When is SAP Group Reporting a good fit?

What is SAP S/4HANA Cloud Finance for Group Reporting?

Group Reporting is part of our SAP Cloud Finance solution, along with SAP Analytics Cloud and SAP S/4HANA Cloud. Together, these tools support the entire process of capturing data, creating documents in S/4HANA, preparing those documents for reporting by consolidating them and bringing them to a unified standard for visualization and integration into SAP Analytics Cloud. Most importantly, SAP Group Reporting and SAP Analytics Cloud are fully integrated into S/4HANA Cloud and the Business Technology Platform (BTP). Together, they form a complete solution for financial operations, planning and control cycle.

Robert-Jan: "SAP Group Reporting has a reputation for not being very good at reporting, true. However, it is a very mature consolidation tool that, when used in line with SAP Analytics Cloud, is part of an integrated solution on S/4HANA. You then use Group Reporting for consolidation and Analytics Cloud for planning and dashboarding, in addition to S/4HANA Cloud ERP."

Finext and SAP

Finext is an independent technology partner of the Office of the CFO, committed to providing best-in-class tools and financial expertise. We offer SAP Group Reporting as part of SAP Cloud Finance, with accounting, reporting and financial operations on SAP S/4HANA Cloud and financial planning and analysis on SAP Analytics Cloud.

OutlookSoft was launched in 2003 and quickly became a leading consolidation tool on the market. Finext was one of the first partners in the Netherlands in 2005 and soon became one of the largest implementation partners in the Benelux. In 2007 SAP purchased OutlookSoft, bringing Finext into the SAP world. Finext continued to focus on OutlookSoft business planning and consolidation implementation under SAP's BPC brand.

Robert-Jan: "Of course SAP is moving business consolidation and planning tooling to the cloud with S/4HANA Cloud. SAP Analytics Cloud and Group Reporting are the natural successors to BPC. Finext started using those tools in the early stages of the product. Now, 3 years after its release, Group Reporting is mature and is a pretty good consolidation tool with some unique features."

"Now, 3 years after its release, Group Reporting is mature and is a pretty good consolidation tool with some unique features."

When is Group Reporting a good choice?

Group Reporting is not a perfect solution for every organization. But for financial consolidation, it is a very powerful tool with features not available anywhere else on the market.

Robert-Jan: "SAP Group Reporting is not ideal for project-driven companies. When you work with a project budget, spend part of this budget, still have some left over and then have to report financial characteristics across the entire project, Group Reporting would not be ideal. Group Reporting usually doesn't look at data in this way."

With traditional systems like BPC, you get more flexibility. You can set up your own data model to do reporting, which means you can get anything you want out of the reporting. From actual numbers, forecasts to planning. On the other hand, you have to set this all up yourself.

Robert-Jan: "Group Reporting sets up data models directly. And is therefore easier to use. However, it is also much less flexible, especially in terms of allocations and customer-specific calculations and mechanisms. For that, there is SAP Analytics Cloud or SAP PaPM. On the other hand, Group Reporting can adopt S/4HANA data models with great detail, which provides meaningful insights."

Robert-Jan: "Group Reporting is completely different from its competitors. That also means that competitors sometimes offer a better solution in certain situations. For example, when there are specific management reporting requirements, SAP Group Reporting may not be flexible enough to meet those needs."

"Group Reporting really shines in terms of transparency because it is fully integrated into S/4HANA."

Robert-Jan: "Group Reporting really shines in terms of transparency because it is fully integrated into S/4HANA. This means that all the data used for those calculations is in the system and you can see results in detail. Think about line level, variances and individual invoices used to generate specific figures."

Robert-Jan: "Ultimately, this will shorten the time-to-close. Group Reporting results are more transparent and therefore more reliable. After all, you can look all the way back to the original transaction."

Roadmap

SAP's Group Reporting has made a lot of progress since its launch, but there is still plenty of work to be done, according to the Roadmap.

Robert-Jan: "SAP is working on better integration between Group Reporting and Analytics Cloud. This will improve the solution as SAC compensates for any shortcomings in flexibility of Group Reporting."

Robert-Jan: "Group Reporting also gets more flexibility in its reporting functionality, which should make it easier to create comparative reports, select a report and compare it to previous reports. This has already been added to the Cloud version. The on-premise version will follow in the second half of this year."

Integrated Record to Report processes.

The consolidation process usually begins with delivering data to the consolidation system. Traditionally, you can improve data granularity by improving integration. It doesn't matter how reliable and transparent the consolidation tool is if the data quality depends on poor integrations and connections. SAP Group Reporting is the only consolidation solution that integrates directly with S/4HANA ERP.

Robert-Jan: "You always have to show that your numbers are reliable, regardless of the tool being used. SAP Group Reporting makes that a lot easier. It's easier to dive into the data, to find the exact causes of strange numbers. The core of added value in cloud finance is the integration of the entire financial stack - where tools communicate and work together. The more integrated the solution is, the more value it adds - and SAP manages that very well."

This is especially important in regulated industries. For example, when you need J-Sox compliance, that transparency can help keep control of all the numbers and stay on top of compliance.

Robert-Jan: "This also applies to industries like banking, insurance, energy, etc., which have very specific regulatory requirements. Because SAP Group Reporting is linked to S/4HANA, you can enable that reporting by making sure that S/4HANA produces all that specific data. Then you already have a specific regulatory flow to meet those needs - and Group Reporting does the work of consolidation."

"Group Reporting gives control of the Record to Report process by allowing you to go back from report to record. You don't get that transparency anywhere else."

Robert-Jan: "When you can tune and customize your Record to Report process, you can meet almost any compliance requirement no matter what tooling you use. Group Reporting gives control of the Record to Report process by allowing you to go back from the report to the record. You don't get that transparency anywhere else."

The next steps?

If you use the standard S/4HANA public cloud solution, since this year you also have Group Reporting at your disposal. At no additional cost. This means you may already have a consolidation solution without even knowing it. To get the most value out of Group Reporting, it's important to configure it properly. Want to learn more about Group Reporting and how it can contribute to the SAP S/4HANA stack? I am happy to help you further, please contact me.