Preface – This post is part of the SAP FI series.
Introduction
SAP FI can be integrated with other SAP modules such as SAP CO, SAP SD and SAP MM. Integration with other modules plays a vital role in the strength of the SAP system.
In simple terms, it means data is entered in one part of the system and through integration, it flows to other parts ensuring accuracy and saving time and effort.
The three most common integration modules are SAP CO, SAP SD and SAP MM.
NOTE: SAP CO – SAP Controlling, SAP SD – SAP Sales Distribution, SAP MM – SAP Material Management
Case in point
We can understand MM, SD and FI in simple terms as, MM means procure to pay, SD means sales to customer process and FI means payment and financial statement.
Manufacturing business logic is made up of three things: BUY-MAKE-SALE. It means we buy the raw material from the vendor, make a finished product out of it, and sell this to the customer. 
Figure 1: Buy-Make-Sale
- The organization buys the raw material, it goes to warehouse stock and is tracked under the MM module. And as an organization bought something it has to pay the capital to the vendor and which is tracked under the FI module.
- To make a finished product from raw material, we need a contractor to process it. The process from raw material to finished product is tracked in the MM module and as an organization has to pay the contractor for his effort, payment will be made. This payment is tracked in the FI module.
- We have the finished product now. So, to sell it to the customers we have to proceed with the sales process (sales order, delivery, billing etc). This is tracked under the SD module. So when we deliver the product to our customer, the customer will make payment for it, this will be tracked under the FI module. At that time, if the stock in the warehouse is decreased, this will be tracked in the MM module.
Integration SAP FI-MM
When material movement is processed and if it involves payment, an account entry is posted in FI. Let’s dig deep into how to post an account entry and do related configurations.
Material master: It holds all the information for materials like material type, material group, purchasing information etc.
Valuation class: Used to group materials based on same attributes (plant, material ..), so that we can carry same account determination for various materials. It is most important for automatic account posting. We can see the valuation class for particular material from t-code MM03.
Each material has a valuation class.
Movement type: It is used for all types of material movements. For example, we transfer material from one location to another, a movement happens and a movement type is created for the same.
Material movement is done with respect to movement type.
| Activity |
Movement Type |
| Goods receipt |
101 |
| Goods issue to production order |
261 |
| Scrapping of goods |
551 |
| Goods delivered to the customer |
601 |
| Initial upload of stock |
561 |
Both valuation class and movement type are used to determine the G/L account.
Automatic account posting
T-code OBYC.
For different movement types, account entry is done via different transaction event keys.
NOTE: Movement type locates the valuation class for the material and posts the account to the G/L account associated with this valuation class.
Integration SAP FI-SD
When we sell the finished product, a bill is generated and the customer has to pay the amount, which is then posted to the FI module.
The account entry of billing has two sides: Customer account (A/c Debit) and revenue account (A/c Credit). The customer data is fetched from customer mater data which is maintained from the SD module and the revenue account needs to be configured.
For configuring the revenue account, we need to get the G/L account. There are five ways to determine G/L account in the SD module:
- Cust.Grp/MaterialGrp/AcctKey
- Cust.Grp/Account Key
- Material Grp/Acct Key
- General
- Acct Key
Assigned G/L accounts are used to post revenue, discount or surcharges if any.
Configuration
T-code: VKOA
Figure : Default table and description for G/L account
- The system firsts checks the table entry for Cust.Grp/MaterialGrp/AcctKey and goes to the transaction and the particular billing document. If checks for the customer group and material group combination and determines the G/L account.
- If the G/L account is not present, it will go to the next table and performs step 1. This continues until the G/L account is not determined.
- When the G/L account is determined for the combination, the amount is debited from the customer account and credited to the revenue account.
Example
Let’s take the G/L account 180033 is maintained for material group AAG.
When the system finds the combinations in the table, the amount is debited from the customer’s account and credited to G/L account 180033. The account key is used to determine whether it is revenue, discount or surcharges.
