With S/4HANA all CO-PA characteristics are made available in the FI Universal Journal to enable a multi-dimensional analysis of results by profitability dimensions. This functionality replaces the former account-based CO-PA.
The cost-based CO-PA can be used further on but the account-based CO-PA is recommended due to direct alignment to the general ledger accounts.
With SAP HANA primary database it aligns COPA structure with the general ledger. Due to this, it is now advised companies to use account-based CO-PA and not costing-based CO-PA.
All revenue and cost postings are automatically assigned to the relevant CO-PA characteristics at the time of FI document posting and settlement/allocation in CO and stored in FI Universal Journal. This provides a visibility of the results during the fiscal period already before month-end-closing and eliminates the need for FI-COPA reconciliation.
To be considered that the revenue is recognized at the time of invoicing and cost of goods sold when the delivery is made. If there is a time gap between invoice an delivery a revenue recognition function should be taken in consideration.
In order to see the production order variances by variance categories in account-based CO-PA (scrap, price variances, quantity variances etc.) multiple accounts can be used for production variance settlement.
If the Top-Down-Distribution is used in CO-PA it needs to be extended by account/cost element in the selection criteria.
The incoming sales order quantities and values (record type A) are recorded in an Extension Ledger in for of predictive accounting documents.