This document outlines the standard configurations performed to meet the business requirements for Revenue Accounting and Reporting (RAR) within the SAP environment. It serves as a record of the settings made to enable the integration of sales and distribution (SD) processes with RAR.
The RAR configuration settings in SAP are categorized into:
- RAR Specific Configuration
- FICO (Finance and Controlling) Specific Configuration
- SD Specific Configuration
- Cutover Note: Settings marked with “(CUTOVER)” were performed directly in the production environment and not transported via the usual SAP transport mechanism.
- Appendix I: Includes account determination configurations valid at the date of production start.
2. Key Themes and Concepts shared in this Configuration Guide
- Revenue Accounting Item (RAI): The central concept for transferring sales data into the RAR system. The document outlines the configurations required to generate, manage, and process RAIs effectively.
- Inbound Processing: Focuses on how sales data (e.g., sales orders) is transformed into RAIs and made available for RAR processing.
- RAR Contracts: Covers the setup required for managing revenue accounting contracts, performance obligations (POBs), and related processes.
- BRF+ (Business Rule Framework plus): A key tool used to define rules that govern how data is processed in RAR, especially for determining account assignments and POB status.
- Integration: The document highlights the integrations between RAR and other SAP modules like SD and CO (Controlling), emphasizing configuration points for seamless data flow.
- Cutover Procedures: The repeated mention of “CUTOVER” indicates that specific configurations were directly implemented in the production environment, highlighting the importance of careful planning and execution during the go-live process.
3. RAR Specific Configuration Steps
This section is broken down into the following sub-sections:
- 3.1 Inbound Processing – Revenue Accounting Items:
- Interface Components Definition: Defines the interface components used by the RAI classes. This is mostly standard SAP config and was left as default.
- Revenue Accounting Classes Maintenance: Sets up RAI classes, including interface components, customer fields, database indexes, configuration status, and activation. Once RAI classes are maintained, interfaces can be generated.
- Revenue Accounting Classes – Interface Generation: Technical step to generate interfaces necessary for RAI data transfer to RAR.
- 3.2 Inbound Processing – Revenue Accounting Item Management:
- Source System Document Item Types Definition: Defines the types of source document items processed by RAR, like sales order items, linking them to RAIs.
- Logical Systems Definition: Specifies the logical systems from which RAR retrieves RAI data.
- Sender Components Definition: Defines the sending system (e.g., SD) and assigns logical systems and source item types. (CUTOVER – manually configured in Production)
- Reference Types Definition: Standard SAP configuration that should remain unchanged.
- Define Condition Type for SSP: Defines the condition type used for the stand-alone selling price (SSP).
- Maintenance of BRF+ Application
- Assignment of BRF+ application to RAI classes: Assigning the custom BRF+ app to the RAI classes.
- BRF+ Structure Maintenance: Maintains the structures used in BRF+ functions as input structures (e.g. IS_RAI_BRF). Customer-specific fields are automatically added to these structures when interfaces are generated.
- Decision Table IDs Maintenance: Assigns BRF+ application to the appropriate decision tables.
- Exemption Reasons Definition: Allows for defining reasons for exempting RAIs from processing.
- Restoration Reasons Definition: Defines the reasons for restoring previously exempted RAIs.
- 3.3 Revenue Accounting Contracts:
- Account Specific Principles Configuration: Configures settings for each accounting principle, including how contract balance is presented (as liability and asset or unbilled receivable and deferred revenue), currency calculation, contract modification, cost recognition, and posting level.
- Assignment of Company Codes to Accounting Principles: Defines company codes supported under each accounting principle (CUTOVER – manually configured in Production).
- Number Ranges Definition: Defines number ranges for Contracts, POBs and Run IDs. (CUTOVER – manually configured in Production)
- Opening and Closing RAR periods: Defines open and closed periods for RAR. (CUTOVER – manually configured in Production)
- Contract Categories Definition: Defines contract categories and assigns number range IDs.
- Performance Obligation Types Definition: Defines templates that includes predefined attribute values that can be applied to similar performance obligations when a user edits a POB.
- Fulfillment Event Types Definition: Defines fulfillment event types for POBs (no custom types were created for Agilent).
- BRF+ Applications Assignment to Accounting Processes: Assigns BRF+ applications to Account Determination and POB Status Definition processes.
- BRF+ Applications Assignment to Accounting Processes: Defines review reasons for performance obligations in the review worklist. Also allows for configuring of the “Suspend Revenue Posting” functionality.
- Default values for POB Update Mode Definition: Defines default values for POB Update Mode
- 3.4 Integration with Cost Object Controlling (CO):
- Assignment of RA Vers. and Currency type to Company Code and Accounting Principle: Assigns RA versions and currency types.
- RA keys and RA version specification: Defines RA keys and versions.
- 3.5 Revenue Accounting Postings:
- Posting Specifications for General Ledger Transfer: Defines posting specifications for general ledger postings per company code.
- Account Determination for Specific Transactions: Configures rules to determine accounts used for revenue postings, including recognized revenue, receivable adjustment, revenue adjustment for allocation, deferred revenue, and unbilled receivable.
- Reasons for Shifting Periods Definition: Defines reasons for shifting revenue postings to the next period (no custom reasons were required).
4. SD Specific Configuration
- SD Integration with RAR: Basic settings to integrate SD and RAR to have “RAR Relevant” flag in sales orders. (CUTOVER – manually configured in Production).
- Revenue Accounting Settings Maintenance: Defines which order types and item categories in SD are relevant to RAR.
- New Condition Types Creation: Creates new condition types, including ZSSP (Standalone Price), ZSLP (Standalone List Price), and ZSNP (Standalone Net Price).
- New Pricing Procedures Set Up: Outlines the setup for pricing procedures related to the new condition types.
5. FICO Specific Configuration
- New FI Document Types Creation: Creation of new FI document types, namely RR and R4, to handle RAR postings and reversals.
- FI Document Number Range Creation: Creates number range 12 in scope company codes. (CUTOVER – manually configured in Production).
6. Key Takeaways
- Comprehensive Configuration: The document provides a detailed overview of the extensive configurations required for implementing RAR in the Agilent environment.
- Integration Focus: A significant part of the document highlights the integration points between different SAP modules (SD, RAR, CO, FI).
- Importance of BRF+: The use of BRF+ for rule-based processing and decision-making is a recurring theme.
- Cutover Activities: A large number of settings were marked as being done directly in the production environment, indicating that there were a considerable amount of manual tasks and steps done during the cutover.
- Account Determination: Specific attention is given to account determination rules for revenue-related postings.