Interview Questions and Answers for SAP FI G/L Master data

1.      What is an ‘Account Group’?

2.      Describe ‘Number Range Interval?

3.      What is a ‘Screen Layout’?

4.      What is a ‘Field Status Group’?

5.      What do you mean by ‘Balances in Local Currency’ Only?

6.      What is ‘Line Item Display’?

7.      What is ‘Archiving’? How does it differ from ‘Deletion’?

8.      Tell me the two uses of ‘Blocking’ an Account?

9.      How do you configure the GL A/C for the ‘House Bank’?

10.  What is an ‘Intermediate Bank’?

11.  Explain ‘Intercompany Postings?

12.  How can you manually ‘Clear’ ‘Open Items’? When?

13.  How do you Perform ‘Period Closing’ in SAP?

14.  What is ‘Pre-closing’?

15.  Explain ‘Financial Closing?

16.  What is a ‘Financial Statement Version’?

17.  What Items are required in a ‘Financial Statement Version’?

18.  How do You Ensure ‘Correct’ Balances in the ‘Financial Statement?

 1. What is an ‘Account Group’?

The ‘Account Group’ (or GL Account Group), a 4-character alphanumeric key, controls how the GL account master records are created in the system. This helps to ‘group’ GL accounts according to the ‘functional areas’ to which they must belong. Account group is mandatory for creating a master record. The same account groups can be used by more than one more Company Code if they all use the same Chart of Accounts. Each GL account is assigned to only one account group.

The Account Group determines:

1. The number interval that is to be used while creating the master record.

2. The screen layout that is to be used while creating the master record in the Company Code area.

While defining the account groups in the system, you also need to define the corresponding field status for each of these groups. Otherwise, you will not be able to see any fields as all these would be hidden by default.

SAP comes delivered with a number of ‘account groups’ such as:

􀂃 SAKO (GL accounts general)

􀂃 MAT. (Materials Management accounts)

􀂃 FIN. (Liquid Funds accounts)

In most situations, you will not require additional groups other than the ones already available in the standard system. However, if you need to create a new one, it is easier to copy an existing one and make modifications to it instead of creating one from scratch.

2. Describe Number Range Interval?

A ‘Number Range’ refers to a number interval defined in the system so that when documents are posted, the system assigns a number from this range. You will define different number ranges for different document types. Each document in SAP is uniquely identified by the combination of

(a)  document number,

(b)  company code,

(c)  fiscal year.

The number range for a document type can be defined:

1. Per fiscal year or

2. Until a fiscal year in future.

If defined to last only one fiscal year, then the number range needs to be defined every year. When number ranges are defined every year, the system starts from the first number in the range for that particular year, which helps to prevent reaching the upper limit too fast. If you specify the fiscal year as ‘9999,’ then the document number range is valid forever (well, almost!) and you do not have to do this exercise of maintaining number ranges every fiscal year. But every year the system starts from the last number used up in the previous year and if a small number range is defined for a document type, you could easily run out of the number range fast.

The document numbers can either be:

1. Internally assigned by the system or

2. Externally input when the same is created.

The number ranges can be defined in such a way that the system generates the number automatically when a document is created. This is known as ‘internal number assignment.’ Under this, the system stores the ‘last number’ used for a document in the ‘Current Number’ field and will bring up the next number when another document is created. If ‘external numbering’ is used, the user needs to input a document number every time a document is created in the system. Since the user supplies the number every time, the subsequent numbering may not be sequential. Unlike an internal numbering, the system does not store the ‘last number’ in the ‘Current Number’ field.

The numbers in a number range can either be numeric or alphanumeric. If numbers are numeric, the system will prefix the number with the required zeros to make the number length uniform at 10 digits. If you are using alphanumeric numbering, then the number is padded with zeros from the right. If you are following ‘year-specific’ numbering, it is better not to mix numeric and alphanumeric numbering for a particular document type in various fiscal years.

The system creates a minimum of one document when a transaction is created/completed. SAP recommends ‘filing’ original documents (under the number of the processing document (the document generated in SAP)). The best practice is to enter the (external) number of the ‘original document’ in the ‘Reference’ field of the document created in the SAP system. For easy cross reference, the SAP document number thus created needs to be noted on the ‘original document.’

The following are the activities you need to complete for configuring the number ranges properly in the system:

1. Defining the number ranges

2. Copying the number ranges to Company Code(s)

3. Copying the number ranges to fiscal year(s)

3. What is a ‘Screen Layout’?

The ‘account group’ determines which ‘Screen Layout’ should be used while creating a GL account master record. For each of the account groups, you can define different screen layouts, which essentially determine the ‘Field Status’ of a field.

