Orange County Convention Center
Orlando, Florida | May 15-18, 2011
New General Ledger in Public Sector
Bill Cummings – SAP Financials
Practice Manager
Tamara Hillary – SAP Principal
Consultant
]
[ Learning Points
 Discuss issues with existing clients migrating to New General
Ledger
 Note features specific to public sector when implementing or
migrating to New General Ledger
 Highlight Integration and implementation considerations
Real Experience. Real Advantage.
2
[ Migration Pace
 New General Ledger for Public Services for new installations is
the default setting
 Migration to New General Ledger in Public Sector has been slow
for existing customers. Issues: ( No particular order….. )
 Competition with other initiatives ( Business Intelligence,
Procurement for Public Sector, Public Budget Formulation)
 Value proposition
 No further development around classic General Ledger does not
motivate
 Lack of early adopters ( in U.S.)
 No driver, International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) for
private sector
 Scenario for Public Sector with Document Splitting has not been
field tested
Real Experience. Real Advantage.
3
[ Public Sector Specific Features
 A set of tables that is specific to the public sector (including a
separate totals table):
 FMGLFLEXT ( totals table with fund, grant, functional area and
business area )
 FMGLFLEXA ( standard line item table in the new general ledger)
 PSGLFLEXT ( totals table - additionally supports Budget Period and
Cash Ledger )
 PSGLFLEXA ( standard line item table with RE_ACCOUNT and
RBUDGET_PD ).
 Scenarios that are specific to the public sector in the new general
ledger:
 Fund accounting (PSM_FAC) for updating the fund characteristic,
the functional area characteristic and the business area
characteristic to the relevant general ledger
 Grants management (PSM_GM) for updating grant field
Real Experience. Real Advantage.
4
[ Public Sector Specific Features
 New General Ledger Tables
Real Experience. Real Advantage.
5
[ Public Sector Specific Features
 Unlike the segment characteristic and profit center characteristic,
the fund characteristic and the grant characteristic are contained
in other modules and have an operational relevance in these
modules that extends beyond just the new general ledger.
 Examples: General availability control (AVC)
 The two characteristics ( fund and grant ) are also contained in
the totals tables as assignment object keys in applications other
than their 'home applications', such as in Controlling (CO) - and
as of SAP ERP 6.0 Enhancement Package 4 also in Treasury - or
they are implicitly contained through derivations
 Example: in FI-AA
Real Experience. Real Advantage.
6
[ Implementation Considerations
 New Implementations
 Leading Ledger
 Leading ledger should follow the main basis of accounting ( GASB,
IPSAS …)
 IPSAS are accounting standards for application by national
governments, regional (e.g., state, provincial, territorial) governments,
local (e.g., city, town) governments and related governmental entities
(e.g., agencies, boards and commissions). United Nations is early
adopter of IPSAS.
 Parallel ledger ( Non-Leading Ledger )
 At least one parallel ledger should be created to avoid another
migration if it decided that it is needed later for accounting basis
 If Average Daily Balance calculation is required, create an ADB
ledger with daily Fiscal Year Variant assigned
Real Experience. Real Advantage.
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[ Implementation Considerations
Parallel Accounting – Account Based or Ledger Based?
Two techniques can be used to accomodate parallel accounting:
 the ledger approach, or
 the account approach
Real Experience. Real Advantage.
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[ Implementation Considerations
 Parallel Accounting – Account Based or Ledger Based?
 The New General Ledger supports Parallel Accounting by using
either parallel accounts or parallel ledgers.
 In New GL, both approaches are considered equally
powerful. – to see which approach is appropriate see OSS Note
779251
 The parallel ledgers approach in the New GL is an
improvement over the former approach of using classic GL
plus the special ledger
 Can control postings by ledger via ledger groups
Real Experience. Real Advantage.
9
[ Implementation Considerations
 Integration With Asset Accounting
 The depreciation areas can be directed to different accounts in New G/L
through Ledger Groups by adhering to essential prerequisites.
 The posting of depreciations can be made to several accounts per depreciation
area.
 The postings of asset transactions can be made to different accounts per
depreciation area.
 The depreciation area 01 should be assigned to the leading ledger that reflects
the main basis of accounting – if GASB is the leading ledger then 100%
depreciation method should be assigned and useful life depreciation assigned to
depreciation area 20
Real Experience. Real Advantage.
10
[ Implementation Considerations
Integration With Controlling
To extend PSGLFLEXT to make additional fields available
To set up splitting characteristics on CO Objects
•
Real Experience. Real Advantage.
11
[ Implementation Considerations
 Selecting the Correct Leading Ledger for Public Sector
 Important to make the correct selection – assignment cannot be
de-activated once it has been defined
 If you want to use the dimension of Budget Period in Funds
management, you must select the PSGLFLEXT as the leading
ledger
 FMGLFLEXT – has no Budget Period or Cash Ledger
 For Federal Accounting
 Special Ledgers 95, 96 and 97 still need to be used to accommodate
USGL and FACTS I and FACTS II reporting
 Do not use FAGLFLEXT ( PRIVATE SECTOR )
Real Experience. Real Advantage.
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[ Migration Considerations

