Presales FICO Quest

8/2/2019 Presales FICO Quest

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Finance/Controlling Questionnaire


InstructionsThis 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, usingthe 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 requiredat 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 eachlegal 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 separateFederal tax ID Number?

Yes No

Which of these entities are true

operating companies that transact

business at arms length with vendors

and customers?

Which of these entities are holdingcompanies?

What is your percentage of ownership

for each legal entity?

Does one entity supply customers with 1997 SAP Technology Inc. 1


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products valued as inventory under

another entity so revenue is reported inthe 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 entitys fiscalyear begin?

For each legal entity, list the number of

periods (both accounting and special

periods) used. Include the beginningand 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 inaccordance 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 balancesheet (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 aunique numbering convention, or do allcompanies use a common chart of

accounts with a consistent numbering

scheme?

If each company has its own operating


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chart of accounts, are you interested in

standardizing the charts into a commonnumbering scheme?

If each company has its own operatingchart of accounts, are they mapped to a

consolidation/corporate chart of

accounts for reporting?

Are any of the companies required toreport in a statutory chart of accounts?

(For example, France, Germany, etc.)

Do these companies use the statutory

chart of accounts as their primaryoperating chart of accounts (i.e., all

posting and account analysis is madeusing the statutory account code), or dothey 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 viewsof your organization by which you

would expect to produce complete

Profit and Loss Statements and BalanceSheets. (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 andare not part of the FI account number.

For each company, how detailed is its

operating chart of accounts? Is it

1997 SAP Technology Inc. 3


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optimized so that detail data (for

example, sub-ledger reconciliationaccount data) is captured via control

accounts?

If not, please explain why detail

information is being captured with the

chart of accounts instead of theoperational sub modules. (Assumption

is that there may be no integration

between modules.)

1.4 Consolidation

Identify the current system used to

generate consolidated financialstatements (e.g., Excel, Hyperion).

If you plan to replace the currentsystem with SAP, please complete

questions below.

Which of your legal entities represent a

minority interest?

How many monthly elimination entriesdo you have?

Identify any situations where inventoryis transferred between companies, such

that profit/loss in inventory that has to

be eliminated on the consolidatedbooks.

2 Financial Application

2.1 Master Records - GL

AccountsDo your general ledger accounts fallinto discrete number ranges (for

example, cash accounts are 1000 -

1999)?

Can you define groups of general


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ledger accounts that require similar

information on the master record?

How do you wish to control general

ledger account creation andmaintenance? Will it be done at the

company level or the corporate level?

Do you currently use templates or

prototypes to create general ledgeraccounts?

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 chooseto 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 theexceptions?

Please examine the attached Frame

Chart of Accounts. Can this frame beused 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 minorchanges to the Automatic Account

Determination.)



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2.2 General Ledger Transaction Processing

What types of general ledgertransactions do you process?

General Journals

Recurring Journals

Accruals/Deferrals

Inter-companytransactions

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 yourcurrent system?

Internally Externally

Are your transaction numbers specificto 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 entriesdo 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 forreconciling sub-ledgers (accounts

receivable, accounts payable, fixed

assets) with your general ledger.

Describe any special requirements toposting to particular general ledger

accounts (for example, expense

accounts require an associated costcenter).


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Is there information that you wish to

require for certain types of journalentries or general ledger accounts?

Is there certain information that youwish 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 inaccounting?

Manually

Automatically

Daily

Weekly

Monthly

When do you close current postingperiod?

Always on same date

When required

On certain day ofnext month

Date for GL

accounting

Date for ARaccounting

Date for AP

accounting

Which evaluations belong to month-end closing?

Balance audit trail

Open item list

Balance List

Advance return fortax on sales andpurchases

Balance Sheet

Profit and Lossstatement

When do you close current fiscal year? Always on same date Date for AR



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When required

On certain month

Date for GLaccounting

accounting

Date for AP

accounting

Which evaluations belong to year-endclosing?

Balance audit trail

Open item list

Balance List

Advance return fortax 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 existingnumber structure?

Are there classifications or groupingscurrently assigned to your customers

(for example, grouping by localcustomers, foreign customers,

government customers)?

If there are currently no classifications


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or groupings for your customers, could

you create them? If so, what wouldthey be?

