Questionnaire FI

Finance/Controlling Questionnaire

© 1996 SAP America Inc. 1


Instructions

This questionnaire is a tool you can use to collect information about your business that will be useful for

tailoring the R/3 System to your business needs. You will need Microsoft Word for Windows to work

with this document. Enter your answers in the fields after the questions, using the TAB key to move

from field to field. You may save and later change your answers in this questionnaire just as you would

with any other Word document.

1 Organization Structure

1.1 Company Codes

A company code is an independent accounting unit for which a balanced set of books is

produced. It is a legal entity. Balance sheets and Profit and Loss statements are required at the

company code level.

What are the legal entities that constitute

your business?

Do you produce a Profit and Loss

Statement and a complete Balance Sheet

with retained earnings for each legal

entity? (If a complete balance sheet

including equity section is not produced,

then it is not a company.)

Yes No

Does each legal entity have a separate

Federal tax ID Number?

Yes No

Which of these entities are true operating

companies that transact business at arm’s

length with vendors and customers?

Which of these entities are holding

companies?



What is your percentage of ownership for

each legal entity?

Does one entity supply customers with

products valued as inventory under

another entity so revenue is reported in

the selling entity though the cost

(inventory) resides in elsewhere?

In which currency does each legal entity

operate?

In which currency does each legal entity

report?

When does each legal entity’s fiscal year

begin?

For each legal entity, list the number of

periods (both accounting and special

periods) used. Include the beginning and

ending dates for each period.

1.2 Business Areas

A business area is a special economic unit within a company code for which internal balance

sheet and profit and loss statements can be created.

Are you subject to segment reporting in

accordance with FAS14?

If your answer is yes, identify your industry

segments.

If not, do you generate a Profit and Loss

Statement including Earnings before

Taxes, and a complete balance sheet

(exclusive of Retained Earnings) for any

component of your company (for

example, division)?.



1.3 Chart of Accounts

Does each company code have its own

operating chart of accounts with a unique

numbering convention, or do all

companies use a common chart of

accounts with a consistent numbering

scheme?

If each company has its own operating

chart of accounts, are you interested in

standardizing the charts into a common

numbering scheme?

If each company has its own operating

chart of accounts, are they mapped to a

consolidation/corporate chart of accounts

for reporting?

Are any of the companies required to

report in a statutory chart of accounts?

(For example, France, Germany, etc.)

Do these companies use the statutory

chart of accounts as their primary

operating chart of accounts (i.e., all

posting and account analysis is made using

the statutory account code), or do they

use the statutory chart for reporting only?

Identify the different levels of

Consolidation (e.g., by Country, by Region,

etc.):

Please list the external financial views of

your organization by which you would

expect to produce complete Profit and

Loss Statements and Balance Sheets.

(Legal entity, country, regions, continents,

etc.)



How many general ledger accounts do you

currently have?

Describe your current general ledger

account number (for example, division,

cost center, natural account, expense

code).

In R/3, the FI general ledger account number consists only of the natural account. Other

information resides in different modules. For example, cost centers are defined in CO and are

not part of the FI account number.

For each company, how detailed is its

operating chart of accounts? Is it

optimized so that detail data (for example,

sub-ledger reconciliation account data) is

captured via control accounts?

If not, please explain why detail

information is being captured with the

chart of accounts instead of the

operational sub modules. (Assumption is

that there may be no integration between

modules.)

1.4 Consolidation

Identify the current system used to

generate consolidated financial

statements (e.g., Excel, Hyperion).

If you plan to replace the current system

with SAP, please complete questions

below.

Which of your legal entities represent a

minority interest?

How many monthly elimination entries do

you have?

Identify any situations where inventory is



transferred between companies, such that

profit/loss in inventory that has to be

eliminated on the consolidated books.

2 Financial Application

2.1 Master Records - GL Accounts

Do your general ledger accounts fall into

discrete number ranges (for example, cash

accounts are 1000 - 1999)?

Can you define groups of general ledger

accounts that require similar information

on the master record?

How do you wish to control general ledger

account creation and maintenance? Will it

be done at the company level or the

corporate level?

Do you currently use templates or

prototypes to create general ledger

accounts?

How many retained earnings accounts do

you maintain per company code?

How many reconciliation (control)

accounts do you need for each sub-ledger?

Example: Accounts Payable must have at

least one reconciliation account in

general ledger, but some

companies might choose to have

more (domestic payables, foreign

payables).

Do you wish to retain line item detail

(open item managed) for every general

ledger account? If not, what are the



exceptions?

