Explain Cutover Activities/Strategies in SAP FI.

Cutover Activities or Master Data Uploading Strategies Depending upon the when we are going live.  As per that, you have to give the information to your core team.  If you goling live at the middle you have to upload the all P&L Account items and B/S Items.  If you going live at the financial year start, you have to only Upload the B/S Items. Activities for Golive: 

1.   G/L Master Upload Thru BDC or LSMW (TC-Fs00 and extended one co code to another company code Fs01) 2.   Vendor Master Upload Thru BDC Or LSMW (Will be Taken Care By MM)  3.   Customer Master Upload Thru BDC or LSMW (Will be Taken Care By SD)  4.   Asset Master Upload(Thru As90)  5.   Cost Element Master Upload  6.   Cost Center Master Upload  7.   Profit Center Master Upload  8.   G/L Balances Thru F-02  10. Vendor Balances thru F-43  11. Customer Balances thru F-22  12. Customer Advances thru f-29  13. Vendor Advances thryu F-48

Before uploading Vendor Balances you have to take care of WHT(TDS) Information.

------------------------------------------------------the master data conversionhow data will be provided, converted, uploaded?by who?when?the original system should runs any procedure before?

-the planned data conversion

-the gudget data conversion

-the actuals

-the purchase documents related to projects

Consider that actuals, and purchase documents require a deep analisys regarding the integration with the FI/CO/MM modules.

During the conversion is required any certification of the data?

When the system will be available to users?

Have the users the SAPguis installed and the network settings properly setted?

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Cutover plan is to plan the strategy for go-live regarding upload of master data, opening balances, dates, responsibilties, back up etc.

Following are the diffrent cutover Activities...

Communication to Vendor, Customer and Excise etcUser Training by Core TeamCost Roll ups and Validations - TestUpload of Master Data in Sequence on TestStart entry of Open Sales Orders, Quotation, Enquiries, Purchase Orders in ProdStock Taking Activity at PlantStock Upload with SAP Material Code, Qty, Value and Storage Location as on Go-Live DateEnter Cash Balances as of Go-Live DatesEnter Excise balances as of Go-Live Dates with monthly duty payment for MarchConfigure Cut off Excise Number Range (Excise Invoice, RG registers) as on Go-Live DatesBack up of Loaded Production ServerGo LiveAvailability of all balancesFI Balance uploads (For both ledgers/ subledgers/ assets/ customers/ vendors)

Refer below sample cutover checklist..http://hosteddocs.ittoolbox.com/KL122206.pdf

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Cut over activities to be followed (for PP - Discrete Manufacturing).

Production Planning / Master data: For Production planning, only master data shall be migrated to SAP. In the 1st Stage, there is no master data. Following is the master data elements relevant for PP:

Bill of materials Routing.

Work Centres.

Transaction data: As of the cut off date, ideally there should not be any work in process. All the open production orders should be closed and semi finished goods should be dismantled and should be added to Raw materials. This strategy should be followed for all production orders where lead time to complete the production order is not large.

Since, the production orders are for longer duration and it is not possible to dismantle the product and add it to inventory, following can be the strategy for migrating the data to SAP:

Create a material master for the work in process and set the standard price as the cost incurred for that product (ie. Work in process)

Create a bill of material (which will be used only for this production order) including this material and other materials still to be consumed.

Create Routing for rest of the production process.

Bring the work in process material into inventory as of the cut off date.

Create the production orders in SAP for the Work in process and issue materials to production order.