The field status refers to whether the field is:

1. Suppressed (field is invisible, hidden from display)

2. Required (display on, entry mandatory)

3. Optional (display on, entry not mandatory)

All the above three are shown as ‘radio buttons’ against each of the fields in the screen layout, and you should select any one to set the status to that field; by default all the fields are ‘suppressed.’

There are two levels of controls of field status:

1. Field status at the account group level

2. Field status at the activity (create/change/display) level (i.e., at the transaction level).

You may also have the field status defined for posting keys (40-debit and 50-credit for the GL account postings). Also remember to define the field status for ‘reconciliation accounts’ as you will not be able to define any such status in the sub ledger accounts (for example, customer or vendor).

SAP has built-in rules, called link rules, to link these two levels and to decide the final status of a field in the ‘screen layout.’ The link rules also help to overcome the field-status setting differences arising out of different settings at the Client level (field status for posting keys) and the Company Code level (field status settings at the account group level).

4. What is a ‘Field Status Group’?

The ‘field status’ of an individual field or a group of fields is marked in a ‘Field Status Group,’ which is then assigned to individual GL account master records. You may attach field status groups to a field status variant so that the ‘field status groups’ are used in various Company Codes.

The Field Status Variant is named similar to the Company Code. For example, if your Company Code is 1000, the field status variant is also named 1000, and it is assigned to the Company Code.

5. What do You mean by ‘Balances in Local Currency’ Only?

When you create GL account master records, it is necessary to decide whether you want an account to have the transactions updated only in local currency. You will set this indicator accordingly in the ‘Company Code area’ of the master record. Make sure to set this indicator for clearing accounts such as:

􀂃 Cash discount clearing accounts

􀂃 GR/IR clearing accounts

Note that you need to set this indicator ‘on’ for all the ‘clearing accounts’ where you use the local currency to clear the line items in various currencies so that the transactions are posted without posting any exchange rate difference that otherwise might arise.

Example: Consider an invoice for USD 1,000, which on that day translates into an amount of INR 45,000 with an exchange rate of I USD=INR 45. Imagine that when the goods are received, the exchange rate was 1 USD=INR 44.

􀂃 If the indicator is set, the system ignores the exchange rate as if the line items have been maintained only in the local currency (INR), and the items are cleared.

􀂃 If the indicator is NOT set, the system makes a posting for the ‘exchange rate difference’ (INR 1, 000) before clearing the two line items.

6. What is ‘Line Item Display’?

To display line items of an account, you need to set the indicator ‘Line Item Display’ to ‘on’ in that account’s master record. This is mandatory for customer and vendor accounts. The line items can be displayed using the classical display or the SAP List Viewer (ALV). You can also use several ‘display variants’ to display various fields when you feel that the Standard Variant is not meeting your requirements.

7. What is ‘Archiving’? How does it differ from ‘Deletion’?

‘Archiving’ refers to deleting data from the documents in the database and storing the data in a file, which can be transferred to an ‘archiving system’ later on. Archiving does not physically delete the documents. ‘Deletion’ actually removes the documents from the database. To proceed with archiving and deletion you need to:

1. Block posting to these archived master records.

2. Mark (the master records) for deletion: Mark for deletion at the ‘Chart of Accounts area’ to delete the records from all the Company Codes. However, if you do not want to delete from all the Company Codes, but only from one or more Company Codes then do the same in the ‘Company Code area’ of the master record(s).

3. Archive all the transaction figures from the relevant documents.

4. Call up a special program to ‘delete’ the records: The program will check whether that particular document could be deleted. If yes, it will proceed to ‘archive’ and then to ‘deletion.’

8. Tell me the two uses of ‘Blocking’ an Account?

You may use ‘Blocking’ to:

1. Block an account from further postings.

2. Block the creation of the account itself (at the Company Code level or Chart of Accounts area).

9. How do You Configure the GL A/C for the ‘House Bank’?

A ‘House Bank’ is defined using transaction code FI12. A ‘bank key’ represents the bank. The house bank can contain several accounts; for each of these accounts you need to maintain a GL account. The bank determination, for an automatic payment program, is configured using the Transaction Code FBZP.

10. What is an ‘Intermediate Bank’?

‘Intermediate Banks’ are used in SAP in addition to the house banks and partner banks for making or receiving payments from business partners abroad. The payment processing, involving an intermediate bank, makes use of the ‘bank chain,’ which may consist of a house bank, a partner bank, and a maximum of intermediate banks.

11. Explain Intercompany Postings?

‘Intercompany Postings’ arise when a Company Code, for example, in a centralized

procurement, pays for itself and on behalf of other Company Codes. When posted, the transaction results in three documents:

(1) one for the paying Company Code (say, 1111)

(2) one for the other Company Codes (say, 2222 and 4444)

(3) one for the intercompany transaction itself.