Please examine the attached Frame Chart

of Accounts. Can this frame be used as a

starting point to build your chart of

accounts? (The advantage in using the

Frame Chart of Accounts is that you will

need to make only minor changes to the

Automatic Account Determination.)

2.2 General Ledger Transaction Processing

What types of general ledger transactions

do you process?

General Journals

Recurring Journals

Accruals/Deferrals

Inter-company

transactions

Incoming payments

Outgoing payments

Down Payments

Bills of exchange

Other

s:

What is the current structure of your

general ledger transaction number?

How is the number assigned by your

current system?

Internally Externally

Are your transaction numbers specific to

fiscal year, or do they flow from year to

year?

Do you have a need for repetitive or

model journal entries?

What types of reversing journal entries do

you have?

Do you calculate interest on any general

ledger accounts?

Do journal entries require any type of

approval before they are posted to the



general ledger?

Describe your current process for

reconciling sub-ledgers (accounts

receivable, accounts payable, fixed assets)

with your general ledger.

Describe any special requirements to

posting to particular general ledger

accounts (for example, expense accounts

require an associated cost center).

Is there information that you wish to

require for certain types of journal entries

or general ledger accounts?

Is there certain information that you wish

to be able to display when you view

journal entries online?

Describe your period-end closing process.

What types of daily, weekly, periodic, and

ad hoc transaction reports do you need for

general ledger?

2.2.1 Closing Operations

How do you carry out reconciliation in

accounting?

Manually

Automatically

Daily

Weekly

Monthly

When do you close current posting

period?

Always on same

date

When required

On certain day of

next month

Date for GL

accounting

Date for AR

accounting

Date for AP

accounting



Which evaluations belong to month-end

closing?

Balance audit trail

Open item list

Balance List

Advance return for

tax on sales and

purchases

Balance Sheet

Profit and Loss

statement

When do you close current fiscal year? Always on same

date

When required

On certain month

Date for GL

accounting

Date for AR

accounting

Date for AP

accounting

Which evaluations belong to year-end

closing?

Balance audit trail

Open item list

Balance List

Advance return for

tax on sales and

purchases

Balance Sheet

Profit and Loss

statement

2.3 Master Records - Customers (AR)

How many customer master records do

you currently have?




customer number?

Is the number internally assigned by your

current system or externally assigned by a

user?

Do you intend to keep your existing

number structure?

Are there classifications or groupings

currently assigned to your customers (for

example, grouping by local customers,

foreign customers, government

customers)?

If there are currently no classifications or

groupings for your customers, could you

create them? If so, what would they be?

What types of customer master records

are there?

Domestic Goods &

Invoice recipients

Abroad Goods &

Invoice recipients

Branches / Head

Offices

Agents / Sales Reps

Commission

Recipients

One-Time Customers

Employees

Is there any information that you wish to

require for certain customers?

Do you have any customers who are also

vendors?

Do you have one-time customers

(customers with whom you expect to do

business only once)?

List the payment terms that you offer your

customers (for example, 2% discount if

paid within 10 days, net amount due in 30

days).



Do you have holdback/retainage

agreements with your customers?

Do you have agreements with customers

which call for installment payments?

Have you defined acceptable ranges

(tolerances) within which your customer

payments can deviate from the amount

billed to them?

Does your company perform credit

management on customers? If so, please

describe the credit management process

in detail.

Do you wish to perform dunning (reminder

letters for overdue amounts) for your

customers? If so, please list your dunning

requirements.

Are any security access authorizations

needed?

Company Related

Department

Related

Personnel Related

Master Record

Related

Field Related

Field-Group Related

What criteria are there for deleting a

customer master?

No open items

No transactions for

more than 1 year

No transactions for

2 years

No transactions for 3

years

Balance is less than:

Other:

2.4 Customer Transaction Processing

What types of customer transactions do

you process (for example, customer



invoices, credit memos, customer

payments)?


transaction numbering?

Manually Assigned Automatically

Generated

Are your transaction numbers specific to

fiscal year, or do they flow from year to

year?

Are there foreign currency transactions?

Do you receive down payments (advance

payments) from your customers?

Do you charge customers interest on

overdue amounts?

If yes, is interest calculated on balances or

days overdue?

Do customer invoices require any type of


general ledger?

Describe any taxes which must be

calculated on customer transactions.

Describe your cash receipts process (for

example, manual, lock box).

Do you receive a single payment for

multiple invoices from your customers?

How are payments matched to customer

invoices?

What types of adjustments do you

perform on customer invoices (for

example, adjustments for defective

material, shipping damage)?





customer entries online?



accounts receivable?

