S/4 HANA- New Asset Accounting – Considering Key

Aspects
New Asset Accounting is the only Asset Accounting solution available in S/4 HANA,
classic Asset Accounting is not available any more.
I have covered following key topics within S/4 HANA New Asset Accounting
keeping in view various questions coming in from different customers/partners on this
key innovation step taken within Finance as part of S/4 HANA simplification and we
need to be very clear on this new requirement before starting the new or conversion
S/4 HANA project.

1. Pre-requisite Business Functions

2. Data Structure Changes in Asset Accounting
3. New FI-AA-Integration with the Universal Journal Entry
4. Asset Accounting Parallel Valuation
5. Key Configuration Consideration in Ledger Approach
6. Why will use a technical clearing GL account
7. New Asset Accounting Posting Logic
8. FI-AA Legacy Data Transfer
9. Adjusting chart of Depreciation Prior to Conversion
10. Installing SFIN in Conversion/Migration Scenario

1. Pre-requisite Business Functions

Activate the following Business Functions

 ENTERPRISE_EXTENSIONS – EA-FIN
 ENTERPRISE_BUSINESS_FUNCTIONS – FIN_AA_PARALLEL_VAL

2. Data Structure Changes in Asset Accounting

 Actual data of ANEK, ANEP, ANEA, ANLP, ANLC is now stored in table ACDOCA.
ANEK data is stored in BKPF.
 Compatibility views FAAV_<TABLENAME> (for example, FAAV_ANEK) are
provided in order to reproduce the old structures.
 Statistical data (for example, for tax purposes) previously stored in ANEP, ANEA,
ANLP, ANLC is now stored in table FAAT_DOC_IT
 Plan data previously stored in ANLP and ANLC is now stored in
FAAT_PLAN_VALUES
 Classic Asset Accounting is mostly transformed automatically into the New Asset
Accounting by executing mandatory migration steps related to Asset Accounting.
 Posting to different periods possible (restriction: beginning/end of FY needs to be equal)
refer OSS note 1951069/ 2220152
 Following table shows some redundant/new Asset accounting programme.
3. New FI-AA-Integration with the Universal Journal Entry
Asset Accounting is based on the universal journal entry. This means there is no longer any redundant data
store, General Ledger Accounting and Asset Accounting are reconciled Key changes are listed below: –

 There is no separate balance carry forward needed in asset accounting, the general
balance carry forward transaction of FI (FAGLGVTR) transfers asset accounting
balances by default.
 The program Fixed Assets-Fiscal Year Change (RAJAWE00) transaction AJRW is no
longer has to be performed at fiscal year change
 Planned values are available in real time. Changes to master data and transaction data are
constantly included
 The most current planned depreciation values will be calculated automatically for the
new year after performing the balance carry forward. The depreciation run posts the pre-
calculated planned values.
 The Selection screen is simplified as the “reasons for posting run” (planned depreciation
run, repeat, restart, unplanned posting run) are no longer relevant.
 Errors with individual assets do not necessarily need to be corrected before period-end
closing; period-end closing can still be performed. You have to make sure that all assets
are corrected by the end of the year only so that depreciation can be posted completely.
 All APC changes in Asset Accounting are posted to the general ledger in real time.
Periodical APC postings are therefore no longer supported.
 Transaction types with restriction to depreciation areas are removed in new Asset
Accounting and you can set the obsolete indicator in the definition of the transaction that
were restricted to depreciation areas in the classic asset accounting.
4. Asset Accounting Parallel Valuation
 Very Important part of new Asset accounting is parallel valuation in multicurrency
environment.
 The leading valuation can be recorded in any depreciation area. It is no longer necessary
to use depreciation area 01 for this. The system now posts both the actual values of the
leading valuation and the values of parallel valuation in real time. This means the posting
of delta values has been replaced; as a result, the delta depreciation areas are no longer
required.
 New Asset Accounting makes it possible to post in real time in all valuations (that is, for
all accounting principles). You can track the postings of all valuations, without having to
take into account the postings of the leading valuation, as was partly the case in classic
Asset Accounting.
5. Key Configuration Consideration in Ledger Approach
We need to answer some basic question before configuring new asset accounting in S4 Hana environment as
this would determine the required minimum depreciation areas to align the FI with Asset Accounting. i.e.
  Required Valuation Approach
 How Many Ledgers (Leading + Non Leading) exists or to be configured.
 What all currencies are used in each of the ledgers.
For Example:-
In this Example we have one com code which has 2 ledgers 0L & N1 & these 2 ledgers having 3 currencies i.e
10,30 & 40 as shown below.

