After the creation and activation of the operating concern in SAP S/4HANA, you need to activate profitability analysis.
First, however, you need to assign controlling areas to the operating concern to activate profitability analysis in the controlling functionality.
To assign controlling areas to the operating concern, follow the configuration path: Enterprise Structure > Assignment > Controlling > Assign Controlling Area to Operating Concern. The transaction shows an overview of all controlling areas in the system in the figure below in the COAr (controlling area) column. In the OpCo (operating concern) column, you can see which controlling areas have an operating concern assigned. In our example, controlling area Z100 has been assigned for operating concern Z100 created earlier. You can assign several controlling areas to an operating concern if the controlling areas are assigned the same fiscal year variant as the operating concern. After confirming the assignment by pressing (Enter), the system displays the name of the operating concern in the Name column. Press (Ctrl)+(S) or click to save the assignment.
After the controlling areas are assigned to the operating concern, you need to activate profitability analysis in the controlling area via Transaction KEKE or by following the configuration path Controlling > Profitability Analysis > Flows of Actual Values > Activate Profitability Analysis. As shown in the figure below, the left COAr (controlling area) column provides an overview of the controlling areas available in the system.
The From FY (from fiscal year) column indicates as of which year the controlling area has been valid. The Op.co (operating concern) column indicates whether and, if so, which operating concern is assigned to the controlling area. The figure below shows controlling area Z100 being activated for both costing-based and account-based profitability analysis by selecting the corresponding checkboxes. Remember, account-based profitability analysis is actually margin analysis. Save the changes with (Ctrl)+(S) or the save button.
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After you’ve saved the activation, you can see in the next figure that the checkboxes in the controlling area for costing-based and account-based profitability analysis are checked.
In the operating concern, you define which type of profitability analysis you want to use. You can activate margin analysis, costing-based profitability analysis, or both types of profitability analysis.
If you use SAP S/4HANA Finance, it’s recommended to activate margin analysis. If you’re working with SAP S/4HANA, you can activate both types of profitability analysis, whereas in SAP S/4HANA Cloud, you can only activate margin analysis.
Editor’s note: This post has been adapted from a section of the book Profitability Analysis with SAP S/4HANA by Kathrin Schmalzing.