SAP Group Reporting

Historically, we have dealt with the following solutions in SAP R/3:

• SEM BCS (Business Consolidation): A full-featured, BW-based application; Almost all consolidation steps, from adjustments to the individual financial statements to elimination of interim profit and capital consolidation, are supported. In this solution, the data of the individual financial statements is first loaded into BW in so-called info providers. The BCS application is then based on these information providers.
  For customers who have successfully relied on SEM BCS so far and want to maintain this on S/4, this solution will continue to be available in the BCS/4HANA product. BCS has been in maintenance mode since 2011; This is now in place until 2040!
• EC-CS (Enterprise Controlling, Consolidation): This solution has been in use on an R/3 basis for 25 years now. EC-CS is directly integrated with SAP FI and the various FI ledgers. This is the main technological advantage of EC-CS over BCS. Thus, EC-CS also forms the technological basis for the development of  S/4HANA Finance for Group Reporting (S/4GR).

In the case of a transition to S/4, there are therefore also migration paths from EC-CS to S/4GR and the possibility of parallel operation as part of the transition to S/4GR.

Summary

Enterprise Controlling Consolidation (EC-CS)

• EC-CS is SAP's consolidation solution in SAP ERP (until the end of 2027)
• EC-CS is currently (until the end of 2025) available in SAP S/4HANA
• EC-CS in SAP S/4HANA is part of the "Compatibility Scope"
  EC-CS's right of use expires at the end of 2025

S/4HANA for Group Reporting (S/4GR)

• S/4GR is SAP's strategic consolidation solution in SAP S/4HANA
• Both solutions, EC-CS and S/4GR, offer tight integration between financial accounting and group financial statements
• Considering the same architectural paradigm of integration, EC-CS acts as the "core" of S/4GR
  Various shared software objects between EC-CS and S/4GR
• Thanks to these similarities, the transition ("migration") from EC-CS to S/4GR is technically supported
  Technical requirements: EC-CS runs on SAP S/4HANA

Technically, consolidation is fully integrated under SAP S/4HANA: Consolidation (ACDOCU table) can access the data of the individual financial statements (ACDOCA table) immediately.

Basic functions of SAP S/4GR in the current edition:

• Direct data access to the individual financial statement data in Financial Accounting under S/4HANA
• Easy integration of non-SAP data
• Currency conversion
• Data Validation
• Intercompany reconciliation with drill-down capability
• Group Allocation
• Capital Consolidation
• Manual Postings of Group Documents
• Reporting integration with SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC)

The full use of the functions and processes of S/4GR is possible with the help of Fiori Apps; however, some functions can still be executed via SAP GUI.

A possible target architecture for SAP Group Reporting also includes other applications that are available under S/4 and can be connected. Among other things:

• ICMR (Intercompany Matching and Reconciliation);
  ICMR provides a real-time solution that can be used to reconcile intra-group business transactions in a simpler and automated manner.
• SAP S/4HANA Advanced Financial Closing (AFC);
  in particular, the ICMR component.