This is the third of a series of LinkedIn posts where Stampa & Partners answers the question: “How to leverage a full S/4 Finance implementation for budgeting and legal and management consolidation purposes?”

SAP Group Reporting is a tool built on SAP HANA which aggregates some of the best features of different consolidation tools in a single solution, including simplified integration of data (i.e. out-of-the box integration of S/4 Hana Finance postings into Group Reporting) and continuous closing process on entity and group level. These features increase the speed of processing and enhances its reporting capabilities.

SAP Group Reporting cover the 4 required activities for group close:

In this post we will cover the first activity  ⇒ Data Collection.

Data Collection

Consolidation process starts with the data collection activity.

When entities upload the financial data for their consolidation process, an overview of the process and the progress can be seen in SAP Group Reporting’s Data Monitor:

This Data Monitor is customisable and indicates:

•  The hierarchy of entities in each Group;
•  Which are entities being used in the data consolidation process (i.e. non highlighted entities);
•  Status of each data collection step per entity (and overall Status);
•  Sequence of the required steps / activities.

In the example above, Milano and Germany are entities with completed data collection while China and Toronto are in the first sub activities.

Before collecting new data, the user can start by verifying the financial statements available in the system from its local entities (in this case for entity 2910 Toronto):

The finance user can then perform any missing postings on the financial statements, reperform the validations on the data monitoring menu as well as reimport data:

The process can be replicated to each of these sub steps (e.g. currency conversion of the new financial statements).

The actual activities included in the data collection process (like data import, mapping of imported data, validations of data) will be detailed in a later post in this series.

Please stay connected to access next week’s insights on Group Reporting Data Acquisition.

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We at Stampa & Partners have an extensive track record working with CFOs and supporting organisations in Europe successfully digitalise finance functions, leverage analytics and ensure compliance with new accounting standards. Therefore, we can advise your business with the best solutions to fulfil your goals.

By André Almeida