What is SAP FICO? Answer: SAP FICO is a module in SAP ERP that handles financial accounting (FI) and controlling (CO). FI manages external financial reporting, while CO focuses on internal cost and profitability analysis.
What are the sub-modules of SAP FI? Answer: General Ledger (GL), Accounts Payable (AP), Accounts Receivable (AR), Asset Accounting (AA), and Bank Accounting.
What is the purpose of Controlling (CO) in SAP? Answer: CO supports internal management by providing tools for cost accounting, profitability analysis, and planning.
What is a Company Code in SAP? Answer: A Company Code is the smallest organizational unit in SAP FI for which a complete, self-contained set of accounts can be drawn up for external reporting.
How is a Company Code different from a Company? Answer: A Company is a higher-level entity used for consolidation, while a Company Code represents a legal entity with its own financial statements.
What is a Chart of Accounts? Answer: A Chart of Accounts is a list of all General Ledger (G/L) accounts used by one or more Company Codes.
What are the types of Chart of Accounts? Answer: Operating Chart of Accounts (used by Company Codes), Country-specific Chart of Accounts (for legal requirements), and Group Chart of Accounts (for consolidation).
What is a Fiscal Year Variant? Answer: It defines the fiscal year structure (e.g., start/end dates, number of posting periods) for financial reporting.
What is a Posting Key in SAP? Answer: A Posting Key is a two-digit code that determines the type of transaction (e.g., debit or credit) and the account type affected.
What is the difference between SAP FI and SAP CO? Answer: FI focuses on external financial reporting (e.g., balance sheets, P&L), while CO focuses on internal cost management and analysis.
SAP FI – General Ledger (GL)
What is the General Ledger in SAP FI? Answer: The General Ledger records all financial transactions of a company and provides data for financial statements.
What is a G/L Account? Answer: A G/L Account is a master record used to categorize and record financial transactions in the General Ledger.
What is the purpose of Reconciliation Accounts? Answer: Reconciliation Accounts link sub-ledgers (e.g., AR, AP, AA) to the G/L, ensuring real-time updates in the General Ledger.
What is a Field Status Group? Answer: It controls which fields (e.g., required, optional, suppressed) are available when posting to a G/L account.
What is a Document Type in SAP? Answer: A Document Type classifies accounting documents (e.g., SA for G/L postings, KR for vendor invoices) and controls account assignments.
What is the use of a Number Range in SAP? Answer: Number Ranges assign unique document numbers to transactions for tracking and auditing purposes.
What is a Retained Earnings Account? Answer: It accumulates the net profit or loss of a company at the end of a fiscal year for carryforward to the next year.
What is Parallel Accounting in SAP? Answer: It allows maintaining multiple accounting standards (e.g., IFRS, GAAP) simultaneously using different ledgers.
What is the New General Ledger (New G/L)? Answer: New G/L in SAP ECC enhances reporting with features like parallel ledgers, document splitting, and real-time integration of FI and CO.
What is Document Splitting? Answer: It splits accounting documents to provide detailed financial data (e.g., by profit center or segment) for reporting.
SAP FI – Accounts Payable (AP)
What is Accounts Payable in SAP FI? Answer: Accounts Payable manages vendor transactions, including invoices, payments, and credit memos.
How do you create a Vendor Master Record? Answer: Use transaction XK01 to create a vendor master with details like company code data, general data, and purchasing data.
What is a Payment Term? Answer: It defines the conditions (e.g., due date, discount) under which a vendor expects payment.
What is an Automatic Payment Program (APP)? Answer: APP (transaction F110) automates vendor payments based on due dates and payment methods.
What is a House Bank? Answer: A House Bank is a company’s bank account used for payments and receipts in SAP.
What is a Payment Block? Answer: It prevents an invoice from being paid automatically until the block is removed (e.g., for verification).
How do you post a vendor invoice in SAP? Answer: Use transaction MIRO (for logistics invoices) or FB60 (for FI invoices) to post a vendor invoice.
What is a Credit Memo in AP? Answer: A Credit Memo reduces the amount owed to a vendor, typically issued for returns or overpayments.
What is a Down Payment in SAP AP? Answer: It’s an advance payment made to a vendor, recorded using transaction F-48 and later cleared against an invoice.
What is a Vendor Reconciliation Account? Answer: It’s a G/L account that integrates AP sub-ledger postings with the General Ledger.
SAP FI – Accounts Receivable (AR)
What is Accounts Receivable in SAP FI? Answer: Accounts Receivable manages customer transactions, including invoices, payments, and credit management.
