencies for relevant tables. 

Note 1155429 - Analysis:Posting keys/debit/credit indicators in FI-GL (new) 

The not above provides reports to detect and analyze database inconsistencies in new GL line items.

Tool to compare SAP financial statement versions, Configuration and Table

Recently I needed to compare Financial Statement Versions, Configurations and Table data between two SAP systems or clients in order to ensure synchronization across multiple landscape 

While SAP offers great tools to compare ABAP programs and many configurations within the system and across multiple systems, comparing financial statement versions, table data could be tricky. Comparison in Excel may work well for comparing table data, but it becomes a time consuming activity if you need to compare each and every cell 

I stumbled upon a beautiful tool to compare two text files. SAP allows any Financial Statement Version (FSV), Configuration or Table to be downloaded to a ASCII text (.txt) file using menu option System > List > Save > Local File > Unconverted in case of FSVs or Configuration screens 

On screens where the Save Local option is not available a Print option may also be used to download data to an unconverted .txt file. Only precaution required is, files from both the SAP systems or clients you need to compare should be downloaded with exact same procedure.

After downloading the data into two files to be compared, just enter the location of the two data files in the  Exam Diff  tool and it would provide you with usual analysis of entries which are common in both the files, records which exist in one file but do not exist in other file or records which exist in both the files but are different in some way 

ExamDiff is a freeware visual file comparison tool which can be downloaded from PrestoSoft's website at the following location: ExamDiff Download Page  It's also available for download on CNET. 

Issue/Solution: Offsetting Account in FBL3N/FAGLL03

Issue:
You need Customer / Vendor Number (KUNNR/LIFNR) to be displayed for the offsetting GL accounts in the GL account line item reports FBL3N or FAGLL03

Soultion
There is no standard configuration to achieve this.
Using Sort key in the GL account will not populate data from the offsetting account
This can be achieved by using a BTE or BADI as described in the following SAP Notes
Note 112312 - Line item: Display of offsetting a/c information
Note 1034354 - FAGLL03: Display of offsetting account information

Further, if Vendor Name or Customer Name are also needed
Refer to the BTE solution provided by Burak in the following SDN thread..
http://forums.sdn.sap.com/thread.jspa?messageID=7848056&tstart=0#7848056

Information: RFBIBL00 - Batch document processing program

RFBIBL00 is a program which can be used to post documents or clear open items based on an input UNIX file. The programs supports the following transactions

• FB01 Post document

• FBB1 Foreign currency valuation

• FBS1 Enter accrual/deferral document

• FBV1 Park document

• FB05 Posting with clearing

One of the basic advantages of using this program over a posting with BAPI is that it can also process profitability segment characteristic selection, which is not supported with BAPI for document posting.It also supports fields for one-time data and the data for the coding block fields.   

The Unix file structure details and more information required to implement this program can be found at the following link from SAP help portal:
http://help.sap.com/saphelp_45b/helpdata/en/35/a47e63763e0392e10000009b38f9b7/content.htm

Information: Difference between Business Area and Profit Centers

With the onset of New General Ledger, which provides seamless integration between general ledger and profit center accounting, Business Area seems to have lost the importance it enjoyed with the classical general ledger.

Often we encounter a dilemma on whether to use a Business Area or Profit Center (or Segment) to obtain financial information on an important logical business division or geographical business location.

The following note from SAP clearly classifies the distinction between the functionality available with Business Area and Profit Center to help make the appropriate choice. 

Note 321190 - Difference between business area and profit center

Information: Report to compare GL transactions and totals

The report program transaction FAGLF03 (Program:TFC_COMPARE_VZ) can be used to compare and reconcile the transaction amounts in documents to the GL totals.

When New General Ledger is not activated, the report compares data in table BSEG with totals in table GLT0
While, when New GL is activated, the report compares data between New GL Totals table FAGLFLEXT with transactions table FAGLFLEXA

Program: TFC_ADJUST_VZ can be used to rectify some of the error identified with the above report.

Information: Workflow settings to release Parked documents

The following document provides details on various standard workflows which can be used for release of Parked documents.

