As an existing customer using classic General Ledger Accounting, you can migrate to new

General Ledger Accounting in a migration project after upgrading to the SAP ERP application.
Hint: For new SAP customers: For more information on new General Ledger Accounting system
settings in case of a new installation, see SAP Note 756146. Read SAP Note 999614 if you think
new General Ledger Accounting is not useful for you.

Existing SAP customers using classic General Ledger Accounting can use new General Ledger
Accounting by activating it in Customizing or with the FAGL ACTIVATION transaction.
The FAGL ACTIVATION transaction is executed at the start of course AC210 to enable you to
explore the new functions. In a production system, this transaction is one of the last activities
performed during the migration project leading up to the implementation of new General Ledger
Accounting. You set the activation switch at the client level, not at the company code level.
However, the activation results in system-wide changes to the appearance of the application and
customizing menu paths.
Note: The reverse conclusion means that new General Ledger Accounting is never activated
automatically as part of a technical upgrade to SAP ERP.

The paths for new General Ledger Accounting are available in addition to the classic FI
Customizing paths. To help you find your way around, the classic General Ledger Accounting
paths initially remain available in their present form.
Once you are familiar with the Customizing paths for new General Ledger Accounting, you can
run the RFAGL_SWAP_IMG_OLD program to hide the classic General Ledger Accounting
paths. This program run impacts the entire system and all clients.
The activation of new General Ledger Accounting also creates several new nodes on the SAP
Easy Access screen in addition to the existing menu paths. If you only want to see and work with
the new paths, you can hide the obsolete paths by running the RFAGL_SWAP_MENU_OLD
program.

Moreover, the activation of new General Ledger Accounting not only affects the menu entries,
but some classic functions and transactions cannot be executed either.
Note: The Enjoy SAP graphical user interface (GUI) is used in the displayed screenshot.

You define additional currencies in Customizing for Financial Accounting (New) under Financial
Accounting Global Settings (New) Ledgers Ledger Define Currencies of Leading
Ledger.
You assign a fiscal year variant and a variant of posting periods to the leading ledger in
Customizing for Financial Accounting (New) under Financial Accounting Global Settings (New)
Ledgers Fiscal Year and Posting Periods.
Note: You can define nonleading ledgers within FI. If required, you can assign a fiscal year
variant to a nonleading ledger that differs from that of the leading ledger. Differing posting
period variants are also possible. For more information, see the unit on Parallel Accounting.

In the totals table of new General Ledger Accounting, table FAGLFLEXT, more fields can be
updated than was possible in the totals table of classic General Ledger Accounting (table GLT0).
The examples of new standard fields available in the general ledger totals table are as follows:
Profit Center
Segment
Functional Area
Trading Partner

Consolidation Transaction Type

With the fields updated by the scenarios, corresponding business facts can be mapped, for
example, mapping of a profit and loss (P&L) statement based on the cost of sales accounting
(CSA).

The figure shows the financial accounting document views available in new General Ledger
Accounting.

The data entry view in the new General Ledger Accounting has not changed, compared to the
classic General Ledger Accounting data entry view. That means the data entry view looks like
the document display in the classic General Ledger Accounting.
The dependencies that remain the same for the user are as follows:
The Purchased Services account (account 417000) is defined as a primary cost element in
Controlling (CO) and, therefore, requires a CO-relevant account assignment when being
entered.
The CO object, for example, that of a Cost Center, is used to derive the Profit Center
characteristic and the functional area.
The Profit Center characteristic can now be used to derive the Segment characteristic (new
with SAP ERP).

If no scenarios are assigned, no characteristics/field values are transferred to the general ledger
view. Therefore, no characteristics/field values are transferred into the tables of new General
Ledger Accounting: totals table FAGLFLEXT and line item table FAGLFLEXA.

The figure shows an example with scenario assignment of the Cost of Sales Accounting
functional area and Profit Center Update. The two entities, functional area and profit center, are
updated in new General Ledger Accounting and are displayed in the general ledger view.
The Cost Center field, for example, is not updated or displayed in the general ledger view
because the Cost Center Update scenario has not been assigned to the leading ledger.
Note: The assignment of scenarios does not result in a zero balance situation for the selected
entity. It is not possible to create a complete profit center balance sheet because the profit center
has not been inherited to posting lines 2 and 3. To achieve that, you must configure and activate
document splitting.
Caution: In AC210, the scenario assignment is changed more than once in Customizing for
training purposes. However, changes in the production system may lead to inconsistencies during
document processing.

