Migration to Simple Finance

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SAP Simple Finance: Migration to SimpleFinance

Posted by Arnaud SERGENT 06-Mar-2015

In this blog I will try to summarize all the main concepts that need to be known and considered before migrating

to Simple Finance, more specifically to its main module SAP Accounting, powered by SAP HANA.

Migration prerequisites:

Any customer running today ECC6, with whichever Enhancement Package, can consider migrating to Simple

Finance.

It is a migration in 2 steps: ECC6 EhPx on any DB => Suite on HANA EHp7 => sFIN

As of today, there is not a direct migration path from ECC6 EhP7 to sFIN. You have to perform the intermediary

step to Suite on HANA. This should change in the future.

The actual migration to the GL in SAP Accounting is actually easy. For the most part, this is a technical

migration. Some functional aspects, which I will cover below, must be kept in mind, but it is above all a

technical migration, not a functional project.

Functional aspects of the migration:

Another important point is that the new GL is not a pre-requisite for an implementation of the GL

in SAP Accounting. You can perform the migration straight from the classic GL to the GL in Simple Finance.

The GL in SAP Accounting is very similar to the New GL in SAP ECC: it provides the same capabilities as

new GL and leverages its data structures, but it is further optimized for HANA, for example no totals tables,

convergence with CO, better reporting, etc. Existing PCA (profit center) and SL (special ledger) functions and

features from classic GL can remain in place.

However, be aware of one limitation when migrating from classic GL: document splitting andparallel ledger cannot be implemented yet (this restriction is planned to be lifted with a SP in Q42015). So, if for example you wanted documents split now in sFIN, you would have to migratefirst in new GL, activate the document split, and then migrate to sFIN. That’s why customersalready running a migration project to new GL in SAP ERP with a planned go live in 2015 shouldcontinue before moving to sFIN.Finally, the migration also moves you to New Asset Accounting (NAA).

Migration project steps:

The migration project steps can be described as follow. I’m giving a rough estimate of the timerepartition spent on each task, from a project (i.e. parameterization) and an elapsed time point ofview:Project steps:

Project time Elapsed time

0- technical install 20% 10%

1- GL => new GL 10% 30%

2- Simple Finance data migration 20% 50%

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SAP Simple Finance: Migration to Simple Finance


3- Activate NAA 50% 10%

For example, for an actual migration we did, we experienced the following figures for step 2:

Data transfer (93 million rows): 50 mns

Data migration: 11h elapsed time

You can expect a minimum of 24 hours of production system downtime.

SAP is providing a migration guide. There is no required SAP migration service.

Modifications to the ERP data model:

Here is the list of FI/CO tables removed in sFIN v1.0:

Index tables removed:

BSIS Index for G/L Accounts

BSAS Index for G/L Accounts (Cleared Items)

BSID Index for Customers

BSAD Index for Customers (Cleared Items)

BSIK Index for Vendors

BSAK Index for Vendors (Cleared Items)

BSIM Index, Documents for Material

FAGLBSIS Index for G/L Accounts – New G/L

FAGLBSAS Index for G/L Accounts – New G/L (ClearedItems)

Aggregate tables removed:

GLT0 General Ledger: Totals

GLT3 Summary Data Preparations for Consolidation

FAGLFLEXT New General Ledger: Totals

KNC1 Customer master (transaction figures)

LFC1 Vendor master (transaction figures)

KNC3 Customer master (special G/L transaction figures)

LFC3 Vendor master (special G/L transaction figures)

COSS Cost Totals for Internal Postings

COSP Cost Totals for External Postings



The remaining physical tables are fully Line Items based. All dimensions are available for fast analysis with

SAP HANA. There are no more limitations by pre-defined totals or aggregates as before. Data structures can

be easily enhanced with custom dimensions (just update the line item table).

Please note that all those deleted tables are replaced by HANA CDS views. So those suppressions will

not affect existing custom ABAP code as long as such code is not writing in one of those tables: custom

programs and reports with read access to old tables will continue to work.

