Lesson 1 of 6
Projects in SAP S/4HANA
10 min
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Some work does not fit a cost center or an internal order: a new distribution center, a customer development contract, a plant rebuild. It has phases, dates, a budget that someone approved, many people posting to it, and a result that must end up somewhere, as an asset, an expense or a margin. SAP's Project System (PS) handles that work, and it is still part of SAP S/4HANA Private Edition and on-premise. This course teaches it the way a controller and a tester need it: structure, money, period-end and proof.
sap-co-202 drew the line at Contoso Motor Co.: internal orders for measures one cost center manager owns that finish within a year, and projects for anything that needs a work breakdown, such as the new Toledo distribution center. This course picks up that project, plus one customer project, and follows both through a year.
Contoso's two projects (illustrative course data)
| Project | Type | Company code | Money | Where costs end up |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CMC-TOL-DC Toledo distribution center | Capital (investment) project | 1810 Contoso Parts Distribution | Budget USD 4,000,000 | Assets under construction, then fixed assets; some expense to 18101101 Toledo Distribution |
| CMC-GLF-240 Great Lakes 24 V program | Customer project | 1710 Contoso Motor Co. | Fixed price USD 600,000 | Revenue and cost of sales on the project, via results analysis or event-based revenue recognition |
The two projects used throughout this course.
The building blocks
The project definition holds defaults for everything below it. WBS elements are the controlling objects: costs post to them, budgets sit on them, settlement rules move their costs on. Networks are the logistics side: activities that plan dates, internal work by work center, external services and material components, each of which generates planned costs on the WBS element it belongs to. Small projects often use WBS elements only; projects with real scheduling use both.
Where projects sit in finance
Every posting to a WBS element is a line in the Universal Journal (ACDOCA) with the WBS element as account assignment, so project costs, revenues and settlements appear in the same ledger as everything else. Plan values go to ACDOCP. A WBS element carries a profit center, which is how project results reach margin and segment reporting. For a capital project, the WBS element is also an investment measure linked to an asset under construction, which connects PS to asset accounting (sap-fin-205).
Transactions and apps you will use
| Task | SAP GUI | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Create and change projects | CJ20N Project Builder | Structure, dates, assignments in one screen |
| Structure overview report | CN41N | Project structure with key fields and statuses |
| Overall cost planning | CJ40 | Plan by WBS element and year |
| Budget | CJ30, CJ32 | Original budget, release |
| Settlement | CJ88, CJ8G | Individual and collective settlement |
| Results analysis | KKA2, KKAJ | Individual and collective processing |
Classic PS transactions used in this course. Fiori apps exist for many of these tasks; check the Fiori apps library for your release.
What would you do?
Contoso wants to track the cost of a two-day dealer training event in Chicago, approved by one cost center manager, finished within the month. A colleague suggests a project with three WBS elements. What do you recommend?
What goes wrong in testing
| Symptom | Usual cause | Test |
|---|---|---|
| Project costs show in the wrong margin report | WBS element profit center defaulted wrongly from the project definition | Check profit center on every WBS element after creation |
| Postings to a WBS element fail | Element is not an account assignment element or not released | Post a test invoice to each level of the hierarchy |
| Capital costs never reach assets | No investment profile or AuC on the WBS element | Follow one cost from posting to AuC |
Structure defects that surface only when money moves.
Profiles: the hidden configuration
Most project behavior is not visible on the project screen; it comes from profiles chosen when the project is created. The project profile sets defaults for organizational units, the budget profile, the planning profile, the settlement profile and the investment profile. The network profile controls how networks schedule and cost. The status profile adds user statuses. Choosing the wrong project profile at creation, for example the overhead profile for a capital project, produces a project that looks right and behaves wrongly: no AuC, wrong settlement receivers, no availability control.
| Profile | Controls | What to check in a test |
|---|---|---|
| Project profile | Defaults for the whole project and which other profiles apply | Each project type uses its own profile |
| Budget profile | Budget values, currency, availability control activation | Capital projects activate AVC; overhead projects as designed |
| Settlement profile | Allowed receivers, settlement cost elements, document type | Receivers allowed match the design (AuC, cost center, profitability) |
| Investment profile | Creation of an AuC for capital WBS elements | Released capital elements have an AuC |
| Results analysis key | How customer project results are calculated | Customer billing elements carry the right key |
Profiles that decide project behavior, and the test that catches a wrong one.
Contoso keeps three project types after the conversion: capital, customer and overhead. Each has its own project profile, and the test set includes one new project of each type created from scratch, so the profiles themselves are tested, not only converted projects that already carry their settings.
- Project System remains part of SAP S/4HANA Private Edition and on-premise.
- Project definition, WBS elements, networks and milestones are the building blocks.
- WBS elements are the controlling objects; postings land in the Universal Journal.
- Costs leave a WBS element only through settlement.
Check your understanding · not graded
Lesson check
1. Which project object carries costs, budget and settlement rules?
2. When is a project preferable to an internal order at Contoso?
3. Where do project postings appear in SAP S/4HANA?
4. What links a capital project to asset accounting?