GRC PC Defining Timeframes with irregular periods

[Former Member]

We're implementing PC version 2.5, and after several months of messing around in our sandbox, I'm still struggling with how timeframes work, particularly with our fiscal calendar. Our year is 52 or 53 weeks, with months assigned 4 or 5 weeks in a 4-5-4 pattern. In addition, the first month of the year is Feb, so months 11 & 12 (Dec & Jan) cross over to the next "standard" calendar year.

I have no trouble setting up one year of customized year/month/quarter timeframes, but I'd really like to define several years in advance, and I can't figure out how to do it. Because each month begins and ends on a different date each year (ex. Apr 2009 goes from 4/5 to 5/2, while Apr 2010 goes from 4/4 to 5/1), I've concluded that I must define a unique timeframe for every month/year combination. Unfortunately, when I schedule an automatic control for a year, the job log displays a line for every month defined -- I defined 2 full fiscal years and have 23 lines (one prior year's month fell outside the current year's month/day boundaries).

Does anyone here have a suggestion on how I can define these calendars? Can I tie a set of months to a specific year? Or, will I have to annually create the next year and delete the last?

Thanks, in advance, for your consideration.

Jeff

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Jeff,

The Sox certification is for a quater /year.I think PC 2.5 is also designed aacordingly.

In practice the controls,its testing is reviewed;based on this the frequency is determined.This review happens on a yearly basis.So in general the Timeframe never exceed one year.

Given the above pl restrict the time frame to one year.

Regards

Ramesh

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Thanks, Ramesh

I find myself coming to that conclusion, too (that GRC thinks about its activities in one-year "chunks"). I wonder if any thought was given to historical reporting. While I understand that sign-off activity is a one-off kind of thing (you're either signed-off or you're not), that doesn't apply to the actual controls, does it?Don't people compare this year to last year? Or, is that sort of thing covered in the testing of a control?

[Former Member]

Jeff,

My current client is on a noncalendar fiscal year, however, our scenario is not nearly as complicated as what you described. We basically referenced the config in the ECC 5.0 backend system in PC 2.5 and continued it or recreated it in PC 2.5. However fiscal years are configured in the backend end system, PC 2.5 should be able to support/recreate it. You might also want to consult you internal FI configurator as well.

Just in case you have not done so yet, you can go the backend system and go:

SPRO => SAP customizing Implementation Guide => Financial Accounting => Financial Accounting Global Settings => Fiscal Year => Maintain Fiscal Year Variant (Maintain Shortened Fiscal Year). Once you are in, select the appropriate record and then doubleclick the "Periods" folder to the left. This will show you the fiscal year config.

That said, even though I haven't done it, the PC2.5 IMG appears to support the monthly and yearly requirements you describe (even though I haven't done it for your specific scenario). I would define the timeframes and then use Year 0, +1, +2, +3, etc. You will have to configure each month and year with unique names but it looks workable. If you're sure you've scheduled the AC job correctly, then I would open an OSS Message and have SAP look at it.......doesn't sound right.

I hope this helps.

Matt

[Former Member]

Matt,

I'm intrigued by your use of the word "reference". Do you mean that PC looks up a calendar that was custom-created in ECC? Or was the referencing done by a human, and the calendar then re-created in PC? If the former, can you explain how that was done, as I cannot, so far, find any indication that it is possible from the documents I've seen and the people I've spoken to.

I can see (via the IMG) that a calendar was created in ECC. I'm unclear how that information would get pulled by PC.

I do agree that creating timeframes with unique names for every year/period combination appears to be a solution (though somewhat kludgy). The problem is that you cannot select (or enter) a year offset greater than 2 in the Edit Frequency Timeframes activity, and even if you could, does year zero remain constant? Would you have to revise every timeframe that crosses a year boundary on every Jan 1? The solution to this appears to be to use the Year drop-down box in all the NWBC screens as a base year (because testing indicates that's how PC uses it), and only use the appropriate Timeframes for the base year that is selected from the Year drop-down. So, I created the following SC-FREQs, each containing similarly-named Timeframes:

2009AN, 2009MO, 2009QT, 2009SE, 2009WK, 2010AN, 2010MO, 2010QT, 2010SE, 2010WK

with the plan being to only use the 2009 frequencies when 2009 is the selected year, and likewise for 2010. I'm testing this now, and it seems to work.

But, if you can describe how to connect PC to the ECC calendar, I'm interested!

Thanks for replying.

[Former Member]

Jeff,

Sorry it took so long to respond. What I meant to say is that we looked in ECC 5.0 to see how the fiscal year is configured. We then manually recreated it in PC 2.5. It did not match 100% but was consistent from a timeline perspective.

I was unaware of the offset limit greater than 2. I can see how that would complicate things for you. I agree that creating unique names for each combination is a pretty kludgy solution, but then again, you must admit, your FY is pretty gruesome too froma requirements perspective. I imagine this causes some confusion too. Our fiscal year goes from 4/1 to 3/31. We changed the timeframe descriptions too, for example, FY M01 for April, etc. Nonfinance end users kept getting confused if we used the standard labels; for example, using FY M12 2008 for 3/2009 causes less confusion than the label March 2009.

I suggest you talk to your inhouse FI configurator and have them show you the detailed FY setup in your backend system and try to manually duplicate it in PC2.5. If you can do it on the backend, PC 2.5 should be able to support it.

I hope this helps.

Matt

[Former Member]

Matt,

Thanks for the confirmation that I need to manually create the calendars in PC.

I agree that our FY is ..... unusual.

Just to be clear, it wasn't my idea!!

Just to add to the confusion, we have systems that use another week-based calendar, so I am familiar with end-user misunderstandings around calendars. I'm hoping that we can reduce them by training that the year selection is the fiscal year. I'll expect mistakes come December/January, though.

Thanks again, both to you and Ramesh for taking the time to reply.

Jeff