Above mapping is to ensure and establish link between depreciation area/accounting principal and Currency
Explaining with ledger approach example. From release 1503 i.e initial version of SAP Finance add on version
in S4 Hana a new table ACDOCA is introduced which stores the asset values also per ledger /per currency on
real time basis & no need to have any reconciliation between Finance and Asset accounting and to do so it is
must to follow the guidelines while setting up depreciation areas & respective currencies, which I have tried to
explain with an example as given below: –

Ledger & currency setting has to be done in New GL in the following SPRO node.
Financial Accounting (New)–> Financial Accounting Global Settings (New)–> Ledgers–> Ledger –> Define
Settings for Ledgers and Currency Types

Fixed Asset Accounting currently only supports the FI relevant (BSEG-) Currencies.
For additional currency types, which are not BSEG relevant, you do not need to create dep area; these
currencies are converted during posting. This means, the sum of all depreciations does not balance with the
activation value for the additional currencies.
It is on roadmap for later releases, that Fixed Asset Accounting calculates the
depreciation with the historic (activation) values in all currencies, but currently Fixed
Asset Accounting does this only in the BSEG Currencies.
Define Depreciation Areas
Depreciation Areas defined as per new FI-GL & FI-AA requirement so here at least 6 depreciation areas are
must so that ledger wise each currency can be represented in separate depreciation area & these depreciation

area is assigned to Accounting principal.

Specify Depreciation Area Type

Specify Transfer of APC Values

In this activity, you define transfer rules for the posting values of depreciation areas. These transfer rules let
you ensure that certain depreciation areas have identical asset values
Specify Transfer of Depreciation Terms
In this activity, you specify how the depreciation terms for a depreciation area are adopted from another
depreciation area. You can specify if the adoption of values is optional or mandatory. If you specify an
optional transfer, then you can change the proposed depreciation terms in the dependent areas in the asset
master record. In the case of a mandatory transfer, you cannot maintain any depreciation terms in the asset
master record. In this way, you can ensure that depreciation is uniform in certain depreciation areas.

Define Depreciation Areas for Foreign Currencies

For every additional currency type defined on the company code a corresponding depreciation area needs to be
set up.
As explained in previous step here we need to define the currency for each dep area so for example if a
company code has 2 ledgers i.e 0L and N1 with 3 currencies then at least 6 depreciation areas should be setup
& currencies should be assigned for each depreciation area ( Here leading valuation depreciation area will
derive currency from com code currency)

Specify the Use of Parallel Currencies

Here we need to specify the Currency type for each for the Depreciation area which will align FI Currency
type with Asset Depreciation areas & accordingly will be updated in ACDOCA.

With this setting its ensured that all currency types are aligned with respective depreciation area and asset
values are getting updated parallel to Financial accounting per currency.
6. Why will use a technical clearing GL account
Architecture has been changed in the way that we now post in asset accounting for each valuation a separate
document. So we perform on the asset part accounting principle specific postings. Technically we perform
ledger-groups specific postings.
On the operational part (accounts receivable, accounts payable) the value is always the same for each
accounting principle. So for the operational part we have to perform postings which are valid for all accounting
principles. Technically we perform postings without specifying the ledger-group.
To split the business process in an operational and a valuating document there was a need to establish the
“technical clearing account” for integrated asset acquisition.

 For the operational part (vendor invoice/GRIR), the system posts a document valid for all accounting
principles against the technical clearing account for integrated asset acquisitions. From a technical
perspective, the system generates a ledger-group-independent document.
  For each valuating part (asset posting with capitalization of the asset), the system generates a separate
document that is valid only for the given accounting principle. This document is also posted against
the technical clearing account for integrated asset acquisitions. From a technical perspective, the
system generates ledger-group-specific documents.

Define account “Technical clearing account” for integrated asset acquisition.