The document also provides details on standard sub-workflow models which can be used for amount based release or account assignment based approval and release process

http://help.sap.com/printdocu/core/print46b/en/data/en/pdf/FIBP/FI-AP-AP-PRK.pdf

Here are some key excerpts from the document...

Workflow Model for Completing Documents

"There is a workflow model in the system (WS00400004) for completing parked documents. In
order to use this in your active clients, you must copy it there using the tools in the workflow
workbench."

Standard Task for Completing a Document

"Users who want to complete parked documents must be allocated the task “Complete parked
document” (TS00407848). To do this, create the organizational object in Personnel Planning and
Development using the workflow workbench. You then allocate the relevant users and the abovementioned standard task to this object."

Workflow Models for Document Parking and Release

"Several Workflow models are provided in the system for document parking; a Workflow
framework (WS10000051) and five sub-workflows. In the Financial Accounting Configuration
menu, you can set which sub-workflow model should be used by the workflow framework at the
time of the program run. You can also define your own sub-workflows while in this menu,
providing that they send and receive the same data from the workflow framework as the subworkflow
models do.
If you want to use the standard sub-workflow models for multi-level amount release
(WS10000052, WS10000053, WS10000054), you can define between one and three levels for
amount release in your system. Should you want more than three release levels, copy the
workflow models for amount release and then expand them. If are not working with amount
release, you can use a dummy sub-workflow model (WS20000006). The fourth standard subworkflow (WS10000055) can be used for account assignment approval."

(c) SAP AG

Information: How to implement a BTE (Business Transaction Event) ?

Here's a quick guide on how to implement a Business Transaction Event (BTE)

http://sapient.wordpress.com/2007/12/09/business-transaction-events-bte/

And here is another step by step guide to implement a BTE

Click Here for the SDN link.

Information: Document Splitting in Expert Mode

During FI document posting in any transaction the menu option "simulate general ledger" allows user to view the document splitting line item in details using the expert mode. where the business transaction,transaction variant and splitting method are displayed along with splitting details of each item

T Code: FAGL_MIG_SIM_SPL (Program: FAGL_SHOW_SPLIT) can be used to display document spltting details of document which have already been posted.
However, the transaction shows splitting details with regards to the existing customization for document splitting,
Hence if the document splitting configuration has been changes after the document was posted, some inconsistencies may be observed.

Thanks to Bernard for this information.

Information:Foreign Currency Valuation with Multiple Ledgers

Information: Foreign Currency Valuation with Multiple Ledger

The new Foreign currency valuation program. FAGL_FC_VALUATION uses the ledger group assigned to the valuation area to determine the ledger(s) from which balance is to be read for valuation. If the ledger group assigned to the valuation area contains only a single ledger, this ledger is used for the selection of the balances. If more than one ledger is contained in the ledger group assigned to the valuation area, each ledger is valuated individually

However, The postings for the valuation of balances are made using the ledger group that has the same name as the ledger being valuated. For example, if ledger group Z1 is assigned to the valuation area, which contains ledgers 0L and ledger L1, the balances of ledger 0L are valuated and the valuation program makes the postings using ledger group 0L and balances of ledger L1 are also valuated and the program makes postings with ledger group L1

In the above scenario, if ledger group L1 contain ledgers L1 and Z1, foreign currency valuation postings would be made to both the ledgers L1 and Z1 based on the balances in ledger L1

More details availble in the following SAP Note
983847 - Foreign Currency Valuation: Balances in NEW G/L

Information: Convert tcode FSE2 (Financial Statement Maintenance) to Current Settings

Requirement: Transaction Code FSE2- Maintain Financial Statements Versions is a configuration item by default and you need to convert it to current settings or a user transaction.

Solution:
The procedure to convert FSE2 from an IMG activity to a user transaction/current setting is outlined in SAP Note#200674- Fin.Statement Vrsn: Maintenance in production clients. This note cannot be applied using transaction SNOTE and the following manual activities need to be performed.

1. Change the SPRO settings for view V_T011 using SOBJ as outlined in SAP Note#135028 - Transfer IMG activity to Current Settings.
2. Further, Message FE-146, also needs to converted to an Information or Warning message, using OBA5 as outlined in SAP Note#109577 - Changing FS version although client not changeable.
The above activities may differ depending upon the SAP release.

