SAP S/4HANA Simple Finance 1

SAP S/4HANA Simple Finance 1
SAP S/4HANA Simple Finance
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SAP S/4HANA Simple Finance 2
Introduction
The availability of SAP S/4HANA Finance can be traced back in the year 2010. There are some
applications that have been able to run on the database of SAP HANA database like SAP ERP
and what many calls as the SAP Business Suite. The official launch of SAP S/4HANA happened
on 3rd of February 2015 at the popular New York Stock Exchange. Despite the introduction of
both cloud and on premise editions, there was only the launch of the on premise edition. On the
6th of May 2015, there was a launch of cloud edition which happened at SAPPHIRE. Over two
decades, SAP S/4HANA has emerged as the biggest update to its ERP strategy. About 370
customers had purchased this system by 21 of April 2015. By the end of October 2015, there was
a record of over 1300 customer getting the services of S/4HANA. However, it was during the
fourth quarter earnings announcement in 2016 that it emerged that customers estimated to be
about 5400 had made an implementation of SAP S/4HANA.
Differences between SAP S/4HANA and SAP ERP FICO
Despite the fact that there are a lot of options for computerized systems, there are some
features that are basic which tend to be more of the same across almost all the programs. Most of
the companies go for the off-the-shelf accounting software systems which are least expensive.
Some businesses are forced to change their operation processes so as to adapt to how the
software works. There are also some accounting software packages which are best suited for
small businesses like QuickBooks, Bookkeeper, and sage (Gellaw 2016, p.85). The company
must set up income and also expense accounts upon purchasing any of this software.
SAP S/4 HANA Finance which was formerly called SAP Simple Finance and is
comprised of some feature that is new like a universal journal, real-time analytics, and
streamlined design (Pattanayak 2017, p.5). SAP Asset Accounting (FI-AA) has been modified to

SAP S/4HANA Simple Finance 3
S/4HANA with the efforts to increase the efficiency of the process. In the year 2014, SAP
announced the release of SAP S/4HANA which came with a lot of confusion about why it came
about. It was one of the Financial Accounting and Controlling (FI/CO) and was so simple in
terms of configuring than the ERP suite. SAP S/4HANA is basically a SAP ERP 6.0 suite which
is compatible with a SAP HANA database. SAP Simple Finance which was version 1.0 came as
an add-on SAP HANA basically for the Financial Accounting module (Singh 2017). SAP Simple
Finance 2.0 is known to be part of SAP S/4HANA that was launched in 2015. SAP Simple
Finance 2.0 outfaced SAP Simple Finance 1.0.
SAP S/4HANA also is accompanied by a component called the user experience or the
presentation. It is a GUI component that assists in the process of interaction with the core
component. It only requires SAP Gateway version 2.0 and SAP Net Weaver 7.4. The other
component is the analytics or the reporting component which plays an important role in real-time
reporting with the help of HANA Live views. SAP HANA Live 1.0 which is for SAP ERP and
SAP HANA are the prerequisites for installation although this tool is an optional component
(Walker, Pathak & Patkar 2016). The last component is an app component that consists of
analytical applications that are so essential for those who are seen to be decision-makers in a
company concerning financial issues.
There are notable differences between SAP ERP FICO and SAP S/4HANA. SAP FICO
has the best configuration both internally and externally for accounting processes (Nica et al.
2017). It is seen to represent both the Financial Accounting (FI) and Controlling (CO). When it
comes to real time transactions, SAP FICO is of great importance in the process whereby it
assists in integrating the SAP modules so as to yield better results. It is also embraced by most
professionals in the field of finance and accounting. High sophisticated ways of financial

SAP S/4HANA Simple Finance 4
transaction services and best handling of accounts is offered by SAP Financial Accounting. Tax
Authorities and Banks among others are making maximum use of SAP FICO (Finance 2015).
SAP Controlling Module is seen to be behind internal users and data while SAP FI is tasked with
generating a lone system for the whole organization and integrating assorted modules. SAP
S/4HANA is, on the other hand, an ERP software which is known to run the in-memory platform
on the SAP HANA. This comes with more options like it can run on-the-fly analysis, processes
can be optimized, it is designed more for easy usage, and it can also be used by financial
professionals to deliver instant insight (May, Böhm &Lehner, 2017 ).
SAP S/4HANA comes as a comprehensive set of accounting solutions and financial
management taking care of both financial planning and accounting, analysis, financial risk
management, risks occurring as a result of enterprise, and collaborative finance operations
among others. SAP FICO, on the other hand, stands for Financial Accounting (FI) and
Controlling (CO). The financial transaction of data is stored by the FI and CO modules since
SAP FICO is a very important module ERP. Simple finance basically operates on HANA
environment but the module FI operates on ECC 6.0 platform and CO is just but another
financial sub module. SAP S/4HANA runs on HANA DB but on the other hand SAP FICO is
capable of running on Oracle or SQL server that is also a compatible database version (Plattner
& Leukert 2015). Again looking at SAP S/4HANA, all king of information that is functional is
usually stored in one table called Universal journal (ACDOCA) unlike in SAP FICO where
consultants have to mug up n-number of tables.
Benefits of SAP S/4HANA Finance to businesses
SAP S/4HANA Finance comes with a lot of benefits for businesses that makes a choice
of trying it in business. Some businesses view it as a tool that is essential when it comes to real-