Specify Alternative Document Type for Accounting Principle-Specific Documents

Here Operational document type will have original document used during entry & while generating accounting
principal wise separate document it

would be document type AA.

7. New Asset Accounting Posting Logic

The Operational Entry Document posts to a technical clearing account. The Operational Entry Document does
not update the asset values; the asset data is only used to perform checks.
Accounting principle specific documents (1 to n). The accounting principle specific documents post to: – the
technical clearing account in each view (balancing to zero) and the asset reconciliation account (and update the
asset line items).
Asset Acquisition Document

Asset Acquisitions Accounting Principal (IFRS) specific Document

Asset Acquisitions Accounting Principal (LOCA) specific Document

Universal Table updated with respective ledger (0L & N1) and currencies.

Correction Asset Acquisition value in specific GAAP

Use Transaction code AB01L

8. FI-AA Legacy Data Transfer

 You create asset master records for the legacy data transfer using transaction AS91.
 You post the transfer values using transaction ABLDT; in doing so, a universal journal
entry is posted for the fixed asset.
 If wrong transfer values were posted, you must reverse the journal entry and then recreate
it.
 You can use transaction AS92 to change master data; transaction AS93 to display master
data; and transaction AS94 to create sub numbers for the Asset master record.
Time of Legacy Asset Transfer
The transfer date is the cut-off date for the transfer of legacy data. The transfer will only include data up to this
point in time. There are two possible scenarios.
 The transfer date can be the end of the last closed fiscal year.
 The transfer date can be in the fiscal year. This is called “transfer during the
fiscal year.
Scenario 1: Transfer Date is the End of the Last Closed Fiscal Year:

In this case, you do not need to include any posted depreciation or transactions in the transfer of legacy data.
You only need to transfer master data and the cumulative values as of the end of the last closed fiscal year.
Scenario 2: Transfer During the Fiscal Year

Along with the general master data, and the cumulative values from the start of the fiscal year (time period A),
you must also transfer the following values.
 Depreciation during the transfer year and Transactions during the transfer year
 Include the depreciation posted in the legacy system since the end of the last closed fiscal
year up to the date of transfer (time period B).
 Any asset transactions in your legacy system that have a value date after the transfer date,
but before the date of the physical transfer of data (time period C), need to be posted
separately in the Asset Accounting component in any case.

Process Steps for Legacy Data Transfer During the Fiscal year:-

Go live date : 01st Oct 2018, so enter Transfer date one day before the Golive date

1] If OAYC is not editable , then goto Tcode : SE38 : FAA_XPRA_FAAT_CMP_LDT and execute for all
Co.codes in foreground.

2] Tcode : OAYC – enter Transfer date – 09/30/2018

3] Tcode : FAGLGVTR – carry forward to new fiscal year – 2018

4] Tcode : AJAB – closed the old fiscal year – check Tcode : OAAQ – 2017

5] Tcode : OAAR – enter the closed fiscal year against all depreciation areas – 2017 which auto appears

Step 1 – SE38 : FAA_XPRA_FAAT_CMP_LDT

This program activates the Tcode : OAYC to enter the Transfer date
Step2 – Tcode : OAYC – enter Transfer date = 09/30/2018

STEP 3 : FAGLGVTR – CARRYFORWARD TO new Fiscal year : 2018 and it will reflect in T093C
Now Check in Table : T093C – Current Fiscal year = 2019
Step 4 : AJAB IT UPDATES IN OAAQ and table : T093B

AJAB – execute in background

T093B

4] OAAR – closed Fiscal year 2017 against depn.area auto appears . It should be same for all depn.areas.
9. Adjusting Chart of Depreciation prior to Conversion
 For the leading valuation of the ledger approach and accounts approach and for parallel
valuations of the ledger approach its must that the parallel currencies in the leading ledger
in General Ledger Accounting and in the depreciation areas in Asset Accounting must be
the same as explained one example above with ledger approach scenario.
 Using the migration program available under Migration Tools, you can automatically
adjust the parameters in your charts of depreciation. If error messages appear stating that
automatic adjustment is not possible, you have to adjust the charts of depreciation
manually.
 If until now you have been using parallel currencies in General Ledger Accounting, but
you have not implemented the corresponding parallel currency areas in Asset Accounting
for all depreciation areas, you must implement these areas in a separate project before
you install SAP Simple Finance. In such a project, you must first perform the preparatory
steps for creating depreciation areas in Customizing; you must then determine the new
values for each fixed asset for a newly created depreciation area.
 For company codes that are assigned to the same chart of depreciation, these company
codes are not allowed to differ in number and type from the parallel currencies used in
General Ledger Accounting.
 Even if you migrate to SAP Accounting powered by SAP HANA from a system (e.g.
EHP7) having FI-AA (new) already active, you still must migrate every active chart of
depreciation.

