Document Splitting (Part – I)

Document splitting is a feature introduced by SAP in New G/L Accounting. This feature was introduced to do away with the users’ requirement to transfer the balances of Balance Sheet items at period ends.

Document Splitting automatically splits the line items based on the dimensions configured or to effect zero balance setting. It creates additional lines for the same.

Given below is the list of dimensions that can be set for splitting:

Segments Profit Centres Business Areas The document splitting helps in drawing financial statements at above dimensions on real time basis. For e.g. the Balance Sheet can be drawn at Business Area level, which may be one of the requirement of Management.

Implementation Consideration  The functionality of Document Splitting needs following assignments/configurations

Step I  Specifying the characteristics for which splitting is to be performed

IMG Path: Financial Accounting (New)>General Ledger Accounting (New)>Business Transactions>Document Splitting > Define Document Splitting Characteristics for General Ledger Accounting

This is the first and most important step in document splitting. In this step we define the characteristics for which document splitting needs to be done. Here we have to define the following

Fields Business Area/Profit Centre/Segment

Zero Balance Activating this indicator will check the transactions values to total to zero. If the total of is not zero, then the system generates additional line items in “General Ledger View” of the document.

Partner Field If you specify a partner field, a sender/receiver relationship is then documented in the additionally created clearing lines.

Mandatory Field This indicator verifies every line item for the values for characteristics. If any of the values is missing then system throws error “Balancing field ______ in line item ____ not filled”

Step II 

G/L Accounts IMG Path: Financial Accounting (New)>General Ledger Accounting (New)>Business Transactions> Document Splitting > Classify G/L Accounts for Document Splitting

In this step, we assign Item Categories to G/L Accounts. The item category assigned to a G/L account determines the nature of G/L Account.

Note: The numbering of G/L Accounts in Chart of Accounts becomes very critical, as one can assign item category to a particular number range of G/L Accounts. For e.g. all the G/L Accounts starting from 21400000 to 21499999 shall be assigned to Category “04000” i.e. Bank account. Refer Chart of Accounts

Following Item Categories are available in standard system:

Cat.      Desccription 01000    Balance Sheet Account 01001    Zero Balance Posting (Free Balancing Units) 01100    Company Code Clearing 01300    Cash Discount Clearing 02000    Customer 02100    Customer: Special G/L Transaction 03000    Vendor 03100    Vendor: Special G/L Transaction 04000    Cash Account 05100    Taxes on Sales/Purchases 05200    Withholding Tax 06000    Material 07000    Fixed Assets 20000    Expense 30000    Revenue 40100    Cash Discount (Expense/Revenue/Loss) 40200    Exchange Rate Difference 80000    Customer-Specific Item Category

Step III 

Document Types Financial Accounting (New)>General Ledger Accounting (New)>Business Transactions> Document Splitting > Classify Document Types for Document Splitting

In this step, we assign every document type to Transaction and Variant.

List of Transactions that can be assigned to the document types

0000       Unspecified posting 0100       Transfer posting from P&L to B/S account 0200       Customer invoice 0300       Vendor invoice 0400       Bank account statement 0500       Advance tax return (regular tax burden) 0600       Goods Receipt for Purchase Order 1000       Payments 1010       Clearing transactions (account maint.) 1020       Resetting cleared items

The combination of transaction and variant determine the splitting method to be used during document splitting process. The transaction and variant also identifies the type of accounts allowed in the document during document splitting. Refer Document splitting Rule section in the post

For e.g. the accounting transaction 0200 (customer invoice), variant 0001 (standard), is delivered. In this accounting transaction, the following item categories are allowed: customer, value added tax, withholding tax, expense, revenue, exchange rate differences, and company code clearing.

Tip SAP system comes with this assignment for standard document types. In case of customized document types, the assignment should be done by referring relevant standard document type. For e.g. if we create a customized document type for Bank Receipt, then the assignment done for standard document type DZ should be used for the new document type.

Zero Balancing Financial Accounting (New)>General Ledger Accounting (New)>Business Transactions> Document Splitting > Define Zero-Balance Clearing Account

Here we can define the account assignment objects for which we want system to have zero balance setting, by doing this we ask the system to verify if the balance of account assignment object (balance at the level of Business Area/Profit Centre/Segment) is zero. If system does not find the balance to be zero, then it generates additional line items to make the balance zero.

Note: A G/L Account should be created to assign for zero balance functionality.

Activating Document Splitting IMG Path: Financial Accounting (New)>General Ledger Accounting (New)>Business Transactions> Document Splitting > Activate Document Splitting

In this step we activate Document Splitting functionality by assigning the Document Splitting Method. Further, following options are available at this screen:

Inheritance With this option, system forwards the characteristics from the lines which contain them to the lines which do not. For e.g. in case of Vendor invoice booking, the Profit Centre is passed from expense line items to vendor line items.

Standard A/c. Assignment This option if activated along with Constant, the characteristics under the Constant are forwarded to the line items without characteristics. If this option is activated alongwith Inheritance, system forwards the characteristics as per Inheritance as explained above.For this post we will stop here to continue this topic in our next part.

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