Also, new tables will be created in the data model to manage historical data.

Finally, this list above is for sFIN v1.0. The new v2.0 will introduce some new changes on this list as well.

Optimized transactions:

Many period close transactions have been optimized for HANA in SFIN:

Settlement (plant selection) CO88 -> CO88H

Settlement (make-to-order sales orders) VA88-> VA88H

Settlement (internal orders) KO8G-> KO8GH

Settlement (projects) CJ8G -> CJ8GH

Results Analysis KKAK -> KKAKH

(POC method or revenue-based)

WIP Calculation at Actual Costs KKAO -> KKAOH

Variance Calculation w. Full Settlement KKS1-> KKS1H

Variance Calculation for Cost Centers KSS1-> KSS1H

Harmonized External and Internal Reporting in SAP ERP:• Link on line item level (1:1) between Financial Accounting (FI) and Management Accounting (CO)• Link from CO line items to dimension table in profitability analysis (CO-PA)• Enhancements of account-based CO-PA (detailed postings for cost-of-goods-sold and variances)• Logical document (HANA view) for analyzing the converged data• New detailed analysis of Work in Process• Real-Time Operational Reporting in SAP ERP• No need for time-consuming extraction into and separate (delayed) reporting via SAP BW• Reporting across multiple SAP or non-SAP ERP systems with deployment option “central

journal”

New Fiori User Interface: SAP Gateway prerequisite:

Last but not least, SFIN introduces a brand new user experience, simplified and ergonomic, to Finance with

Fiori.

You must know however that Fiori has technical requirements of its own. The prerequisite of Fiori for an

ABAP based application is the middleware SAP Gateway. SAP Gateway is part of Netweaver 7.4, so it is

automatically installed with ECC.



But for a production system, SAP recommends that you use a Central Hub Deployment of SAP Gateway. This

means you install SAP Gateway independent of ERP on a standalone system, either behind or in front of the

firewall. You therefore separate back-end components from front-end components. For production systems,

SAP does not recommend the Embedded Deployment option.

So you will need to plan for installing Gateway if it is not already in place in your SAP landscape.

Finally, be aware that the old retired transactions replaced by redeveloped Fiori applications will not be

accessible anymore through the SAP GUI. If you attempt to start them, you will get a pop-up redirecting you

toward the Fiori Launchpad of Simple Finance.

Conclusion:

Hopefully this contribution will help demystify the path to SAP Simple Finance, and let you assess the effort

that would be necessary to make the upgrade in your own situation.11581 Views Tags: migration, simple_finance, sap_simple_finance

Diego Ortega24-Nov-2015 20:37

Does anyone have updated information regarding the release of the SP that was supposed to lift the restriction

for the migration from classic GL to New GL supporting document split and parallel ledgers?

Thanks and regards. Diego

Ravindranath Gangampalli in response to Vikash Kumar Tulsyan on page 414-Aug-2015 13:27

Thank You all, Thank You Vikash for confirming that migration happens in all clients , i was looking for this

information.

In that case , we plan to run the migration in all clients. I agree that we need to run a parallel landscape for S4 .

Ravi

Vikash Kumar Tulsyan in response to Ravindranath Gangampalli on page 614-Aug-2015 13:08

Hi Ravi,

When you start the migration then migration happens for all the client in the system so you are not just

migrating the one client rather you need to migrated all the client in the system otherwise you will have

inconsistency in other clients.

Yes, you need to keep a parallel landscape in addition to sFIN to support your existing production system.

Hope this helps.

Regards,

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Vikash

Vikash Kumar Tulsyan in response to Daniel Khoo on page 714-Aug-2015 13:03

Hi Daniel/Edwin,

Thanks for your response but I see conflicting statement from SAP in this respect.

If I run the pre check report "FINS_PRE_CHECK_SFIN_1503" in the system then there is a check for "New GL

activation"...if New GL activation is not a prerequisite then why SAP has introduced this check in this report.