Before making intercompany transactions, you need to configure both ‘intercompany payables’ and ‘intercompany receivables.’ For each combination of these Company Codes, you will be required to maintain a ‘clearing account,’ which must be referenced in each of these Company Codes. You will also be able to configure whether you manually input the transaction number or allow the system to automatically assign the numbers. In the case of system-generated transaction numbers, this 16-digit number consists of

(1) a 10-digit document number (1222222222) of the paying Company Code, followed by

(2) 4 digits representing this paying Company Code (1111)

(3) 2 digits representing the last two digits of the financial year (07) (for example, 1222222222111107).

12. How can You Manually ‘Clear’ ‘Open Items’? When?

Under ‘Manual Clearing,’ you will select the open items, based on the incoming payment so that the selected ‘open items’ are ‘cleared’ (knocked-off). In cases like refunds from a vendor or transactions involving bank sub-accounts and clearing accounts, etc., you will use manual clearing. When cleared, the system flags these line items as ‘cleared,’ creates a clearing document, and enters the clearing document number and clearing date in these open items.

Besides the clearing document, the system may also generate ‘additional documents’ in cases such as partial or residual processing, and for posting the loss/gain to the assigned GL account. While doing this, if there is a payment difference, it can be treated the way it is configured in the system:

􀂃 If the difference is within the tolerance limit, defined in the system using the tolerance groups (defined at the Company Code level), the cash discount is adjusted or the system automatically posts the difference to a gain/loss GL account.

􀂃 When the payment difference exceeds the limits of defined tolerance, then the incoming amount may be processed as a partial payment (the original open item is not cleared, but the incoming payment is posted with a reference to that invoice) or the difference is posted as a residual item (the original open item is cleared and a new open item is created by the system for the difference amount) in the system.

You may also use the Menu Path: Accounting>Financial Accounting> Account

Receivable>Document entry>Incoming payment>Post or Accounting >Financial

Accounting>GL>Document entry>Incoming payment>Post

13. How do You Perform ‘Period Closing’ in SAP?

You do a ‘(Period) Closing’ in SAP in three steps:

1.    Completing the Pre-closing activities

2.    Financial Closing

3.    Managerial Closing

14. What is ‘Pre-closing’?

You need to ensure the following as part of the ‘Pre-closing’ activities:

1. Post all the Recurring Entries for expenses and accruals.

2. Ensure that all the interfaced programs have been run so that the required data have been transferred to the system.

3. Post all the depreciation, material receipts, invoices, salaries, etc. In short, ensure that all the transactions for the period in question have been duly recorded and posted into the system.

15. Explain Financial Closing?

‘Financial Closing’ involves completing the following activities and taking out the financial statements for the period concerned:

1. Revaluate/Regroup:

􀂃 Revalue Balance Sheet items managed in foreign currencies—use the report

RFSBEW00 to valuate GL Balance Sheet Accounts managed in a foreign currency.

(The report generates a Batch Input session to post the revenue or expense resulting from any exchange rate differences.)

􀂃 Clear Receivables or Payables with the ‘exchange rate difference.’

􀂃 Valuate all the Open Items using the report SAPF100. This is used to valuate all

the open receivables and payables, using the period-end exchange rates. Here also,

the report generates a Batch Input session to post the entries resulting from any

exchange rate differences.

􀂃 Regroup GR/IR using the program RFWERE00 to allocate the net balance

(depending on whether the balance is a net debit or credit) in the GR/IR Account to

one of two GL Accounts (created to actually depict the net effect of the balance in the GR/IR Account).

2. Ensure accounting accuracy:

Use the program SAPF190 to compare the totals created by the system in the

(1) indexes (customers, vendors, and GL) and documents (customers, vendors, and GL) with that of the

(2) account balances (customers, vendors, and GL) to ensure the transaction accuracy.

3. Run required reports:

Generate the financial statements (balance sheet and profit & loss account) using the financial statement versions. You may also generate the key figure/ ratio reports (use the GL account information system).

16. What is a ‘Financial Statement Version’?

A ‘Financial Statement Version’ helps to define the Financial Statements (both the Balance Sheet and Profit & Loss statements). When you copy the settings from an existing Company Code to a new one, you will also be copying the financial statement version defined for the ‘source’ Company Code.

You may also define a new financial statement version and build the financial statements from scratch. You may create the financial statements both for external reporting (Company Code financial statements) and internal reporting (business area financial statements).

You may also create the balance sheets for a group of Company Codes using FI-SL (Special Purpose Ledgers). The financial statements may be defined to provide information from a period accounting point of view (GL account groups wise) or a cost of sales point of view (functional area financial statements).