How do you create a Customer Master Record? Answer: Use transaction XD01 to create a customer master with general, company code, and sales data.
What is a Dunning Process? Answer: Dunning (transaction F150) is the process of sending reminders to customers for overdue payments.
How do you post a customer invoice? Answer: Use transaction FB70 to post a customer invoice in FI or VF01 for sales-related invoices.
What is a Payment Difference in AR? Answer: It occurs when the customer payment doesn’t match the invoice amount, handled via residual items or write-offs.
What is a Credit Limit in SAP AR? Answer: It’s the maximum credit amount allowed for a customer, maintained in the customer master (FD32).
What is a Cash Discount in AR? Answer: A discount offered to customers for paying invoices early within payment terms.
What is a Customer Down Payment? Answer: An advance payment from a customer, recorded using transaction F-29 and cleared later.
What is Lockbox Processing? Answer: It’s a service to process customer payments received via bank lockbox files (transaction FLB2).
What is a Customer Reconciliation Account? Answer: It integrates AR sub-ledger postings with the General Ledger.
SAP FI – Asset Accounting (AA)
What is Asset Accounting in SAP FI? Answer: Asset Accounting manages fixed assets, including acquisition, depreciation, and retirement.
What is an Asset Class? Answer: An Asset Class groups assets with similar characteristics (e.g., machinery, vehicles) and defines their account determination.
How do you create an Asset Master? Answer: Use transaction AS01 to create an asset master with details like depreciation key and useful life.
What is Depreciation in SAP AA? Answer: Depreciation is the systematic reduction in an asset’s value over its useful life, calculated using depreciation keys.
What is a Depreciation Key? Answer: It defines the depreciation method (e.g., straight-line, declining balance) and calculation rules.
What is an Asset Acquisition? Answer: It’s the process of recording a new asset purchase, posted via transaction F-90 (with vendor) or ABZON (without vendor).
What is Asset Retirement? Answer: It’s the disposal of an asset, recorded using transaction ABAON (with revenue) or ABAVN (without revenue).
What is an Asset Under Construction (AuC)? Answer: An AuC is a temporary asset used to collect costs during construction, settled to a final asset via AIAB/AIBU.
What is the Depreciation Run? Answer: It’s a periodic process (transaction AFAB) to calculate and post depreciation for all assets.
What is Integration of AA with FI? Answer: AA integrates with FI via reconciliation accounts for asset acquisition, depreciation, and retirement postings.
SAP CO – Cost Element Accounting
What is a Cost Element in SAP CO? Answer: A Cost Element classifies costs in CO, linked to G/L accounts in FI for cost tracking.
What is the difference between Primary and Secondary Cost Elements? Answer: Primary Cost Elements originate from FI (e.g., salaries), while Secondary Cost Elements are used within CO for allocations (e.g., internal activity costs).
How do you create a Cost Element? Answer: Use transaction KA01 (primary) or KA06 (secondary) to create a cost element.
What is a Cost Element Category? Answer: It defines the purpose of a cost element (e.g., 01 for primary costs, 11 for revenue).
What is Reconciliation Ledger in CO? Answer: It reconciles CO postings with FI when cross-company or cross-functional area costs are involved.
SAP CO – Cost Center Accounting
What is a Cost Center? Answer: A Cost Center is an organizational unit where costs are incurred (e.g., production, HR).
How do you create a Cost Center? Answer: Use transaction KS01 to create a cost center with details like hierarchy and category.
What is a Cost Center Hierarchy? Answer: It’s a structure that groups cost centers for reporting and cost allocation.
What is Activity Type in SAP CO? Answer: It represents services provided by a cost center (e.g., labor hours), used for cost allocation.
What is Statistical Key Figure (SKF)? Answer: SKFs are measurable values (e.g., square footage) used to allocate costs to cost centers.
SAP CO – Internal Orders
What is an Internal Order? Answer: An Internal Order tracks costs for short-term projects or events (e.g., marketing campaigns).
How do you create an Internal Order? Answer: Use transaction KO01 to create an internal order with an order type and details.
What is the difference between Cost Center and Internal Order? Answer: Cost Centers are permanent cost collectors, while Internal Orders are temporary.
What is Settlement in Internal Orders? Answer: It’s the process of transferring costs from an internal order to a final receiver (e.g., cost center, asset) using transaction KO88.
What is an Order Type? Answer: It classifies internal orders (e.g., overhead, investment) and controls their behavior.