10. Installing SFIN in Conversion/Migration Scenario

From the viewpoint of Asset Accounting, it is not necessary that you install SAP Simple Finance at the end of
the year or period. However, it is required that you perform a complete period-end closing directly before you
install SAP Simple Finance and some of the important point you must consider w.r.t New Asset
Accounting. (for detail you may refer conversion guide)
 To check if the prerequisites outlined are met, you have to check using the program for
preliminary checks RASFIN_MIGR_PRECHECK. You import the current version of this
program using SAP Note 1939592, before you install SAP Simple Finance in your
system. Perform this check in all of your systems – in the Customizing system as well as
in the downstream systems (test system and production system).
 If until now you updated transactions in parallel valuations with different fiscal year
variants and want to continue using this update, then you must implement a new
representative ledger using the SAP General Ledger Migration Service before you install
SAP Simple Finance. For more information about alternative fiscal year variants with
parallel valuation, see SAP Note 2220152 Information published on SAP site.
 You must have performed periodic APC posting (RAPERB2000) completely; the
timestamp must be current.
 Execute the periodic depreciation posting run (RAPOST2000).
 Run the program for recalculating depreciation (transaction AFAR).
 Reconcile your general ledger with the Asset Accounting subsidiary ledger, both for your
leading valuation and for parallel valuations.
 The migration must take place at a time when only one fiscal year is open in Asset
Accounting.
 You can check which fiscal year is closed in your company code in Customizing for
Asset Accounting (New) under Preparations for Going Live à Tools à Reset Year-End
Closing.
 Ensure that no further postings are made in your system after running period end
transactions before installing S4 Hana Simple Finance hence lock the users.
 Perform a backup before installing SFIN
 As soon as you have installed SAP Simple Finance, you can no longer post in Asset
Accounting. To ensure that migration is successful, it is essential that you make sure that
the prerequisites are met and a complete period-end closing was performed before you
install SAP Simple Finance. Posting for new Asset Accounting is only possible again
after you have completed the migration fully and successfully.
 After completing the migration, make sure that no fiscal year that is before the migration
is reopened in Asset Accounting.

Manual and Automatic Asset Migration with SAP

S/4HANA Finance
With SAP S/4HANA Finance, the process of asset migration is as follows (Figure 1):

 Manually: Create an asset master via transaction code AS91 and then upload the takeover
values via a new transaction code, ABLDT
 Automatically: Via a Business Application Programming Interface (BAPI)
Asset data upload options

Key Changes Introduced with New

Asset Accounting
The reason that the asset value can be posted to the asset and to the general ledger
simultaneously is because most of the asset value tables have been replaced, and both the asset
and financial actuals are now held in a single table in Finance, the aforementioned ACDOCA
table.

A common phrase you may hear a lot in relation to S/4HANA is the Single Source of Truth. In
S/4HANA, Finance and Controlling have been merged; and Asset Accounting and even
Profitability Analysis all create entries directly to the ACDOCA table in Finance. In other words,
you now have everything in one place.

Additional accounting principles no longer have to be posted periodically; instead all accounting
principles post real-time and at the same time. Because the accounts are reconciliation accounts
in all ledgers, you can’t post only to the general ledger and not to the asset. Altogether, this
means that you how have everything in sync with everything else, which has got to be one of the
biggest advantages, especially for us accountants.

In addition, asset postings are transferred to finance at asset level and more asset information is
now available in finance, so you can run financial reports by asset number for example in the
general ledger line item display transaction. You also don’t have to wait until the period end to
see values in the parallel ledgers, and even the planned depreciation is always up to date.