Unfortuantely I cannot check the output as in my case New GL is activated and hence system pops up the

message " New GL is Activate".

Also please refer the note which says clearly (as below) that we need to do some basic configuration for New

GL accounting..

- Whether the General Ledger Accounting (new) is already active.

Background: During the installation of the Simple Financial on-premise edition 1503, the General

Ledger Accounting (new) is technically introduced in the system. This means that customers who

previously worked with the classic General Ledger Accounting must set a minimum of settings for the

General Ledger Accounting (new) in Customizing that specify

I understand that SAP has introduced New GL technically with sFin but then why is this check required in pre

check report.

Thanks,

Vikash

Edwin Weijers in response to Edwin Weijers on page 614-Aug-2015 10:35

It is because AA in SFIN is also using update of the ACDOCA table. Even if you are not using AA in the

current sitation. you might want in in the future. To ensure it will work, it is part of the SFIN migration. Even

if you don't have assets yet, the right order of activities in migration is important, because activities have

interdependencies,

Daniel Khoo in response to Ravindranath Gangampalli on page 614-Aug-2015 10:31

I think there is no single approach to this given the varying circumstances in each site. It would however be

a good practice to have a "SFIN Project" landscape running in parallel to a "Production Support" landscape.

The SFIN Project Landscape could be a system copy could be done immediately after period end close. (a

temporary moratorium on AA transaction should be observe until system copy is done) Use this new system

copy to run your trial migrations.



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Edwin Weijers in response to Ravindranath Gangampalli on page 614-Aug-2015 10:28

Hi Ravi,

Now your question becomes customer specific. Here you can benefit from SAP Consulting services, it goes a

little bit beyond the targets of SCN, that is meant for general information exchange. I would recommend you

to have a 1 or 2 days workshop with SAP Consulting services in order to design a roadmap dedicated to your

needs and specific landscape situation.. It will earn itself back.

Edwin Weijers in response to Daniel Khoo on page 714-Aug-2015 10:16

I agree

Edwin Weijers in response to Daniel Khoo on page 714-Aug-2015 10:16

that's correct!

Ravindranath Gangampalli in response to Edwin Weijers on page 814-Aug-2015 08:44

Dear Edwin,Daniel Khoo

Thanks for the advise, i have created a ticket to SAP asking for more details. Could you please advise, how we

should manage migration in other clients ?

Please see below

In DEV, we have two client, 100 for master config and 200 for UAT, We move all changes from 100 to 200 for

testing as it will be refreshed with the latest data from production for every 4 months.

In QAT, we have 4 clients 400,500,600 and 700. 500 is the main client for testing and it is also in our transport

route, all TR's to production must go through with 500 client.

Can we migrate main clients in DEV and QAT to SFIN, and do a local client copy to other clients after the

migration ? If yes, should we be fixing all inconsistencies in rest of the clients?

Please advise the approach recommended.

Thanks,

Ravi

Daniel Khoo in response to Rafael Bermudez on page 1014-Aug-2015 08:30

During the migration to SFIN, there is no requirement to upload data into SAP system.

The migration tasks as listed in the IMG path will migrate all financial data from the old table structure to

UJ. The same should happen to AA related transactions. Hence if you do not see data in your assets after

migration, you might want to check the logs created in each migration step to identify the source of error.









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Regards,

Daniel

Daniel Khoo in response to Vikash Kumar Tulsyan on page 714-Aug-2015 08:27

New GL Activation is not a pre requisite for SFIN Migration. It is activated in the target system during the

migration exercise. Having said that, if you intend to use functionalities provided by New GL i.e. parallel

ledger and document splitting, a separate implementation exercise will be needed. However, if the plan is to

implement New GL, it would perhaps be better to complete the New GL implementation prior to migration to

SFIN.

Regards,

Daniel

Daniel Khoo in response to Rafael Bermudez on page 714-Aug-2015 08:23

For NN customer, you will need to activate new AA during system configuration. This is a pre requisite for SFIN

environment.

