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: 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.

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: 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