SAP FICO Consultant – Part 3: Capabilities of SAP Financials

So far you probably have an access to SAP IDES and have a basic understanding for the business processes which are covered in SAP ERP. Next important knowledge that you should develop is to learn what SAP ERP Financials modules are capable of. Having good understanding of what SAP FICO capabilities is critical success factor for every SAP FICO professional. It is much more important to know what are the functionalities of SAP FICO than knowing a few more configuration transactions.

You will be surprised how many unnecessary customer ABAP developments exists in the SAP world, because of missing knowledge in SAP ERP Standard functionalities. This knowledge is really important, not only because ABAP development will take more resources for implementation, but it will also require more testing, more maintenance during major updates and most probably will be less integrated with other SAP objects resulting.

Even though there are many professionals that have many years of SAP FICO user experience, I strongly believe that they did not cover more than 30-40% of the  SAP FICO functionalities. It was the same after my 5 + years experience in accounting and controlling with SAP. You should also keep in mind that the process with learning what SAP is capable of will never be completed. There are too many functionalities and SAP is constantly adding new ones with each new enhancement package.

Basic knowledge of SAP FICO capabilities you could get from many places over the internet, but they will be either incomplete or you will loose too much time in finding the appropriate resources for every sub-module. Probably official SAP documentation is a very good place to find information for SAP modules, but it is not suitable for intensive reading.

For filling this gap of missing knowledge, I had great experience with one SAP Press book. It is called Discover SAP ERP Financials (2nd eddition). Here you will find quick links in Amazon.com and Amazon.uk.

Following bullet points are the main chapters in the book. You could get an overview of what is covered in the book:

• Overview
• General Ledger
• Receivables and Payables
• Taxation
• Bank Accounting
• Capitalization of Investments
• Travel Management
• Payroll Accounting
• Consolidation
• Overhead Cost Controlling
• Project Accounting
• Product Costing
• Profitability Analysis
• Financial Planning
• Collections, Dispute, and Credit Management
• Cash and Liquidity Management
• Treasury and Risk Management

I really think that this book is definitely a must read for every SAP FICO Consultant. The book was primarily intended for business people who are evaluating or participating in SAP implementation project.  In these around 500 pages you will not find screen by screen “how-to” guides which could be unsatisfactorily for some, but you will be able to quickly cover every major area of SAP Financials. In the end of every major chapter you will find case studies from which you could gain valuable practical knowledge.

There is no official SAP course that will make you familiar in SAP Financials faster than this book. I really doubt that there is a better book than this one for getting an overview of the functionalities in SAP FICO. Let me share with you one unforgettable quote from the book:

“Remember the widely known, often forgotten, and seldom acknowledged truism: automating a mess usually results in an automated mess!”

Enjoy and have fun 🙂