For a migration scenario, activation of New AA is part of the migration process.

Regards,

Daniel

Vikash Kumar Tulsyan in response to Edwin Weijers on page 813-Aug-2015 19:27

HI Edwin,

If there is no per-requisite for New GL Activation then why do we have this as a check in the report

FINS_PRE_CHECK_SFIN_1503?

Regards,

Vikash

Rafael Bermudez13-Aug-2015 19:16

Edwin,

Thank you for your recommendations.

I have an additional question:







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How important is the sequence of the upgrade to ASSETS ACCOUNTING (NEW) , when we created our S4/

Hana environment from scratch, and Fixed Assets have not been loaded yet?

Thanks

Rafael


Hello Ravi,

It is true that productive migration in certain situations take considerable time and it would be a problem to

freeze such a long period. For this situation we give customers into consideration our Near Zero Downtime

(NZDT) approach. Generally this works as follows: for test migration you make a recent copy of your productive

system to a separate system server. This copied system must be very similar (alos on technical specs) as

your productive system. You execute your test migrations 2 or 3 times just as often as you feel comfortable

to go for productive migration. You wil refresh the copy from production prior to each test conversion. On the

final test you perform a succesfull test migration.After that, you start a limited freeze period. Then you make

your converted test system your new productive system and your orginal productive system will be reset to

test system. In the downtime you have to migrate all te postings that you have made in the original productive

system from on he moment you took the most recent copy for test, so the delta postings. You migrate these

from old to new productive system and from classic to simple finance, This approach will reduce the down time

significantly. There is a slide deck available that explains this, SAP can support you with NZDT service. Please

contact your SAP AM.

Ravindranath Gangampalli in response to Edwin Weijers on page 1013-Aug-2015 16:33

Dear Edwin,

Thanks for confirming.

How the production migration actually takes place for Simple Finance ? How should we manage month

end closing and installation & migration of the production ? As the no postings are allowed after the add-on

installation.

Pl advise

Ravi

Edwin Weijers in response to Rafael Bermudez on page 913-Aug-2015 16:15

Hi Rafael,

It looks you did the migrations in the wrong order. Migration from Classic to New Asset Accounting must be

done before you migrate to Simple Finance, You can reset the Simple Finance Migration and run it again.

I suggest you to do so. Reset might take a couple of hours, dependant on the size of your database. When you

re-run the SFIN migration thereafter, the ssystem will recognize that you are on New AA and then I expect it

will migrate your APC. I hope this will solve the problem.









Best regards, Edwin


message No AA 324

Transaction 970 belongs to transaction type group, which can only be used to post to assets which postings

has already been performed. However, not postings have been done for this asset.


Edwin,

Thank you very much for checking my problem.

No, we did it after the upgrade to SFIN 2.0.

We created a DEV box with SFIN 1.0 (from scratch) wit Classic Assets and Activated NEW GL. We didn't

create any data.

We upgraded to SFIN 2.0 1503

Upgrade to ASSETS ACOUNTING (NEW)

Create Test Client in DEV BOX (Copy of DEV Client)

Create Client Dependent Configuration in TEST CLIENT

Load Master data (NO Assets)

Execute Functional Tests

Load FIX ASSETS downloaded from production after postings for period 7 (07/2015)

We used a LSMW for AS91 and it created the Master Data only, no VALUES.

We used ABLDT to post values (Acquisition, Depreciation 2014 and Depreciation 2015.

In Asset Dates configuration we have Take Over Date 07/31/2015; Period in which depreciation was posted 07

2015

System respond with message

Edwin Weijers in response to Rafael Bermudez on page 1013-Aug-2015 09:57

Hi Rafael,









Checking question: did you execute a mgration from classic to new Asset Accounting prior to your migration to

SFIN?


If you situation is you first migrate DEV to SFIN, where your migration for the productice system has been

planned for a later date, it is indeed recommendable to keep parallel DEV system in the landscape. In addition

I recommend to limit changes as much as possible and to have a strict policy on urgency of incidents and

change requestts. A frozen period is preferred, to make sure that customizing in your DEV system is similar to

the customizing for future productive migrstion. Keep track of changes you make in DEV carefully.