Complete the production process after the cut off date of the project

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http://sapdocs.info/2008/09/22/sap-go-live-strategy/

-------------------------------It Involves deciding which tools you will use e.g. LSMW, CATT, ABAP etc. You need decisions on when you will cut off and establish these items and when you will do the physical transfer. You need to prioritize this. For example, I usually bring AR open items across before AP and GL and AA come last. Stock balances are also priority. If you have stock and AR OI in your system you can bill and do credit checks. Open sales and purchase orders also have to be brought across. You may have open WBS elements, Internal Orders and commitments to consider. You may also need to load your budget. If going live mid-year you need to consider the P & L account cumulative balances and cost centre / profit centre history. For all balance sheet items you need transit accounts which act as contra accounts for the OI and balances loads and zero out if everything is OK. Oh, and I always load in the last period of the old system and roll forward - i.e. for a January 1st Go-Live I load as at 31st December and use SAP standard functionality to bring balances and OI forward into the new year.

You should also get someone working on data scrubbing as soon as possible so that you do not load a heap of rubbish. Year-end tends to be a time when people have vacation and then come back and go straight into year-end closing, so there is personnel planning to do to have the right people available at the right time. You need contingency planning for if things go wrong. You need to do test uploads in a QA system, etc., etc.

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The process involved when the company is going live in mid year, how do we bring in the P&L balances from legacy to SAP.

This varies from company to company and depends largely on how much history you want to keep. If you want to keep all the CO postings as well as FI then you have to analyze the first half year and summarize by GL account by month, and, within GL account, by profit centre / cost centre. This is usually done in a spreadsheet. On one project with an October 01 Go-Live we had a junior accountant doing this over a 6 month period before Go-Live. An accountant is the best person to do it because he can check the numbers as he goes and he knows his accounts. There is of course a mapping process between old GL and new GL, old profit centre / new profit centre, old cost centre / new cost centre. This has to be done first, obviously. Summarized numbers month by month are usually enough - you do not need individual transactions.

There are several tools you can use to upload from Excel including LSMW and CATT. Once you have your spreadsheet it should fly into SAP without problems. You load into each monthly period separately. If all the above detail is not required, then you simply bring over the balances from the TB at the end of the last period before Go-Live. Usually the chief accountant wants the detail so that he has comparative figures for the first full year after Go-Live, but some people say to heck with that and do their comparisons in Excel.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------http://sap.ittoolbox.com/groups/technical-functional/sap-acct/cutover-activities-and-opening-balances-1851354

could you plz, tell me what do you mean by cutover activites and what are the cutover activities are involved in final preparation phase plz, try to give me a detailed answer that to i can understand the basic idea and how do we upload opeing balances in to sap of GL AR AP AND Asset accounting

1st custover data means : the data you should cut the entering in legacy system and use the last figuers of this data as opening for sap.

2nd for openning balances you should do1-create contra accounts in your COA (create account group for it , esp. no. range ) 2-we'll take the open items for customers as example use the invoice in AR module so the debit will be customer and the credit will be the contra account related to ar open items. and so on for others fixed assets , vendors gl accouns and so on

3-you should care about the profit centers if it's required do not miss also for profitability analysis you should create internal order and link it to profit cenetr and send you entries incloding that Internal order no, and if you depend on the profit center concept for BS or p&l you should know the transaction 3keh and 1kek and the othe transactions so you can build the pc BS statment... yours hany refaat

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Cutover activities the name itself tells you cut the business data ex: legacy transactions are stopped from today onwards means today is cut date and will take all balances as on todays date and upload into sap system by using LSMW, BDC, Ecatt etc., It is part of final preparation at 4th phase in the ASAP methodology. That includes upload the balances, sign off from end user, user acceptance test etc.,

Financial Accounting:

The following account numbers will be used for the takeover of the opening data:Open balance assets <No.>Initial stock uploads <No.> Open balance GL <No.> Open balance of Receivables <No.> Open balance of Payables <No.>

Trial Balance:-

1.The certified trial balance as on <date> will be taken over in the SAP system.