What types of customer master recordsare there?

Domestic Goods &Invoice recipients

Abroad Goods &

Invoice recipients

Branches / Head

Offices

Agents / Sales Reps

CommissionRecipients

One-Time Customers

Employees

Is there any information that you wishto require for certain customers?

Do you have any customers who arealso vendors?

Do you have one-time customers

(customers with whom you expect todo 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/retainageagreements 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



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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 TransactionProcessing

What types of customer transactions do

you process (for example, customer

invoices, credit memos, customerpayments)?

What is the current structure of yourtransaction numbering?

Manually Assigned AutomaticallyGenerated

Are your transaction numbers specific

to fiscal year, or do they flow from yearto 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?


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Do customer invoices require any type

of approval before they are posted tothe general ledger?

Describe any taxes which must becalculated 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 tocustomer invoices?

What types of adjustments do youperform on customer invoices (for

example, adjustments for defectivematerial, shipping damage)?

Is there certain information that you

wish to be able to display when you

view customer entries online?

What types of daily, weekly, periodic,

and ad hoc transaction reports do youneed for accounts receivable?

2.4.1 Outgoing Invoices

How do you compare documents withSales & Distribution?

Number ofdocuments

Total amounts

Other:



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What information do you include in

outgoing invoices?

Foreign Currency

Payment Terms

Tax on sales andpurchases

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 orcredit memos?

Account assignment

stamp

Central Accountassignment

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 youuse?

Notices as payment reminders

notices with dunning levels

account statements

What is dunning frequency? Weekly Other


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Bi-weekly

Do you dun various customer groups atdifferent 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 doyou currently have?


vendor number? Is it internally

assigned by your current system or

externally assigned by a user?

Do you intend to keep your existingnumbering 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



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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 vendorsthat 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 anydiscounts 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 byyour current system, or externally

assigned by the user?

Are your current transaction numbers

specific to fiscal year, or do they flow


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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 ofapproval before they are posted to the

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?

Is there certain information that youwish to be able to display when you

view vendor entries online?

What types of daily, weekly, periodic,

and ad hoc transaction reports do youneed for 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



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per payment method & bank

What types of automatic payment doyou process?

Checks

Bank Transfers

Postal Transfers

Bills of Exchange

Elimination w/

affiliatedcompanies

Checks/bills ofExchange

Bank TransfersAbroad

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


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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 dateCan 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 foraccounts payable accounting?

Vendor List

List of AccountBalances

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 (checkingaccounts, payroll accounts, lockbox).

Please list the bank accounts within

each of the above banks.

Are any of these accounts held in a

foreign currency?



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Do you perform electronic funds

transfers with your customers orvendors such that you need to maintain

their bank information?

2.8 Taxes

Do you currently have an interface toany 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 remitsales tax:

Do you have any international tax

issues on your sales?

Are you charged taxes on: Inventory Items

Assets

Expense items

Services

Any others? Pleasespecify:

Do you pay use tax? If yes, please list the states to whichyou 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?


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2.9 Currencies

List the local currency (operatingcurrency) for each of your company

codes:

Do you report in currencies other than

the operating currencies of yourcompanies?

Do you perform consolidated reporting

(grouping more than one companys

results) in a different currency?

How do you currently maintain your

exchange rates? For example, are theymanually entered into a table or

downloaded from a service such as

Dow Jones?

What types of exchange rates do youmaintain (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 (unpaiditems 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)?



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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 (forexample, equal distribution among

periods, seasonal distribution)?

Does your planning take into

consideration non-financial (statistical)data?

2.11 Reporting

List the management reports that arecurrently used:

By which organizational units aremanagement reporting functions

structured (for example, company,

division, product line)?

Do you require internal balance sheet or

profit & loss reporting (Business Areaby regions or branches)?

Do you want to report daily or weeklybalances? 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 consolidationprocess.

Do you require consolidation by

Business Area?

Yes No

2.13 Correspondence

Please list the types of correspondence


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that are currently produced for

Accounts Receivable and AccountsPayable (for example, dunning letters,

account balance statements, checks,

payment advice).

Will you need additional types of

correspondence to meet your futureneeds?

