Financial Accounting SAP Glossary



The part of a document containing information on a single item.

It always includes an amount, an account number, the assignment to debits or credits and further specifications which depend on the business transactions to be posted.

account assignment

Specification of which accounts to post to from a business transaction. See also “Additional account assignment”.

account balance

Display of the business transactions posted to an account in the form of overview, broken down by posting period, debits and credits. The balance for the posting period and the accumulated balance of the account are also displayed.

account determination

Automatic system function that determines the accounts for posting amounts in Financial Accounting.

account group

A collection of properties of accounts which determine the creation of master records.

The account group determines the data that is relevant for the master record and a number range from which numbers are selected for the master records. Each master record must be assigned to an account group.

accounting document

A record of changes in values in a company code due to business transactions.

It is comprised of several items (postings) that represent individual transactions based on accounts.

In posting an accounting document, the system updates the transaction figures in the accounts the document is posted to. An accounting document reflects the original document in the R/3 System.

account maintenance

Clearing open items in an account.

account management

Specification of how a G/L account is to be managed.

This includes open item management and line item display.

account reconciliation

Procedure for ensuring the adequacy of accounting.

For G/L accounts, account balances are compared with the balances of the posted business transactions. For current accounts, account balances are compared with the balances of the reconciliation accounts and the posted business transactions.

accounts payable ledger

A ledger set up to account for the values from business transactions with vendors. It records values at company code level.

accounts receivable ledger

A ledger set up to represent the values from business transactions with customers. It records values at company code level.

account type

Key that specifies the accounting area to which an account belongs.

Examples of account types are:

•  asset
•  customer
•  vendor and
•  G/L accounts.

The account type is required in addition to the account number in order to identify an account, since the same account number can be used for each account type.

acquisition tax

Acquisition tax is due on the cross-border movement of goods and services within the European Union (delivery of goods to other EU countries, to a customer with a valid VAT registration number). Acquisition tax must be declared by the party acquiring the goods in question, along with the tax rates valid in the country where the goods were acquired. It can, however, also be posted as input tax at the same time.

Any company that is entitled to claim back the full amount of input tax is not actually debited with the acquisition tax. This is because, when the incoming invoice is posted, the tax amount is posted to the tax account as both a payable and a receivable. The acquisition tax does not become due until the invoice is issued (at the latest on the 15th day of the month following the month when the acquisition was made; or, in Germany, at the end of the latter month). The tax amounts are determined on the basis of the invoice amount (the base amount). The tax rates for the acquired goods vary between member states; these rates are the same as the standard

domestic rates valid in each country.

additional account assignment

All entries in a line item that are made in addition to account number, amount and posting key.

These can include:

• payment terms
• payment method
• cost center

additional tax

Any tax posted in addition to tax on sales/purchases. This may be investment tax, clearing tax or tax postings necessary under the postponed accounting system used in the Benelux countries.

adjustment charge

Additional debit posting to one or more business transactions already posted, such as in the case of a tax adjustment amount, for example.

alternative payee

Customer/vendor receiving a payment who is not identical with the vendor for whom a payable exists. For example, assignments.

alternative payer

Customer/vendor making a payment who is not identical with the customer/vendor against whom a receivable exists.

Asset Accounting

Asset Accounting is a sub-ledger accounting module in Financial Accounting, in which all business activities for fixed assets are recorded.

assets

Sum of a company’s assets and accrued and deferred items, which are show on the left hand side of the balance sheet.

automatic posting

Posting that is made automatically by the system in certain transactions.

The following are some examples of automatic postings:

•  Output and input tax postings
•  Postings for the exchange rate difference
•  Postings for cash discount paid and received

Each individual automatic posting is represented by a separate line item.

average rate

Settlement exchange rate used in foreign exchange transactions. It is the arithmetic mean between the bank buying rate and bank selling rate.

balance

Amount resulting from the difference between the debit and credit side of an account or document: called “credit balance” if the credit side is greater and “debit balance” if the debit side is greater.

balance carried forward

The transfer of an account balance from the previous year.

balance check

Procedure used to check whether an accounting document has been entered correctly. To meet this requirement, the debit amount in the document must equal the credit amount.

balance sheet account

Account where the debit and credit entries resulting from business transactions are managed. The balance of a balance sheet account is carried forward onto itself at fiscal year-end.

bank buying rate

Exchange rate at which goods, foreign currency or securities are bought by a bank.

bank collection procedure

Special procedure, where the payee (creditor) is in possession of a writ collection authorization from the person liable to pay (debtor). The direct debits must contain a reference to the authorization. Synonym: direct debit authorization

bank direct debiting procedure

Special procedure, where the person liable to pay places a written order with his or her bank to make direct debits from his or her account.

bank master data

Information on a bank that is required in order to carry out business transaction with the bank.

