SAP S/4HANA® Intercompany Matching and Reconciliation
Automated intercompany transaction managementSAP ICMR is your automated tool for managing intercompany transactions
Globally operating groups in particular face a variety of challenges when it comes to reconciling intra-group transactions. Legal requirements stipulate that intra-group activities must be reconciled and eliminated in the consolidated financial statements. A key hurdle is often the lack of transparency of business transactions between the legal companies and subsidiaries. For many companies, this leads to very labor-intensive and therefore time-consuming reconciliation, which can lead to considerable delays in the preparation of the financial statements. In addition, it is becoming increasingly difficult to carry out the reconciliation in a cost-efficient manner.
Motivation to switch to an automated solution
The increase in data quality
Data security
Higher degree of automation throughout the entire process
Linking and sharing for management reporting
Dealing with new requirements
Flexible reporting options
The lack of a group-wide process for reconciling intra-group transactions increases the reconciliation effort. The various reconciliation solutions may not be compatible with each other. Overloaded and opaque Excel files are often used for reconciliation and differences are then clarified via email. The group companies may also work with different ERP systems, which do not record all the necessary information for intercompany reconciliation. This and non-standardized communication channels make the reconciliation process time-consuming and cost-intensive. Differing accounting standards and different financial year periods also make reconciliation more difficult. Uniform reporting may also not be guaranteed. If the reconciliation is carried out by a group intercompany team, this can also result in a time-consuming exchange between the group accountants and those of the individual companies, as the central team cannot explain and resolve the differences.
The ICMR is designed to minimize precisely these difficulties. It is a centralized reconciliation tool that SAP and non-SAP companies can use to reconcile their transactions. It offers standardized communication channels, automated reconciliations and adjustment postings, workflow and reporting options. The trading partners can exchange information quickly and easily. The ICMR allows differences to be identified at an early stage, meaning that IC reconciliation can be started while the individual financial statements are being prepared .
Integrated In SAP S/4HANA
SAP ICMR is integrated as an out-of-the-box solution in SAP® S/4HANA Finance for Group Reporting and has been available in SAP S/4HANA® for Group Reporting On-Premise since Release 1909 and in the Group Reporting Cloud since Release 1908.
The ICMR solution is available with Group Reporting as standard, so there are no additional license costs for the tool.
The financial data is reconciled in real time without ETL processes (extraction, transformation and loading processes). An ETL process is the process in data processing in which data is extracted from various sources, transformed and then loaded into a target system or database. The ICMR process differs in that data entry, reconciliation, corrections and documentation are handled in SAP S/4HANA. The matching engine can read the data directly from the source database tables (ACDOCA, ACDOCU and ICADOCM).
Reconciliation at the level of the separate and consolidated financial statements
By integrating data from multiple sources, the effort required to obtain data can be reduced.
SAP ICMR can access the ACDOCA accounting database table, the BSEG table (accounting line items) and the ACDOCU consolidation database table as data sources . The data sources can be accessed in real time. Changed data can be viewed immediately during reconciliation. However, it is also possible to create a stable data status via a time stamp.
The data must be available in SAP S/HANA for reconciliation. If companies are not integrated in SAP S/4HANA, the data can be replicated via Central Finance, brought into SAP S/4HANA via API interface or via file upload. The file upload (CSV file) of the IC transactions is carried out via the Fiori app ” Flexible upload of matching” in the matching engine (ICADOCM).
Legal requirements
The ICMR (Intercompany Reconciliation Tool) ensures compliance with legal requirements. It documents the intercompany transactions and shows the transaction differences.
According to IFRS and HGB accounting standards, intercompany transactions, balances and transaction differences that occur during intercompany reconciliation must be recognized and treated correctly.
This arises from the fact that companies must provide a complete, accurate and transparent presentation of their financial position and performance (IFRS: IAS 1 (Presentation of Financial Statements) & IFRS 10 (Consolidated Financial Statements) and HGB: § Section 264 HGB (Obligation to prepare consolidated financial statements) & Section 297 HGB (Group management report)). The exact obligations in connection with ICMR, IFRS and HGB may vary depending on the company, industry and individual circumstances.
Automatic document reconciliation
Coordination on the basis of individual rules
Automatic adjustment of differences
Workflow scenarios
Integrated Group accounting
Matching options through the matching engine
Data reconciliation is based on individual matching rules and reconciliation cases, which enables efficient automated filtering of internal transactions.
Various functions can be used to customize which dimensions are compared with each other. For example, the reverse transaction currency amount can be reconciled within a tolerance.
Efficient communication
In-app communication
The approval or rejection of an automatic variance adjustment is carried out using the Approve reconciliation completion requests – Inbox app. This app can also be used to view details of the reconciliation. When the approval request is sent to a team, a team member can reserve it for processing or assign it to a specific user role.
E-mail traffic
If there is a need to clarify IC differences, it is possible to send an e-mail from the ICMR solution to the IC partner, for example. The booking document information contained in the e-mail can be controlled using templates.
