FAQ 'SAP Financial Closing cockpit' (company confidential) Page 1 of 7

Frequently Asked Questions

Version 2

about the new 'SAP Financial Closing cockpit'

Overall structure of this document

1. General questions
2. Questions related to specific customer scenarios
3. Further customer questions
4. Product related questions

Abbreviations used in this document:

SAP FCc = SAP Financial Closing cockpit
SAP CPS = SAP Central Process Scheduling by Redwood

Selected Questions and Answers

1. General questions

1.1. What is the 'SAP Financial Closing cockpit'?

SAP FCc is an ERP based business application to plan, execute, monitor, and analyze local
financial closing activities.
It is a new product which is delivered with enhancement package 3 for SAP ERP 6.0
(generally available since June 2008) and is activated with business function
FIN_ACC_LOCAL_CLOSE.
That means with the activation of this business function in a productive installation the SAP
FCc is deemed to be 'used in a productive environment' and therefore has to be licensed by the
customer. It will include all additional SAP FCc related features delivered with enhancement
package 4 or beyond for SAP ERP 6.0. Precondition for usage is an SAP ERP license.

1.2. What is the added value for the customer when using 'SAP Financial Closing cockpit'?
With SAP FCc enterprises do have a 'centralized game plan' for their financial close and it
enables them to standardize and automate their 'best-practices' for the closing process in a
powerful and end-user friendly application. It lowers costs and time commitment, it improves
data quality, it reduces error-rates, and it completes the visibility into what is being done,
when and by whom.

1.3. Which business value areas can be addressed with the 'SAP Financial Closing cockpit'?
Generally speaking, it supports 3 different business value areas:
Transparency:
Real supervision of financial close and reporting cycle increases the accurateness and the
credibility of the financial statement.

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Efficiency:
The cost-effective use of manpower, systems, and processes during the closing process is
critical for working within resource and budgetary constraints.
Compliance:
Monitoring of internal controls is essential for generating accurate financial reporting and
for compliance with regulatory guidelines.
Thus, the SAP FCc offers comprehensive business values for all enterprises independently
of industry and size by offering improvements in some of the most important areas of a
CFO's responsibilities.

1.4. What are the most important features of the 'SAP Financial Closing cockpit'?
Most important features of SAP FCc are:
Central management of all closing related activities in one SAP client of one SAP ERP
system
Template concept, inheritance of relevant steps to task lists
Gregorian calendar or factory calendar
Task list accessible via web user interface for the end user
Integration into SAP NetWeaver Portal or SAP NetWeaver Business Client
Advanced grouping of tasks into phases and of task lists by status
Documentation of financial closing status
New status 'checked'
Capabilities to add comments
New authorization object (F_CLOCO)
Integration capability to SAP CPS

Remark: SAP FCc enables the integration to SAP CPS, but does not include the SAP CPS
license.

1.5. What is the 'Closing Cockpit'?

The name 'Closing Cockpit' has been used since SAP ERP 5.0 to denote a set of features in
the SAP ERP software for scheduling, executing and monitoring local financial close
activities.
The usage of 'Closing Cockpit' features delivered up to enhancement package 2 for
SAP ERP 6.0 is included in the SAP ERP license. A customer using just these features does
not need anything beyond the SAP ERP license even if the relevant SAP system has installed
and activated a higher enhancement package as long as the business function
FIN_ACC_LOCAL_CLOSE is not activated.
'Closing Cockpit' has never been a product in the SAP price list.
Existing close schedules can be migrated from the 'Closing Cockpit' to the SAP FCc.

1.6. What is the 'Schedule Manager'?

The 'Schedule Manager' is an SAP tool for scheduling batch-jobs which has been available
since R/3 4.6c. Technical parts of it have been reused in the design of the 'Closing Cockpit'
and of the SAP FCc, but the complete user interface of the SAP FCc has been recreated
according to state-of-the-art UI concepts.
'Schedule Manager' has never been a product in the SAP price list.
Existing close schedules can be migrated from the 'Schedule Manager' to the SAP FCc.

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1.7. Why has the new' SAP Financial Closing cockpit' been defined as a product with a
dedicated price tag while the 'Schedule Manager' and the 'Closing Cockpit' were included in
the SAP ERP license?
SAP has invested significantly into the enhanced functionality of SAP FCc to provide much
higher value to the customer. SAP FCc is lifted from a tool-kind application to a powerful
end-user oriented application. In particular in combination with the SAP CPS (also refer to
details below) the SAP FCc functionality enlarges the use cases significantly by enabling
cross-systems and event-based scheduling.

1.8. Do customers who are using the 'Closing Cockpit' or the 'Schedule Manager' always
need to license the SAP FCc when implementing enhancement package 3?
No, as long as the business function FIN_ACC_LOCAL_CLOSE is not activated, the
'Closing Cockpit' or the 'Schedule Manager' version which are included in the SAP ERP
license can still be used. With activation of the business function the enhanced version called
SAP FCc becomes active and needs to be licensed.

1.9. What is 'SAP Central Process Scheduling by Redwood'?

SAP CPS delivers adaptive, real-time, event-driven job scheduling and process-automation
capabilities. Specifically designed to integrate process automation for SAP and non-SAP
application environments across distributed and heterogeneous platforms, SAP CPS provides
a central point of control for process and job management. It is an existing supplementary
product in the SAP price list which is now available in a brand-new SAP NetWeaver
deployed version. SAP CPS enhances the value of SAP business applications such as SAP
FCc, SAP Solution Manager, and SAP NetWeaver BI through its very tight integration.

