SAP Accounting Powered by SAP HANA: FAQs and S/4HANA Evolution

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: Category: Blog; Posted: July 30, 2014; Last Updated: October 13, 2026; Hits: 145981

By Janet Salmon

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SAP Accounting powered by SAP HANA introduced significant changes to financial accounting and management accounting by simplifying data structures and enabling more flexible reporting.

Originally introduced in 2014, the solution was part of SAP's transition toward simplified financial data structures and was followed by SAP Simple Finance and the subsequent evolution of SAP S/4HANA Finance.

This article, originally written by Janet Salmon, answers frequently asked questions about SAP Accounting powered by SAP HANA, including its architecture, reporting capabilities, deployment options, and business benefits.

Historical context: The discussion reflects SAP technology and implementation options available in 2014. Since then, SAP S/4HANA Finance has introduced the Universal Journal, further integrating Financial Accounting (FI) and Controlling (CO).

The original technical explanations remain valuable for understanding the evolution of SAP Finance.

Original 2014 Article

I've been working with the first accounting customers to validate and implement SAP Accounting powered by SAP HANA.

SAP Accounting powered by SAP HANA became available on August 1, 2014. This article explains how the solution differed from earlier SAP accounting architectures and shares what I learned from early customer implementations.

Is this as simple as Hasso Plattner promises
Is this just a newer version of the general ledger
How do I report in SAP Accounting powered by SAP HANA
What were the deployment options
What about the cloud
Why does all this matter
How did SAP Accounting evolve into SAP S/4HANA Finance?

1. Is SAP Accounting powered by SAP HANA as simple as Hasso Plattner promises?

If you've been following the blogs by Hasso Plattner, one of the SAP founders, you'll know that he has declared war on aggregates. The rationale is simple: aggregates are old technology. In the past, we needed them to provide aggregated data quickly in a report or during a process that required that data, such as an allocation or settlement. With SAP HANA, data can be aggregated from line item tables on the fly.

Developers in the past knew that cost center managers and project managers would need a report on their spending at month end, so they built tables that contained the cost center/project/order, period, and the various cost elements (the primary and secondary cost tables, COSP and COSS). This worked, but it shaped the way the managers saw their data, seeing their spending in period chunks.

SAP Accounting powered by SAP HANA changed this approach by allowing managers to query line-item data directly rather than relying primarily on predefined aggregate tables. At the time, this included direct access to Controlling line-item data in tables such as COEP to analyze suppliers, employee travel expenses, and other detailed postings. This represented a major shift from reporting built around cost center, project, financial statement, and other aggregate views.

In the SAP ERP architecture available at the time, consider the general ledger line-item table BSEG, which contains hundreds of fields. By comparison, the classic general ledger totals table GLT0 contains a much smaller set of dimensions, while the New General Ledger totals table FAGLFLEXT provides additional reporting dimensions such as profit center, segment, functional area, and trading partner.

Developers used totals tables primarily for performance reasons. In the SAP ERP architecture, many Financials processes were designed to read from totals tables, so allocations and settlements typically read from COSP and COSS. One reason to avoid the line-item tables was that the fields populated depended on the type of posting. An asset acquisition, for example, populated different fields than an expense posting or receivable item. This created a sparsely filled matrix. With SAP HANA's column-store architecture, these empty fields became less problematic because queries could efficiently access the relevant populated columns.

SAP Accounting powered by SAP HANA took the significant step of eliminating the need for many aggregate tables. Updating totals tables could create a bottleneck when posting large volumes of data from external systems or performing complex allocations.

At the time, this simplification represented a significant architectural change for existing SAP and custom code. SAP provided compatibility views using familiar table names so that programs accessing tables such as COSP could continue to work while the underlying data was derived from line items rather than traditional aggregate tables. Existing custom code and SAP BW extractors therefore needed to be evaluated as part of the transition. Figure 1 shows the view that replaced the former GLT0 totals table.

Figure 1: Compatibility View Replacing the Former GLT0 Totals Table

S/4HANA context: The simplification described above continued with SAP S/4HANA and the Universal Journal. In SAP S/4HANA, ACDOCA provides the central journal line-item structure for many Financial Accounting (FI) and Controlling (CO) postings, further reducing reliance on separate totals and line-item structures used in earlier SAP ERP architectures.

2. Is SAP Accounting powered by SAP HANA just a newer version of the general ledger?

Another important development was tighter integration between Financial Accounting (FI) and Controlling (CO). In earlier SAP ERP architectures, the reconciliation ledger supported reconciliation between FI and CO when postings crossed company codes, profit centers, or other organizational boundaries. SAP Accounting powered by SAP HANA further integrated FI and CO by linking financial and controlling line items more directly.

