Fundamentals of MM-FI Account Determination

Oct 10 Posted by Ashish Sampat in Controlling 2017

Several colleagues have asked questions about integration between Materials

Management (MM) and Financial Accounting (FI) module:

- How do postings from MM flow into FI?

- How do we find out what occurs behind-the-scenes?

- How do we identify which movement types are pointing to a specific GL

Account?

- Is there a way by which we can change the posting to a different General Ledger
(GL) Account?

- How does one create a new movement type and assign it to a specific GL
Account?

Many SAP practitioners – IT and business alike – are in similar situation and do
not know where to start on MM-FI data flow and reconciliation. This blog is an
attempt to clarify the fundamentals of MM-FI account determination.

Configuration transaction OBYC forms the core of SAP’s integration between the
MM, FI, and Controlling (CO) modules in a traditional SAP ERP system

Transaction keys (1)  are used to determine general ledger accounts used by the
system. Account modifier is used to differentiate account determinations,
depending on the procedure. [Transaction and account modifiers can be seen as
a logical grouping similar types of transactions]. The transaction-account
modifier, along with the valuation class, drives the accounting entries.
Transaction keys are predefined in the SAP system and cannot be changed.

 
Figure 1: OBYC setup for BSX – Inventory posting

Many of you may have seen an accounting entry at the time of the purchase of raw material as a debit to inventory and credit GR/IR.
The configuration setup of transaction BSX (inventory posting) is responsible for the inventory posting (see Figure 1), and WRX (GR/IR
clearing account) is responsible for GR/IR posting. When movement type 101 is used to record the goods receipt of raw material
(valuation class 3000) for a purchase order, the system looks up the GL Account for transaction BSX and WRX for valuation class 3000
and records it in the accounting document.

Figure 2: OBYC setup for GBB-VBR – Consumption to Order

Similarly, when raw material is consumed using movement type 261, the system looks up transaction GBB (offsetting entry for
inventory posting) for account modifier VBR (consumption for internal goods issues), and that reflects the GL Account in the
accounting document (see Figure 2)

Figure 3 provides a summary of few important movement types and accounting entries. Business process is listed in the column
furthest to the left, with movement type in the next column, and the debit and credit posting in the subsequent columns.

There is a column for transaction and account modifiers; as we noted earlier, these are SAP’s terms for logically grouping similar types
of transactions. The transaction account modifier, along with the valuation class, drives the accounting entries.

The OBYC MM-FI account determination configuration is set up at the time of original implementation, and once set up, these accounts
are derived behind the scenes. You’ll want to test the setup before going live to ensure that the correct accounts are being hit for the
respective transactions. You can change this configuration after go-live, but the revised setup needs to be thoroughly tested. Otherwise,
we may run the risk of impacting regular operations.
Figure 3: Summary of select movement types and accounting entries

Key take-aways:

Transaction-account modifier and valuation class drive the accounting entries

Transaction key: determines general ledger accounts for posting
Account modifier: differentiates account determination based on procedure
OBYC MM-FI Account determination setup is stored in underlying table T030
OMJJ Movement Type setup is stored in underlying table T156X
Combine these two tables (via SQ00 query, or simply on Excel)
The account modifier links the Movement Type to the Accounting entries

I hope this write-up was useful and explained the fundamentals to the readers.

(1) - The transaction key in MM-FI account determination is not the same as transaction code. A transaction code is an alphanumeric code
that represents a particular task in SAP. It allows users to access tasks directly without having to use menu paths.

Copyright acknowledgement: This blog was created based on information that was originally published by Espresso Tutorials GmbH as
one of many tips in Expert tips to Unleash the Full Potential of SAP Controlling, authored by Ashish Sampat

About the Author

Ashish Sampat is an SAP FI/CO Consultant who has provided solutions in SAP Controlling including product costing, material ledger,
and cost center accounting to global clients in consumer packed goods, life sciences, and industrial sectors.  Ashish is based in Chicago
region, where he works as an independent SAP FI/CO consultant. Ashish is the author of First Steps in SAP Controlling (CO) and Expert
tips to Unleash the Full Potential of SAP Controlling.

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