What are the advantages of the new MRP live in SAPs 4HANA compared to the classic MRP from SAP ECC?

S/4HANA Finance is the current terminology for initial term sFin

S/4 Central Finance Admin Guide

SAP Simple Finance, On-Premise Edition 1503 SPS 4 and SAP S/4HANA, On-Premise Edition 1511 FPS01

SAP Best Practices Baseline V3.607

  • Pre-activated business content scope with sample data, adjusted for SAP Simple Finance 1503 SPS1505:
  • End-to-end business processes across Finance, Controlling, Manufacturing, Services, for example Order-to-Cash, Procure-to-Pay; localized for US, Germany and China
  • End-to-end Business processes for Chemicals and Discrete Manufacturing industries, localized for US
  • SAP FioriApps
  • SAP BOBJ reports and Lumira reports
  • Sample scenario using Personas UX technology

SAP Best Practices for SAP S/4HANA integration with SAP Financial Services Network

More Best practices on SAP Service Marketplace

S/4HANA Finance is either available as integral part of S/4HANA Enterprise Management 1511

S/4HANA 1511 on premise edition – SAP Help Portal Page

or as an add-on in the S/4HANA 1503 release aka sFin 2.0 aka SAP Simple Finance On Premise edition 1503 Release

2117481 - Release Information Note: SAP Simple Finance, on-premise edition 1503

SAP Simple Finance On Premise Edition 1503 – SAP Help Portal Page

Simple Finance On Premise Edition 1503 SPS 1511Admin Guide

SAP S/4HANA Cookbook: SAP Simple Finance, On-Premise Edition 1503

Pre-requisites EHP, Kernel and NetWeaver version (please always check for the latest version on the SAP Roadmap websites):

SAP Simple Finance add-on 2.0 for SAP Business Suite powered by SAP HANA http://Service.sap.com/sap/support/notes/2117481

Financials processes released for usage with SAP Simple Finance add-on 2.0: http://Service.sap.com/sap/support/notes/2119188

Recommended: Master Data Management for sFin - MDG SAP Master Data Governance 8.0 http://Service.sap.com/sap/support/notes/2143725

  • SAP Note 2119188   Release scope including industry solution status
  • SAP Note 2103558   Availability/Compatibility of SAP add-ons
  • SAP Note 2100133   Availability of partner add-ons
  • SAP Note 2153644   Availability of country versions - currently. 62 - some restrictions apply. Incl. availability of Fiori and smart Bus Apps for sFin.
  • SAP Note 1976487   Information about adjusting customer-specific modifications/programs using simplified data model in SAP Simple Finance
  • SAP Note 1946054 - SAP Simple Finance, on-premise edition: Transaction codes and programs - Comparison to EHP7 for SAP ERP 6.0
  • SAP Note 2131643 - Replacement of SAP Simple Finance add-on 1.0 reporting content with SAP Simple Finance, on-premise edition 1503

What is sFin?

SAP has developed a new SAP HANA-based FI solution, which is available with SAP Business Suite 4 HANA, or S/4HANA. The new SAP S/4 FI solution is based on the atomic level of FI Line Item tables and uses SAP HANA calculation views to provide real-time insights into FI processes. Simple Finance allows SAP customers to run trial Balance sheets, P&L's and Cash flow analysis any time of the day and any day of the quarter.

sFin replaces the classic SAP FI application, if a customers chooses to install sFin.

sFin 2.0 is in GA since March 31st 2015, and includes SAP Accounting powered by SAP HANA (sFin), SAP Cash Management and SAP Integrated Business Planning (IP and BPC and embedded BW) for Finance and additional innovations in the areas of Treasury and Financial Risk Management, Collaborative Finance Operations etc..as well as the Universal Journal.

What is Central Finance?

Central FI system is a S/4HANA Finance system which can combine FI/CO data from distributed ERP landscape or as a sidecar to an existing ERP on AnyDB. The central FI system requires a full S/4HANA ERP system, but only the FI/CO part needs to be configured. The data between the source and the sFin target system are replicated using a SAP LT system.

The side car approach also allow customers to close the books in parallel in the existing ERP and using the sFin configuration.

How does archiving impact sFin, considering that sFin has eliminated materialized aggregates and Line Items required to calculate totals have been archived already?

Please see this blog for details, please note that the term data tiering can be used at SAP for multiple solutions, In this blog, data tiering is looked at in the context of the S/4HANA data aging concept.

https://blogs.saphana.com/2015/06/02/keeping-track-totals-case-data-tiering-archiving-data-aging-sap-simple-finance/

Is there SAP HANA Live content for sFin?

yes

2148105 - Release Information Note: SAP HANA Live for SAP Simple Finance, On-Premise-Edition 1503

2131643 - Replacement of SAP Simple Finance add-on 1.0 reporting content with SAP Simple Finance, on-premise edition 1503

1967187 - Activation errors for SAP HANA content package sap.hba.ecc in SAP Simple Finance, on-premise edition

please note that some VDM virtual data modles are amndatory to activate in sFin

Do the BW DataSources still work?

