Migrate Successfully to the New SAP GL

Paul Theobald, CFO of CAPE Consulting, Inc. has worked with SAP since 1993. He has been a Financials consultant for 14 years. Paul specializes in Foreign Currency Valuation, the General and Special ledgers, local GAAP reporting, etc. He has worked in two major international SAP Financials projects and has been lead consultant in various projects, focused on GL, Accounts Receivable and Payable, and Banking, Fixed Assets and the Special Ledger. A qualified chartered accountant (should getfrom the UK, Paul has lived and worked in the US for 12 yearsmaking him uniquely qualified to understand the problems that arise in large, global implementations.

1 Upgrade to SAP ERP 2004/2005 ... 7 ... 1.1 SAP ERP Key Components ... 7 ... 1.2 Benefits of Upgrading ... 9 ... Benefits of SAP NetWeaver ... 9 ... Functional Benefits ... 9 ... Benefits of Upgrading from Legacy Systems ... 10 ... Finance Benefits ... 10 ... 1.3 Upgrade Approaches ... 12 ... Upgrade Reasons ... 12 ... Technical Upgrade ... 12 ... Functional Upgrade ... 14 ... Strategic Business Improvement Upgrade ... 14 ... 1.4 Best Practices ... 15 ... Planning ... 15 ... Building ... 16 ... Running ... 16 ... 1.5 Future Release Strategy ... 16 ... 1.6 Summary ... 16 2 Why Migrate to the New G/L? ... 19 ... 2.1 Upgrade and Migration as Separate Projects ... 20 ... 2.2 New Functionality ... 21 ... Segment Reporting ... 21 ... Document Splitting ... 23 ... Parallel Ledgers ... 25 ... 2.3 Possible Migration Scenarios ... 27 ... Migrating From Systems That Used Parallel Accounting ... 28 ... Summary of Possible Migration Scenarios ... 28 ... 2.4 Potential Benefits and Risks ... 29 ... Benefits of Migrating ... 29 ... Risks of Migrating ... 30 ... 2.5 Summary ... 31 3 Migration Phases ... 33 ... 3.1 Phase 0: Planning ... 33 ... 3.2 Phase 1: Migration and Testing ... 34 ... 3.3 Phase 2: Go Live ... 34 ... 3.4 SAP Migration Service ... 35 ... 3.5 Summary ... 36 4 Planning Phase ... 37 ... 4.1 Scope of Project ... 37 ... 4.2 Initial Situations in the Classic G/L ... 38 ... Use of Profit Center Accounting ... 40 ... Use of Business Areas ... 40 ... Use of Cost-of-Sales Accounting ... 40 ... Use of Special-Purpose Ledgers ... 40 ... Use of Additional Currencies in Special Ledgers ... 41 ... Use of Interfaces to External Systems ... 41 ... How Consolidation Is Performed ... 41 ... Status of Existing Transaction and Master Data ... 41 ... Company Codes and Cross-Company Code Clearings ... 42 ... Use of Parallel Valuation ... 42 ... 4.3 Target Migration Scenarios ... 43 ... Migration without Document Splitting or Parallel Valuation ... 44 ... Migration with Document Splitting ... 45 ... Migration with Parallel Valuation ... 49 ... Migration with Document Splitting and Parallel Valuation ... 53 ... 4.4 Timing ... 53 ... 4.5 Staffing and Training ... 54 ... Staffing ... 54 ... Training ... 54 ... 4.6 IMG Migration Tasks ... 55 ... 4.7 Initial Customizing ... 56 ... Document Splitting Customization ... 57 ... Parallel Ledgers Customization ... 60 5 SAP Migration Service ... 61 ... 5.1 Summary ... 65 6 Migration and Testing Phase ... 67 ... 6.1 Complete Customizing ... 67 ... Ledgers Customizing ... 67 ... Segment Reporting ... 69 ... 6.2 IMG Migration Activities ... 70 ... 6.3 Testing ... 78 ... Validation of Document Splitting Customizing ... 78 ... Check Business Transaction Assignment for Migration Documents ... 80 ... Validation of Migration Activities ... 81 ... 6.4 Evaluation of Migration ... 81 ... 6.5 Summary ... 82 7 Go-Live Phase ... 83 ... 7.1 Testing ... 83 ... 7.2 IMG Migration Activities ... 84 ... Analyze Migration Status ... 84 ... Migration Successful ... 85 ... Migration Was Not Successful ... 86 ... 7.3 Training ... 87 ... 7.4 Technical Facts about Migration ... 89 ... 7.5 Summary ... 89