Figure 2 shows fields added to the COEP Controlling line-item table in the architecture available at the time. Fields such as reference procedure, object key, and logical system helped connect FI line items with corresponding CO line items. Additional characteristics supported reporting by dimensions such as profit center and functional area, while CO-PA characteristics could provide further profitability dimensions.

Figure 2: Fields Added to the COEP Controlling Line-Item Table
In the SAP ERP architecture, a G/L account could have a corresponding cost element, allowing relevant financial postings to flow into Controlling. This connection enabled users to analyze income statement postings by CO dimensions such as cost centers and internal orders. Reporting could therefore combine financial accounts with management-accounting assignments.

Figure 3 shows an income statement with associated cost centers in the report columns. This illustrates how financial reporting could incorporate Controlling assignments to provide additional management-accounting detail.

Figure 3: Income Statement with Cost Center Assignments

Segment reporting requirements increased the need to align internal and external financial reporting. In the SAP ERP architecture, reconciliation could be challenging because the general ledger was account-based, while costing-based CO-PA used value fields and characteristics. This required organizations to map accounts and cost elements to CO-PA value fields and could result in differences between Financial Accounting and profitability reporting.

AP Accounting powered by SAP HANA continued to support costing-based CO-PA while placing greater emphasis on account-based CO-PA to strengthen integration between Financial Accounting and profitability reporting. Figure 4 illustrates an operating profit view in which income statement information is analyzed by customer. Because account-based CO-PA uses accounts rather than separate value fields, revenue and cost information can be more directly aligned with the general ledger.

Figure 4: Income Statement with Customer Profitability Assignments

At the time, moving from costing-based to account-based CO-PA required careful consideration of existing allocations, value fields, and reporting requirements. Organizations needed to determine how their profitability reporting structures and allocation processes would translate into the account-based model.

S/4HANA context: In SAP S/4HANA, account-based CO-PA has evolved into Margin Analysis and is integrated with the Universal Journal. Profitability characteristics can be recorded with journal entries in ACDOCA, providing closer integration between Financial Accounting, Controlling, and profitability reporting. Costing-based CO-PA remains available in SAP S/4HANA, but Margin Analysis provides the strategic approach for integrated profitability reporting.

3. How do I report in SAP Accounting powered by SAP HANA?

SAP Accounting powered by SAP HANA introduced new reporting options that took advantage of SAP HANA's ability to analyze detailed accounting data without relying on traditional aggregate tables. At the time, reporting options included SAP HANA views, SAP BusinessObjects Analysis for Microsoft Office, and Web Dynpro applications. Figure 5 shows an example of a financial statement displayed using Web Dynpro.

Figure 5: Financial Statement Reporting in Web Dynpro

SAP Accounting powered by SAP HANA also reduced the need for predefined aggregates and summarization levels used in earlier Controlling reporting. In the SAP ERP architecture, tables such as COSP and COSS, CO-PA summarization levels, and CO-PC summarization objects were used to improve reporting performance by storing aggregated data.

With SAP HANA, detailed data could increasingly be aggregated at query runtime rather than being collected and stored in advance. This allowed users to navigate reporting dimensions more flexibly and reduced reliance on periodic data-collection runs created primarily for reporting performance. Figure 6 shows an example of a CO-PC summarization hierarchy used in the earlier architecture.

Figure 6: CO-PC Summarization Hierarchy in the Earlier SAP ERP Architecture
S/4HANA context: Reporting has continued to evolve in SAP S/4HANA through technologies such as CDS views, embedded analytics, and SAP Fiori analytical applications. Organizations can also integrate SAP S/4HANA data with solutions such as SAP Analytics Cloud and SAP BW for broader analytical and enterprise reporting requirements.

4. What were the deployment options for SAP Accounting powered by SAP HANA?

When SAP Accounting powered by SAP HANA was introduced, organizations had two primary deployment approaches. One option was to run SAP Business Suite on SAP HANA and migrate the accounting application to the simplified HANA-based architecture. This involved application migration steps that reduced reliance on aggregate tables and strengthened integration between Financial Accounting (FI) and Controlling (CO).

A second option involved deploying SAP Accounting powered by SAP HANA on a dedicated SAP HANA system and providing it with data from existing SAP systems. These approaches reflected the deployment choices available during the early transition from traditional SAP ERP architectures to HANA-based financial processing.

If you're considering the migration path, remember that the application migration includes a migration to the new GL tables and new Asset Accounting. The migration to the new GL will give you real-time integration between CO and FI and activate the profit center, segment, cost of goods sold, and consolidation preparation scenarios.

The application migration also involved significant changes to Financial Accounting, including migration to the New General Ledger and New Asset Accounting. These changes supported closer integration between FI and CO and expanded capabilities for dimensions such as profit center, segment, and parallel accounting.

New Asset Accounting provided improved support for parallel valuation by allowing organizations to represent different accounting principles and ledgers more consistently. These capabilities were important steps toward the more integrated financial architecture that later became part of SAP S/4HANA Finance.

