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SAP Central Finance

SAP Central Finance (cFIN)

SAP Central Finance enables customers with more than one older SAP ERP system to replicate FI documents from these SAP ERP systems into a central Finance system running on SAP S/4HANA. In the SAP Central Finance system customer can leverage the capabilities of SAP HANA to achieve a organization-wide financial view with real-time reporting capabilities.

Integration Scenario

SAP Central Finance doesn't operate as a standalone system but rather depends on data replication from other SAP ERP systems. This FI documents are usually replicated using SAP SLT. Master data is usually done using IDocs.

 

So when it comes to monitoring, verifying the data flow completeness is only a part of the whole monitoring scenario. To monitor the entire SAP Central Finance scenario, monitoring the following components should be considered

For Master Data Replication:

  • Monitoring, Alerting and Analytics for IDocs

For Transactional Data:

  • Monitoring and Alerting for the SAP SLT data replication
  • Monitoring, Alerting and Analytics for AIF messages
  • Monitoring and Alerting for Document (Data Flow Verification)

The setup for Data Flow Verification is described on this portal page. For the other components please follow the links to the setup pages. 

Technical Prerequisites

To be able to monitor SAP cFIN documents via Data Flow Verification you need:

  • FRUN 2.0 Feature Pack 02

Advanced Integration Monitoring Setup

Preparations in the Central Finance System

The Data Flow Verification data collection in FRun is based on existing comparison reports in the Central Finance system:

Report Description cFIN Transaction
FINS_CFIN_DFV_CO_DOC_COUNT Use this report to check whether all internal controlling documents (secondary postings) that have been transferred with the CO interface, have been posted in the Central Finance system as expected. FINS_CFIN_DFV_CO_NUM
FINS_CFIN_DFV_FI_DOC_COUNT Use this report to check whether all journal entries (accounting documents) from the source system have been posted in the Central Finance system as expected. FINS_CFIN_DFV_FI_NUM
FINS_CFIN_DFV_PCA_DOC_COUNT Use this report to check whether EC-PCA documents or balances are replicated to the Central Finance system correctly. FINS_CFIN_DFV_PCA_CN
FINS_CFIN_DFV_CMT_DOC_COUNT Use this report to check whether all commitment line items have been posted in the Central Finance system as expected. FINS_CFIN_DFV_CMTNUM

Before configuring the data collection in FRun, variants for the comparison reports need to be created in the Central Finance system. You need at least one variant for each source system. Additionally to the source system name you can add further source system specific filters like the controlling area or the company code.

  1. Call the transaction for the comparison report that you want to set up
  2. Select the source system
  3. Enter additional parameters
  4. Click Goto > Variants > "Save as Variant..."

Please note: Do not maintain time-related parameters, like date or period in your variant. Time-based settings for the report run are calculated by FRun using additional input parameters in the setup session.

For more information on the cFIN comparison reports please refer to: https://help.sap.com/S4_OP_CFIN > Configuration: Central Finance > Comparison Reports

Available Monitoring Categories

The available monitoring categories are:

  • Data Flow Verification: Monitor the correctness of the data that has been replicated from the source systems to the Central Finance system

Available Filter Options

Data Flow Verification

In the Data Flow Verification setup in FRun you first select the comparison report you want to use. The available reports are described on the section "Preparations in the Central Finance System" above. 

After selecting the comparison report you can further restrict the selection via the following parameters:

  • Variant Name: Variant for report selection screen (as created in the cFIN system before the setup)
  • Time Period: CURRENT (current fiscal period), TODAY (today) or YESTERDAY (yesterday)
  • Delay: Only relevant if CURRENT is selected for the parameter Time Period. Delay defines how many days the data collector is looking back, e.g. if the collector runs on the first day of Nov (new current period) but the data collection shall collect data from the end of the previous period (e.g. to verify period end closing).
  • Date: ENTRY_DATE (date of technical record creation) or POST_DATE (financial posting date of record)

Not all parameters are relevant for each reports. The following table shows which parameters can be set for which report:

Report Possible parameters
FINS_CFIN_DFV_CO_DOC_COUNT Variant, Date, Time Period, Delay
FINS_CFIN_DFV_FI_DOC_COUNT Variant, Date, Time Period, Delay
FINS_CFIN_DFV_PCA_DOC_COUNT Variant, Date (ENTRY_DATE only), Time Period, Delay
FINS_CFIN_DFV_CMT_DOC_COUNT Variant, Time Period, Delay

Available Metrics

For Data Flow Verification the following metrics are collected:

  • Number of missing documents for today
  • Number of missing documents for yesterday
  • Number of missing documents for current period
  • AIF Messages with status error for today
  • AIF Messages with status error for yesterday
  • AIF Messages with status error for current period

For all metrics the following filter parameters are available:

  • Report Name: Select the report from the drop-down box
  • Client: Client in the SAP cFIN system
  • Source System: Enter the source system the documents are replicated from to the cFIN system
  • Variant Name: Select a variant created in the cFIN system (Depends on the selected report)
    Note: You should either enter a source system or select a variant, not both. 
  • Time Period: Select the respective timeframe for the metric
  • Date: ENTRY_DATE (date of entry) or POST_DATE (posting date)