It is stored in the bank directory, which contains data on all the banks in the system. Bank master data includes, for example, the name of the bank, the address and country specifications.

bank number

Unique identification key for a bank. In the SAP system, the bank number is the equivalent of the bank code.

bank selling rate

Rate at which goods, foreign currency or securities are offered by a bank.

baseline date for payment

Date to which the terms of payment apply.

billing document

Generic term for invoices, credit memos, debit memos, pro forma invoices and cancellation documents. A billing document is made up of a header, which contains data that applies to the whole document, and of any number of items.

branch account

Account that is used to represent the head office/branch relationship of customer or vendor in the SAP system. Purchase orders, deliveries or invoices entered for branch accounts are posted to the head office account. Every branch account must refer to a head office account.

business area

A business area is an organizational unit of financial accounting that represents a separate area of operations or responsibilities within an organization. Financial accounting transactions can be allocated to a specific business area.

Business areas are used in external segment reporting across company codes based on the significant fields of operation (for example, product lines) of a business enterprise.

All essential balance sheet items, such as fixed assets, receivables, payables, and inventories, and all items of the profit and loss statement can be assigned directly to a business area. The balance sheet items for banks, capital, and taxes, however, cannot be directly assigned to business areas. They need to be assigned manually. This means that business area financial statements cannot be drawn up for commercial and tax lax. Business area balance sheets and income statements are used only for internal reporting purposes.

The system can determine the appropriate business area from information such as the material, plant, or cost center you enter in a business transaction like a goods movement. Assignments you make, for example, between cost centers and business areas, or the combination of information you specify, for example, a plant and a particular division, form the basis the system uses to determine the appropriate business area to assign to an item.

business partner

A natural or legal person or a group of natural or legal persons who is/are not part of your business organization but with whom you have a business relationship.

calculation procedure for tax on sales/purchases

Rules on how to calculate tax on sales/purchases. They encompass several levels, which determine which partial amounts are to be calculated for each individual type of tax on sales/purchases, and define the sequence of these levels.

cancellation document

Document which the system creates when a posting is cancelled.

cash discount

Reduction in payment, if payment is made within a certain time period.

cash discount base amount

Portion of the invoice amount for which cash discount is granted.

cash discount terms

Right to subtract a certain amount as cash discount when paying within a specified period.

In the SAP System, up to 3 levels of payment terms can be used, for which cash discount terms are granted.

cashed checks

Procedure whereby the bank reports the payment of checks.

To do this, the bank creates a data medium with which the necessary postings can be generated automatically in the SAP system.

cash management and forecast

Short-term and medium-term access to liquid or near-liquid financial resources.

cash management position

The cash management position shows the short-term activity in your bank accounts. This display draws data from two sources:

• FI postings to G/L accounts relevant to Cash Management
• memo records (payment advice notes) entered for planning purposes

chart of accounts

A chart of accounts is a classification of accounts defined in financial accounting as a framework for recording values and value flows in order to guarantee an orderly rendering of financial statements.

A chart of accounts can consist of objects that can simultaneously represent both expense or revenue accounts for Financial Accounting and cost or revenue elements for Controlling.

The operating, or transaction, chart of accounts is used in Financial Accounting and Controlling. In addition to the operating chart of accounts, you can set up a country chart of accounts to represent the account classifications required by the respective national laws and a corporate group chart of accounts to represent the account classifications required for consolidation purposes.

chart of accounts index

Index of all charts of accounts that can be used within a client.

chart of accounts list

List of all the charts of accounts that can be used within a certain client.

clearing

Procedure where open items in an account are marked as cleared.

You can clear open items if you can assign an amount of equal value to the opposite side of the account.

Example: if a customer pays an invoice, you can clear the open items belonging to it.

clearing account

Account that contains postings temporarily. Clearing accounts are auxiliary accounts used for posting reasons, which clear repeatedly.