We are working in a project to upgrade from SAP ECC 6.0 to SFIN 1503, and we are trying to upload the Fix

Assets into ASSETS ACCOUNTING (NEW) and we cannot successfully complete it. The system created the

assets without any value. When we try to post the values for Acquisition, Accumulated Depreciation up to the

last fiscal year, and the Depreciation applied in the Current Fiscal Year; with transaction ABLDT, the system

return the error message that the loaded Asset does not have any acquisition value posted and the posting

cannot be done.

Do you have any idea what we should check to fix this issue?

Edwin Weijers in response to Clinton Jones WS on page 1023-Jul-2015 09:49

Confirmed, F-02 and FB01 are still supported. Same for park variants.

Clinton Jones WS in response to Noemi Diaz-Benito on page 1122-Jul-2015 19:00

can it also be clarified whether the classic F-02 FB01 and all the park variants will be supported in SFIN and

whether they remain as DYNPRO's.

I have heard that BAPIs are also supported for the MJE process but of course these don't support document

parking - are there new varietals?

Jorge Cepeda in response to Arnaud SERGENT on page 1414-Jul-2015 23:33

Hi Amaud,

If a customer is running Suite oN HANA EHP7 with just FICO (new GL) , how much time will it take to move

him to Simple Finance Accounting?

Thanks for sharing

Jorge

Bryan shala Tang13-Jul-2015 10:54

Thank you very much Arnaud.







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Ravindranath Gangampalli29-Jun-2015 10:58

Dear Arnaud SERGENT

Great blog!! Thanks for the information.

Should we deploy parallel landscape during the migration to S/4HANA ? Once Dev system is migrated to SAP

Simple Finance , how can we handle code changes to production in case if emergency ?

Thanks,

Ravi

Edwin Weijers in response to Noemi Diaz-Benito on page 1126-Jun-2015 15:37

confirmed, FB50 can run both

Noemi Diaz-Benito in response to Arnaud SERGENT on page 1217-Jun-2015 08:11

Hi, Arnaud,

This is a quite interesting posting as these are the common questions that our customers are asking us. I have

a detailed question for you: what happens with transaction code FB50?. I see it's "fiorized" but in note

1946054 - SAP

Simple Finance, on-premise edition: Transaction codes and programs - Comparison

to EHP7 for SAP ERP 6.0

FB50 is not refelected; does it mean that our customers can run both sapgui or fiori app for t-code FB50?.

Thanks a lot!!

Regards, Noemí

Albrecht Gass in response to Arnaud SERGENT on page 1121-May-2015 00:49

Hi Arnaud,

if I understand you properly S-innovations will be delivered as EhPs that customers impact and then turn on the

snwitch for the new HANA optimized/simplified modules.

So from a technical perspecitve SAP says that many objects will disappear with S/4HANA, will these objects be

removed form the system when a customer switches on an S-innovation? Example: If a SAP function module is

obsolete with S/4HANA will it be removed from the system when we switch to the simplified module? If not how

will customers know that their custom code depends on a function module that is now non-functional?

Albrecht






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Arnaud SERGENT in response to Albrecht Gass on page 1219-May-2015 22:30

Hi Albrecht,

Actually,as of today (May 2015) S/4HANA on premise = sFin 2.0 + other "classical" Suite on HANA (SOH) ERP

modules (eg SD, MM, etc.).

The foundation of S/4HANA on premise is the Suite on HANA. The release strategy is to deliver so-called s-

innovations, that will convert "classical" ERP module (eg FI/CO) into simplified, rewritten ones (sFin being the

first one delivered).

The next s-innovation on the roadmap is s-Logistics, planned for Q4 2015. Upgrade to s-Logistics from SOH

will be a similar process as upgrade to sFin today. S-Marketing will then be next, and so on.

