SAP Financial Accounting (FI) Configuration Plan for the Implementation of ERP System

SAP Financial Accounting (FI) Configuration Plan for the Implementation of ERP System in a Restaurant

This is an example of a research study in regards to SAP FI - Financial Accounting Configuration Plan for a Restaurant. It comprise of a thesis format that follows ACM standard covering four major sections including the background of study, methodology, presentation of findings, and conclusions and recommendations. The book study covers a complete configuration plan of System, Application, and Products (SAP) Financial Accounting (FI) module of a restaurant. The objective of the research study is to develop a financial accounting configuration plan for the implementation of Financial Accounting module of SAP ECC 6.0 an ERP System in a Restaurant. Relative to the aim, this study sought to identify what are the configuration requirements that shall be considered in the Financial Accounting along the areas on organizational structure; processes; and financial Accounting data, to identify the major issues and challenges related to ERP implementation, and to determine the ICT infrastructure that shall support the ERP implementation. A complete reference and example of a research output for Computer Science and Information Technology research study majoring in enterprise track. TO GOD BE THE GLORY!

Rational/Background of the Study

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system is an integrated set of programs that supports the core organizational activities such as manufacturing, logistics, finance, accounting, sales, marketing, and human resources.  An ERP system can be used by different departments in an organization to share data and knowledge, reduce costs, and improve the management of the business processes (Ledlum, 2010).

The ERP solution incorporates the practical systems used by organizations to manage the basic commercial functions of their business, such as: planning, inventory/materials management, purchasing, manufacturing, finance, accounting, human resources, marketing and sales, services etc (Holtz, 2013).

There are different ERP Systems provider available in the market, and one of the leading ERP system provider is the System, Applications, and Products (SAP) ERP. Since SAP-ERP has several modules, one of the most important module that needs to be configured is the SAP Financial Accounting (FI) module. This financial accounting module helps employees to manage data involved in any financial and business transactions in a unified system. SAP FI incorporates with other SAP modules such as SAP SD, SAP MM, SAP PP, Payroll for better work results (Wagner & Weidner, 2013).

SAP FI also has several sub-modules which includes  General Ledger, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Special Purpose Ledger, Bank Accounting, and Asset Accounting. The General Ledger contains a listing of the transactions effecting each account in the Chart of Accounts and the respective account balance. A Substantive and important integration between Sales and Distribution (SD) and Financial Accounting (FI). substantive and important integration between Materials Management (MM) and Financial Accounting (FI). Purchase and goods receipt activities in MM generate FI journal entries.

    

SAP ERP provides many advantages and benefits such as flexibility, customized solutions, module integration, continuous support, and reduces human effort. With all the benefits that SAP ERP offers, the researcher decided to propose configuration of Financial Accounting (FI) using SAP ERP at Health Restaurant. This study aimed at configuring a Financial Accounting (FI) module of an Enterprise Resource Planning System using SAP ECC 6.0 for Health Restaurant.

Summary

This study aimed to develop a financial accounting configuration plan for the implementation of Financial Accounting module of SAP ECC 6.0 an ERP System in Health Restaurant. Relative to the aim, this study answered the following:

1. What are the configuration requirements that shall be considered in the Financial Accounting along the areas on:

a. organizational structure;

b. processes; and

c. financial Accounting data?

2. What are the major issues and challenges related to ERP implementation?

3. What ICT infrastructure shall support the ERP implementation?

Findings

In relation to the research problems, the following are the findings of the project study:

1. The configuration requirements for FI module of Health Restaurant are as follows:

a. Health Restaurant currently has three (3) branches, but has only one (1) or centralize financial management;

b. Financial management is being done in a centralized scheme with branch with the code 100  as the main branch, on which all activities and transactions related to financial accounting are course thru to it; and,

c. The structure of financial accounting of Health Restaurant includes details such as cash flows including supplies, materials, salaries, collections;

2. The major issues and challenges related to the ERP implementation of Health Restaurant includes being a business established on the year 2009, its business processes and operations are still on its early and improving stage, and also the difficulty with overseeing three branches from different municipalities/cities in regards to transfer of data and documents.

3. The ICT infrastructure of Health Restaurant met the minimum requirements to implement SAP ERP, and has also the capacity to avail the recommended requirements.

Conclusions

Based on the findings of the study, the following conclusions were derived:

1. The requirements for configuring SAP ECC 6.0 FI Module along the areas on:

a. Organizational Structure. The organizational structure of Health Restaurant poses great challenge in configuring SAP ERP as the company had just started in year 2009 and still on the process of improving its organizational structure;

b. Processes. SAP FI Module of Health Restaurant offered more transparency and faster accounting procedures and provided reports for decision making purposes; and,

c. Financial Accounting Data. In consideration of the confidentiality of data for the accounting records of Health Restaurant, SAP FI Module can still handle assumed information and can still be configured to be flexible and be able to adopt changes as deemed necessary.