1.10. What are the most important features of 'SAP Central Process Scheduling by Redwood'?
Most important features of SAP CPS are:
Fully integrated into SAP NetWeaver
Free of charge version:
o Central scheduler for all kinds of SAP jobs
o Event-based scheduling
o Graphical view
o Time zone handling
o Display and monitoring of parent-child-relationships
o Enhanced job monitoring
o Basic load balancing
o Restrictions:
only SAP jobs can be scheduled, no cross-system scheduling, no business
scheduling scenario covered, no advanced scripting, no import / export of job
definitions, no dynamic mass activities
Chargeable version: additionally
o Central scheduler also for non-SAP jobs
o Cross-system scheduling (SAP and non-SAP)
o Parallel processing
o Business Automation Enabler for integration with business applications like
SAP FCc and SAP Solution Manager
o Dynamic mass activities
o Enhanced load balancing

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1.11. What is the added value for the customer using 'SAP Financial Closing cockpit' together
with 'SAP Central Process Scheduling by Redwood'?
The option to deeply interlink the SAP FCc with the brand-new version of SAP CPS is the
real accelerator of customer value add scheduling and execution of financial closing related
processes across heterogeneous system landscapes as they commonly occur in real-life IT
environments. Moreover the combination of SAP FCc with SAP CPS enables enhanced
scheduling capabilities like event-based scheduling and parallel processing of financial
closing related process steps.
And with the SAP FCc as the single command centre for all these features.

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2. Questions related to specific customer scenarios

2.1 My customer uses the 'Schedule Manager' in SAP R/3 and plans to upgrade to
SAP ERP 6.0 what options do they have?

Option Required License

SAP SAP SAP
ERP FCc CPS
1. Continue using the 'Schedule Manager', which is still yes no no
available and supported in SAP ERP 6.0
2. Migration to the 'Closing Cockpit' with the functionalities of yes no no
SAP ERP 6.0 up to enhancement package 2
3. Migration to the SAP FCc (means installation of the yes yes no
enhancement package 3 and activation of the related business
function
4. Migration to the SAP FCc and using the integration to SAP yes yes yes
CPS / the functionality of SAP CPS

2.2 My customer uses the 'Closing Cockpit' in SAP ERP 6.0 and plans to implement
enhancement package 3 what options do they have?

Option Required License

SAP SAP SAP
ERP FCc CPS
1. Installation of enhancement package 3 without activation of yes no no
the related business function for SAP FCc
2. Installation of enhancement package 3 and activation of the yes yes no
related business function for SAP FCc w/o using SAP CPS
3. Installation of enhancement package 3 and activation of the yes yes yes
related business function for SAP FCc plus using the integration
to SAP CPS

2.3 My customer has already activated the business function for SAP FCc in enhancement
package 3 how are they affected by the new price list items?
This situation needs to be handled on a case to case basis.
We currently do not expect a high number of customers in that situation. In cases where SAP
does have the reasonable suspicion that a customer might already have activated the related
business function in enhancement package 3 or plans to do so, this customer should be
contacted proactively by its Account Executive.
For further information and if you are surprisingly contacted by a customer facing that
situation, please get in contact with the following contact persons:
EMEA
Ralph Schoepfer, Business Development EMEA Solutions
US
Molly Haun, Business Development SAP America

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3. Further customer questions

3.1 I heard on events begin of the year that the enhanced closing cockpit in enhancement
package 3 is included in the SAP ERP license why did that now change?
Price list items are subject to change because SAP continuously works on improvements
towards a scalable model that can be adapted to a large range of customer situations. In the
current case prizing negotiations have not been final at time of general availability so that the
first approach was to make it available within the SAP ERP license.
In the course of the negotiations it has been decided as described in this paper so that as of
now the functionality capsulated in the related business function of enhancement package 3
and following releases can no longer be provided within the SAP ERP license but requires the
additional license for SAP FCc.
For instance, the pricing of the applications 'SAP Environment, Health & Safety' or 'SAP
Advanced Planning and Optimization' has been changed (user pricing, bundle pricing, engine
pricing).

3.2 Does the 'SAP Financial Closing cockpit' require the 'New General Ledger'?
No - the SAP FCc does not explicitly need the 'New General Ledger', it can also be used in
combination with the 'classic General Ledger'.

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4. Product related questions

4.1. Are there any enhancements of the 'SAP Financial Closing cockpit' planned to be
released with enhancement package 4?
Yes, there are enhancements to be rolled-out with enhancement package 4, explicitly in the
analyzing area focusing on financial closing related reports for operative users and for
controllers. Additionally, these reports can be analyzed via SAP NetWeaver BI capabilities
from different points of view status overview, schedule overview, schedule monitor,
schedule analysis, and status by unit.

4.2. Are there any enhancements of the 'SAP Central Process Scheduling by Redwood'
planned?
SAP CPS is a brand-new product which left ramp-up end of October 2008. Thus, the product
is from an architectural, technical and content driven point of view really up-to-date.
Nevertheless, based on the fact that SAP CPS has been classified as a strategic SAP product,
it will be enhanced continuously over the next couple of months and years.

4.3. Which business applications do consume the capabilities of 'SAP Central Process
Scheduling by Redwood' already today?
SAP CPS is an SAP NetWeaver infrastructure component for the scheduling of jobs and job-
chains in IT landscapes. As of today, these capabilities are consumed by SAP FCc, by
SAP Solution Manager, by SAP NetWeaver BI, and by SAP Exchange Infrastructure /
SAP Process Integration.

4.4. Which business applications will be the next to be enhanced to consume the capabilities
of 'SAP Central Process Scheduling by Redwood'?
According to today's SAP CPS roadmap Business Objects Enterprise applications will be
enhanced by end of 2009 to get their task management done by SAP CPS which then likely
includes also event-based scheduling capabilities.

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