2.4.1 Outgoing Invoices

How do you compare documents with

Sales & Distribution?

Number of

documents

Total amounts

Other:

What information do you include in

outgoing invoices?

Foreign Currency

Payment Terms

Tax on sales and

purchases

Texts

Invoice Number

Cost Center

PO number

Project

Personnel number

Asset number

Tax ID number

Dunning indicator

Other:

How do you make account assignments

when manually entering invoices or credit

memos?

Account assignment

stamp

Central Account

assignment

Local Account

assignment

in accounting

in sales

2.4.2 Incoming Payments

How do you process incoming payments? Manually

Automatically

Both

What types of payment do you process? Cash payments

Bank Transfers

Bills of exchange

Other:

How do you process payment differences? Difference is charged up to specific amount

Residual amount is carried forward



Grace period for cash discount deduction in

days

2.4.3 Dunning

What types of dunning notices do you

use?

Notices as payment reminders

notices with dunning levels

account statements

What is dunning frequency? Weekly

Bi-weekly

Other

Do you dun various customer groups at

different intervals?

Yes No

When do you dun an account? By due date for net payment

when grace period is exceeded

How many dunning levels do you have?

Do you calculate dunning charges or

interest?

Dunning fees at dunning level

Interest at dunning level

Do you vary the text on dunning notices? by dunning level

by customer groups

Both

2.5 Master Records - Vendors (AP)

How many vendor master records do you

currently have?


vendor number? Is it internally assigned by

your current system or externally assigned



by a user?

Do you intend to keep your existing

numbering structure?

Are there classifications or groupings

currently assigned to your vendors (for

example, grouping by local vendors,

foreign vendors, 1099 vendors)?

If there are no classifications or groupings

for your vendors, could you define some?

If so, what would they be?

Is there any information that you wish to

require for certain vendors?

Do you have any vendors who are also

customers?

Do you have one-time vendors (vendors

with whom you expect to do business only

once)?

List the payment terms that you offer your

vendors (for example, 2% discount if paid

within 10 days, net amount due in 30

days).

Do you have holdback/retainage

agreements with your vendors?

Do you have agreements with vendors

that call for installment payments?

Have you defined acceptable ranges

(tolerances) within which your vendor

payments can deviate from the amount

billed to you?

Do you always want to take any discounts

offered by your vendors?



2.6 Vendor Transaction Processing

What types of vendor transactions are

currently being processed (for example,

vendor invoices, credit memos, vendor

payments).

What is the current structure of the

transaction number?

Is the number internally assigned by your

current system, or externally assigned by

the user?

Are your current transaction numbers

specific to fiscal year, or do they flow from

year to year?

Are there foreign currency vendor

transactions?

Do you make down payments (advance

payments) to your vendors?

Do vendor invoices require any type of


general ledger?

Do your vendors charge interest on

overdue payments?

If yes, is interest calculated on balances or

days overdue?

Describe any taxes that must be calculated

on vendor transactions.

Do you issue a single payment for multiple

invoices from your vendors?

How are payments matched to vendor

invoices?





vendor entries online?



accounts payable?

2.6.1 Outgoing Payments

How do you pay vendors? Manually

Automatically

Both

Please describe the process:

How do you post outgoing payments? To an outgoing payments clearing account

per payment method

per bank

per payment method & bank

What types of automatic payment do you

process?

Checks

Bank Transfers

Postal Transfers

Bills of Exchange

Elimination w/

affiliated

companies

Checks/bills of

Exchange

Bank Transfers

Abroad

Other:

How often do you make payments? Daily

Once a week

Twice a week

Three Times a

week

Other:

How is the payment method determined

for automatic payments?

Indicator in Vendor Master

Indicator in Open Item document

Depending on Payment Amt.



Depending on number of items to be paid

How do you process cash discounts

received?

Manual Posting

Automatic Posting

Additional account assignment to Cost Center

of Products

How do you post exchange rate

differences in foreign currency payments?

Manual Posting

Automatic Posting

Additional account assignment to cost center

or products

When payment is made

In bank debit entry of payment

How do you plan funds? In each payment run

by a single bank

by several banks

Do you optimize payment methods? Optimization in bank transfers

Optimization in checks

No Optimization

How do you process vendor credit

memos?

Are Due immediately

The value date is set as the due date

Can be invoice-related

How are payment media created?

Are down payments paid automatically? Yes No



Are receivables from a vendor who is also

a customer considered during payment?

Manual Check

Automatic Clearing

No Clearing

Which evaluations do you have for

accounts payable accounting?