Possible reasons could be:

• time difference between business transactions (goods received/invoice received clearing account)
• organizational task distribution (bank clearing account)
• unclear business transactions

clearing function

Function for clearing open items.

You can use this function to post an incoming payment and then clear the paid invoices in a single transaction. There are two versions of this function in the system:

· Clearing an account:

When you clear an account, you can only clear items in a single currency. Moreover, you can only clear items for which no postings are still outstanding.

· Posting with clearing:

When using this function, you can also make postings during the clearing process.

clearing procedure

Procedure representing the business transaction that initiates clearing.

Example: incoming and outgoing payments.

company code

The smallest organizational unit for which a complete self-contained set of accounts can be drawn up for purposes of external reporting. The process of external reporting involves recording all relevant transactions and generating all supporting documents for financial statements such as balance sheets and profit and loss statements.

control totals

Totals that you can use to find out whether the amounts of posted documents have been entered correctly.

The system updates control totals automatically when you post.

credit control area

Organizational unit that represents an area responsible for granting and monitoring customer credit. This organizational unit is either a single company code or comprised of several company codes when credit control is performed across multiple company codes. In a credit control area, credit information can exist for each customer.

credit limit

The maximum amount granted for a customer loan.

credit memo

Posting that reduces receivables or payables.

cross-company code document number

Single number denoting all the documents that are produced in a single cross-company code posting.

cross-company code posting

Posting transaction involving several company codes.

The system creates a document for each company code involved. Cross-company code postings are used to process centralized purchasing or centralized payment, for example.

Cross-company G/L account maintenance

Cross-company G/L account maintenance is necessary if you work with multiple company codes and/or charts of accounts. If you want to reuse charts of accounts and G/L accounts, you can copy the charts and create reference or sample accounts. You can create G/L accounts at the company code or chart of accounts level. This is necessary in cases where you use the same chart of accounts in multiple company codes, yet the accounts are set up differently at the company code level.

currency

Legal means of payment in a country.

currency type

The currency type is a key describing a monetary unit with regard to:

·  The role of the currency within the R/3 System

·  The valuation upon which the amount is based, if you use the functions for multiple valuation

The currency type is required to be able to transfer amounts between different components of the R/3 System,

such as Financial Accounting and Controlling, via interfaces.

customer

Business partner against whom receivables are held for goods and services rendered.

customer account

Structure that records value movements in a company code that affect receivables or payables against a customer. A customer account records the transaction figures representing value movements as periodic totals for reporting purposes in the accounts receivable ledger. A distinction is made between a normal transaction figure, which represents value movements as totals per posting period for the assigned reconciliation account, and a special transaction figure, which represents value movements as totals per fiscal year that refer to a category of special G/L transactions (special G/L indicator).

A customer account contains the information a company code requires in presenting the actual value of the business transactions carried out with a customer. Receivables against customers are simultaneously recorded in a general ledger account by assigning a reconciliation account to the customer account. To present receivables per category of special G/L transactions, you have to specify a chart of accounts position for each of these categories in order to reconcile them in the general ledger (reconciliation account determination). This assignment covers all company codes.

customer master

A collection of all customer master records.

All customers which a company has dealings with, and the basic data on them, are recorded in the customer master.

customer master record

Data record containing all the information necessary for any contact with a certain customer, in particular for carrying out business transactions.

This information includes, for example, address data and bank data.

debit memo procedure

Payment collection procedure by direct debit.

There is a difference between:

• direct debiting procedure: see bank direct debiting procedure.
• collection procedure: see bank collection procedure.

division

An organizational unit based on responsibility for sales or profits from salable materials or services.

document

Proof of a business transaction.

There is a difference between original documents and DP documents:

• Original documents include, for example, incoming invoices, bank statements and carbon copies of outgoing invoices.
• DP documents include, for example, accounting documents, sample documents and recurring entry documents.

The accounting document reflects the original document in the system. All other DP documents serve as an entry facility.

document currency

Currency in which a document is posted.

document date

Date on which the original document (such as vendor invoice) was created.

document entry

Manual or automatic entry of a document into the SAP system. Manual entry occurs via screens that are specially designed for the business transactions to be entered; automatic entry is carried out via an online interface.

document header

The part of a document containing information that applies to the entire document, such as, for example, the document date and document number.

document number

Key which identifies each document in a company code in a given fiscal year

document principle

Principle according to which postings are always saved in document form (“no posting without document”).

