Let's learn useful tips and tricks in SAP (Open item management Solution)

Solution

  

Kindly refer to the attached notes to solve the already known issues.

Q01. From which release of SAP is this program or T-code available?

FAGL_ACTIVATE_OP is available only as of ECC 6 EHP 3 onwards and it is not possible to down port it to lower releases. For lower releases you could use "Remote consulting" service of SAP (Please refer to the note 83020 to know about remote consulting) for OIM activation of G/L accounts.

Q02. What is the function of the T-code FAGL_ACTIVATE_OP and what is the impact if you do not use this T-code for converting the account to OIM?

FAGL_ACTIVATE_OP is the T-code used to convert G/L account to open item managed account ( As a prerequisite the account has to be line item managed to use this functionality ).

You can choose between ordinary open item management and open item management for clearing specific to ledger groups as per your business requirements.

Explained below is the functionality of the T-code with respect to "Open item management" activation with the help of a simple example.

Assumption: Only one ledger is involved i.e ledger 0L.

Let us say that account balance is equal to 1000 EUR and 1000 EUR is distributed across the profit centre and segment as mentioned below for ledger 0L.

Ledger 0L:

Profit center P1 and Segment S1 : 400 EUR

Profit center P2 and Segment S2 : 600 EUR

The system performs the following steps to convert the account to "Open item management".

1. Some of the elementary level validations are performed before the actual process of activation starts.

2. 1000 EUR is written off from the original account to the account mentioned in the selection field under "Account for Transfer Posting" by posting a FI document.

This is called "Transfer posting" document because the amount is transferred from the original account to the account mentioned.

This document will also be behaving as the clearing document which will clear the documents which have been posted prior to the activation date.

After this transfer posting is done, the second type of transfer postings are done on the original G/L account to make the balance zero per account assignment.

3. A document is posted in ledger 0L with 400 EUR credit for profit center P1 and segment S1 and 400 EUR debit for profit center blank and segment blank.

4. A document is posted in ledger 0L with 600 EUR credit for profit center P2 and segment S2 and 600 EUR debit for profit center blank and segment blank.

The above postings are ledger specific postings to ledger group 0L.

Now, the balance on the account is zero per account assignment.

5. Account is blocked for posting in order to make sure that no postings happen while the activation process is on.

6. Open item management is activated.

7. As mentioned in point 2, the "Transfer posting" document will hard clear all the documents with posting date prior to activation date.

If the checkbox "Perform Reposting" is on, then a new single line is reposted back to the original account hence, maintaining the account balance as 1000 EUR as it was before the activation.

6. The 1000 EUR is reposted (as an open item) to the original account with the account assignment entered in the selection screen under "Account assignments".

Now, there will be only one single open item for the account. If you do not perform reposting, then this open item will not be created.

7. Closing checks are performed.

After this the account will be an open item managed account and the documents posted with posting date greater than the switch date will be eligible for clearing .

The repercussions of not using this T-code for converting the account to OIM are as mentioned below.

If you have a company code for which document splitting is active then the relevant tables of splitting ( FAGL_SPLINFO and FAGL_SPLINFO_VAL ) will not be having information for the historic documents. Hence, clearing will not be possible for these documents.

By using this T-code, the prior document gets hard cleared so you do not have to worry for them at all.

Hence it is advisable to always use this T code for ECC 6 EHP3 pack level and above for converting the account to OIM. Usage of any other means for converting the account to OIM will be dealt under Remote consulting service of SAP.

Q03. Why is it necessary to run the "update mode" in background?

It is mandatory to run the program in the background for update mode because the actual database updates happen here and this could be time consuming resulting in 'time out' termination. However, the test run can be done in the foreground because it is way less time consuming. It is always advisable to do the test run before the actual update.

For further details please refer to the note 1581977.

Q04. Some of the common scenarios under which the T-code fails to activate open item management and throws up a valid error message.

1. Error message FAGL_SWITCH_OP 018:

One of the pre requisite for converting an account to "Open item managed" is to have same balance in all ledgers. Balances can differ in the ledgers for three circumstances.

1. If ledger-specific postings are already present on this account.

2. If a ledger has been subsequently implemented in the system.

3. If the account has an inconsistency.

2. Error message FAGL_SWITCH_OP 002 / 044.

This error message can arise due to archiving which has taken place for prior year documents, and the balances from the totals no longer match the total of the line items.

3. Open item management has already been activated for an account and there are line items as well as open items on that account prior to the activation. In such cases, it is considered as master data change of the account which will be dealt under Remote Consulting.

4. Also, if you have more than one ledger in a company code and the fiscal year variant is different for different ledgers, then the program stops.

Please refer to the note 1356457 under the heading "Different fiscal year variants" for more details.

Q05. How do you read the execution log of FAGL_ACTIVATE_OP?

Please go to the T-code SLG1 and enter:

Object:     FAGL

Sub object: OPENITEM

Then press F8 to have a look at the required log.

Q06. What are the mandatory fields in the selection screen while trying to execute the T-code?

G/L account, Company code and the Switch date are the mandatory fields.

Apart from that, you can see that under "Account assignments" block, there are few fields which are mandatory based on the customizing for Document Splitting in New GL (in table FAGL_SPLIT_FIELD).

If your company codes do not having document splitting active, then none of the account assignments will be mandatory. A known program error related to this has been solved by the note 1776819.