Vendor List

List of Account

Balances

Open Item List

Due Date List

Line Item List

Account Statement

2.7 Master Records - Banks

Please list the banks with which your

company has bank accounts (checking

accounts, payroll accounts, lockbox).

Please list the bank accounts within each

of the above banks.

Are any of these accounts held in a foreign

currency?

Do you perform electronic funds transfers

with your customers or vendors such that

you need to maintain their bank

information?

2.8 Taxes

Do you currently have an interface to any

third-party tax packages (for example,

Vertex or Taxware)?

Do you charge sales tax on your sales?

If yes, on what types of sales?

Please list the States, Counties, Cities

and/or Jurisdictions to which you remit

sales tax:

Do you have any international tax issues



on your sales?

Are you charged taxes on: Inventory Items

Assets

Expense items

Services

Any others? Please

specify:

Do you pay use tax?

If yes, please list the states to which you

remit use taxes:

Do you withhold taxes from your vendor

payments?

Do you receive Exemption Certificates

from your vendors for Withholding Taxes?

Do you have 1099 or 1042 Reporting

requirements for vendor Withholding

Taxes?

2.9 Currencies

List the local currency (operating currency)

for each of your company codes:

Do you report in currencies other than the

operating currencies of your companies?

Do you perform consolidated reporting

(grouping more than one company’s

results) in a different currency?

How do you currently maintain your

exchange rates? For example, are they

manually entered into a table or

downloaded from a service such as Dow

Jones?

What types of exchange rates do you



maintain (for example, average rate, bank

buying rate, bank selling rate)?

Do you enter customer or vendor invoices

in foreign currency?

If yes, how is the foreign currency rate

determined?

Do you perform foreign currency re-

valuations on either account balances (for

example, a bank account held in a foreign

currency) or open items (unpaid items for

customers or vendors)?

Describe your foreign currency revaluation

process and which valuation methods you

use:

2.10 Planning/Budgeting

What type of financial planning/budgeting

is currently performed (for example, by

company, by cost center, by product line)?

Please describe your planning process:

Do you plan on a monthly, quarterly, half-

yearly, or annual basis?

How do you distribute planned amounts to

individual planning periods (for example,

equal distribution among periods, seasonal

distribution)?

Does your planning take into consideration

non-financial (statistical) data?

2.11 Reporting

List the management reports that are

currently used:



By which organizational units are

management reporting functions

structured (for example, company,

division, product line)?

Do you require internal balance sheet or

profit & loss reporting (Business Area by

regions or branches)?

Do you want to report daily or weekly

balances? If yes, then you need Special

Ledger.

2.12 Consolidation

Do you require group consolidation across

companies?

Yes No

Is consolidation performed in steps?

Please describe the consolidation process.

Do you require consolidation by Business

Area?

Yes No

2.13 Correspondence

Please list the types of correspondence

that are currently produced for Accounts

Receivable and Accounts Payable (for

example, dunning letters, account balance

statements, checks, payment advice).

Will you need additional types of

correspondence to meet your future

needs?