2. The issues and challenges related to ERP implementation includes the organizational structure and business processes which are not yet well defined given that the company just started year 2009, together with the difficulty with overseeing three branches from different municipalities in regards to transfer of data and documents. However, since ERP systems are one of the most popular business management systems, providing benefits of real-time capabilities and seamless communication for many organizations, the stakeholders supported the study, hence it is therefore concluded that despite the challenges and issues opposing the implementation of ERP system for Health Restaurant, successful configurations still took place with utmost consideration of the identified issues and challenges.

3. The ICT infrastructure to support ERP implementation covers Hardware and Software requirements. Health Restaurant current info tech resources when it comes to the hardware and software met the minimum requirements, and with the integration of SAP FI module, Health Restaurant will avail the recommended ICT Infrastructure of the SAP System.

Recommendations

Based on the findings and conclusions of the study, the following recommendations are offered:

1. The implementation of SAP FI module in Health Restaurant shall be considered as the first step in improving automated system using SAP. Configuration of  other FI sub-modules such as FI-BL, FI-TV, FI-AA, and FI-FM are highly recommended for faster, reliable, and more accurate reports. Also, configurations and implementation of other modules such as CO, SD, and MM along with the FI Module is highly recommended.

2. It is also recommended to add customization for the Health Restaurant  specifically to its reporting format thru the use of ABAP programming language in order to produce a custom and personalized interfaces meant to adopt to the requirements of the local government where Health Restaurant  is currently operating.

3. Continuous research is recommended as SAP versions are also being updated from time to time and that information technology is an endless cycle as well as further validation on every implementation being undertaken. Look for new techniques and technologies that would be more appropriate for the implementation of SAP System in Health Restaurant.

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C Programming Tutorials

C programming is the best programming language intended for beginning programmers. It allows anyone to learn the basics concepts of programming from program statements, data types, variables, control structures, functions, and many more. Below are the list of topics meant for beginners.

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FOR .DOCX FILES:

Lesson 01 - Getting Started with C language

Lesson 02 - Calculations with C Language

Lesson 03 - C' Arrays and Looping Statements

Lesson 04 - C's String and Mathematical Functions

Lesson 05 - C's User Defined Functions

Lesson 06 - C's Pointers

Lesson 07 - User Defined Data Type in C Language

Lesson 08 - File Management in C Language

FOR .PDF FILES:

Lesson 01 - Getting Started with C language

Lesson 02 - Calculations with C Language

Lesson 03 - C' Arrays and Looping Statements

Lesson 04 - C's String and Mathematical Functions

Lesson 05 - C's User Defined Functions

Lesson 06 - C's Pointers

Lesson 07 - User Defined Data Type in C Language

Lesson 08 - File Management in C Language

File Management in C Language

File Management in C Language

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Title: FILE MANAGEMENT IN C LANGUAGE

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PART A - File management in C

v  Introduction

·         C supports a number of functions that have the ability to perform basic file operations, which include:

1.      Naming a file

2.      Opening a file

3.      Reading from a file

4.      Writing data into a file

5.       Closing a file

v  File operation functions in C:

           

Function Name	Operation
fopen()	Creates a new file for use Opens a new existing file for use
Fclose()	Closes a file which has been opened for use
getc()	Reads a character from a file
putc()	Writes a character to a file
fprintf()	Writes a set of data values to a file
fscanf()	Reads a set of data values from a file
getw()	Reads a integer from a file
putw()	Writes an integer to the file
fseek()	Sets the position to a desired point in the file
ftell()	Gives the current position in the file
rewind()	Sets the position to the begining of the file

v  Defining and opening a file:

·         The general format of the function used for opening a file is

            SYNTAX:

                        FILE *fp;

          fp=fopen(“filename.ext”,”mode”);

o   The first statement declares the variable fp as a pointer to the data type FILE. File is a structure that is defined in the I/O Library.

o   The second statement opens the file named filename.ext and assigns an identifier to the FILE type pointer fp. This pointer, which contains all the information about the file, is subsequently used as a communication link between the system and the program.

                        The second statement also specifies the purpose of opening the file.

o  The mode does this job. The modes are:

mode	Meaning
r	Opens the file for reading. If the file doesn't exist, fopen() returns NULL.
w	Opens the file for writing. If a file of the specified name doesn't exist, it is created. If a file of the specified name does exist, it is deleted without warning, and a new, empty file is created.
a	Opens the file for appending. If a file of the specified name doesn't exist, it is created. If the file does exist, new data is appended to the end of the file.
r+	Opens the file for reading and writing. If a file of the specified name doesn't exist, it is created. If the file does exist, new data is added to the beginning of the file, overwriting existing data.
w+	Opens the file for reading and writing. If a file of the specified name doesn't exist, it is created. If the file does exist, it is overwritten.
a+	Opens a file for reading and appending. If a file of the specified name doesn't exist, it is created. If the file does exist, new data is appended to the end of the file.

