1. In Utilization and Release Postings (UP, RP)

Accrual and Utilization Posting Logic 

• Accruals: Typically posted as a debit to a cost account, which usually requires additional account assignments such as cost center or internal order. 

• Utilization Postings: Typically posted as a credit to a cost account. 

Default Behavior: 

• The Accrual Engine posts the utilization posting using the same additional account assignment (e.g., cost center, internal order) specified in the accrual object. 

• This ensures that the utilization posting matches the additional account assignment used for the accruals. 

Importance: 

• This logic is crucial when the actual cost posting (e.g., supplier invoice) is assigned to a different account than that of the accruals, ensuring consistency and accuracy in financial reporting.

2. Utilization Postings: Time-Dependent Account Assignments 

• Special case: Assume several accrual postings were done with different additional account assignments (cost center, internal order etc.). 
• This can occur if the additional account assignment was changed between the accrual postings. 

• The utilization posting will then use the additional account assignment that is currently entered/valid in the accrual object.

3. Late Utilization Postings: 

• Late Utilization Postings can only occur if an accrual closing frequency is specified in the customizing of the accrual item type. 

• The primary use case for an accrual closing frequency is ‘Annually', to distinguish between utilization and release postings across fiscal years. 

Annual Use Case: 

• Late utilization postings indicate that accruals were posted in the previous fiscal year. 

• During the fiscal year change, the G/L balance carryforward run clears the balances of all profit accounts. Thus, all costs posted to a cost center (e.g., cost center 1) in the old year are reset to zero in the new year. 

• Only the balance on the accrual account is carried forward, as it is a balance sheet account. 

Budget Impact: 

• If actual costs in the new year (e.g., an invoice) are posted to a different cost center (e.g., cost center 2), a standard utilization posting crediting the original cost center (cost center 1) would increase its budget in the new year. This is because the debit posting from the old year is missing in the new year for cost center 1. 

Default Behavior: 

• In Late Utilization (UL) postings, the Accrual Engine defaults to posting the credit to the new cost center (cost center 2) instead of the original cost center (cost center 1). 

• This behavior differs from “normal” utilization postings (UP) and release postings, as explained in the corresponding documentation. 

 4. Release Postings: 

• Similar to utilization and late utilization postings, release postings are typically posted as credits to a cost account. 

• The logic for posting release of accruals is similar to that of utilization postings, with one key difference: there is no actual posting (such as a supplier invoice) from which to derive the additional account assignment. 

• For both “normal” release postings (transaction types RP or FP) and late release postings (transaction types RL or FL), the additional account assignment is derived from the accrual object using the posting date of the release posting. 

5. Late Release Postings: 

• Late release postings occur when an accrual closing frequency (e.g., Annually) is used, and accruals posted in a previous closing period (e.g., fiscal year) are being released. 

• Similar to the logic for late utilization postings, this approach prevents the creation of a budget on the “old” cost center (e.g., cost center 1) in the new fiscal year due to the credit posting from the release of accruals. 

Issue: 

• With late release postings, a credit is posted to cost center 1, which increases the budget in the new year. 

• If this budget increase is not desired, a Business Add-In (BAdI) can be implemented to derive a different cost center, such as a dummy cost center. 

Solution: 

• The account assignment can be changed by implementing the BAdI BADI_ACE_DOCUMENT_ASGNMT_CUST when deriving them from the accrual object for postings. 

Changing Default Account Assignment Behavior in Manual Accruals