Chart of Accounts in SAP is a list of all General Ledgers accounts used by one or several company codes. For each General Ledger, the chart of account must contain the account number, name, and the information that controls how an account functions and how a General Ledger is to be created in a company code.
You have to assign a chart of accounts in SAP to each company code. This will be called as the operating chart of accounts in SAP and will be used for daily postings in a company code.
You have two options while using multiple company codes in SAP.
You can use the same chart of accounts for all company codes in SAP i.e. if the company codes have the same requirements then assign all of the individual company codes to the one particular chart of account. This could be the case if all company codes are in the same country.
The second option is in addition to the operating Chart Of Accounts, you can use two additional chart of accounts for specific purpose. If the individual company code needs different chart of accounts, you can assign up to two chart of accounts in addition to the operating chart of accounts. This could be the case if company codes is in multiple countries.
The use of different charts of accounts has no effect on the balance sheet and profit and loss statement of a company. While creating the balance sheet or the profit and loss statement, you can choose whether to balance in the company codes which uses different chart of accounts together or separately.
Charts of accounts can have three different functions in the system and based on that they are defined as follows:
Operating Chart Of Account In SAP
The operating Chart Of Account in SAP contains General Ledgers that you use for posting in your company code during daily business activities. Both FI and CO module in SAP use operating chart of accounts to collect financial data. You have to assign an operating chart of accounts to a company code.
Group Chart Of Account
The group Chart Of Account in SAP contains General Ledgers that are used by the entire corporate group. This allows the company to provide reports for the entire corporate group.Assigning of group chart of accounts to company code is optional.
Country-specific Chart Of Account
The country-specific Chart Of Account contains General Ledgers that are needed to meet the country’s legal requirements. This allows you to provide statements specific to the country’s legal requirements. The assigning of an country-specific Chart Of Account to a company code is optional.
The operating chart of accounts in SAP is shared by FI module as well as Controlling module. GL in a Chart Of Account can be both expense or revenue account in FI and cost or revenue elements in cost accounting.
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