Issue/Solution: Accounting document posted without Profit Center even if Profit Center is mandatory in document splitting

Issue:
An accounting document is posted without profit center, segment or business area, even though it is mandatory field in the document splitting characteristic configuration. The system may not allow to reverse or clear such corrupt line items, and users may get the following error while trying to reverse of clear the erroneous document.
Balancing field "Profit Center" in line item 001 not filled

Erroneous line items thus posted would have blank Profit Center even in the general ledger view.
All such inconsistent documents may be found from table FAGLFLEXA - General Ledger: Actual Line Items, Profit Center=Blank

Solution:
Implement the following SAP Notes to prevent further occurrences of this issue
Note 1249888 - Simulate General Ledger: Incorr. data or dump MESSAGE_TYPE_X

To reverse any inconsistent documents which have already been posted erroneously before implementation of the above note, create an OSS message under the component FI-GL-GL-X

Issue/Solution: No profit center determined for withholding tax items after document splitting

Issue:
While making vendor payments using the automatic payment program (F110) or manual payment using F-53 , user receives the following error
Balancing field "Profit Center" in line item 002 not filled
Depending upon the document splitting characteristics defined in your system, the error may be for Segment, Business Area or any other field
for example
Balancing field "Segment" in line item 002 not filled
Balancing field "Business Area" in line item 002 not filled

Causes:
If Extended Withholding taxes applicable at the time of payment are being used , The standard splitting rules and transaction variant may not be able to identify the profit center/segment/business area for withholding tax line item which is automatically generated the during payment posting.

This is due to fact that the newly generated item may be considered as a base item category instead of a derived item category due to the document splitting configuration

Solution:
1. Identify the document type being used for the payment posting. For example KZ or ZP
2. Identify the transaction type and business variant being used for the document type found in step 1 from SPRO node " Classify Document Types for Document splitting" (SIMG_GLT0_T8G12). Most likely it would be Transaction Type : 1000 - Payments and Variant 0001 - Standard, unless you have defined your own transaction types and variants
3. Identify the document splitting method being used in your implementation from SPRO node "Activate Document Splitting" (SIMG_FAGL_ACTIV_SPLI) . Most likely to be 0000000012 or 0000000012
4. Go to the SPRO node "Define Document Splitting Rule" (FISL_PS_GBEB_SPLT_DC) and locate the header item with Splitting Method, Business Transaction and Transaction Variant identifies in step 1,2 and 3. For our example it would be 0000000012, 1000 - Payments, 0001 - Standard respectively
5. Add item category "05200 - Withholding Tax", into the "Item categories to be edited" list for the header selected in step 4.
6. Add "Base item categories" "02000 - Customer" and "03000 - Vendor" for item category "05200 - Withholding Tax".

Information: Impact of GL master indicator "only balance in local currency" on Foreign Currency Valuation

Only Balance in Local Currency

Setting this indicator in GL master account affects the way account balances are stored in GL summary/totals tables. If this indicator is set, the GL balances are updated only in local currency to the GL totals tables. It does not affect the way data is stored in line items table BSEG or open & cleared items tables BSIS and BSAS respectively.

Impact on Foreign Currency Valuation
Foreign Currency valuation of GL accounts where the indicator "only balance in local crcy" is set is affected in the following manner depending upon the type of account

- Open Item managed accounts
If the account for which only balance in local currency is set, is an open item managed account, i.e: the indicator "Open Item Management" is also set in the GL account master. The foreign currency revaluation program would read the account details from tables BSEG and BSIS and hence the indicator "only balances in local crcy" has no impact on foreign currency valuation.

- Non Open-Item managed accounts (including accounts with line item display without open item management)
If the account for which only balance in local currency is set, is a non-open item managed account, i.e: the indicator "Open Item Management" is also not set in the GL account master. The foreign currency revaluation program would read the account details from GL summary tables FAGLFLEXT and hence no foreign currency valuation is possible on such accounts as balances in the GL totals tables are maintained only in local currencies for such GL accounts.