Over time, the "legacy" Suite on HANA code will be more and more replaced by s-innovations, until all

"classical" modules have been rewritten. Same thing for SAP GUI transactions, that will also be more and ore

replaced by new Fiori ones.

Hope it helps,

Arnaud

Albrecht Gass19-May-2015 21:39

Hi Arnaud,

do you have similar knowledge with respect of migrating to S/4HANA? I know S/4HANA is pretty new so we

are trying to find as much information as possible. We are not sure if there is an EhP path to S/4HANA and if

the result is the same as creating a new S/4HANA installation regarding the available objects (tables, standard

code/FMs, DDIC, etc.).

Regards

Albrecht

Daniel Khoo in response to Arnaud SERGENT on page 1207-May-2015 03:40

Thanks Arnaud!

Arnaud SERGENT in response to Daniel Khoo on page 1306-May-2015 14:18

Hi Daniel,

Only some transactions have been rewritten in Fiori (about 20%). The remaining ones remain in SAP GUI

format. The objective is to add more and more Fiori transactions in replacement of old ones with every new

releases.











If a transaction has been rewritten in Fiori and leverages the new data model, then yes it will not be available

though the SAP GUI anymore. If you try to execute the old transaction code, you will then get a pop up window

asking you to connect to the Fiori Launchpad instead.

The new Fiori interface is available in sFin out of the box.

Thanks,

Arnaud

Daniel Khoo06-May-2015 10:24

Great summary!

With regards to Old Transactions, does this mean ALL transactions or selected transactions will be replaced by

Fiori Apps. And will there be a case of users having switch between the browser for Fiori Apps and SAP GUI?

Secondly, upon migration to SFIN 2.0, will all relevant Fiori Apps need to be activated individually or we do we

assume all SFIN 2.0 apps would have been activated and only assignment of roles is required?

thanks!

Chandresh Vyas29-Apr-2015 09:34

Excellent !!!

Scott Simpson22-Apr-2015 18:02

Hi Arnaud,

Release Notes 1968568 (SFIN 1.0) and 2119188 (SFIN 2.0) both state newGL as a pre-requisite. From the

above comments, are you saying that it is not a pre-requisite to migrate to SFIN, but that you have no choice

but be on a technical newGL in SFIN? (in which case what are the risks for migration from Classic GL to

SFIN?)

Thanks,

Scott

jayant daithankar30-Mar-2015 07:17

Hi,

If Customer has planned new GL implementation by end 2015 .Will it be advisable for him to go for sFin first as

mentioned above.Document split will anyway be available by end 2015



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mauro b. in response to Arnaud SERGENT on page 1426-Mar-2015 17:20

Thanks for your replies!

Really appreciated.

Best,

Mauro

Arnaud SERGENT in response to mauro b. on page 1426-Mar-2015 10:03

Yes, absolutely. Murali is right. New GL is not a prerequiste for sfin migration. You can migrate from classic GL

to sfin directly. The migration will technically convert you into new GL, but you will not be able at first to use the

document split. While "technically" in new GL, you will remain "functionally" in classic GL. The roadmap for sfin

clearly states that the feature to retroactivally activate new GL document split is planned for end of 2015.

Thanks,

Arnaud

Murali Babu Nallamothu in response to mauro b. on page 1426-Mar-2015 09:31

Hi,

If you want to migrate to sfin, then you don't need to wait till the year end. You can migrate to sfin at any period

end from classic GL. After the migrating to sfin, I guess SAP is planning to assist migration scenarios.

Rgds

Murali

mauro b.26-Mar-2015 08:44

Hi Arnaud,

really interesting information. We are in old GL, plan to move to HANA on August and implement Simple

Finance by the end of the year. From what I understand, we might avoid the migration to new GL and use

document splittting by 2016?

Best,

Mauro

Murali Babu Nallamothu09-Mar-2015 14:51

Excellent summary of sFIN functionalities & features.

It is good if you write a separate blog on reporting functionalities & features of sFIN.

Rgds

MBN

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