Figure 7 shows the implementation guidance used for the application migration at the time. The migration included steps related to the New General Ledger, ledger configuration, and the transition from traditional totals and index tables toward the simplified HANA-based accounting architecture.

Figure 7: Implementation Guide for the Migration to SAP Accounting powered by SAP HANA

As an alternative to migrating the existing SAP ERP system, organizations could deploy SAP Accounting powered by SAP HANA on a separate HANA system and transfer financial data from existing systems. This approach provided an opportunity to adopt newer capabilities such as the New General Ledger and account-based CO-PA while existing source systems remained in place. However, it also required careful consideration of data integration, mapping, and master data.

S/4HANA context: These historical deployment approaches have been superseded by modern SAP S/4HANA deployment models. Organizations today can deploy SAP S/4HANA through cloud and on-premise options, with migration strategies depending on existing systems, transformation objectives, and target architecture.

5. What about the cloud?

When SAP Accounting powered by SAP HANA was introduced, SAP's cloud strategy for Finance was still evolving. Early offerings included SAP Simple Finance and SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud, while organizations could also deploy HANA-based financial solutions on-premise.

Since then, SAP's cloud strategy has evolved significantly. SAP S/4HANA is available through cloud and on-premise deployment models, allowing organizations to choose an approach based on their business requirements, degree of standardization, extensibility needs, and transformation strategy.

6. Why does all this matter?

After one of my presentations, a customer surprised me by announcing that SAP Accounting powered by SAP HANA was the biggest innovation in Finance since R/2. To understand the impact, I've found myself back in my early SAP R/3 slides, talking tables more than I've done for years.

It's easy to focus on the technology behind SAP HANA, but the more important question is what Finance can do differently. Performance improvements enabled SAP to redesign processes that previously depended on sequential processing, predefined aggregates, and batch-oriented calculations. Activities such as settlement, work in process (WIP) calculation, and variance calculation could increasingly take advantage of SAP HANA's ability to process large volumes of detailed data efficiently.

The greater opportunity is using this processing power to improve business insight. Finance and Controlling teams can analyze more detailed information, model scenarios, and better understand the drivers of product costs and profitability. The conversation therefore moves beyond technical topics such as table size, memory footprint, and processing speed toward a business question: How can we gain more insight from the information we're collecting?

S/4HANA context: This principle remains central to SAP S/4HANA Finance. The Universal Journal, embedded analytics, Material Ledger, Margin Analysis, and other integrated capabilities are designed not simply to process transactions faster, but to provide Finance and Controlling teams with more timely and detailed information for analysis and decision-making.

7. How Did SAP Accounting Evolve into SAP S/4HANA Finance?

SAP Accounting powered by SAP HANA was an important step in SAP's transition from traditional ERP financial data structures toward the simplified architecture of SAP S/4HANA Finance. The move away from many aggregate and index tables demonstrated how SAP HANA could support financial processing and reporting directly from detailed line-item data.

SAP S/4HANA extended this approach with the Universal Journal. The Universal Journal uses ACDOCA as the central journal line-item table for many Financial Accounting (FI) and Controlling (CO) postings, bringing financial and management accounting information together in a common data structure.

This integration also changed several familiar Controlling concepts. Primary and secondary cost elements are represented as G/L accounts, while account-based CO-PA evolved into Margin Analysis, providing profitability reporting integrated with the Universal Journal.

Reporting has also evolved. SAP S/4HANA supports CDS views, embedded analytics, and SAP Fiori analytical applications, allowing users to analyze detailed financial and management accounting information without relying on many of the predefined aggregates discussed earlier in this article.

The architectural principles introduced with SAP Accounting powered by SAP HANA therefore helped establish an important direction for SAP S/4HANA Finance: simpler data structures, tighter FI/CO integration, and more flexible real-time financial analysis.

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Glossary

ACDOCA

The ACDOCA table is a central line-item table of the Universal Journal in SAP S/4HANA. It stores financial and management accounting information for integrated reporting and analysis.

Aggregate Tables

Aggregate tables store summarized transactional information to improve reporting and processing performance. SAP HANA reduced the need for many predefined aggregates by enabling detailed data to be aggregated at runtime.

Compatibility Views

Compatibility views provide access to data using structures and table names familiar from earlier SAP ERP architectures, helping support existing applications after changes to the underlying data model.

Costing-Based CO-PA

Costing-based CO-PA analyzes profitability using characteristics and value fields. It remains available in SAP S/4HANA but is separate from the Universal Journal.

Margin Analysis

Margin Analysis is the evolution of account-based CO-PA in SAP S/4HANA. It provides profitability reporting integrated with the Universal Journal.

New General Ledger

The New General Ledger introduced capabilities such as parallel ledgers and additional reporting dimensions and represented an important step toward the integrated financial architecture of SAP S/4HANA.