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An Invaluable Real-World Performance Tip They Don't TeachImplementation Teams and Designers in CO-PA Class:"Characteristic Group"

by Tony Rogan, Senior Applications Consultant, et alia

The most common "Characteristics" that report readers like to have associated with revenue or cost data in CO-PAinclude Product #s, Customer #s, Sales Representatives ID #s, and Locations. But depending on the kind ofrevenue or cost that is being updated to CO-PA, there may be a business need to record other "Characteristics" atthe same time. Or, perhaps end users are populating too many Characteristics in source transactions that requiremanual entry of Characteristics values. This article explains how such cases can be managed with consistency bycreating and maintaining (in the CO-PA configuration) rules in a "Characteristic Group," which can then beenforced during attempts to update a particular revenue or cost in CO-PA.

The CO-PA module usually acts as a "Gross Margin" analysis tool, rather than as a full-blown "Earnings-Before-Interest-and-Taxes" ledger. But, regardless of how your particular site uses it, each CO-PA debit or credit entry willhave two and only two parts to it:

The "Who/What/Where," or "Characteristics" part of the entry.

The "How Much Quantity or Money," or "Key Figures" part of the entry.1

"Characteristics" vs. "Key Figures"The most common "Characteristics" that report readers like to have associated with the profit-related (revenue orcost) data in CO-PA include Product #s, Customer #s, Sales Representatives ID #s, and Locations (such asShipped From and Shipped To cities and countries).But there can be many other "Who," "What," or "Where" bits of information that should be recorded at the sametime as the "How Much" value(s), depending on the kind of revenue or cost that is being updated to CO-PA.Or, perhaps the opposite business need exists. Perhaps the end users of source transactions that require manualentry of values into Characteristics fields transactions such as manual postings to CO-PA or "settlement"allocations to CO-PA from the Project Systems module sometimes populate too manyCharacteristics.To help you manage these cases with consistency, the CO-PA configuration can include rules (created andmaintained in a "Characteristic Group") that can be enforced duringany attempts by end users to update aparticular revenue or cost in CO-PA.Ive used this feature since the days of R/3 Release 3.1. The navigation path from the latest release (4.6D as ofpress time) is shown in Figure 1 (next page).Once you create a "Characteristic Group," you can then assign it to the source transactions in which you want thatlogic to be always enforced.

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Figure 1 The Characteristic Group Navigation Path in R/3 Release 4.6D

Required Entry vs. Blocked EntryConfiguration allows you to express your choice of Characteristics to be "required," and Characteristics to be"blocked." This typically means that it might be a good idea to choose Blocked Entry logic for Characteristics fieldsfor which CO-PA derivation rules already exist, as a way to prevent end users from unintentionally interfering withthat derivation. But, ultimately, the choice is yours as to which fields to make required manual entry, and which to

protect against manual entry.For example, lets pretend that you have warehousing expenses posted to the G/L via a FI journal entry, and thatyour CO-PA design calls for these expenses to also update CO-PA directly from that FI journal entry. In this case,the FI journal entry end user will be navigating to a special data entry screen, where he or she will have to type invalues for one or more CO-PA Characteristics.You as the CO-PA designer want to be sure that Accounting personnel responsible for posting the entryalways populate two specific product-related Characteristics, and neverthe Customer and other organizationalCharacteristics.To solve this issue, you create a Characteristic Group that requires population of the two product-relatedCharacteristics, and which blocks all the other Characteristics. (Other Characteristics that are part of yourDerivation Rules will still be automatically populated, such as Company Code and site-specific, product-relatedCharacteristics, such as Product Hierarchy they just cannot be populated manually, by the end user.)Once you then assign the Characteristic Group to the desired transaction for which it should be used (or to the CO-PA "Record Type" itself, making it used for all transactions that post to CO-PA with that record type), theCharacteristic Group becomes active.

SummaryThe CO-PA "Characteristic Group" functionality offers a useful way to establish consistency in regards to whichCharacteristics (i.e., Who/What/Where fields) do and do not get populated from each kind of Revenue and Costsource transaction that updates your particular CO-PA system.In addition to an obvious benefit of making the data more consistent and thus easier to interpret in the reports the consistency also helps out in terms of overall CO-PA response speeds.For more details about CO-PA functionality, FI/CO Expert subscribers may download a free copy of Tony Rogans"Performance Tips for CO-PA" white paper from www.FICOExpertOnline.com/downloads.

Tony Rogan is a Certified FI/CO Consultant at et alia with over six years of SAP consulting experience. He beganhis SAP career in 1995 with a Big 5 consulting firm, and over the years has worked for various industries, includingutilities, non-profit, high-tech, consumer goods, and process manufacturing. Tonys expertise lies in the Financialand Controlling modules, with emphasis on Cost Center Accounting, Product Costing, Internal Orders, Profit

http://www.ficoexpertonline.com/downloadshttp://www.ficoexpertonline.com/downloadshttp://www.ficoexpertonline.com/downloads

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Center Accounting, Special Ledger, Project Systems, and Profitability Analysis. He also has experience withEnterprise Consolidations, LIS, and Business Warehouse.1 The concept of a "Key Figure" can be quite confusing at first, especially if youre used to thinking about G/Laccounting concepts. In CO-PA, the "Key Figure" is not onlya quantity value or a money value. It is also acategoryof quantity or money. For example, three commonly used "Key Figures" related to Cost of Goods Soldare "Raw Materials Cost," "Fixed Manufacturing Cost," and "Variable Manufacturing Cost." In G/L accounting, allthree would simply be represented as a debit value to a Cost of Goods Sold G/L account #. In contrast to a CO-PA"Key Figure," a CO-PA "Characteristic" represents a Who, What, or Where fact, unrelated to money or quantity e.g., the "Sold To" Customer # or the "Product" material #.