All the above statements can be configured and defined to provide different levels of detail:

A financial statement version can have a maximum of 10 hierarchy levels, with each level assigned with an item (account category). As you go down the hierarchy, you define the account categories in more detail, with the lowest level being represented by the GL accounts. The system displays the relevant amount for each of these items.

17. What Items are required in a ‘Financial Statement Version’?

Irrespective of the details you require in a ‘Financial Statement Version,’ it is mandatory that you have, at least, the following items defined:

1. Assets

2. Liabilities

a. Net Result: Profit

b. Net Result: Loss

3. P/L result (during annual closing, when you run the program RFBILA00, the system calculates the profit or loss by subtracting the ‘total liabilities’ from ‘total assets’ and updates the relevant Net Result item—Profit or Loss).

4. Not assigned (posted amounts but not yet assigned to any of the account groups).

18. How do You Ensure ‘Correct’ Balances in the ‘Financial Statement Version’?

In order to have a balanced statement (Profit & Loss and Balance Sheet) you need to ensure that the accounts are correctly and completely assigned to the nodes of the Financial Statement Version. You may do this by resorting to the necessary assignments at the account balance level or node balance level.

At the account balance level, you need to ensure that the account is shown in two different nodes, but you will turn “ON” the ‘debit indicator’ of the account on one node and turn “ON” the ‘credit indicator’ on the other node. Imagine that you have a bank current account 10001000. When you turn “ON” the debit indicator, this account shows only the debit balances and is construed as the asset. On the other hand, when the credit indicator is turned “ON,” the balances on this node now indicate that you owe to the bank (overdraft).

You may also use the node-level assignment. In this case, the system uses the ‘debit/credit shift’ and shows only the ‘effective’ balance at the node and not at the individual account level.

19. How do You Perform ‘Annual Closing’ in SAP?

‘Annual Closing’ is like any other ‘period closing’ and you will be performing all the activities that are required for a period-end-close. In addition to those activities, you will also:

􀂃 Carry forward Vendor and Customer accounts

􀂃 Carry forward the GL account balances of all the Balance Sheet items

􀂃 Close the Profit & Loss Accounts and carry forward the balance (profit or loss) to the retained earnings account(s)

For a GL account ‘carry forward,’ use the program SAPF011.

20. Explain Managerial Closing?

In ‘Managerial Closing’ you will:

􀂃 Do a preliminary Controlling period closing

􀂃 Settle/re-allocate costs across Controlling organization

􀂃 Draw and review internal reports

􀂃 Re-open the Controlling period

􀂃 Correct and adjust the accounting data, if required

􀂃 Reconcile FI and CO by running the FICO Reconciliation Ledger

􀂃 Run re-adjustment programs to ensure that the Business Areas and the Profit Centers are balanced

􀂃 Draw reports and analyze

21. What is the ‘New FI-GL’ in FI in ECC?

The traditional or ‘Classic FI-GL accounting’ in FI has been focused on providing

comprehensive external reporting by recording all business transactions in the system. However, to meet modern-day requirements, this has now been enhanced, called the ‘New FI-GL,’ and includes the following:

􀂃 Parallel accounting: Maintaining several parallel ledgers to meet different accounting principles.

􀂃 Integrated legal and management reporting: Unlike the traditional GL, the ‘New FI-GL’ enables you to perform internal management reporting along with legal reporting. So you are in a position to generate Financial Statements for any dimension (for example, profit center) in the business.

􀂃 Segment reporting: With the introduction of the Segment dimension, SAP now enables you to produce Segment Reports based on IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards) and the GAPP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) accounting principles.

􀂃 Cost of sales accounting: It is now possible to perform cost of sales accounting in the ‘New FI-GL.’ However, the following functions are not yet supported in the ‘New FI-GL’:

􀂃 Transfer Price

􀂃 SKF (Statistical Key Figure)

􀂃 Euro Translation

􀂃 AIS (Audit Information System)

􀂃 Archiving

􀂃 Data Retention Tool

The ‘New FI-GL’ needs to be activated in the system before you start using the IMG Menu Path:>Financial Accounting (New)->Financial Accounting Global Settings (New)/General Ledger Accounting (New).

In the standard system, the tables from ‘classic general ledger accounting’ (GLT0) are updated as well as the tables in ‘New FI-GL’ during the activation. This enables you to perform a ‘ledger comparison’ during the implementation of ‘New FI-GL’ to ensure that your ‘new GL accounting’ has the correct settings and is working correctly. To compare ledgers, in Customizing choose

Financial Accounting Global Settings (New)->Tools->Compare Ledgers.

It is recommended that you ‘deactivate’ the update of tables for ‘classic GL accounting’ once you have established that ‘New FI-GL’ is working correctly. To do this, in Customizing choose

Financial Accounting Global Settings (New)-> Tools->Deactivate ‘Update of Classic General Ledger.’