The table in Figure 1 shows some examples of transactions that have changed with S/4HANA.
Although many of you will be using Fiori to access the S/4HANA transactions, particularly if
you are using the public Cloud version of S/4HANA, quite a lot of the S/4HANA transactions
are very similar whether you are using the SAP GUI or the Fiori equivalent. I thought it would
be easier to show the transaction codes so you could compare the ECC transactions and see what
has changed. Also, I’m sure some of you will still want to explore the SAP GUI transaction
codes on the on-premise version, even if you have Fiori, or intend to implement Fiori later.
Figure 1 Asset related transactions that have changed with S/4HANA

As the asset and general ledger values are now in the same table (ACDOCA), the consistency
and reconciliation transactions are now obsolete and do not even exist in S/4HANA. All ledgers
post real-time, so the periodic posting transaction is also now obsolete. One of the migration
prerequisites by the way, is to complete all periodic postings before the migration, as you won’t
be able to post them afterwards without that transaction.

The legacy Transaction AS91 can no longer be used to post the values to an asset, but you can
still create the master data with it and post the values to both the asset and finance with
Transaction ABLDT.

Depreciation Areas and Ledgers

In Asset Accounting, different accounting principles are managed by setting up different
depreciation areas. In the next sections, I’ll explain what has changed with S/4HANA, and show
how the depreciation areas and ledgers work along with an example at the end.

Originally the only way to record different accounting principles in Finance, for example local
GAAP and IFRS or Group Accounts, was to use different number ranges in the chart of
accounts. When the New General Ledger was introduced in SAP, your main ledger then became
your leading ledger and you could set up parallel ledgers with identical GL accounts instead of
using different number ranges. Most postings would update all the ledgers together, but if the
accounting treatment for something was different in one of the parallel ledgers, for example an
accrual, you could post an adjustment just to that ledger, by selecting its ledger group in the
transaction.

Depreciation area one posted to the leading ledger real-time and you could map the other
depreciation areas to the parallel ledgers and post them at the end of the period; but for technical
reasons you also had to create delta depreciation areas.
With S/4HANA, in order to map a depreciation area to a ledger, you assign an accounting
principle to the depreciation area in the asset accounting configuration. You also assign an
accounting principle to the ledger group in the financial configuration, you will see this in Figure
2.

You still have the option to use the accounts approach or the ledger approach for your different
accounting principles. The accounts approach may be a better choice if you have only a few
differences between the two accounting principles. However, in S/4HANA, you still have to
assign a ledger group to each accounting principle in the configuration, even though each ledger
group will contain only the leading ledger as you won’t have any other ledgers with the accounts
approach.

You also no longer need delta depreciation areas, but, if you want to have additional currencies
in one ledger you have to set up additional depreciation areas for those currencies in the asset
module.

Figure 2 shows one of the configuration steps of an example US company code with a European
Head Office. The depreciation areas are shown in the first column on the left. Depreciation Area
1 contains the US asset values and depreciation in USD, and posts real-time to the leading ledger
0L. Depreciation area 30, which posts real-time to the parallel ledger 2L, is also in USD but
because of different capitalization rules and useful lives, some of the assets will have slightly
different values in accordance with the European Head Office policies.

Both ledgers have USD as their company code currency and EUR as the group currency, so
additional depreciation areas 31 and 32 are required for the EUR. As you can see, other asset
valuations are recorded for tax and other purposes, but not posted to the general ledger.

When you assign the accounting principle to each depreciation area, it then pulls in the target
ledger group that is assigned in the financial configuration, to that accounting principle. Usually
there is one ledger in the group with the same name as the ledger group.

Figure 2 Depreciation Area Configuration for an example US Company code

All depreciation areas are now equal, which means that you can choose any depreciation area to
be the main accounting principle and linked to the leading ledger. More than one area can be set
to post real-time to both the asset and to the general ledger, and you can choose which
depreciation area updates quantities.

Integrated Asset postings and the

Universal Journal
The next section is about how New Asset Accounting integrates with Finance. I’m going to start
by explaining the new table structure and the Universal Journal and then I’ll introduce something
called the “Technical Clearing Account” which basically makes the real-time postings of
different amounts to different ledgers possible.