The document remains as a complete unit and can be displayed at any time until it is archived.

document type

Key that distinguishes the business transactions to be posted.

The document type determines where the document is stored as well as the account types to be posted.

due date

Date on which the claim of a creditor must be redeemed by the debtor.

due date for net payment

Date on which open items are due for payment net, that is with no cash discount deduction.

dunning area

Organizational unit within a company code that is responsible for dunning.

The dunning procedure is controlled and the dunning notices are sent separately per dunning area. A dunning area can be defined as a division, distribution channel, sales organization or business area, for example.

dunning block indicator

Indicator that allows you to block accounts and items from dunning by allocating a dunning block reason. The dunning block indicator can be entered in the customer or vendor’s master record or in the line item.

dunning block reason

Reason why a certain open item or all the open items of a customer or vendor cannot be dunned.

dunning key

Identifies items to be dunned separately, such as items you are not sure about or items for which a payment advice exists.

dunning level

See “Dunning procedure level”.

dunning procedure

Pre-defined procedure specifying how customers or vendors are dunned.

Each procedure has a pre-defined number of dunning levels, dunning frequency and pre-defined texts for the dunning notices.

Example: payment reminder, two-level dunning procedure.

dunning procedure level

Rule that defines what type of dunning will be carried out by a certain dunning procedure, and which conditions will trigger that procedure.

exchange rate

Relationship between two currencies.

This rate is used to translate an amount into another currency.

exchange rate difference

Difference amount that occurs if foreign currency amounts are translated different exchange rates.

expense

Expenditure of a company for goods used, external services and fiscal charges within a period, which are offset in the P&L statement against revenue.

fiscal year

Generally a period of 12 months for which the company regularly has to create an inventory and balance sheet.

A fiscal year can correspond to a calendar year but does not have to.

Under certain circumstances, a fiscal year containing fewer than 12 months is also permitted (short fiscal year).

foreign currency

A currency that differs from the company code currency (country currency).

foreign currency balance sheet account

Account that is managed in a foreign currency.

Foreign currency balance sheet accounts are used to represent foreign exchange bank accounts in your own accounts, for example.

foreign currency valuation

Procedure for redefining the value of the current assets and liabilities that are posted in foreign currency. Assets and liabilities are valuated on an item by item basis, which means that the individual open items are valued.

If open items cannot be used because the account is not kept on an open item basis, the balance of the account is valuated instead.

G/L account

A structure that records value movements in a company code and represents the G/L account object in a chart of accounts. It contains the transaction figures that represent value movements during a posting period as totals for reporting purposes in the general ledger.

G/L account master record

Data record containing information that controls how data is entered into G/L account and how that account is managed. This includes, for example, the currency in which an account is managed.

general ledger

A ledger designed to present the values used in creating financial statements.

It records values at company code level.

goods movement

Materials Management (MM)

Physical or logical movement of materials which leads to a change in material stock levels or results in direct consumption of the material.

A goods movement can be a goods receipt, goods issue, or a transfer posting of materials.

A goods movement consists of items containing the quantity and value of the given material. The materials to be actually placed in or removed from storage can be specified in each item as single units. A transfer posting can be carried out within a plant and between different plants.

The quantity specified in the item leads to a change in stock in the plant, storage location, and storage bin. Goods movements for direct consumption do not affect stock levels.

An item in a goods receipt document does not necessarily indicate the receipt of material, because an item can also represent the reversal of the original goods movement.

For valuated stock, the transaction figure is updated on the relevant material stock account.

goods receipt

Materials Management (MM)

Term from the field of inventory management denoting a physical inward movement of goods or materials.

The SAP System distinguishes between the following kinds of goods receipt:

• goods receipt with reference to a purchase order,
• goods receipt with reference to a production order,
• other goods receipts (without reference).

head office account

Account that is used to represent a head office/branch relationship that exists for a customer or vendor in the SAP system.

Payments are made from the head office account, while purchase orders, deliveries or invoices are posted to the branch account.

house bank

A business partner that represents a bank at which your company does its banking.

input tax

Tax that is charged by the vendor.