SAP CO – Profit Center Accounting
What is a Profit Center? Answer: A Profit Center is an organizational unit responsible for revenue and cost analysis.
How do you create a Profit Center? Answer: Use transaction KE51 to create a profit center within a hierarchy.
What is the purpose of Profit Center Accounting? Answer: It provides profitability reports by organizational units like regions or product lines.
What is Dummy Profit Center? Answer: It’s a default profit center used when no specific profit center is assigned to a transaction.
How does Profit Center integrate with FI? Answer: Profit Center data is derived from FI postings via document splitting or assignment.
SAP CO – Product Costing
What is Product Costing in SAP CO? Answer: It calculates the cost of goods manufactured or sold, integrating with PP (Production Planning).
What is a Costing Variant? Answer: It defines the rules (e.g., cost components, valuation) for product cost calculation.
What is a Bill of Material (BOM)? Answer: A BOM lists the components required to produce a finished product, used in product costing.
What is a Work Center? Answer: It represents a production location where operations occur, linked to cost centers for costing.
What is Variance Calculation in Product Costing? Answer: It compares actual costs to target costs to identify production variances (transaction KKS2).
SAP CO – Profitability Analysis (CO-PA)
What is Profitability Analysis (CO-PA)? Answer: CO-PA analyzes profitability by market segments like customers, products, or regions.
What is the difference between Account-based and Costing-based CO-PA? Answer: Account-based CO-PA uses G/L accounts for reporting, while Costing-based CO-PA uses value fields for detailed analysis.
What is a Characteristic in CO-PA? Answer: Characteristics are dimensions (e.g., customer, product) used to analyze profitability.
What is a Value Field in CO-PA? Answer: Value Fields store monetary or quantity data (e.g., revenue, cost) in Costing-based CO-PA.
How do you transfer data to CO-PA? Answer: Data is transferred from FI, SD, and MM via automatic postings or manual entries.
Configuration and Integration
How do you configure a Company Code in SAP? Answer: Use transaction OX02 to define the Company Code and assign it to a Chart of Accounts, Fiscal Year Variant, etc.
What is the Enterprise Structure in SAP? Answer: It includes Client, Company Code, Controlling Area, Plant, etc., defining the organizational framework.
What is the integration between FI and MM? Answer: FI-MM integration occurs via automatic account determination (OBYC) for goods movements.
What is the integration between FI and SD? Answer: FI-SD integration posts sales revenue and receivables via condition types (VKOA).
What is OBYC in SAP? Answer: OBYC is the transaction key for configuring automatic G/L account determination for MM postings.
Miscellaneous
What is a Parked Document? Answer: A Parked Document (transaction FV60/FV50) is an incomplete document saved for later posting.
What is a Held Document? Answer: A Held Document is a temporary document saved during entry (e.g., FB50) without parking or posting.
What is a Validation in SAP? Answer: Validation ensures data consistency by applying rules during document posting (transaction OB28).
What is a Substitution in SAP? Answer: Substitution modifies field values during document posting based on predefined rules (transaction OBBH).
What is the use of Transaction Code FS00? Answer: FS00 is used to create or edit G/L account master data.
What is a Financial Statement Version (FSV)? Answer: FSV (transaction OB58) defines the structure of financial statements like balance sheets and P&L.
What is a Special G/L Transaction? Answer: It records non-standard transactions like down payments or bills of exchange (e.g., F-47).
What is a Foreign Currency Valuation? Answer: It revalues foreign currency transactions at period-end exchange rates (transaction FAGL_FCV).
What is a Report Painter in SAP? Answer: Report Painter is a tool to create custom financial reports without programming.
What is SAP S/4HANA Finance? Answer: It’s an advanced version of SAP FICO with a simplified data model, real-time reporting, and the Universal Journal (ACDOCA).
What is the Universal Journal in S/4HANA? Answer: It’s a single table (ACDOCA) that combines FI, CO, AA, and ML data for unified reporting.
What is a Business Partner in S/4HANA? Answer: A Business Partner is a unified master data concept for customers, vendors, and other entities.
What is a Ledger in SAP S/4HANA? Answer: Ledgers (e.g., Leading Ledger 0L) manage different accounting principles in parallel.
What is the T-code for Balance Carryforward? Answer: FAGLGVTR is used to carry forward G/L balances to the next fiscal year.
What is the role of an SAP FICO Consultant? Answer: An SAP FICO Consultant configures the system, supports end-users, resolves issues, and ensures financial processes align with business needs.