            EXAMPLE:

                        FILE *p1, *p2;

          p1=fopen(“data.txt”,”r”);

          p2=fopen(“results.txt”,”w”);

           

            ANALYSIS:

o   In these statements the p1 and p2 are created and assigned to open the files data and results respectively the file data is opened for reading and result is opened for writing.

o   In case the results.txt file already exists, its contents are deleted and the files are opened as a new file. If data.txt file does not exist error will occur.

v  Closing a File

·         The input output library supports the function to close a file; it is in the following format. SYNTAX:

            fclose(file_pointer);

·         A file must be closed as soon as all operations on it have been completed.

·         This would close the file associated with the file pointer.

                        EXAMPLE:

                             …

              FILE *p1 *p2;

              p1=fopen (“Input”,”w”);

              p2=fopen (“Output”,”r”);

               …

              …

              fclose(p1);

              fclose(p2)

                        ANALYSIS:

o   The above program opens two files and closes them after all operations on them are completed, once a file is closed its file pointer can be reversed on other file.

v  getc and putc functions (Reading and Writing)

·         The getc and putc functions are analogous to getchar and putchar functions and handle one character at a time.

·         The putc function writes the character contained in character variable c to the file associated with the pointer.

·         Similarly getc function is used to read a character from a file that has been open in read mode.

SYNTAX:

     putc(c,fp1);

     c=getc(fp2).

            EXAMPLE:

     #include< stdio.h >

     main()

          {

          file *f1;

          printf(“Data input output”);

          f1=fopen(“Input”,”w”);       /*Open the file Input*/

          while((c=getchar())!=EOF)    /*get a character from key board*/

               putc(c,f1);             /*write a character to input*/

          fclose(f1);                  /*close the file input*/

          printf(“nData outputn”);

          f1=fopen(“INPUT”,”r”);       /*Reopen the file input*/

          while((c=getc(f1))!=EOF)

          printf(“%c”,c);

          fclose(f1);

          }

            ANALYSIS:

o   The program shows the use of file operations.

o   The data entered through the keyboard and the program writes it. Character by character, to the file input.

o   The end of the data is indicated by entering an EOF character, which is control-z. the file input is closed at this signal.

v  The getw and putw functions (Reading and Writing)

·         These are integer-oriented functions. They are similar to getc and putc functions and are used to read and write integer values.

·         These functions would be usefull when we deal with only integer data. The general forms of getw and putw are:

            SYNTAX:

                        putw(integer,fp);

          getw(fp);

                 

PART B - File Oriented Program

v  A demonstration of using file management function

- The program will accept 5 integer numbers from the user and will write it to the DATA file.

- If the entered number is even, it will be written into the EVEN file.

- if the entered number is odd, it will be written into the ODD file.

            #include< stdio.h >

            main() {

                  FILE *f1,*f2,*f3;

                  int number, I;

                  printf(“Write Contents of the DATA file: \n”);

                  f1=fopen(“DATA”,”W”);

                  for(I=1;I< 5;I++){

                        scanf(“%d”,&number);

                        if(number==-1)

                              break;

                        putw(number,f1);

                        }

                  fclose(f1);

                  f1=fopen(“DATA.txt”,”r”);

                  f2=fopen(“ODD.txt”,”w”);

                  f3=fopen(“EVEN.txt”,”w”);

                  while((number=getw(f1))!=EOF) {     /* Read from data file*/     

                         if(number%2==0)

                              putw(number,f3);        /*Write to even file*/

                         else

                               putw(number,f2);       /*write to odd file*/

                         }                     

                  fclose(f1);

                  fclose(f2);

                  fclose(f3);

                  f2=fopen(“ODD”,”r”);

                  f3=fopen(“EVEN”,”r”);

                  printf(“\nContents of the ODD file: \n”);

                  while(number=getw(f2))!=EOF)

                        printf(“%d%d”,number);

                  printf(“nnContents of the even file”);

                  while(number=getw(f3))!=EOF)

                        printf(“%d”,number);

                  fclose(f2);

                  fclose(f3);

                  }

SAMPLE OUTPUT:

   Write Contents of the DATA file:

   5

   2

   1

   3

   8

   Contents of the ODD file:

   5

   1

   3

   Contents of the EVEN file:

   2

   8

Workshop

          This Workshop provides quiz questions to help you solidify your understanding of the material covered, and exercises to provide you with experience in using what you've learned.

1)     Can I use drives and paths with filenames when using remove(), rename(), fopen(), and the other file functions?