2.It may be noted that this trial balance needs to be broken down profit center wise for the balance sheet accounts and cost center & profit center wise for the revenue accounts (Profit & Loss Accounts)

3.The Balance sheet items excluding AR/AP/FA will be taken as the closing balance, whereas, open line item will be taken for AR/AP/FA – respective sub-ledger wise. AR/AP line items will compulsory have payment terms. CWIP will be uploaded asset wise. So CWIP accounts will be broken up accordingly. Accounting Entries while data upload:

1.Inventory Takeover:When inventory will be uploaded, following entry will be generated by the system depending upon the valuation class specified in the material master.Inventory Account………….DrTo Initial stock upload account

2.Receivable Takeover:Account Receivables will be uploaded customer wise and only the open items will be taken over to new system. At the time of upload following entry will be generated.

Customer Account (with actual reconciliation account DrTo Opening balance – account receivables

3.Payable Takeover:Account Payables will be uploaded vendor wise and only the open items will be taken over to new system. At the time of upload following entry will be generated.

Vendor Account DrTo Open Balance – Account payables

4.Asset Takeover:The asset balances will be uploaded asset wise. This will not create any accounting entries initially and asset balances will be loaded.

In case of Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, and Assets, it should be ensured that the sub ledger balances are tallying with the general ledger.

5.Other GL Takeover:All the GL Accounts (other than above) will be taken over by debiting / crediting to the account code <No.> (open balance GL)The closing balance of balance sheet accounts will be taken over and the profit and loss accounts will be taken cost center wise.

At the end of the data takeover exercise, all takeover accounts together shall show a ‘zero’ balance. These accounts shall be blocked for posting after the data take on activity. GR/IR account:It would be ideal to ensure that all invoices relating to goods received be booked in the legacy system before the cut off date. Alternatively, all provisions made in the legacy system relating to goods received but invoices not received will have to be adjusted against corresponding vendor invoices received after the go-live date. In case of invoices relating to goods that have been received before the go-live date, the following entry shall be passed in the production system:

Corresponding Provision Account………………..DrTo Vendor Account

The invoice for such receipts shall be passed using the FI invoice booking transaction and not through Materials Management. The verification of the invoice shall be manual. Apart from the above-mentioned data, the budget data for Cost center and Profit center also needs to be uploaded into the SAP system.

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Phase 4: Final Preparation

The purpose of this phase is to complete the final preparation of the R/3 System for going live. This includes testing, user training, system management and cutover activities, to finalize your readiness to go live. This Final Preparation phase also serves to resolve all crucial open issues. On successful completion of this phase, you are ready to run your business in your productive R/3 System.

In Phase 4, your end users go through comprehensive training. The last step will be to migrate data to your new system. In particular a going-live check is carried out and an R/3 Help Desk set up.

Fig. Xx: Main work packages of Phase 4

This phase builds on the work done in the previous two phases so that R/3 can be handed over to the individual departments for productive operation. This includes creating the user documentation and training the end users. The technical environment is installed for the productive system and the project managers make plans for going live, including the transfer of data from legacy systems and user support in the startup phase.

End-user training can be the area an organization spends the most time and money to complete, since proper training is critical if the project is to be successful. A high-level training plan should have been developed within the Project Preparation phase, but now more detail is added. The training program is set up according to the number of users, their location and their tasks. Once the site of the courses and the trainers have been chosen, the courses can be held.

To accelerate your training activities, you can purchase the R/3 Info Database (InfoDB), a blend of R/3, multimedia content, and tools. The R/3 InfoDB contains over 250 standard courses that we use in our SAP training facilities worldwide. These courses are available for multiple R/3 releases in up to 14 languages.

Computing Center Management System

As part of setting up the Computing Center Management System (CCMS), the system administrators are trained and the network administration, backup, archiving, and capacity monitoring systems are prepared and tested. Some of the tasks involved here are configuring the printing facilities, conducting system volume and stress tests and conducting a going-live check.

Furthermore, R/3 logon groups are now set up, enabling you to provide application servers with improved response time for particularly important work groups using time-sensitive transactions.