Q07. What is an activation date?

The activation date is either the current date (if you choose any of the dates in the current period) or the last date of the posting period ( if you choose any of the past period or fiscal years ).

If you want to see all existing items as open items, the activation date must be earlier than the earliest posting date of all items.

Please refer to the note 1356457 under the heading "the activation date" for more details about the activation date.

For the New GL migrated system, the activation date must be equal to or greater than the migration date. It is not allowed to have a prior date than the migration date.

Q08. What does "Transfer posting" mean and how does it happen?

In cases where the account has a balance not equal to zero then in order to make the account balance zero, the current account balance is transferred to a dummy account via a posting referred to as "Transfer posting"

Thereafter, ledger specific transfer postings are done so that the balances in all the ledgers are same per account assignment per currency.

Please have a look at answer for Q02 for details about the transfer postings.

Q09. What does "Perform Reposting" mean?

By "Perform Reposting" checkbox being selected, the amount which was transferred from the original account using "Transfer postings" will be posted back to the original account hence, bringing the account balance back to the original amount. Therefore, a single open item will be created with the account assignments entered in the selection screen. This means that the original account assignments of the old open items are not considered for reposting.

If you want to keep the original account assignments, you can use the activation date for the OIM with a date BEFORE the first posting to the account.

With this all items would be set to OPEN ITEM managed, and so the account assignments should 'stay' in the system, as the transfer posting would not be required.

But, please keep in mind that the activation date must be GREATER than the migration date if you have done migration in your system.

Q10. What will be the impact if reposting is not done?

If the reposting is not done ( as this is optional ), in that case the single open item which is the summation of historic line items will not be created.

Q11. Will the T-code work if there are ledger specific postings present in the account prior to activation?

No. In case you have ledger specific posting(s) in the system then please ensure that the notes 1722813, 1772143 and 1776642 are implemented in the system.

It is better to use a new account in case you have ledger specific postings.

Please create OSS message under component FI-GL-GL-X if you want to use the same account in spite of having ledger specific postings. We shall analyze the situation and provide optimum solution.

Q12. Is it possible to reset the documents which have been cleared by FAGL_ACTIVATE_OP?

You should NEVER TRY TO RESET the cleared item because it leads to further inconsistencies in the system and SAP will NOT be responsible for the same.

The functionality of the program is such that the historical documents of the accounts gets hard cleared by a 'Transfer posting' document and you just have one single line item which is now open. This open item is the aggregate of all the historical lines items of the account.

The hard clearing is performed technically by the program.

If document splitting is active, the split information might be missing in the database for historical data and hence any hard cleared line items if reset can never be cleared again.

So, kindly choose the activation date based on your requirements.

Also have a look at the note 1779607 which tells very clearly that SAP does not perform any maintenance if data inconsistencies arise as a result of resetting of the hard cleared lines. Hence, this will be treated as Remote Consulting.

Q13. What are the necessary steps to be taken if the balances do not match in all the ledgers?

If the balances do not match in all ledgers, then you need to check if there are any ledger specific postings existing in the system.

If such is the case, then you need to open an OSS message under component FI-GL-GL-X.

Q14. How to resolve the error message "Balance of ledger &1 differs from the account balance"?

Please check if note 1404013 is already implemented in the system. If the error still exists, then kindly raise an OSS message in the component FI-GL-GL-X.

Q15. What is the impact if the customer has treasury postings on the account prior to activation?

Please refer to the note 1466099, the implementation of which will enable the tool to throw an error message for treasury related postings. However having treasury related postings, the account will not be considered for OIM activation.

Q16. What are the steps to be taken in case the extraction of data to BW fails after the usage of FAGL_ACTIVATE_OP?

Please check if you have already implemented the note 1454826. If the error still exists, then raise a message in the component FI-GL-GL-X.

Q17. What is the impact if the account has material posting(s) (technically at line item level BSEG-KOART = 'M')?

Accounts having material posting before activation date cannot be converted to open item managed accounts. You will get the error message FAGL_SWITCH_OP 093 while trying to switch to open item management. A known bug related to this issue has been resolved by the note 1497351.

Q18. What are the tables which get updated for a normal "Open item management"?

Tables BSIS (open items) and BSAS (cleared items) are updated.

Q19. What are the tables which get updated for a "Clearing specific to ledger group"?

Tables FAGLBSIS (open items) and FAGLBSAS (cleared items) are updated.

Q20. What is the pre-requisite for activation of "Clearing specific to ledger groups"?

The account which is being activated for clearing specific to ledger group must have the flag "Only balance in local currency" checked (technically at table level SKB1-XSALH = 'X'). Else the error message "FAGL_POSTING005; A/c with clearing specific to ldgr grp only permitted in local crcy" will occur during activation.

In case you already have documents posted to this account with the flag "Only balance in local currency" not checked, and then you need to take up a small conversion project for converting all the prior posted documents from current currency value to the local currency value. Else, the error message "Activation not possible; balances in foreign crcy exist for account" will occur during activation.

Q21. What is the general consistency check report which could be run for checking consistency per company code per fiscal year per period?

Report TFC_COMPARE_VZ is the basic consistency check report for New GL system to check the consistency of the company codes per fiscal year per period.

SAPF190 is the consistency check report for classic GL system.