3 Frame Chart of Accounts

Assets1000 Petty cash1050 Cash in Bank

1100 Deposits1200 Accounts receivable1201 Accounts receivable clearing1220 Allowance doubtful accounts1300 Raw material inventory1301 Clearing account stock take results1305 Trading goods inventory1310 Packaging material inventory1315 Semi finished goods inventory1320 Finished goods inventory1325 Spare parts inventory1390 Reserve for obsolete inventory1700 Assets1710 Machinery & equipment1720 Furniture & Fixtures1800 Accumulated depreciation Assets1810 Accumulated depreciation machinery & equipment1820 Accumulated depreciation Furniture & fixtures

Liability2000 Accounts payable2001 AP clearing2010 Clearing supplier discounts (Net method)2050 Goods received invoice received clearing

2100 Sales tax accrued2110 Use tax accrued2200 Employee tax withheld FICA2210 Employee tax withheld federal2300 Accrued salary payroll2310 Accrued hourly payroll2400 Accrued sales rebate2500 Freight clearing



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2510 Freight provisions2520 Customs duty clearing2530 Freight other

Capital/Equity3000 Capital stock3010 Paid in capital3990 Retained earnings

Revenues4000 Sales revenues domestic4100 Sales revenues export4200 Freight revenues4500 Discounts4510 Price discounts4520 Volume rebate

Cost of Sales5000 Cost of goods sold finished goods5010 Cost of sales other Materials5100 Consumption raw material5110 Consumption spare parts5120 Consumption packaging material5200 Inventory change finished goods5210 Inventory change other5300 Scrap5310 Sample5400 Gain/Loss inventory transfer5410 Freight inventory transfer5500 Gain/Loss inventory revaluation5550 Gain/Loss inventory other5600 Freight in5700 Purchase discount5710 Purchase price variance5720 Small price difference variance5999 Cost of goods sold miscellaneous

Admin Expenses6000 Salaries and wages6010 Direct labor6020 Indirect labor6030 Maintenance Labor6040 Purchased labor6050 Outside consultants6100 Freight out7000 Air transportation7010 Rental car (travel)7020 Training seminars


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7030 Office supplies7040 Telephone7050 Insurance vehicle and equipment7060 Depreciation7070 Miscellaneous expense8499 Miscellaneous expense

Other Income and Expenses9000 Interest Income

4 Cost CenterAccounting (CO)

4.1 Organization StructuresList the legally independent

organizational units that are to be

illustrated in cost accounting.

Are allocations within cost accountingrequired between these units?

Yes No

Is an overall view of all units desired in

cost accounting?

Yes No

Will access to cost center reports be

regulated through securityauthorizations?

Yes No

If yes, describe 4.2 Master Data in CostAccounting

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 ispossible or practical.



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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 costaccounting.

Which costing-based elements do you

have?

depreciation

interest

employee benefit cost

Please list all others:

4.3 Actual Postings to CostAccounting

4.3.1 Billings, Cash Receipts, Posting Documents

How will on-periodically occurringcosts be treated?

direct transfer fromfinancial

accounting

imputed costs in

financialaccounting

imputed costs in costaccounting

How does reconciliation of imputed

costs between financial accounting and

cost accounting take place?

Manually

Via an allocation costcenter

Via a standard order

At which intervals? 4.3.2 Actual Activity Allocation

Do you execute direct actual activity

allocations between cost centers? Thismeans activity allocations made on the

basis of hours or other activity units.

Yes No

4.3.3 Personnel CostsHow do you treat employee benefitcosts?

direct transfer fromfinancial

accounting

imputed costs in

financial

imputed costs in costaccounting


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accounting

How does reconciliation of imputedcosts 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 dividedinto 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

financial

accounting

imputed costs infinancial

accounting

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 ofassessments you carry out in cost

accounting.

Describe the basis for the assessment ofthe 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?



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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 theassessments of the individual costs.

Do you execute direct plan activity

allocations between cost centers? Thismeans activity allocations made on thebasis 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 actualcosts?

by Cost Centers

by Business Areas

by Cost elements

by Product

Others - pleasedescribe:

Do you perform a comparison of theabove actual costs to planned costs?

Yes No


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Which types of profit do you display in

cost accounting?

Cost Center Profit

Profit Center Profit

Cost Object Profit

Operating Profit

Other: