Twice a year – in February and August – SAP introduces new functions and optimizations in the SAP Public Cloud with the so-called Release Upgrade. These regular updates ensure that companies are always up to date with the latest technology and can benefit from optimized processes and new possibilities at the same time.
The next major update is due in August 2025: Release Upgrade 2508. Once again, SAP is bringing innovations that will support companies in their daily work and make their processes even more efficient.
In this article, we give you an initial overview of the upcoming release – summarized in a clear and compact way for Group Reporting.
With the current upgrade, SAP is revising existing processes and introducing new functions that further automate processes, increase user-friendliness and open up innovative possibilities. Below you will find an overview of the most important new features.
Enables the creation of AI-supported analyses and evaluations directly in the review booklet. This function is currently only available for the income statement using the nature of expense method (GKV) and requires a separate license.
The AI automatically creates a report in Group Reporting in which key figures such as EBIT, EBITDA or the financial result are analyzed and presented visually. The focus is on the systematic presentation of developments, anomalies and deviations in order to provide a sound basis for management reporting and the evaluation of results.
In future release upgrades, the functionality will probably also be extended to other reporting areas such as balance sheet and cash flow, so that a more comprehensive AI-supported analysis will be possible in the review booklet in the medium term.
You can define which fields, e.g. areas of the consolidation chart of accounts, a validation for posting lines from SAP Finance should refer to.
This function is used for various purposes when creating validations. For example, to check the asset and liability values in the balance sheet separately from a validation of the income statement. This makes it easier to check and display the areas of the chart of accounts separately.
Without a restriction, the validation is applied to all fields of the selected posting levels for the integrated data transfer from SAP Finance to Group Reporting.
When the parent company in the group changes, SAP now delivers automatic posting scenarios and rules so that this organizational change is posted almost fully automatically. The cumulative values of the balance sheet are adjusted for all consolidation units in the group – without affecting the result.
The parent company is changed using the “Manage consolidation group structure” app. The consolidation methods for the affected units are adjusted in this app.
The automatic posting logic supplied in advance now makes it easier to carry out an organizational change within the Group.
This function can be used to define validation rules that compare values between two versions – for example, between an actual and a plan version (e.g. forecast). For example, you can check whether the forecast data in certain areas of the balance sheet and income statement match the actual values or whether the data transferred from the actual version to the forecast version is complete and correct.
Simple analyses can also be carried out using the new cross-version validations, such as whether we have achieved the planned values.
The new configuration app offers several predefined comparison scenarios with which you can efficiently configure and reuse regularly required version comparisons.
In addition to the new features, release upgrade 2508 also includes useful adjustments to existing functions. The aim is to make existing processes even more efficient and intuitive.
In the case of two-sided elimination via ICMR (Intercompany Matching and Reconciliation), the variance of the totals (from both sides) is calculated by the system and displayed in the corresponding app. Since upgrade 2508, it has also been possible to configure the calculation of the variance. For example, the amount type (amount in local currency, in transaction currency, etc.) can be set to quickly display the currency conversion difference.
This topic is only relevant for Intercompany Matching & Reconciliation (ICMR) and is only supported when using the IC reconciliation tool.
This new function enables two-sided automatic elimination of intercompany group posting documents for consolidation pairs. This includes, for example, intercompany eliminations such as sales, other income/expenses, receivables and payables. Before the release, it was not possible to set up two-sided eliminations, which looked at both sides in one step. Now it is possible to eliminate both sides in one step and post the difference.
To book the above-mentioned eliminations automatically, booking rules must be created in the corresponding app.
The approval process for manual journal entries has been adapted to strengthen the dual control principle: The initiator of a posting can now no longer approve it themselves. This ensures that an independent person always checks and approves the entry. SAP has extended the workflow process accordingly so that the creator is automatically excluded as a possible approver. This increases transparency and reduces the risk of incorrect or unauthorized postings.
A consolidation hierarchy is used for the structured presentation of items as part of item planning, for example for the balance sheet and income statement. Previously, such structures often had to be maintained together in a single hierarchy. The introduction of reference nodes now enables more flexible modeling: individual hierarchies – such as for the balance sheet and income statement – can be created and maintained separately and then merged into a higher-level consolidation hierarchy via reference nodes. The reference nodes refer to existing hierarchies and integrate their content without redundant maintenance. This creates a reusable structure that both reduces maintenance costs and increases transparency in complex reporting structures.
When you import a node into a hierarchy, you can select the “Automatically update from source” option. If you activate this option, changes to the reference node in the source hierarchy are automatically adopted in the referencing hierarchy.
For some consolidation hierarchy types (e.g. consolidation cost center hierarchies), it is possible to use hierarchy nodes from the corresponding accounting hierarchies as reference nodes. This requires special authorizations, which are described below.
The posting logic of the “Release journals” task for classic integration in the “Current period – total data” mode has been changed.
Before the change, the system deleted the data already loaded in the Universal Journal for the current period. The data selected in the current run was then loaded into Group Reporting.
The system now compares the Universal Journal data selected in the current run with the data already released in previous runs. If the newly released amounts differ from the previously released amounts, delta postings are generated.
Therefore, the action log only shows the full posting amounts if no postings have been made previously. In the following explanations, only the calculated delta amounts are displayed, which can also be zero.
This new change fundamentally improves the performance of the system. Nevertheless, “full mode” can still be loaded via a job.
The release upgrade 2508 brings a total of new features as well as targeted adjustments to existing functions in the SAP Public Cloud. SAP is thus continuing its course of continuously developing and optimizing the solution in a practical manner.
A central aspect of this upgrade concerns the topic of validations: New validation mechanisms were already introduced with release 2502 – including a new modern validation process, which has since formed the basis for corresponding inspection processes. With the current release 2508, the use of this new app is now mandatory – the previous validation functions can no longer be used.
We therefore recommend that you familiarize yourself with the new validation logic and adapt existing processes promptly if necessary. You can also find more information on this in our detailed blog post on Release Upgrade 2502, which you can read on our website.
If you need support with the implementation or adaptation of your processes – whether as part of the current release upgrade or with the introduction of SAP Public Cloud as a whole – we are always happy to help.
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