Controlling (CO)

Purpose
Controlling provides you with information for management decision-making. It facilitates coordination, monitoring and optimization of all processes in an organization. This involves recording both the consumption of production factors and the services provided by an organization. As well as documenting actual events, the main task of controlling is planning. You can determine variances by comparing actual data with plan data. These variance calculations enable you to control business flows. Income statements such as, contribution margin accounting, are used to control the cost efficiency of individual areas of an organization, as well as the entire organization.

Integration
Controlling (CO) and Financial Accounting (FI) are independent components in the SAP system. The data flow between the two components takes place on a regular basis. Therefore, all data relevant to cost flows automatically to Controlling from Financial Accounting. At the same time, the system assigns the costs and revenues to different CO account assignment objects, such as cost centers, business processes, projects or orders. The relevant accounts in Financial Accounting are managed in Controlling as cost elements or revenue elements. This enables you to compare and reconcile the values from Controlling and Financial Accounting.

Features
Cost Element Accounting (CO-OM-CEL) Cost and Revenue Element Accounting provides you with an overview of the costs and revenues that occur in an organization. Most of the values are moved automatically from Financial Accounting to Controlling. Cost and Revenue Element Accounting only calculates costs which either do not have another expense or only one expense in Financial Accounting. If needed, reconciliation of the values in Financial Accounting and Controlling takes place in Cost and Revenue Element Accounting. For more information, see the SAP Library under Financials Controlling Accounting. Cost Center Accounting (CO-OM-CCA) You use Cost Center Accounting for controlling purposes within your organization. It is useful for a source-related assignment of overhead costs to the location in which they occurred. For more information, see the SAP Library under Financials Controlling Accounting. Activity-Based-Accounting (CO-OM-ABC) Activity-Based Costing analyzes cross-departmental business processes. The goals of the whole organization and the optimization of business flows are prioritized. For more information, see the SAP Library under Financials Controlling Internal Orders (CO-OM-OPA) You use internal orders to collect and control according to the job that incurred them. You can assign budgets for these jobs, which the system monitors, to ensure that they are not exceeded. For more information, see the SAP Library under Financials Controlling Internal Orders. Activity-Based Costing. Cost Center Cost Element

Product Cost Controlling (CO-PC) Product Cost Controlling calculates the costs that occur during manufacture of a product, or provision of a service. It enables you to calculate the minimum price at which a product can be profitably marketed. For more information, see the SAP Library under Financials Controlling Controlling. Profitability Analysis (CO-PA) Profitability Analysis analyzes the profit or loss of an organization by individual market segments. The system allocates the corresponding costs to the revenues for each market segment. Profitability Analysis provides a basis for decision-making, for example, for price determination, customer selection, conditioning, and for choosing the distribution channel. For more information, see the SAP Library under Financials Controlling Profit Center Accounting (EC-PCA) Profit Center Accounting evaluates the profit or loss of individual, independent areas within an organization. These areas are responsible for their costs and revenues. Profit Center Accounting is a statistical accounting component in the SAP system. This means that it takes place on a statistical basis at the same time as true accounting. In addition to costs and revenues, you can display key figures, such as, Return on investment, working capital or cash flow on a profit center. For more information, see the SAP Library under Financials EC-Enterprise Controlling Profit Center Accounting. ECProfitability Analysis. Product Cost

Organization in Controlling
Use
Using the SAP system, you can define each of the organizational units in your organization from the perspective of an SAP application component. In the Financial Accounting (FI) component, you can define the organizational units for accounting in the Controlling (CO) component under controlling aspects. The SAP system has direct links between internal and external accounting. This means that FI and CO organizational units are related.

Integration
You assign organizational units from the Financial Accounting component to the units in the Controlling component. This enables you to transfer postings relevant to cost accounting on to Controlling. The following sections describe the organizational units in other components, which have crosscomponent relationships to units in Controlling. You cannot define these organizational units separately from one another.

Cross-component relationships exist between the following organizational units in internal and external accounting:

Company code in the Financial Accounting component (FI)

Business area in the Financial Accounting component (FI) Controlling area in the Controlling component (CO)