Financial Consolidation and Group Close
Entity to group, inside S/4HANA
Consolidation belongs next to the ledger, with the same data, controls and audit trail.
The problem
Group close runs in a separate tool or a spreadsheet, fed by uploads from each entity. Intercompany differences are chased by email. Currency translation and eliminations are recalculated when late adjustments arrive. When the auditors ask for the trail from group number to entity posting, it does not exist in one place.
What good looks like
A continuous close
Entity data flows into consolidation as each ledger closes, not in a batch at the end.
Intercompany matched early
Differences visible and resolved before the close, not during it.
A full trail
Every elimination and adjustment with who, when and why.
Group and management views from one consolidation
Statutory and management reporting agree because they share the same run.
How we approach it
Step 1
Assess the current close process, entity landscape and ledgers.
Step 2
Configure SAP Group Reporting: consolidation units, methods, currency translation, eliminations.
Step 3
Build group reporting in SAP Analytics Cloud on the consolidated data.
Step 4
Run a parallel close, then cut over.
Standard content we start from
SAP ships Group Reporting for SAP S/4HANA and SAP S/4HANA Cloud as SAP Datasphere and SAP Analytics Cloud content: a data model on the Group Reporting structures through standard CDS views, with version relations and extension versions, group derivation from the group structure and hierarchy elimination, so consolidated data can be joined to anything else in Datasphere. Group Financial Planning adds the plan side.
The content covers the reporting. Configuring Group Reporting itself (units, methods, currency translation, eliminations), collecting non SAP entities and running the parallel close is the consulting work.
Questions people ask
Talk to us
If month end at group level is still a spreadsheet, talk to us before the next year end.