SAP provides compatibility views to support existing data sources. There is also a new BW DataSource for the universal journal: 0FI_ACDOCA_10

In this OSS note the current status is described how to activate the delta queues after migration to sFin 2.0:

   2142781 - DataSources 0FI_GL_12, 0SEM_BCS_12 and related ones are not updating delta queue

SCN community SAP S/4HANA Finance

SAP Simple Finance Add-On for SAP Business Suite powered by SAP HANA – SAP Help Portal Page

Best overview:

Detailed blog by sFIN Product Management

Detailed blogs:

How sFin removes redundancies

How sFIN removes redundancies: The case of materialized views

sFin Hypercubes

Which migration steps are required to use sFin, do we need to use the NewGL, what about CO-PA?

Please see SAP help for sFin migration

All details are maintained in the SAP sFin Administrator's Guide, latest version is available at the SAP Service market Place service.sap.com/erp-inst under Business Suite Applications, ERP add-ons, simple finance. The NewGL migration needs to happen prior to a sFin implementation, currently no simultaneous process possible.

The NewGL functionalities Parallel ledger and Document Splitting can currently not be activated in S/4HANA FI, therefore need to be activated prior to a S/4HANA Finance implementation

Account-based CO-PA is integrated into the Universal Journal Entry, Cost-based CO-PA is not, but can still be run in S/4HANA Finance. Account-based CO-PA should be activated during the initial implementation, as entries are an extension of the Accounting documents. The Accounting documents can not be changed retroactively, therefore any activation after go-live can only be applied going forward.

Process of Migration to SAP Accounting powered by SAP HANA - Migration to SAP Accounting powered by SAP HANA - SAP Libra…

How long does a migration to S/4HANA Finance take?

http://Service.sap.com/sap/support/notes/2175941

What is the impact of sFin in CO - Controlling?

Please see this help section for more details SAP Simple Finance Add-On - SAP Library

sFIN provides a much smaller overall data footprint by eliminating application-built indices and aggregates (and of course custom built ones), and also major reduction of the required in-memory footprint by with new algorithm to differentiate between actual/dynamic (still changeable) and historical/static data (no longer changes and updates required). For more details please see Hasso Plattner's blog on sERP's simplified landscape considerations part 1 and part 2

Which Reporting capabilities are offered with sFin?

Customers can use new dashboards based on Fiori layout options, SAP Smart Business Apps, SAP Analysis for Office and SAP HANA Live and new sFIN HANA Live content

Depending on the requirements, reports can be built in HANA Studio, or also via the embedded BW. In both cases the data are virtually consumed, in the case of the embedded BW either via ODP's (Operational Data Providers) and/or Virtual Info Providers and/or Transient InfoProviders, whereas the ODP's offer more extensibility options than the VP's. Reports can be built on top of Composite Providers, and thus providing full hierarchy support.

More details in: Embedded Business Warehouse | SCN

Another decision criteria is how much standard content should be (re-)used versus custom built. Currently content is delivered via these packages: sap.erp.sfin.co.pl  , sap.hba.sfin700 and sap.erp.sfin.fi.gl

What are the SAP notes for SAP Financials add-on (aka sFIN)?

1968568 - Financials add-on for SAP Business Suite powered by SAP HANA 1.0: Release Scope Information

2012817 - Financials add-on for Business Suite powered by SAP HANA 1.0: Compatibile Partner Products

1946054 - Smart Financials package 1.0: Transaction codes and programs - Comparison to EHP7 for SAP ERP 6.0

How can we migrate to SAP Accounting powered by SAP HANA?

The minimum release requirement is ERP on HANA, ECC 6.0 with EhP7.

Please always check the SAP PAM Product Availability Matrix http://bit.ly/HANA_PAM for the latest requirements. Although we try our best to keep this FAQ as up-to-date as possible, only the PAM is the official information.

Where can we see a demo of sFin?

Please see the SAP Executive Keynote of Bernd Leukert, Member of the Executive Board of SAP SE at the 2014 TechEd && d-code event in Berlin A demo of sFin by Ian Kimbell starts around 1:09:00 into the recording and is based on SAP's internal live/productive implementation of sFin

Do we lose our historical data if we use the new solution?

No, the existing data are not deleted. It might be worthwhile to consider ILM Information Lifecycle management options and data warehousing solutions like SAP BW for data outside the SLA's for operational reporting to take full advantage of the reduced footprint, which the new solution offers. In addition SAP offers the Data Aging functionality for ERP on HANA  for TCO considerations, if a customer wants to store a large history of financial data in the SRP system.

What Data Lifecycle Options does SAP provide for SAP Financials on SAP HANA (sFin and/or SAP ERP on HANA) ?

Data Aging has been introduced for Suite on HANA for technical and for business objects. Financial documents for sFIN is one of the first business objects available

Does sFIN supports Contract Accounting FI-CA?

FI-CA EhP7, SP05 can run generally with SAP Simple Finance add-on in one system, if the system uses one of the for CA required SAP IS Industry Solutions

Details in OSS note 2027972

sFIN uses the BPC and embedded BW application for Financial Planning and Consolidation, how does SAP Cloud for Planning fit in?

SAP Cloud for Planning is a SaaS public cloud planning solution, which does currently not provide financial consolidation. The integrated planning in sFIN uses BPC and IP capabilities on top of the embedded BW to enable a "soft" close, where you run a trial Balance Sheet and P&L across your complete enterprise any time of the day and any day of the week in a single instance with zero latency.

Please stay tuned for further announcements on SAP Cloud for Planning

Why All the Buzz Around SAP Cloud for Planning? | CFO Knowledge