Because of the power of S/4HANA, you no longer need to split data into a number of tables with
additional totals tables and special programs for managing and storing the indexing,
summarizing and aggregations etc. The actual data from the various asset value tables can now
be stored in the single finance table ACDOCA, with the header data in BKPF, and the statistical,
planned and year dependent data stored in the other tables in Figure 3, for example
FAAT_PLAN_VALUES.

Don’t worry though, if you have a lot of bespoke programs which use the old tables. Although
the old tables no longer exist, the programs will still work, as long as you are just reading the
tables and not writing directly to them. This is because of something called compatibility views.
These are views, which are recreated from the new tables such as ACDOCA, but linked to the
old table names such as ANEP, ANEK and so on, so you can still read the data, but you would
not be able to update anything in that view.

Figure 3 New table Structure in New Asset Accounting

The Universal Journal

The Universal journal is the underlying comprehensive document for all postings to finance. It is
not a separate transaction as such and you wouldn’t immediately notice a difference if you were
posting a journal or a customer or supplier invoice, but the different table that is updated in the
background is ACDOCA which now contains all sorts of additional information from the
different modules, not just asset accounting. As mentioned, it doesn’t just make all the index and
totals tables obsolete, but contains for example characteristics and segment numbers from
account based profitability analysis, material information from the material ledger, and
additional costing, purchasing and sales information as well.

The Technical Clearing Account is a new account that has been introduced for accounts that
cannot be posted to in a single ledger only. If you’ve set up parallel ledgers in the New General
Ledger, you will know that there are certain accounts that the system will not let you post to in
one ledger and not another. If you receive an invoice from a supplier for 100 dollars, you cannot
record it against that supplier as anything other than 100 dollars in all ledgers and the amount
you pay against it will be the same in all ledgers along with any related taxes. By the same logic,
the GR/IR accounts (where you post the goods receipts and invoices received) and the customer
accounts have to be posted to all ledgers at the same time as well.

In S/4HANA, when you have an integrated posting in asset accounting, such as an asset
acquisition with a posting between the asset and the supplier for example, or between the asset
and the GR/IR, you have to post the supplier or GR/IR side the same to all ledgers but you may
want to post the asset side, differently, for example to a different account.

You can see in the Figure 4, that the Technical Clearing Account allows you to do this by
posting the first document to all ledgers, crediting the supplier and debiting the technical clearing
account. This is called the operating part of the posting. Then you can post the other side in two
separate documents one to each ledger. This is called the valuating part of the transaction. The
valuating part credits the technical clearing account and debits the assets separately for each
ledger, or posts to costs instead. An additional posting is required if for one ledger, you need to
post for example to freight, or legal fees or whatever the policies of the other accounting
principle requires.
Figure 4 The Technical Clearing Account

The Technical Clearing account is a reconciliation account and works in the same way for both
account and ledger approaches, and you can also have more than one technical clearing account.
It is defined in the configuration by Chart of Accounts and account determination, so you could
have a different account by asset class assuming your account determination is mapped closely
with your asset class.

This is different to the normal clearing account for asset acquisition which still exists and
behaves in the same way for transactions such as the acquisition ABZON where there is no
automatic offsetting account.

An example of a non-integrated asset posting, where the technical clearing account is not used, is
the settlement of line items from an asset under construction to the final asset.

Figure 5 shows that you can still create different settlement rules, for example settling to an asset
in the leading ledger 0L, but settling to a cost center for the parallel ledger in this case ledger 2L.

Figure 5 Settlement of line items by ledger group

You can no longer set a transaction type to be ledger specific. Instead you can select the ledger
by choosing the depreciation area or the accounting principle in the new transaction codes, for
example Asset Retirement by Scrapping, Transaction ABAVL.
Figure 6 Transaction Types are no longer ledger specific

Because Finance and Controlling are merged in S/4HANA, there are no more cost elements.
instead, the chart of accounts master data contains a new field for the P&L cost element
categories. However, this does not include cost element category 90 which was used for
statistical postings to the Balance Sheet so that you could link internal orders and WBS elements
to balance Sheet accounts. Instead we have a new check box in the chart of accounts to allow
you to apply account assignments statistically in the fixed asset accounts and the material
accounts see Figure 7.

