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Enterprise Structure

In this section, you will learn how to portray the specific organizational structure of your business in the R/3 System.

To help you portray your company structure, different Accounting, Logistics and Human Resources organization units are provided.

First analyze the structures and procedures in your company, and then match them to the SAP structures. There are various organization elements defined as examples in the standard version. Normally these would not cover all your needs. Extend the elements as required.

During the clarification stage, work with the structures delivered by SAP. In order to obtain a high degree of indentification and acceptance from project members and user departments from the start, you may have to change some of SAP's terminology.

You should limit the number of persons authorized to maintain organization elements. Define the authorization profiles accordingly. As soon as your organization units are ready, access should be locked so that no other changes can be made.

Note

The definition of organization units is a fundamental step in your project. It is a critical factor in how the project will be structured.

You should not use more organization units than necessary. Only use new organization units if this is required by the existing data structures.

Once you have decided on an organizational structure it is not easy to change it.

Define company

In this step you can create companies. A company is an organizational unit in Accounting which represents a business organization according to the requirements of commercial law in a particular country.

You store basic data for each company in company definition. You only specify particular functions when you
customize in Financial Accounting. Company G0000 is preset in all foreign key tables.

In the SAP system, consolidation functions in financial accounting are based on companies. A company can comprise one or more company codes.

When you create a company you should bear in mind the following points relating to group accounting:

• If your organization uses several clients, the companies which only appear as group-internal business partners, and are not operational in each system, must be maintained in each client. This is a precondition for the account assignment of a group-internal trading partner.
  
• Companies must be cataloged in a list of company IDs which is consistent across the group. The parent company usually provides this list of company IDs.
  
• It is also acceptable to designate legally dependent branches 'companies' and join them together as a legal unit by consolidation.
  

Recommendation

SAP recommends that you keep the preset company ID G00000 if you only require one company. In this way you reduce the number of tables which you need to adjust.

Activities

Create your companies.

Further notes

All company codes for a company must work with the same operational chart of accounts and fiscal year. The currencies used can be different.


Edit, Copy, Delete, Check Company Code

In this activity you create your company codes. The company code is an organizational unit used in accounting. It is used to structure the business organization from a financial accounting perspective.

We recommend that you copy a company code from an existing company code. This has the advantage that you also copy the existing company code-specific parameters. If necessary, you can then change certain data in the relevant application. This is much less time-consuming than creating a new company code. See "Recommendations" for more details about copying a company code.

If you do not wish to copy an existing company code, you can create a new company code and make all the settings yourself. You define your company codes by specifying the following information:

• Company code key
  

You can select a four-character alpha-numeric key as the company code key. This key identifies the company code and must be entered when posting business transactions or creating company code-specific master data, for example.

• Company code name
  

• Address data

The address data is necessary for correspondence and is printed on reports, such as the advance return for tax on sales/purchases.

• Country currency

Your accounts must be managed in the national currency. This currency is also known as the local currency or the company code currency. Amounts that are posted in foreign currency are translated into local currency.

• Country key

The country key specifies which country is to be seen as the home country; all other countries are interpreted as "abroad". This is significant for business and payment transactions because different forms are used for foreign payment transactions. This setting also enables you to use different address formatting for foreign correspondence.

• Language key
• 
  
• The system uses the language key to determine text automatically in the language of the relevant country. This is necessary when creating checks, for example.
  

You can set up several company codes per client to manage the accounts of independent organizations simultaneously. At least one company code must be set up in each client.

To take full advantage of SAP system integration, you must link company codes to the organizational units of other applications. If, for example, you specify a CO account assignment (for example, cost center or internal order) when entering a document in FI, then the system must determine a controlling area to transfer this data to CO. You must specify how the system is to determine the appropriate controlling area.

The system derives the controlling area from the company code if you assign it directly to a company code. You can also assign several company codes to one controlling area.

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