What is the quickest way to configure a company code?
1. When entering an invalid company code (GM03) we get an error message that the company code has not been defined.
The most popular journal entry form is the transaction FB01 which allows for recording a financial transaction, so it is seems
fitting to verify the actual configuration of accounting in a given system.
Company code is the most important financial entity and is a starting point for all the ledger actvities, starting with single
transaction of at least one debit and at least one credit and ending with a financial statement or report showing balances in all
accounts summed up and adding up to 0 for a given point in time, most often a calendar month.
2. Transaction F-01 is for entering a sample (template) journalentry and can be reused for recording transactions
but its results have no bearing on balances in the accounts.
The missing company code configuration results in the same error as in transaction FB01 in previous step.
3. SAP provides a standard configuration menu that provides a quick access to the most important configuration transactions
which usually start with a prefix OB.
We can easily see that the menu structure reflects the importance of steps and configuration values. Company code is all the way on top.
4. Currency, chart of accounts, and fiscal year variant are some of the most important values for the company code.
Here we are using a source for our new company which we will be copying in subsequent steps.
5. We can skip other configuration menu items and come back to them later. We are able to post a journal without values in those steps
and can move all the way to copying an existing company code. It is always easier to copy and change an existing value than start from scratch.
Our scenario is very limited in scope and this is a minimum configuration only, so your requirements may be more comprehensive.
6. This and subsequent steps are quite self-explanatory. Please note that default selections may have to be changed
to ensure the desired continuation of steps. Here, we decide against copying all the accounts as we would like to
have as few GL accounts as possible and build out the scenario from the bottom up.
7. Number ranges are rarely synchronized and we don't plan to transport any configuration anyway,
so we confirm 'No' for the inclusion in the transport.
8. This is just a point in time for the copying program, there is no particular importance
to the percentages long as copying is successfully completed.
9. The copy success message allows us to move to the next steps in which we will adjust the values
to make this company code as unique as possible in the system.
10. After the initial configuration we try transaction F-01 again to see if the new company code is operational yet. It looks like we still need to
perform some additional steps. Number ranges are very often reset when the year changes over, so we typically add a new range for the year.
11. The previous message allows us to go directly to number range maintenance where we enter the values. Here the range is very narrow
as don't have plans to have many documents. In the real system, this needs to be evaluated very carefully to avoid the situation where we run
out of values and be forced to create gaps in numbering.
12. With initial configuration for company code and number ranges done, we can attempt F-01 again. The simplest account number seems
to be 1. However, when entering it we get the error message that it does not exist.
13. We refer to the original accounting configuration and find a menu section for GL accounts. Before an account can be associated with a company code
it needs to be part of the chart of accounts. We follow the menu item to see what already exists in the system.
14. The list of charts of accounts comes preconfigured in the system. Any additional values can be edited via transaction OB13
15. We are creating the values for a new chart of accounts that will have only one account - 1. This configuration ensures that the error message
goes away, but it is an incomplete system as an entry requires at least 2 line items.
The next section provides additional steps for company code configuration.
Note: The best way to print this page is to zoom to 140% and select landscape orientation.