SAP New GL Migration
- What are the general requirements to migrate to the new G/L?
- What are the most compelling reasons to go to the new general Ledger?
- What are the typical risk factors for new G/L migrations?
- There are many questions in my company on the benefits, costs, timing, pre-requisites, resource requirements, etc. How can we get educated quickly?
- What will SAP charge me to migrate to the new G/L?
- SAP OSS Note 1070629
- Information on SAP’s mandatory Back Office Migration Service and other New g/l migration information
IFRS SAP Systems Questions
- From a SAP systems perspective, what should companies be doing to prepare for IFRS?
- What is the most important thing I can do from a SAP perspective to be ready for IFRS?
- What are the best options for simultaneously tracking GAAP and IFRS in SAP?
- Tackling the IFRS Transition in the US
General IFRS Resources
SAP New GL Migration
What are the general requirements to migrate to the new G/L?
The most important requirement is to have completed your upgrade to ECC.
It is recommended that you do a g/l migration workshop with an SAP partner experienced with new g/l migrations.
Also, recommended is a high level blueprint and project plant.
After your company has developed a high level design (blueprint) and project plan, it is required to submit a new g/l migration questionairre to SAP.
It is recommended that you have an experienced new g/l migration partner assist with the questionairre to expedite approval within SAP.
After approval of the questionnaire by SAP, your SAP client partner will issue an SOW for a required risk mitigation service by SAP Migration Back Office.
The cost of the migration service varies depending on the features of the new g/l that you will use.
The migration is scenario based and executed via a cockpit tool.
In order to gain access to the migration cockpit tool and begin your migration testing, you must sign the SOW for the new g/l migration Back Office service.
Migrations must occur after a fiscal year-end is closed permanently and before the end of the current fiscal year.
This means if you are on a Jan 1 to Dec 31 fiscal calendar, after closing 2010 sometime in early 2011, you can perform your live migration until Dec 31, 2011.
What are the most compelling reasons to go to the new general Ledger?
- One of the most compelling and under publicized reasons to migrate to the new g/l is the opportunity to revamp and improve your SAP financial systems design.Consolidation of Ledgers (Statutory, Functional Area, Profit Center Accounting, Consolidation,and Parallel Ledgers) which allows a “single source of the truth” for statutory and management reporting. IFRS readiness – Parallel Accounting is the most important challenge of IFRS from a systems perspective and parallel ledgers in the new g/l is the leading practice solution.
- Parallel Accounting which allows multiple accounting principles in the same General Ledger with full sets of books for each accounting principle.
- Segment Reporting – (SEC/IAS required) reporting functionality is delivered with the ERP General Ledger.
- Lower TCO with common reports, user interfaces, closing process, and elimination of reconciliations.
- All new development over the past several years has gone into the new g/l.
What are the typical risk factors for new G/L migrations?
- Excessive migration execution time due to high volume of Open Items and/or Current Year Documents.
- Lack of adequate and relevant resources including people and systems resources to for design, build, and sufficient testing of new g/l design and migration process.
- Other competing projects which may present roadblocks in terms of prerequisites, resources, and dates.
- Insufficient support and sponsorship from upper management.
- Inexperienced partners who do not understand the new g/l migration process and all the lessons learned.
There are many questions in my company on the benefits, costs, timing, pre-requisites, resource requirements, etc. How can we get educated quickly?
It is recommended that you have an on-site new g/l migration workshop to educate your company on why you want to migrate, when, how, and with what design.
MI6 Solutions Group has delivered over 75 new g/l migration and IFRS planning workshops over the past five years. We have also been the primary architects and implementers of more new g/l migrations than any firm in North America. We did the first new g/l migration, the first multi-weekend migration, and the first multi-instance migration and are uniquely qualified to educate your company on why you would want to migrate to new g/l, how to migrate, develop a long term design, develop a project plan, and successfully migrate to the new g/l in an efficient, safe, and economical manner.
What will SAP charge me to migrate to the new G/L?
Generally, the only money required to be paid to SAP is for the mandatory New g/l Migration Back Office Service which generally runs $20k to $40k USD.
IFRS SAP Systems Questions
From a SAP systems perspective, what should companies be doing to prepare for IFRS?
Planning and developing a roadmap is the most important thing in order to insure all solution options are available.
It may take multiple fiscal years to prepare and implement IFRS depending on the current system landscape.
New G/L migrations are typically executed no sooner than the year following upgrade to ECC and IFRS go live is normally no sooner than year-end of the migration year.
It is recommended that companies have an IFRS and/or New g/l planning workshop and develop a roadmap for IFRS aligned with other business reporting requirements.
What is the most important thing I can do from a SAP perspective to be ready for IFRS?
By far the biggest issue is how to handle parallel accounting. It is expected that there will be a two to three year comparative (IFRS vs. US GAAP) reporting requirement with the introduction of IFRS in the US.
What are the best options for simultaneously tracking GAAP and IFRS in SAP?
The two preferred options are parallel accounting and the “account” solution. Please refer to the attached article Tackling The Transition to IFRS written by one of our principles comparing the options.
