COPA Interview Questions

1. What is the difference between PCA and COPA as both are for profitability reporting?

PCA

CO-PA

PCA is aimed at Profit

reporting on internal
responsibility lines or SBU's

CO-PA is aimed at external market

segment reporting for example by
customer and customer groupings
(industries), geographical areas.

PCA is limited to reporting by

the profit center hierarchies
that you can setup.

The application CO-PA lets you

analyze the profitability of
segments of your market structured according to
products, customers, orders,
and summarizations of these
and other characteristics - and
organizational units such as
company codes or business
areas.

The application EC-PCA

lets you analyze internal
profit and loss for profit
centers. This makes it
possible for you to
evaluate different areas or
units within your company.
You can structure profit
centers according to
region (branch offices,
plants), function
(production, sales), or
product (product ranges,
divisions). Profit Center
Accounting is a component
of the module Enterprise
Controlling.

PCA can be reconciled easily

back to the GL

The aim is to provide your sales,

marketing, planning, and
management organizations with
decision-support from a marketoriented viewpoint.

PCA has 2 'styles'

Account based which will

reconcile to the GL

Costing Based which Allows

approximations, estimations or
standards to be posted, which

may make reconciliation difficult

to explain to the user

2. What are the differences between Account based and Costing based PA. What would you
recommend to the client?

3. How many types of Charecteristics , value fields are there ? what are their purposes ?

4. What the the variou derivation method available .? give examples for each once ?

5. How do you create report in COPA ?

6. How do you do planning in COPA ? How do you export planning value from Excel ?

7. What is profitability Segment Charecters ? how do you define them ??

8. What are the various table used in COPA ?

9. What is valuation ? how do you use ? give an example or scenario ?

10. What is realignment and how does it works.

11. What is key figure Schema?

12. How does the data flows from other modules into COPA.
How data flows from SD to COPA?
The normal SD document flow is as follows:
1. Sales order
2. Delivery (the delivery creates the goods issue, which debits COGS and credits
Inventory COGS is updated in CO-PA at this time)
3. Billing Document (the billing document updates A/R, Sales revenue, Discounts,
Freight, etc.)
How data flows from CO to COPA?
Through Assessments. Allocates costs from cost centers to profitability segments.
How data flows through MM into FI?
Through Account assignment model OKB9. Automatic postings created in materials
management, can be passed on to CO-PA by means of automatic account assignment to a
profitability segment.
How data flows from PP into FI & COPA?
Through Production Variances. It Posts variances from the production (product cost)
estimates or standards to the GL accounts and to Profitability Analysis if real costs are
required (vs standard costs). Standard cost figures would have been used to update Stock and
Cost of Goods sold figures when finished stock was issued from the production runs.

13. What is characteristic values?

Characteristic is nothing but profitability segment. Ex- Product, customer, business area etc.

14. What is summarization levels.

15. Why does SAP talk about statistical assignments in CO - why are these different from real
Cost Accounting assignments?
The reason is to facilitate reconciliation between FI and CO. The sum of all 'real' assignments
in CO should add up to the sum of all expense and revenue postings (where cost/revenue
elements have been created for the GL account of course) in FI. A normal expense invoice
posting to expense accounts / cost elements will be a 'real' posting. If the system is displaying
an error message insisting on a 'cost accounting assignment' and you think you have entered
one, then possibly you have specified a statistical assignment. A common error is in thinking
that the business area will do - Business areas are FI elements not CO elements.
Example:
All Profit Center assignments
are statistical

EC-PCA is defined as statistical,

therefore if posting to a revenue
element, the system will insist on a
real cost accounting assignment even
if profit center is specified. A cost
center will not do, since revenue
elements are statistical in cost centers.
The system will accept the following
as real: CO-PA profitability segment,
sales order, customer project or a
revenue bearing order.

Revenue elements assigned to 'Revenue' when defined to the system

cost centers will always be
by setting up a revenue element is
statistical
always statistical in a cost center. If
however you have setup your revenue
accounts as primary cost elements then
the assignment will be 'real'.

3. What do you mean by Period based accounting (GL based) and cost of sales accounting
(COPA based)?
'Period Based Accounting' is Accrual Accounting and 'Cost of Sales' is 'Cost of Goods Sold'
Accounting.

Period based Accounting

"Period based" means that during the month or period, all and only actual events /
transactions are posted in the appropriate period. At the end of the period estimated accruals
and deferrals are made and posted to that posting period to give a more accurate view of
profit. IE any expected revenues and expenditures that should relate to the current period are
accrued for and equally any prepaid expenses or revenues are deferred to the next
period. (Accruals and Deferrals are posted temporarily, usually to special accounts, and
reversed prior to the next period end.)
These accruals and deferrals are usually done at a fairly high level of summarization (eg: at
company or business area). The FI Ledgers and financial statements etc are always period
based.
Cost of Sales Accounting
Cost of Sales in SAP means that we attempt to record or rather report the "costs of sales"
against the actual sale at as low a level as possible and during the period. (In CO-PA this is
down to a transaction level.) This enables the company to get a reasonably accurate view of
profitability on a real time basis.
This is done by using either standards or estimates for many of the components that make up
the "cost of goods sold". Any variations from the standards are usually posted through to the
cost of sales system either at month end or when they occur.
For example: A product cost estimate might be used to calculate and post a manufactured
cost through to CO-PA when every sale goes through. The actual production
orders variances from the product cost estimate can then be settled to a separate line in COPA. This has the benefits that
a reasonably accurate gross profit could be reported in real time at a transaction level and of
course therefore at all the characteristic levels in CO-PA.
The impact of any abnormal variances in production can quite clearly be seen and analyzed
separately from the normal profitability of a product.
8. What do you mean by value field groups?
Value Field Groups represent the possible combinations of value fields in an operating
concern. Value field groups are used to specify:

Which value should be made available to users entering or displaying a line item

In what order these value fields should be displayed

Which specific value fields can be filled

You plan your data for the characteristics Product, Product group and Customer group. You
define three planning levels for which planning data is to be entered: Customer
group/product group (independent of the product), product/product group (independent of
the customer group), and product/product group/customer group (the lowest, most detailed
level). By using transaction-based top-down distribution, you can ensure that all planning
data is saved at the lowest level
9. What are Characteristics Values?
Characteristics are aspects on which we want to break down the profit logically such as
customer, region product, sales person etc.
10. What do you mean fixed characteristic fields?
Predefined characteristic fields in SAP R/3 system, which are obvious, are known as fixed
characteristic fields such as product, sales org and customer
11. What are Non-Fixed characteristics or user defined characteristics?
Up to 50 non-fixed characteristics can be added to an operating concern. E.g. Bill-to-party
Create -> Derived the value from Table PAPARTNER (SD partner that can be used in COPA)
-> Create user defined characteristic name WW008 -> Save