The above concept also applies to GL accounts which are line item manages but not open-item managed. i.e: the indicator "Line Item Display" is set but the indicator "Open Item Management" is not set.

Information: Document splitting with Dummy Profit Center

Observation:
When an accounting document is posted with a dummy profit center, the dummy profit center is replaced with the profit center derived from the document splitting rules in the general ledger view of the document, while the profit center accounting (PCA) document is posted to the dummy profit center only. The entry view of the financial accounting document also displays the dummy profit center, however the general ledger view displays the derived profit center.

In the above scenario if the zero balance setting is maintained for the field profit center, No zero balance offsetting posting is made with respect to the amount posted to the dummy profit center.
For example:
Entry view for a Posting with Dummy profit center

Entry view for a Posting with Dummy profit center
Co Code	Item	PK	Account	Account Description			Amount	Currency	Profit Center
XX01	1	40	6700000	GL account			50	INR	XXPRFCNTR01
XX01	2	50	6700000	GL account			-50.00	INR	XXDUMMY
General Ledger (GL) View / Dummy profit center is replaced with the derived profit center
Co Code	Item	PK	Account	Account Description			Amount	Currency	Profit Center
XX01	1	40	6700000	GL account			50.00	INR	XXPRFCNTR01
XX01	2	50	6700000	GL account			-50.00	INR	XXPRFCNTR01
Entry view for a Posting with a non-dummy profit center
Co Code	Item	PK	Account	Account Description			Amount	Currency	Profit Center
XX01	1	50	6700000	GL account			-40	INR	XXPRFCNTR01
XX01	2	40	6700000	GL account			40	INR	XXPRFCNTR02
General Ledger (GL) View / Zero balance clearing postings are made
Co Code	Item	PK	Account	Account Description			Amount	Currency	Profit Center
XX01	1	50	6700000	GL account			-40	INR	XXPRFCNTR01
XX01	2	40	6700000	GL account			40	INR	XXPRFCNTR02
XX01		50	2050000	Zero Balance Clearing account			40	INR	XXPRFCNTR02
XX01		40	2050000	Zero Balance Clearing account			-40	INR	XXPRFCNTR01

The above scenario occurs if the following preconditions are satisfied
1. New GL is active
2. Classic profit center accounting is active
3. Profit center update scenario is assigned to the concerned ledger
4. Profit center is a maintained as a characteristic for document splitting
5. Zero balance setting is maintained for Profit Center characteristic in document splitting

More information on this behavior is available in the following SAP Notes
0000826357 - Profit Center Accounting and New General Ledger in SAP ERP
0000871277 - IMG documentation, G/L acctg (FI-GL new), document splitting
0000891144 - New GL/Document splitting: Risks w/ subsequent changes

Cost Center not updated in General Ledger view, New GL tables

Issue
A Financial Accounting document has been posted in the system with multiple CO account assignment objects, and some Controlling account assignment objects of the entry view are not updated in general ledger view.
For example: A FI document is posted with a WBS element and a Cost Center, and the cost center is displayed in the entry view of the document (FB03) but not in general ledger view. The cost center is also not updated in table FAGLFLEXA and hence does not appear in GL line item display transaction FAGLL03 as well.
Even when New GL is active and Cost Center Update scenario (FIN_CCA) is assigned to the concerned ledger

Solution
This behavior occurs if the CO account assignment is statistical and not actual (real).
In the above example, If the WBS element involved in real, the posting to Cost Center would only be statistical and thus it would not be updated in New GL tables. However, if the WBS element involved is statistical, the posting to Cost Center would be real (actual) and it would be updated in general ledger view and New GL tables.

The following SAP Note provides details of this system behavior
Note 964686 - Transfer of statistical postings in CO to FI

References
Thanks to Radha and Sanil for answering this query on SAP forums at the following thread
https://forums.sdn.sap.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1305266&tstart=0

Trivia: Access NewGL IMG menu without activation of New GL

The (spro) configuration menu for Financial Accounting (New) / New General Ledger (New GL) can be accessed without activation of New General Ledger using transaction code FAGL_FLEXGL_IMG.

New GL can be run parallel to classic GL