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www.truqua.com December 2021 Whitepaper SAP Central Finance: Deployment Strategies and the Benefits of a Finance First Approach GILBERTOPEREZ, SAP Financials Senior Managing Consultant M ATTHEWMONTES, SAP Financials Managing Consultant H OWARDA. LAKIER, Finance Transformation Go To Market Leader © 2021 IBM What Deployment Strategies are Available for SAP Central Finance? What are the Benefits of SAP Central Finance, a Finance First Deployment Approach for SAP S/4HANA? •Unified Reporting •SingleSourceofTruth •Financial Consolidation •Central Receivables and Payables •Shared Services Enablement •Fast M&A and Divestiture •Clean / Harmonized Master Data •Adaptable Data Mapping •Iterative and Reloadable •LeadingPractice •QuickerValueDrops Additional Information •Resources •Next Steps •About the Authors www.truqua.com © 2021 IBM Recap SAP Central Finance Deployment Strategies and the Benefits of a Finance First Approach What Deployment Strategies are Available for SAP Central Finance? www.truqua.com SAPCentralFinanceisaminimallydisruptive, FinanceFirstapproachtoSAPS/4HANAthat canalsobeasteppingstonetoafullscope SAPS/4HANAsystem(see“How toUseSAP CentralFinanceasaSteppingStonetoSAP S/4HANA”).WithSAPCentralFinancethereare amyriadofpermutationstoenable transformation(Figure1).Establishingthe strategyandvisionofanSAPS/4HANA enabledtransformationmustbeapriorityprior to,orearlyin,thetransformationjourney.Most clientswillstartwithCentralReportingand standardizingtransactionalandmasterdata whileleavingfinanceoperationsfora subsequentphasesinceitmayinvolveother processownersandteams,suchasProcureto PayorOrdertoCash.Acarefulevaluationof businessprocessesintegrationwithothernon- financialfunctions,sourcesystemreleaseand design,needformasterdataharmonization, andexecutivealignmentarecriticalforsuccess beforecommittingtoadeploymentstrategy (see"SAPCentralFinance:KeyDesign DecisionsforReportingDeployments”). SAP Central Finance Deployment Strategies and the Benefits of a Finance First Approach Whilethereplicationandmappingoffinancial datatoanewfinancialdatamodelhasits challenges,thatdoesn'trestrictthemigration ofessentialoperationsinthefirstgolive(see “IdentifyWhatBuildingBlockstoAdopt”in “HowtoUseSAPCentralFinanceasa SteppingStonetoSAPS/4HANA”). Asoutlinedintheotherwhitepapersinthis series,CentralReportingisthefoundational, firststepofSAPCentralFinance implementationsandmaybecombinedwitha deploymentofothercapabilities. Asaleading practice,projectsshoulddevoteenoughtime toalignmasterdatatothenewfinancialdata modelandstabilizethenewSAPCentral Financesystemforashortperiodoftimeto validatetheoutcomesbeforeadding additionalprocessscopeaspartofan additionaldeployment.Forthatreason, scopingthemasterdataeffort,suchasthe needforanewChartofAccountsorlarge- scalechangetofinancemasterdatato supportchangestofinancialreporting,isa criticalfactorforanontimegolive. AsapartofaCentralReportingproject,many clientsfindsignificantvalueindeployingthe financialconsolidationcapabilitiesofSAP GroupReporting–theSAProadmap capabilityforFinancialConsolidationwithin SAPS/4HANAthatleveragestheuniversal journaldatamodel(UniversalConsolidation JournalEntriestableACDOCU)andreplaces SAPBusinessPlanningandConsolidation (BPC). © 2021 IBM Figure 1. Illustrative approach for SAP Central Finance as a stepping stoneto a Full Scope SAP S/4HANA System www.truqua.com ClientsoftenpairCentralReportingwithFinancialPlanningandAnalysis(FP&A) andfinancialcloseautomationtofurtherderivesignificantbusinessvalueininitial SAPCentralFinancedeployments.DependingonthecurrentFinancialPlanning capabilities,clientsfindupgradedcapabilitiesinthisspaceyieldimproved insightsandmoreaccurateforecastingthatleadstobetterrevenueand operatingmarginattainmentandoverallfinancialperformance.Clients consideringFinancialCloseautomationaspartoftheirSAPCentralFinance journeyshouldexpecttoimprovegovernanceandefficacyoftheirperiodend (month-endandyear-end)close,leadingtoenhancedcontrolandreducedtime topublishfinancialstatements. AddingadditionalscopeforPhase1shouldbedonebasedoncarefulanalysisfor othercomponents,whichmayincludeCentralProcessingandTreasury operations,astheserequireamatureenvironmentandlimitthecapacityto reloadSAPCentralFinancewithoutcomplicationsthatresultin: •Incorrectmapping •Changingtheoriginaldesign •Invalidatingtransformationrules •Missingexternalandinternalreportingobjectivessetatthebeginningofthe project WhenyoudevelopyourFinanceTransformationroadmap,avoidcommon mistakes,suchasquickwinsfromreplicatingdataandacceleratingscopeto adoptinPhase1attheexpenseofoptionalityneededforsubsequentphasesor asystemthatislessviableasapotentialsteppingstonetoafullscopeSAP S/4HANAsystem. CarefulplanninginPhase1leadstoPhase2optionsoftransitioningoperations fromSAPCentralFinancesourcesystemsintoSAPCentralFinancethrough controlledintegrationforSupplyChainandOrdertoCash.Lessonslearnedfrom industryexperiencesaysthatlosingsightofPhase2goalsresultinlimitsto optionsorrequiresadditionaleffortorcost: •Afocusonquickwinsbyreplicatingmasterdataasisvsimplementingadata cleansingandharmonizingstrategyforoptimallong-termoutcomes •Ataxenginestrategyrecreatingtheexistingstrategywhenfuture deploymentsrequiredataharmonizationandrecalculation •Avalidationstrategyusingonlythestandardout-of-the-boxSAPCentral Financereporting © 2021 IBM What Deployment Strategies are Available for SAP Central Finance? SAP Central Finance Deployment Strategies and the Benefits of a Finance First Approach