Figure 7 Statistical Postings Check Box in GL Account Master Data

How Depreciation runs in New Asset accounting

Now we come to the depreciation programs. There are a few changes in this area, for example
speed, different selection screen options, and under the hood (or bonnet in the UK) there is a new
Depreciation Calculation Engine, which you may have heard of and be wondering what it does.

The planned depreciation is updated every time an asset transaction is posted, or a change made.
Therefore, the asset explorer and asset reports will always show you up to date values. At the end
of the month, when you run the depreciation transaction, it should be quicker as it is simply
posting the already calculated planned values. The system still posts collective documents for
depreciation, not one document for each asset, but it does post a separate line item in the general
ledger for each asset, giving you more detail than before for reporting in Finance.

The first thing you will notice when you enter the depreciation transaction AFAB, is that the
selection screen is simplified, as you can see in Figure 8. Previously, if I had to rerun the
depreciation in a particular period, I always had to think for a minute which button to choose,
now the system figures it out automatically.

The second point is that you can still run the depreciation for all accounting principles at the
same time, or you can choose to run it for the different accounting principles separately.

I find the new icon at the top of the screen, called “info for posting parameters”, particularly
useful in test environments, so that I can quickly find when depreciation was last posted.

Figure 8 Depreciation Transaction AFAB -Selection Screen

The main difference in S/4HANA for transaction AFAR, the calculation of the planned
depreciation, and Transaction AFBP, the depreciation posting log, is again the option to run by
accounting principle. In the depreciation log, when you run the transaction, you will see a button
marked “Notes on Use” at the top, which explains in detail the additional functionality.
The New Depreciation Calculation
Engine
The New Depreciation Engine was designed in order to cope with some country specific
requirements, in particular I believe for Japan. It introduces new options, for example to
changeover the depreciation method mid-year automatically, and for calculating depreciation
after impairment.

Previously depreciation was calculated on every transaction line item sequentially, with the
annual depreciation being the total of the line items, so for example you have the depreciation for
the whole year calculated on the first acquisition value. Then if you have a disposal mid-year you
would deduct half a years’ depreciation on the disposal amount. Finally, if you then had an
addition to the asset near the end of the year you would add on the depreciation for that
acquisition just for those remaining months.

Now, as you can see in Figure 9, the transactions are grouped by period and the depreciation is
calculated based on periods. So, in this example, instead of calculating depreciation on the
original amount of 1,000 for the whole year and deducting and adding retirements and additional
acquisitions, you take the balance of each period and calculate it separately.

Figure 9 The New Depreciation Calculation Engine

Of course, normally, you wouldn’t even notice a difference in the depreciation calculated, apart
from perhaps some rounding. However, if you are moving to New Asset Accounting and want to
compare in detail the calculations before and after, it might be useful to understand the above.

Data Migration from legacy system

This section applies more to a data migration from a legacy system to a Greenfield
implementation of an on-premise version of S/4HANA as there are different tools available for
the public cloud versions.

If you are used to using the LSMW (which stands for the Legacy System Migration Workbench),
the bad news is that it has not been fully converted to the new table structures and methods of
posting, so SAP do not recommend to use it in the same way as before. (see their Simplification
List of new functionalities released for the 1610 on-premise version). The new transaction
ABLDT to post the legacy values, uses an input enabled ALV grid control, so it can’t be used
with batch input and therefore can’t be used by the LSMW. Instead SAP suggest three options to
transfer your data depending on the quantity of data that you have.

If you have a small amount of data, you can still use transaction AS91 to create the asset master
data, but the take-over values button is grayed out so you can no longer enter values and need to
use the new transaction ABLDT for the values. The reason for this is that the posting of the value
now creates a Universal Journal document which posts between the asset and finance, and
therefore the asset has to exist before the posting can be made. Hence you have to save the asset
first and then go into a different transaction to post the value. ABLDT however, posts directly to
the migration account so you don’t need to make any additional postings.

For medium amounts of data SAP recommend to use transaction AS100 and for larger amounts
to use the BAPI_FIXEDASSET_OVRTAKE_CREATE (see OSS note 2208321). Note that the
BAPI only supports new assets, not the transfer of amounts to an existing asset or the correction
of values previously transported.

OFLAN