3 Frame Chart of Accounts

Assets



1000 Petty cash

1050 Cash in Bank

1100 Deposits

1200 Accounts receivable

1201 Accounts receivable clearing

1220 Allowance doubtful accounts

1300 Raw material inventory

1301 Clearing account stock take results

1305 Trading goods inventory

1310 Packaging material inventory

1315 Semi finished goods inventory

1320 Finished goods inventory

1325 Spare parts inventory

1390 Reserve for obsolete inventory

1700 Assets

1710 Machinery & equipment

1720 Furniture & Fixtures

1800 Accumulated depreciation Assets

1810 Accumulated depreciation machinery & equipment

1820 Accumulated depreciation Furniture & fixtures

Liability

2000 Accounts payable

2001 AP clearing

2010 Clearing supplier discounts (Net method)



2050 Goods received invoice received clearing

2100 Sales tax accrued

2110 Use tax accrued

2200 Employee tax withheld FICA

2210 Employee tax withheld federal

2300 Accrued salary payroll

2310 Accrued hourly payroll

2400 Accrued sales rebate

2500 Freight clearing

2510 Freight provisions

2520 Customs duty clearing

2530 Freight other

Capital/Equity

3000 Capital stock

3010 Paid in capital

3990 Retained earnings

Revenues

4000 Sales revenues domestic

4100 Sales revenues export

4200 Freight revenues

4500 Discounts

4510 Price discounts

4520 Volume rebate



Cost of Sales

5000 Cost of goods sold finished goods

5010 Cost of sales other Materials

5100 Consumption raw material

5110 Consumption spare parts

5120 Consumption packaging material

5200 Inventory change finished goods

5210 Inventory change other

5300 Scrap

5310 Sample

5400 Gain/Loss inventory transfer

5410 Freight inventory transfer

5500 Gain/Loss inventory revaluation

5550 Gain/Loss inventory other

5600 Freight in

5700 Purchase discount

5710 Purchase price variance

5720 Small price difference variance

5999 Cost of goods sold miscellaneous

Admin Expenses

6000 Salaries and wages

6010 Direct labor

6020 Indirect labor



6030 Maintenance Labor

6040 Purchased labor

6050 Outside consultants

6100 Freight out

7000 Air transportation

7010 Rental car (travel)

7020 Training seminars

7030 Office supplies

7040 Telephone

7050 Insurance vehicle and equipment

7060 Depreciation

7070 Miscellaneous expense

8499 Miscellaneous expense

Other Income and Expenses

9000 Interest Income

4 Cost Center Accounting (CO)

4.1 Organization Structures

List the legally independent organizational

units that are to be illustrated in cost

accounting.

Are allocations within cost accounting

required between these units?

Yes No

Is an overall view of all units desired in Yes No



cost accounting?

Will access to cost center reports be

regulated through security authorizations?

Yes No

If yes, describe

4.2 Master Data in Cost Accounting

How are the cost accounting objects

organized?

by Cost Centers

by Orders

by Projects

If other, please

describe:

Estimate the number of objects that exist

for each object type. Indicate whether a

manual data transfer is possible or

practical.

When should the transfer of cost

accounting data take place?

At the change of the fiscal year

During the fiscal year

How many cost elements from financial

accounting are processed further in cost

accounting.

Which costing-based elements do you

have?

depreciation

interest

employee benefit

cost

Please list all others:



4.3 Actual Postings to Cost Accounting

4.3.1 Billings, Cash Receipts, Posting Documents

How will on-periodically occurring costs be

treated?

direct transfer from

financial accounting

imputed costs in


imputed costs in

cost accounting

How does reconciliation of imputed costs

between financial accounting and cost

accounting take place?

Manually

Via an allocation

cost center

Via a standard order

At which intervals?

4.3.2 Actual Activity Allocation

Do you execute direct actual activity

allocations between cost centers? This

means activity allocations made on the

basis of hours or other activity units.

Yes No

4.3.3 Personnel Costs

How do you treat employee benefit costs? direct transfer from


imputed costs in


imputed costs in

cost accounting

How does reconciliation of imputed costs

between financial accounting and cost

accounting take place?

Manually

Via an allocation

cost center

Via a standard order

At which intervals?



4.3.4 Capital Costs

Is cost accounting depreciation divided

into proportional and fixed elements?

Yes No

Is interest calculated on fixed assets? Yes No

How do you treat non-periodically

occurring costs for Capital Costs?

direct transfer from


imputed costs in


imputed costs in

cost accounting

4.3.5 Periodic Tasks in Actual

What assessments or distributions do you

carry out in actual? Prepare a list of

assessments you carry out in cost

accounting.

Describe the basis for the assessment of

the individual costs (such as number of

employees, water usage, etc.).

Do these assessments occur as conceived

in planning?

4.4 Planning in Cost Accounting

4.4.1 Cost Element Planning

In what level of detail does your cost

element planning take place?

In which periods does your cost element

planning occur?

How are revenues planned?

Are the cost elements divided into

proportional and fixed elements?



4.4.2 Periodic Allocations in Plan

Prepare a list of the individual assessments

you carry out in cost accounting. Describe

the basis for the assessments of the

individual costs.

Do you execute direct plan activity

allocations between cost centers? This

means activity allocations made on the

basis of hours or other activity units.

Yes No

Do you carry out plan imputed cost in cost

accounting?

Yes No

Costs falling outside periods are often

rounded off in cost accounting (such as

vacation bonus, contributions, etc.). List

the cost elements you treat in this manner

and whether they occur as conceived in

planning.

4.5 Reporting

What management reports do you

require?

Do you have Balance Sheet and Profit Loss

reporting on cost centers

Yes No

How do you report on current actual

costs?

by Cost Centers

by Business Areas

by Cost elements

by Product

Others - please

describe:

Do you perform a comparison of the above

actual costs to planned costs?

Yes No

Which types of profit do you display in

cost accounting?

Cost Center Profit

Profit Center Profit

Operating Profit

Other:



Cost Object Profit

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