Recently, we did some preparation for some SAP SEM BCS prototyping. All I can say is wow. A lot of detailed accounting setup need to be made on paper even before we can do the necessary configuration.

So how do you start? Well first, you need to prepare an excel worksheet, with the necessary consolidation simulation data. You need to create a T-account thingy, balance the account and such.

Using this excel worksheet, we start configuring the BCS system. First, (like my previous post), you configure the master data, FSI Item and such in the Consolidation Workbench (UCWB).
After that, you use the Consolidation Monitor to enter your Investment and Equity data (AFD - Additional Financial Data). This includes the percentage of ownership, etc etc of the various company (consolidation unit).

After completing the exercise, we use the Flexible Upload Method, to load data into the BCS infocube. Mind you, this flexible upload is slightly different than the one we used in BW. In fact, I think it's more flexible and much easier compared to the one in the BW Infopackage.

Why? Well first, instead of configuring the mapping of the flat files via Transfer Structure, there's a much better interface in the Consolidation Workbench under Consolidation Functions -> Flexible Upload. Here, you can define the header structure of the flatfiles, and the data rows.
You can set the comment character, in this case, I use the default *. By having comments in your flat files, you can create a standard template that your users can understand and easily use.

Now, back to the consolidation monitor, we upload the Total Records Data via Flexible Upload for each company (consolidation unit). After doing this, we run validation to see, whether the Reporting Financial Data is 'balanced' and such.

Well that's the current step that we've gone through. I'll update more when we progress to the other stages of SEM BCS.

Recently, I had the chance to learn a general overview of SAP Business Consolidation or BCS in short. Or more precisely, the consolidation process. All I can say is that, I'm quite overwhelmed. I mean I feel more like an accountant each day. With all the mumbo jumbo about 'interunit elimination', 'equity method' blah blah blah, It's sometimes, quite hard to digest.

Anyway, to cut long story short, this SAP BCS is basically a long process that follows a certain sequence that will eventually transform a certain infocube, into a virtual cube that can be used as a basis for consolidation reporting.

The following is a gist of what process that we have to go through to do consolidation:

1. Master Data
   - Consolidation Unit, Consolidation Group, FSI Item, Breakdown, Version
2. Data Collection
   - Method
   - Validation on Reporting Financial Data (RFD)
   - Currency Translation
   - Standardising Value Entries
   - Validation on Standardized Financial Data (SFD)
   
3. Consolidation Process
   - Manual Entry of Consolidation Financial Data (CFD)
   - Interunit Elimination
   - Reclassification/Allocation
   - Consolidation of Investments
   - Balance Carry Forward
   - Validation on CFD
4. Reporting
   - Standard
   - Customized

So basically, it's a lot. I'm not going to elaborate much on what each process is. Well for that, you have to attend SAP BCS course :) But the main point is, there's a lot of "creative accounting" at work here, and for that my friend, you might have to take, perhaps an accounting certificate!