S/4 HANA - Finance

Margin Analysis in SAP S/4 Hana

02/06/2020

With SAP S / 4HANA, the profitability analysis module (CO-PA) has evolved a lot in recent years. Under ECC, two approaches coexisted called " Accouting COPA " and " Costing based COPA ". After having gone through various trade names, the solution pushed by SAP for On- Premise systems as for Cloud systems is more simply called " Margin Analysis ".         

" Margin Analysis " is based on the technical basis of " Acounting based COPA ". You will also sometimes hear about combined COPA, it must be understood that this particular architecture is intended only for clients using ECC.

 

In S/4 HANA, " Margin Analysis " is the recommended solution for On-Premise systems and the mandatory solution for SAP Cloud systems.   All future evolutions delivered by SAP will concern only the “ Margin Analysis ” solution.   

 

Historically, the margin analysis was mainly carried out via the “ Costing based COPA ” solution because despite additional tasks of reconciliation, this solution brought different advantages in terms of reporting compared to the “ Accounting Based ” solution. With " Margin Anlysis " SAP has managed to keep the simplicity of the " Accounting based " solution while integrating the advantages of the " Costing-Based " solution.              

Here is a table of correspondence between the functions of the “ Costing-Based ” historical solution and the functions of “ Margin-Analysis ” :   

sap margin analysis

 

And here is a summary table of the different margin analysis solutions according to the versions of SAP system :

sap margin analysis

In terms of reporting , analyzes that were previously realized in Report painter (KE30) are now in Fiori. Either via a pre-delivered margin analysis report , or by building a custom report based on a CDS view if the customer's needs are too specific.

Example of margin analysis reporting in FIORI :

margin analysis sap

Here are some arguments to remember in favor of the “ Margin Analysis ” solution :    

  • Margin Analysis is integrated in the universal journal
  • Margin Analysis now have 99% of costing based functionality + much more, eg same currencies as GL, shares table with GL, ie no reconciliation. Universal Journal: Single source of truth
  • Concept: “take the best of all worlds” (eg ledger, market segment, coding block, etc.)
  • One line item table with full detail for all applications - for instant insight & easy extensibility (entry extension or ACDOCA derived)
  • Data stored only once: no more reconciliation needed - by design Reduction of memory footprint through elimination of redundancy Fast multi-dimensional reporting without replicating data to BW If BW is in place anyway, only one single extractor needed Secondary cost elements are now G / L Multi-dimensional GL accounts
  • Extension ledger allow you to catch posting related to predictive accounting coming from Sales Order into “Margin Analysis” solution

https://blogs.sap.com/2019/08/02/statistical-sales-condition-in-account-based-copa/