Migration is an ERP General Ledger Project with a
Data Conversion Process
Migration is the approach to convert data from the Classic General
Ledger to the ERP General Ledger. The resulting value of this effort is
in the ERP General Ledger Design.

Migration Effort and Complexity is a Function of
Scope and Size
The effort required to perform a successful General Ledger migration
is dependent on the New General Ledger design, scope, and data
consistency within the system. The ability to execute the migration
within a pre-defined time window is based on transaction volumes and
the number of company codes (if applicable )being migrated.
Real Experience. Real Advantage.
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[ Migration Considerations

Migration Risks Develop From Inconsistencies
Between Data and Design
The most common migration challenges are due to the FI currency
setup and expectations of currency management in the New General
Ledger. Other issues often arise from changes to open item
management settings on balance sheet accounts. Design changes can
present migration challenges when there is significant business
transformation as part of the project
Real Experience. Real Advantage.
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[ Migration Considerations

Migration can be divided into 4 components:
Open
Item Migration
Balance
Carry-Forward
Current
Document Transfer
Beginning
Balance Adjustments* ( required if document splitting
activated

HISTORY is NOT migrated to the new tables

Prior Year CANNOT be posted to after Migration
Real Experience. Real Advantage.
15
[ Migration Scenarios
Real Experience. Real Advantage.
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[ Migration Scenarios
No Specific Migration Scenarios Available for Public
Services – recommendation is to use Scenario 2 and
enlist the services of an experienced consultant
Real Experience. Real Advantage.
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[ Migration – Key Issues
Open Item Migration
• Volume of Open Items - Issue typically with misuse of GL OI Management
• Start cleanup early and complete before FY end (previous to migration)
• Define logic of BADI to populate Open Items for Document Splitting
Balance Carry-Forward
• Source of New Ledger Beginning Balances (GLT0, SPL, combination)
• Currency or other field mapping
• Careful Validation and Balancing of Ledgers at Appropriate Level
Current Document Transfer
• Document Splitting Tested and in Production by FY end (previous to
migration)
• Validate Splitting in production prior to migration/new GL activation
Beginning Balance Adjustments
• Test this before production migration and understand how it will be used
• May be more expeditious to have an excel upload
Real Experience. Real Advantage.
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[ Migration – Key Issues
Post Migration issues
• Former GL reports that use comparative balances will be misleading,
so lock down
• Some Items NOT migrated: parked documents, down payment
requests, payment requests
• BI – must create new info cubes
• Incorrect posting key debit/credit indicator ( Note: 1155429 )
• Document cannot be reset via FBRA (maintain table T100C and
change to warning )
• Differences in some drill down Transactions ( FS10n ) - can set flag
to ‘X’ to get classic view
Real Experience. Real Advantage.
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[ Migration – Key Issues
Some OSS Notes to consider
906397 - ERP2004/05 Public Sector: Migration New General Ledger
756146 - General Information, New General ledger
1030497 - SAP ERP 6.0: Public sector scenarios in new general ledger
939736 - New GL table definitions for Public Sector scenarios
1070629 - New GL Migration FAQ
1272843 - Migration Scenarios 7/8
Real Experience. Real Advantage.
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[ Best Practices
 Using the newest available ledger PSGLFLEXT as the leading
ledger
 Create at least one parallel ledger ( if you don’t do it at the
beginning, adding a new ledger is a migration )
 Special Ledgers 95, 96 and 97 are still required for Federal
Customers
Real Experience. Real Advantage.
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[ Key Learnings
 Migration to New General Ledger is not keeping pace with
private sector
 Migrations will have to be done at some point as new
functionality is rolled out based on New General ledger
 Implementation for Public Sector requires special
considerations
Real Experience. Real Advantage.
22
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 Thank you for participating.
Please remember to complete and return your
evaluation form following this session.
For ongoing education in this area of focus, visit www.asug.com.
SESSION CODE:
3203
Real Experience. Real Advantage.