The deductible part of input tax can be claimed from the tax authorities.

interest on arrears

Interest paid to creditors when the due date for net payment of a debt has been exceeded.

investment tax

Tax on capital investments levied in certain countries.

invoice

Message to the buyer of goods or services.

It includes the following: the name of the goods or services, the quantity sent and the remuneration due.

invoice reference

Entry that is used to establish a link between a line item and a posted invoice line item, in order to copy the terms of payment and therefore guarantee payment of the correct item.

An invoice reference is made by the system placing the document number of the invoice in the line item.

Example: invoice-related credit memo.

invoice verification

Term for the entry and checking of incoming (vendor) invoices (also known as “invoice matching”, “invoice validation”, and “invoice clearance”).

ledger

A specialized framework that determines how values and quantities are entered and presented for a particular area of accounting and for reporting or evaluation purposes. A ledger is comprised of the figures and documents representing the changes in values and quantities due to business transactions.

liabilities

Sum of the debts, accrued and deferred items, and equity of a company, which are shown on the right side of the balance sheet (such as capital, surplus reserves, provisions, vendor liabilities).

line item

The part of a document containing information on a single item.

It always includes an amount, an account number, the assignment to debits or credits and further specifications which depend on the business transactions to be posted.

line item display

Display of line items from one or more accounts. The prerequisite for this is that accounts are managed with line item display. This is preset for customer and vendor accounts; for G/L accounts, it must be set in the master record of the account.

local currency

Currency of a company code (country currency) in which the local ledgers are managed.

Opposite: foreign currency

local currency amount

Amount which is specified in the company code currency.

If an amount is created in foreign currency, the system translates it automatically into local currency.

material

Good that is the subject of business activity. A material is traded, used in manufacture, consumed, or produced. In order that data relating to the material can be stored at the relevant organizational level, a material master record is structured in accordance with the organizational units plant, storage location, warehouse complex, and distribution chain. Different departments of an enterprise have different views of a material (for example, Materials Planning, Costing, Purchasing, Warehouse Management, or Accounting).

Different parameters define how activities such as materials planning or quality inspection are carried out for a material.

movement type

Classification key indicating the type of material movement (for example, goods receipt, goods issue, physical stock transfer).

The movement type enables the system to find predefined posting rules determining how the accounts of the financial accounting system (stock and consumption accounts) are to be posted and how the stock fields in the material master record are to be updated.

negative posting

A posting that decreases the transaction figures in the account posted to.

noted item

Special item that does not affect any account balance.

When you post a noted item, a document is generated: the item can be displayed via the line item display. Certain noted items are processed by the payment program or dunning program.

Example: Down payment requests.

number range

A range of numbers that are laid down per file for the assignment of document numbers.

There are two types of number assignment:

•  internal (carried out automatically by the system)
•  external (carried out manually by the user)

one-time account

Account where the transaction figures from a group of customers/vendors with whom you only do business once or rarely are recorded. One special master record is needed for all one-time accounts.

Specific data on the customer/vendor, such as address and bank data, is not entered in the master record but in the document itself.

open item management

Specification that the items in an account must be cleared by other items in the account. The sum of items involved in the clearing procedure must be zero. The account balance is therefore always equal to the sum of the open items.

order

Describes a task which is to be carried out within a company.

The order specifies:

•  which task is to be carried out
•  when the task is to be carried out
•  what is needed to carry out the task
•  how the order costs are to be settled

original document

Document that proves that a posting has been made correctly.

output tax

Tax that is charged on customers at all levels of production and trade. It represents a tax liability to the tax office.

partial payment

Payment which only partially settles the invoice amount outstanding.

payables

Total fixed debts of a company (payables to banks, vendors, from customer down payments etc.) according to both the cause, and the amount and due date.

payee

A customer/vendor to whom payments are made.

payment advice note

Notification of a delivery, payment or the receipt of a letter of credit (in foreign transactions).

payment blocking indicator

Indicator that allows you (by entering a payment block) to block an account or individual items for payment. The payment blocking indicator is placed in the customer or vendor’s master record or in the line item.

payment block reason

Reason why a certain open item or all the open items of a customer or vendor in a certain company code cannot be paid.

payment history analysis

Analysis of payments made by the customer with regard to exceeding deadlines and using cash discounts.

payment method

This specifies the procedure (such as check, bill of exchange or foreign bank transfer) with which payments are carried out.

payment notice

Notice to a customer or an internal department which either confirms that a payment has been made or requests the customer/department to settle payment differences or allocate payments.

payment on account

Payment that is assigned to an account but not yet to a business transaction.