Operation modes (resource configurations for each instance of the R/3 System) now need to be defined, with the times that the services are available. Alert monitors and backup schedules are set up. Productive system printing procedures and spool administration procedures are defined according to the Systems Operations Manual set up in the Blueprint Phase. Finally, the R/3 job scheduling system needs to be configured, as well as alert monitors and backup schedules defined.

Also in Phase 4, the system administration staff needs to be trained in a workshop session. Topics include troubleshooting, tape management, and user management, as well as escalation procedures.

Fig XX: R/3 technical implementation cycle

In Phase 4 you simulate the productive operation of your R/3 System, a step of great importance. The test plan contains all the most important situations that arise in the normal course of business:

Testing conversion procedures and programs

Testing interface programs

Conducting volume and stress testing

Conducting final user acceptance testing

Developing a final go-live strategy

The test situations are selected on the basis of importance and frequency of expected use. Printers and other output devices are also included in the tests, in order to, for example, check print volumes or print layouts in printed invoices or purchase orders. End users are included in the planning and execution of the tests.

Volume testing also involves checking the critical parameters for specific business procedures, for example, adhering to a two-second average processing time to create a sales order.

CATT Test System

The Computer Aided Test Tool (CATT) can be used to automate test sequences for key business processes. The results are logged in detail and then reviewed. CATT is also used for quality tests during release changeovers and for simulating complete business processes.

System administration testing involves testing the activities of a System Administrator, such as managing job scheduling, administering corrections and transports, reacting to R/3 System alerts and logs.

Phase 4 also provides for the testing of the disaster recovery plan and of the procedures defined for the productive environment. If a third-party provider has been engaged for these services, their services and responsiveness can also be tested. Disaster downtimes are verified and details on de-escalation procedures are documented.

Now that the technical configuration for the productive system is finalized, plans are drawn up for transferring legacy data. At this point, the system settings (Customizing) and R/3 Repository objects are transferred from the quality assurance system, and automatic and manual data transfers to the productive system are carried out and tested.

GoingLiveTM Check

The GoingLiveTM Check involves an analysis of the major system components of the R/3 installation with regard to system consistency and reliability. For this, SAP experts log on your R/3 System via a remote connection, inspect the configuration of individual system components, and provide valuable recommendations for system optimization. By analyzing the individual system components before production startup, SAP can considerably improve the availability and performance of the customer's live system. In addition, the technical application analysis provides information on how to speed up the core processes within R/3.

In the second step of optimization the transactions with high resource consumption are searched for and necessary adjustments made. In the third step of verification, the changes from the two prior sessions are validated. This check is performed in the productive operation system.

After a system goes live, some fine tuning and eliminating of potential bottlenecks is still necessary. This is carried out four weeks after going live with the R/3 System.

Refining the Cutover

At the end of Phase 4, it is necessary to refine and validate the cutover plans generated in the Realization phase. Among other things, this includes tasks such as the reviewing of the runtime of test runs to estimate runtime for the complete data size. A conversion checklist for transporting all changes into the productive system is provided for all the configuration settings to be imported.

At this stage, it is important to verify that required tasks have been successfully completed, for example, that the technical environment is in place, the cutover programs are ready and the application data is verified. Approval is now sought from project management and company senior management to start the cutover process.

Here you can also refer to the Data Transfer Made Easy Guidebook created especially for this purpose. It is located in the Knowledge Corner of the ASAP CD.

The help desk is particularly important in the first weeks after going live, but you will require help desk support throughout the productive life of your R/3 System. An internal help desk should be staffed and supported mainly by employees of the enterprise. Setting up a help desk involves, among other things, installing office and technical equipment and defining OSS users. Problems which cannot be solved by this internal help desk are forwarded to SAP via the OSS system.

As soon as you know when you will go live with the R/3 System or with new R/3 applications you should inform SAP. Thus you can ensure that SAP can provide optimal support throughout your going-live phase. For the last weeks before and first weeks after the go-live date, SAP offers the R/3 GoingLive Customer Care Service, accessible via SAPNet and OSS.