With the SAP ERP application, the Segment characteristic is provided in addition to existing
SAP characteristics because the Business Area or Profit Center entities were frequently used for
other purposes to meet various requirements.

SAP ERP enables you to save a segment in the master data of a profit center. The segment is
posted automatically when a posting is made to the profit center.

There is no dummy segment posting like in the classic profit center logic. If the profit center or
the dummy profit center does not have a segment in the master data, then no segment account
assignment exists.
The standard method that SAP recommends is to derive the segment from the profit center
master record. Also, other segment derivations can be defined using the (Business Add-In) BAdI
FAGL_DERIVE_SEGMENT.

In the standard system, the Segment field is automatically derived from the Profit Center field
because it already exists in various SAP objects.
If it is not possible to derive the Segment field from a profit center master record, you must find
other ways to derive or assign a segment.
The options available to derive or assign a segment are as follows:
Manual entry.
Implementation of Business Add-In (BAdI) (BAdI FAGL_DERIVE_SEGMENT).
Substitution rule definition.
Standard account assignment, available in connection with document splitting.
Note: In addition to the BAdI FAGL_DERIVE_SEGMENT, you can also use BAdI
FAGL_DERIVE_PSEGMENT for deriving the partner segment.

To post, analyze, and display segments in new General Ledger Accounting, perform the
following steps:
1

Assign the Segmentation scenario: Assign the scenario in Customizing for Financial
Accounting (New) under Financial Accounting Global Settings (New) Ledgers
Ledger Assign Scenarios and Customer Fields to Ledgers.

Define segments: Define segment in Customizing for Enterprise Structure under

Definition Financial Accounting Define Segment.

Maintain segments in profit center master records: On the SAP Easy Access screen,
choose Accounting Financial Accounting General Ledger Master Data Profit
Center Individual Processing Change. Caution: If a customer does not use Profit
Center Accounting, for example, a BAdI makes other derivation strategies possible.

Maintain the field status variant: The fastest way (as of SAP release 4.6) is to execute the
FBKP transaction or in Customizing, choose Financial Accounting (New) Financial
Accounting Global Settings (New) Ledgers Fields Define Field Status Variants.

Maintain the field status of the posting key: The fastest way (as of SAP release 4.6) is to
execute the FBKP transaction or in Customizing, choose Financial Accounting (New)
Financial Accounting Global Settings (New) Document Define Posting Keys

Note: If the field status is not defined as it is described here, postings are still made to the
Segment field, but the postings cannot be displayed in the document or edited in the coding
block.

With business functions and enhancement packages, SAP offers the option to easily add new
functionality to the SAP ERP application. These business functions are only available for SAP
ERP 6.0

The following table shows business functions for new General Ledger Accounting.

The advantages of business functions and enhancement packages are as follows:

You can activate business functions when needed.
You can restrict tests to only new functions without affecting other existing functions or
processes. This reduces the time required to install new business functions.
SAP has plans to provide future enhancement packages.

The FIN_GL_CI_2 business function is required for the revised profit center assignment
monitor.
You can find transaction 1KE4 in the system in either of the following ways:
On the SAP Easy Access screen, choose Accounting Financial Accounting General
Ledger Master Records Profit Center Current Settings Assignment Overview.
Verify assignments in Customizing for Financial Accounting (New) under General Ledger
Accounting (New) Master Data Profit Center Assignments of Account
Assignment Objects to Profit Centers Check Assignments.
With the improvements in enhancement package 4, transaction 1KE4 is now easy to understand
and, therefore, more user friendly. For example, you can quickly recognize which SAP objects do
not have a profit center assignment.
You can drilldown from the results lists of the transaction to the individual SAP objects, which
have an assigned profit center, for maintenance if desired.
Note: Maintenance of subsequent profit centers may not be possible for objects that have already
been posted. For more information, read SAP Note 1057674.