This differentiates it from a down payment or partial payment.

payment tolerance

Rules for processing payment differences.

These rules specify the maximum permissible difference between the actual payment amount and the amount agreed for payment, as well as rules for posting residual items (in the case of these maximum amounts being exceeded).

payment transactions

The processing of the outgoing and incoming payments of an organization.

picking

The process of issuing and grouping certain materials from the warehouse on the basis of goods requirements from the Sales or the Production department.

plant

Organizational unit within Logistics, serving to subdivide an enterprise according to production, procurement, maintenance, and materials planning aspects.

A plant is a place where either materials are produced or goods and services provided.

The business area that is responsible for a plant is determined as a function of the division. As a rule, a valuation area corresponds to a plant.

posting block

Indicator that blocks an account for posting.

An account can be blocked centrally for all company codes or locally for one company code.

posting key

Two-digit numeric key that controls the entry of document line items.

It specifies the following, for example:

•  account type
•  debit posting or credit posting
•  layout of entry screens

posting period

Period within a fiscal year for which transaction figures are updated. Every transaction that is posted is assigned to a particular posting period. The transaction figures are then updated for this period.

profit and loss statement

Comparison of revenue and expense within a certain period, with the purpose of establishing the profit made by an organization and the sources thereof.The P&L statement is a compulsory part of year-end closing.

purchasing organization

Organizational unit within logistics, subdividing an enterprise according to the requirements of Purchasing. A purchasing organization procures materials and services, negotiates conditions of purchase with vendors, and bears responsibility for such transactions.

The form of procurement is defined by the assignment of purchasing organizations to company codes and plants.

The following forms of purchasing exist:

• Corporate-group-wide: A purchasing organization procures for all the company codes belonging to a client
• Company-specific: A purchasing organization procures for just one company code
• Plant-specific: A purchasing organization procures for a plant

Mixed forms are possible, which can be replicated in the system by the use of reference purchasing organizations. A purchasing organization can utilize the more favorable conditions and contracts of the reference purchasing organization that has been assigned to it.

receivable

Claim for payment on the recipient of goods or services supplied.

Receivables are shown in the balance sheet under “current assets” with further subdivisions, such as receivables from goods and services and receivables from consolidation companies.

reconciliation account

G/L account, to which transactions in the subsidiary ledgers, (such as in the customer, vendor or assets areas), are automatically updated.

It is generally the case that several subledger accounts post to a common reconciliation account. This ensures that the developments in the subledger accounts are accurately reflected in the general ledger (i.e. in line with balance sheet conventions). You can set up a reconciliation account for, say, all overseas customers.

reference document

Document used as a reference to post an accounting document.

Accounting documents or sample documents can be used as reference documents.

regional code

Two-digit alphanumeric key used to further specify an address.

In some countries you must enter the regional code as part of the address.

residual item

Item that represents any difference that occurs when an open item is cleared. The residual item is carried forward to the account where the original open item was resident.

revenue account

Account to which revenue from normal business transactions is posted.

reversal

Canceling a posting by posting amounts of equal value to the opposite side of the accounts.

reverse document

Document that is generated when reversing a posting.

sales

Sum of the goods and services sold by a company in a certain period, valued at valid sales prices.

sales area

A sales area is a specific combination of sales organization, distribution channel, and division.

sales effectivity

Property of a posting key that is used to update sales with a customer o vendor.

sales organization

An organizational unit within Logistics which structures the company according to its sales requirements.

A sales organization is responsible for selling materials and services.

A sales organization can be subdivided into several distribution chains which determine the responsibility for a distribution channel. Several divisions can be assigned to a sales organization which is responsible for the materials or services provided. A sales area determines which distribution channel can be used to sell the products from one division in a sales organization. Each sales organization is assigned exactly one company code for which you enter all accounting details of the sales organization.