Notes
To facilitate the clarification of differences, notes can be attached to the documents to be reconciled in the ICMR solution.
Notifications
To facilitate the clarification of differences, notes can be attached to the documents to be reconciled in the ICMR solution.
Group accounting
A new form of elimination measure has been integrated into SAP ICMR. This is no longer based on a reclassification method, but on automatic posting rules. The new elimination measure can split the differences into transaction differences, currency translation differences and other differences. The ICMR solution thus supports the entire reconciliation process up to intercompany elimination.
Focus on strategic management
Reasons for differences to eliminate the discrepancies
Reporting: Group companies can view the status of the reconciliation
Disclosure of transaction, currency translation and other differences
Acceleration of the IC coordination process
Real-time reconciliation, resulting in more frequent and earlier reconciliation in the consolidated financial statement process
Automation leads to time and cost savings and ensures that requirements are met
With concellens: Choosing the Right SAP Setup
concellens is synonymous with excellent consulting services in corporate consolidation. We help you find the right SAP setup for your company. To do so, we rely on a clearly structured approach:
Preliminary Meeting
What systems and licenses are you currently using? What are your goals?
Strategic Workshop
Together, we’ll analyze the complexity of your group consolidation requirements and determine whether BCS/4HANA or Group Reporting is the best solution for you.
System Preview
In a demo system, we’ll show you live how the system works and what features you can expect. We’ll provide the necessary sample data for this.
Minutes of the Results
To help you make an informed decision, we will provide you with a detailed decision-making template that includes specific recommendations for action.
Why concellens?
With our expertise in SAP consolidation solutions and a clearly structured consulting process, we help you find the optimal solution for your needs—whether you’re migrating from a non-SAP system, streamlining your existing SAP environment, or implementing a completely new consolidation system.
Ms. Nora Oehme
Senior Business Consultant
Mr. Philipp Benz
Project Manager
Your Contacts
If your company is facing the challenge of introducing a new consolidation system or optimizing existing processes, arrange a non-binding preliminary meeting today. Let’s work together to ensure that your group consolidation is future-proof and efficient.
start now
If your company is facing the challenge of implementing a new consolidation system or optimizing existing processes, schedule a no-obligation preliminary consultation today. Let’s work together to ensure that your group consolidation is future-proof and efficient.
Our other SAP solutions in group management
SAP S/4HANA® Finance for Group Reporting
SAP S/4HANA Finance for Group Reporting is a powerful solution that helps companies to efficiently consolidate and analyze financial data at group level.
SAP® Business Consolidation for SAP BW/4HANA
SAP BCS/4HANA optimizes business consolidation with a robust platform for financial data collection, analysis and reporting.
SAP S/4HANA® Intercompany Matching and Reconciliation
SAP S/4HANA’s integrated solution ICMR facilitates intra-group reconciliations, makes the process more transparent and automated, and accelerates the transition to consolidated financial statements.
SAP® Strategic Enterprise Management Business Consolidation System
SAP SEM-BCS optimizes consolidation processes, collects and analyzes financial data, meets compliance requirements and improves reporting.
SAP S/4HANA® Group Reporting Data Collection
The Group Reporting Data Collection App collects, analyzes and transfers data to the consolidation system, saves time and resources and improves reports.
SAP® Business Planning and Consolidation
SAP BPC optimizes financial planning, budgeting, forecasting and consolidation. It manages complex financial data, creates accurate reports and supports well-founded decisions.
SAP® Enterprise Controlling and Consolidation System
EC-CS is stable and proven for many SAP customers. With the introduction of S/4HANA, customers are faced with the decision of how they want to proceed with EC-CS, especially in the brownfield approach and for non-S/4HANA customers.
SAP Analytics Cloud®
SAP Analytics Cloud is a cloud-based platform for business analytics. It enables data analysis, business intelligence, planning and forecasting to make data-driven decisions and improve business performance.
Our Latest Articles
Knowledge
SAP® BCS/4HANA or SAP® S/4HANA Finance for Group Reporting: Which Consolidation Solution Fits Your Group Strategy?
Implementing or modernizing a consolidation solution is one of the most strategically important decisions in the finance department. It not only affects the Many corporations are currently facing a pivotal decision: What should their future consolidation architecture…
SAP® BCS/4HANA or SAP S/4HANA® Finance for Group Reporting? A Decision-Making Guide for CFOs on Choosing the Right SAP Consolidation System
Implementing or upgrading a consolidation solution is one of the most strategically important decisions in the finance department. It affects not only the consolidated financial statements, but also the quality of management information, the level of automation in…
SAP S/4HANA® Cloud Public Edition 2602.2 (HTC8)
With the release of SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition 2602 and the associated hotfixes, SAP is consistently developing Group Reporting further. The focus is clearly on greater flexibility in rule definition, improved transparency in reporting and stronger integration…