Adding new lines of business to SAP

We previously wrote about how ARRA has provided millions of dollars to utilities, which presents recipients with the challenge of accounting for those grants. Beyond that, many utilities in rural parts of the country are not only considering investing in their existing infrastructure, but also expanding into new lines of business, such as broadband services, which the FCC has specifically encouraged.

Adding a new business means that SAP will be asked to handle even more data, so its reach needs to be extended for both internal financial and external regulatory views. While every such project will entail customized steps, we see a few that are worth considering:

• Apply existing business processes to the new line of business. For example, in CCS (now CRB) add the new utility service to the customer's bill, while maintaining the existing services. Likewise, keep your existing reports, but simply add a new line to them covering the latest service offering.


• Turn on SAP's Business Area functionality, to subdivide the Chart of Accounts and create General Ledgers for each line of business


• Create dashboards for each line of business with Business Intelligence (BI) to put key financial and operational metrics within easy reach—including non-SAP data that management values for decision-making. Also consider pushing this information out to mobile devices for selected users who are often away from their desks.

We'll report further on this matter in the coming months as we assist HPC customers who are themselves expanding into new ventures.

Part 3: Capital Expenditures and the FERC Module

Wrapping up our look at the FERC module and capital expenses, we'll use another real-world example.

Let's say we have not one, but two capital orders for the month. The first one has $1M in it. But the second one has $100K posted to it, and it settles to a cost center. Thus, the second order is expense by definition, because all orders settling to a cost center are expensed. Now, let's assume further that the order type is designed for expense. Furthermore, the order was created, but for some unexplained reason, the regulatory indicator never got assigned and was left blank.

When it comes time to run the trace, this second order, having no regulatory indicator, will still need to be translated to the FERC or RUS chart of accounts. The trace is designed with two back-up translation rules in such an event, as follows:

If the regulatory indicator is blank or invalid then:

1. The trace looks to the responsible cost center on the order.


2. If found, the regulatory indicator on the cost center (looked-up on CSKS) is used. This will most often be an expense regulatory indicator.

If there is no responsible cost center assigned to the master record on the order (table AUFK), then:

1. The regulatory indicator is assigned from the default indicator shown on ZFERCR010 (run using ZE_FERCTRACE.) This is the regulatory assignment of last resort.


2. The assigned default is set to CAPT for all instances.

Our second expense order in this example, having a blank regulatory indicator, would then trace the debits to the Holding Account, but would never get an offsetting credit. Why? Because the order is not going to be capitalized. Rather, the order really should have had another valid O&M regulatory indicator, but it was blank and went to 'CAPT' by default. So there in will sit in the Holding Account without ever getting an offsetting credit for the $100K.

What can you do about such a discrepancy? By looking at results by month, you may find a timing problem between what the trace is saying should be capitalized and when the direct post is seeing the actual settlement.

If you can verify that all five conditions for capital orders are validated, there may be at least one order each month that has a blank regulatory indicator. To pinpoint that, reverse one of the FERC periods for the given year in QAS. When re-running the trace, change the default regulatory indicator to another O&M regulatory indicator. Changing nothing else, run the trace, trace post, direct post, and drill-down as normal. Check the balance in the Holding Account for any change. If it changed, then one of the orders supporting the Holding Account was blank, causing the discrepancy.

Got it all straight? Good, this is not easy stuff. Thoroughly confused? Not a problem, we can help.