A distribution chain can be active for several plants and the plants can be assigned to different company codes. If the sales organization and plant are assigned to different company codes, an internal billing document is sent between the company codes before the sales transactions are entered for accounting purposes.

sales relevance

Property of a posting key, which, when used, updates the sales figures with a customer or vendor.

sample account

Special master record via which values can be pre-defined for the entry of company code-specific data in G/L account master records.

You must also define data transfer rules, which determine how the values are transferred from the sample account.

sample document

Special type of reference document from which data is defaulted into the accounting document entry screen.

Unlike an accounting document, a sample document does not update transaction figures. It merely serves as a data source for an accounting document.

sample master record

Example of a master record which serves as an input aid for configuring other master records.

shortened fiscal year

A shortened fiscal year arises through a shift in the end of the fiscal year.

The shortened fiscal year covers the period between the end of the last fiscal year in the old cycle and the

beginning of the next fiscal year in the new cycle. For example, if your old fiscal year runs from October 1 1997 to September 30 1998 and you want the new fiscal year to begin on January 1 1999, you would set up a shortened fiscal year for the period October 1 1998 to December 31 1998.

special period

Special posting period that divides up the last normal posting period for closing operations.

special purpose ledger

Ledger based on any combination of coding block elements. It is used to store summarized data for reporting purposes. All user-defined special purpose ledgers can use functions such as planning, allocations, rollup, currency translation, balance carry forward, and data transfer, in addition to the activity-oriented validation, derivation, and accumulation of data. Operational functions (managing accounts with open items, commitments, and so on) are not supported.

split valuation

Option allowing the values of different stocks of a material within a plant to be managed in different stock accounts. This enables such stocks to be valuated separately.

statistical posting

The posting of a special G/L transaction where the offsetting entry is made automatically to a specified clearing account. For example, received guarantees of payment.

subledger accounting

Accounting at the level of subsidiary (sub) ledgers, which contain accounts such as customer, vendor or asset accounts.

Subledgers give more details on the postings made to the reconciliation accounts in the general ledger.

supplementary account assignment

Extra entries in an automatically generated line item, made by the user when entering a document.

tax amount

Amount that is posted as input tax, output tax or withholding tax, for example, and sent to the tax authorities.

tax base amount

Amount on which the tax is calculated.

Depending on the respective country-specific requirements, the cash discount amount may or may not be contained in the tax base amount.

tax code

Two-digit code that represents the specifications used for calculating and displaying tax.

Examples of the specifications defined under the tax code are:

•  tax rate
•  type of tax (input tax or output tax)
•  calculation method ( % included or % separate)

taxes on sales/purchases

Generic term for input and output tax.

taxes on sales/purchases group

Specifies, within a client, a single taxable entity (for purposes of tax on sales/purchases reporting), i.e. an integrated company, which can be made up of one or more company codes. The party within the integrated company who is liable for the tax is the dominant enterprise. It is the duty of this enterprise to make the advance reports and annual reports declaring the sales of all the individual companies forming the integrated company.

tax rate

Percentage rate used to calculate the tax amount.

terms of payment

Arrangements made with a business partner governing financial settlement with respect to goods supplied and services performed.

Examples:

• Stipulation of down-payment (advance payment) requirement
• Cash on delivery
• Payment following delivery (e.g. clauses “immediate payment in cash”, “on a cash basis”, stipulation of a period for payment)

· Combined conditions, e.g. the clause “payable in 30 days net (without deduction) or within 10 days with 2%

discount”

tolerance

Accepted deviation from specified values.

transaction figures

Sum of all postings to an account, broken down by posting period and debit and credit.

valuation

Balance sheet term: the calculation of the value of all goods belonging to fixed and current assets as well as all payables at a certain time point according to legal requirements.

valuation area

Organizational unit in Logistics dividing up a company for the purpose of valuating stocks in a standardized and consistent manner.

Inventory must be valuated at plant level for product costing and order costing. Inventory is valuated either at plant or at company code level. At plant level, a plant represents a valuation area. At company code level, a company code represents a valuation area. To valuate inventory in a plant, you must assign each plant to a valuation area. each valuation area is assigned to a company code for balance sheet purposes.

valuation class

Allocation of a material to a group of G/L accounts.

Along with other factors, the valuation class determines the G/L accounts to be updated as a result of a valuation relevant transaction (for example, a goods movement).

vendor

Business partner with whom payables arise in acquiring goods and services.