Hierarchy of the FICO G/L Account Master Records

G/L account master records are distributed to both of the following areas:

• A chart of accounts area

The chart of accounts can be valid for one or more company codes. It contains information which applies to the master records of the company codes that use this chart of accounts.

• A company code-specific area

The company code-specific area contains information which may differ from company code to company code.

For example, an account number is specified in the chart of accounts, and the currency in which you can post to the account is set in the company code area. The following figure illustrates this.

The information in the chart of accounts controls, among other things, the creation of master records in the company codes. Before creating the company code part of the record, you thus have to first enter the master record in the chart of accounts.

The general ledger accounting (FI-GL) component allows you to maintain these areas either separately or together with the following options:

• You can create the chart of accounts in one step (independent of the company code).
• You can create the company code area after creating the chart of accounts area.
• You can maintain both areas in one step.

The different organizations of the various companies should be taken into account with the different procedures.

Companies which are centrally organized will want to define the chart of accounts for their company codes. The employees in these company codes then create the company code-dependent area for the G/L accounts. The chart of accounts should not, in this case, be maintained by the employees in the company codes. You can prevent this by using authorization assignment. For more information on authorization assignment, see Financial Accounting Global Settings in the Implementation Guide under Maintain Authorizations.

However, you may also want to control the creation of master records in the company codes. In order to define special data centrally, a sample account can be specified in the chart of accounts for every master record. The values contained in it are transferred according to definable rules when creating the master record in the company code. Using the sample account procedure is optional. For more information on sample accounts, see Sample Account.

You can create the master record in one step if not just the chart of accounts, but also the entire master record is to be defined from a central location. In a case like this, you do not authorize the employees in the company codes to maintain the master data.

Companies which are organized locally will have the chart of accounts and the area in the company code created and maintained by the employees in the individual company codes. In this case, you assign authorization for maintaining the master records to the appropriate employees.