Dear finance experts,

with the latest delivery of SAP S/4HANA Cloud for advanced financial closing just released on July 17, 2022, we’re already nearing the next exciting round of valuable enhancements coming on August 21! Let me give you a brief overview of what’s to come.

New app: Monitor Communication Systems

A brand-new app that aids system administrators and technology teams in their daily work is included with this edition. This is especially helpful for clients who have intricate multi-ERP landscapes, such as in Central Finance scenarios, where advanced financial closure is used as a centralised, cloud-based closing hub. The new app lets you rapidly locate the causes of any potential issues and offers a high level of transparency about the condition of your linked systems. With the option to dive down into the specifics, status information is given on an aggregate level:

  • Connection status: review if the connection to your communication systems is up and running. Recheck the connection on demand and view error messages.
  • Synchronization status: see if the synchronization between advanced financial closing and the connected systems was successful. Jump directly into the prefiltered list of logs in the Monitor Business Logs app.

The app also comes with a separate static role template so that access can be granted separately to specific users.

Monitor Communication Systems app with dynamic KPI on the tile

Monitor Communication Systems app showing the list of communication systems and their status

Detail view of a communication system and its connection and synchronization status

List of synchronization logs with the aggregated number of messages by status

Improvements of the Manage Closing Tasks Lists app

Consistency check

You want complete maintenance freedom while also feeling confident in the consistency of the work lists that are generated. Just that is provided by the recent and upcoming improvements.

An extra validation, which is now referred to as a consistency check, has been added to the current SOX compliance check. If a task list can be constructed based on the validations, it is indicated by the consistency status that follows.

A user’s responsibility for tasks with approval types of Pending Approval Required or Completed Approval Required must be allocated either directly on the task level or by pushdown from a higher folder level, according to the new validation, which checks for SOX consistency as well.

A further enhancement of the consistency check that will confirm that processing users have been maintained on tasks of type job that are configured to start immediately is anticipated for the September release

Closing structure of a task list template with the consistency check button and a respective error message

Adding organizational units to an existing closing structure

The flexibility of task list templates is increased by this feature, which also aids in handling common events. Adding additional entities to your closure process is now simpler if you expand to a new subsidiary or if you acquire a new company that needs to be included to your template. Based on the organisational unit folders that currently exist in the closure structure, a wizard presents you with your alternatives. All necessary organisational components can be chosen, and folders are then automatically added.

Add organizational units dialog with the list of company codes available for selection

Change offset: option to adjust dependent successor tasks

Since the offset attribute in task list templates was introduced in May 2022, it has already been able to make bulk adjustments to tasks. The possibility to also modify the dependent successor tasks appropriately has also been included, further enhancing this functionality. The following dependency chain is automatically adjusted when you select this option and move a job to a later offset.

Change offset dialog in the task list template with the option to adjust dependent successor tasks

Mass action for closing type

A mass-enabled quick action now makes it easy to change the closure type of tasks. All four closing type fields are combined in the dialogue, and fields that shouldn’t have their values modified can retain their current values. This enables you, for instance, to preserve each task’s settings for the month-end, year-end, and special end closure while include tasks in the quarter-end close.

Another additional choice that is more easily realised by this mass action: by deselecting all closing types, you can completely stop tasks from being generated into a task list.

Change closing types dialog with the option to keep or replace existing values

Improvements of the Process Closing Tasks app

Queuing

It has been made easier to schedule tasks that operate independently in the background. A job is added to the scheduling queue for the associated communication system when it is scheduled. Scheduling in preparation is the task status currently in effect. The queue is used to schedule tasks in the communication system. The scheduling procedure is now even more reliable and transparent as a result of these changes.

Process Closing Tasks app showing a task in status Scheduling in Preparation

Task status source

The ability to quickly comprehend and comprehend simple descriptions of the status flows of their assigned closing tasks is crucial for business users. You may now quickly determine the source from which an automatic job status was derived in the Process Closing Tasks app.

The following task status sources are possible:

  • Application Log
  • Batch Input
  • Job Log
  • Scheduling Log
  • Application Implementation
  • Other

Process Closing Tasks app showing the detailed status information of a task including the status source

Download of Spool Lists

When working with result lists produced by automated jobs, business users frequently need searching and lookup functions that are only available in spreadsheet programmes like MS Excel, according to conversations we’ve had with some of our most important clients and submissions to our SAP Influence Portal. For instance, extensive result lists with information and alerts, thorough posting results, and aggregated numbers can be produced by depreciation posting runs. These spool listings are now available for download as a CSV file or for display as a PDF file.The system automatically streams data from the communication system and utilises a powerful converter to create either a PDF or a neatly structured CSV file when the user clicks on the spool file in advanced financial close. The following releases of communication systems support this new feature:

  • SAP S/4HANA Cloud
  • SAP S/4HANA 2020 SP 03 and higher
  • SAP S/4HANA 2021 SP 01 and all following releases
  • SAP ERP through the ECC Connector Add-On
    • From SP5 to SP7, correction note 3223775 needs to be implemented.

For SP8 and higher, no further manual implementation is required.

Process Closing Tasks app showing the option to open a spool list as PDF or download it as CSV

Upcoming changes

Deprecation of old authorization concept

In advanced financial close, user roles and scoped user roles, which reflect the old and new authorisation concepts, coexist simultaneously. It is intended to phase out the outdated authorization model in the beginning of 2019.

Your Call to Action:To prepare for the shift and make the most of advanced financial close, become familiar with the new idea and reconstruct the necessary responsibilities as scoped user roles. Visit the SAP Help Portal’s User Access Management for further details (New Authorization Concept).

Summary

System administrators are supported by greater transparency in system connection monitoring with the August release of SAP S/4HANA Cloud for accelerated financial close. For the accounting professionals setting up the work list template, it also significantly improves maintenance productivity. Thank you for reading this and please keep checking the SAP Community for updates by looking for the hashtag #AdvancedFinancialClosing.

Disclaimer

You should be aware that SAP S/4HANA Cloud for advanced financial close receives regular updates and improvements. As a result, the features and services in use today might differ slightly from what is described here. You can consult the product documentation on the SAP Help Portal for the most recent information.

Please be aware that any information provided here or in any related document, as well as SAP’s strategy and any potential future developments, products, and/or platforms, directions, and functionality, are all subject to change and may be modified by SAP at any time for any reason without prior notice. The content of this document does not represent a pledge, guarantee, or contractual obligation to provide the functionality it describes or any associated information or code. The data is solely being used for informational reasons. It is not permitted to be included in a contract. Except in cases where mistakes or omissions were the result of SAP’s willful misconduct or willful carelessness, SAP disclaims all liability for any errors or omissions in this document.