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2)     Can I read beyond the end of a file?

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3)     What happens if I don't close a file?

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 PART C - PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT - File management function oriented program

Conversion PROGRAM (10pts)

1.     The program will accept five (5) integer numbers from 1 to 5 (Set01) and 6-10 (Set02) from the user and will write the entered numbers into S1INPUT.txt (Set01) and S2INPUT.txt (Set02).

2.     The following will be conversion:

            1 = A               6 = F

            2 = B               7 = G

            3 = C               8 = H

            4 = D               9 = I

            5 = E                10 = J

The program will then write the converted values into S1OUTPUT.txt (Set01) and S2OUTPUT.txt Set02).

3.      NOTE: The program must check the user input, if out of ranged; it must not accept the value and should prompt the user.

Sample OUTPUT for S1:

            Enter Five integer numbers from 1-5:

            5

            2

            1

            1

            3

Contents of S1Input.txt                                Contents of S2Output.txt

            5                                                                      E

            2                                                                      B

            1                                                                      A

            1                                                                      A

            3                                                                      C

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Title: FILE MANAGEMENT IN C LANGUAGE

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C Language Pointers

C's POINTERS

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Title: C's POINTERS

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PART A - POINTERS IN C LANGUAGE

v  What is a Pointer?

·         Pointers are widely used in programming; they are used to refer to memory location of another variable without using variable identifier itself.

·         A pointer is a variable that is used to point to a memory address whose content you want to use in your program.

·         The contents of a pointer is a memory address of another location of memory, which is usually the memory address of another variable, element of a structure

·         The Figure below illustrates the idea of pointers.  Yptr is pointing to memory address 100.

v  Pointer Declaration

·         To declare pointer variable we need to use * operator (indirection/dereferencing operator) before the variable identifier and after data type.

·         Pointer can only point to variable of the same data type.

SYNTAX:

           Datatype *pointerVariablName;

Ex:      int *ptrX;

Example Program: Character Pointer

#include<stdio.h>

main()

{

    char a='b';

    char *ptr;

    printf("%c",a);

    ptr=&a;            /* & is use to get the address of a variable /*

    printf("%p n",ptr);     /* %p is used to reference pointers */

    *ptr='d';

    printf("%cn",a);                                              

}

Notes:

    & - Ampersand is an Address Operator used to get the address of a variable.

    * - Asterisk tells the computer that you are declaring a pointer.

    %p - Conversion specifier for pointers.

Output:

           b

           FFDF

           d

v  How Pointer Works?

           int x = 1, y = 2;

    int *ip;  

    ip = &x;                //& means getting the address of x 

    y = *ip;  

    x = ip;  

    *ip = 3;

           What will be the value of x and y?

          

           Illustration:

v  Pointer Arithmetic

·         Pointers can be added (increment) and subtracted (decrement). However pointer arithmetic is quite meaningless unless performed on arrays.

·         Addition and subtraction are mainly for moving forward and backward in an array.

                       Note: you have to be very careful NOT to exceed the array elements when you use arithmetic; otherwise you will get horrible errors such as “access violation”. This            error is caused because your code is trying to access a memory location which is registered to another program.

Example: Array and pointer arithmetic

     1: #include <stdio.h>

     2: main(){

     3:    int ArrayA[3]={1,2,3};

     4:    int *ptr;

     5:    ptr=ArrayA;

     6:    printf("Address: %p is array value:%d \n",ptr,*ptr);

     7:    ptr++;

     8:    printf("Address: %p is array value:%d \n",ptr,*ptr);                               

     9:    }

           Output:

                       Address: FFDC is array value: 1

                       Address: FFDE is array value: 2

           Analysis:

·         In line 3 we are declaring ‘ArrayA’ integer array variable initialized to numbers ‘1,2,3’,

·         In line 4, the pointer variable ptr is declared.

·         In line 5, the address of variable ‘ArrayA’ is assigned to variable ptr. NOTE that & notation should not be used with arrays because array's identifier is pointer to the first element of the array.

·         In line 7 ptr is incremented by 1.

PART B - POINTER-ORIENTED PROGRAM

v  Using Pointer Arithmetic and pointer notation to access array elements.

1:  /* Demonstrates using pointer arithmetic to access */

2:  /* array elements with pointer notation. */

3:

4:  #include <stdio.h>

5:  #define MAX 10

6:

7:  /* Declare and initialize an integer array. */

8:

9:  int i_array[MAX] = { 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 };

10:

11: /* Declare a pointer to int and an int variable. */

12:

13: int *i_ptr, count;

14:

15: /* Declare and initialize a float array. */

16:

17: float f_array[MAX] = { .0, .1, .2, .3, .4, .5, .6, .7, .8, .9 };

18:

19: /* Declare a pointer to float. */

20:

21: float *f_ptr;

22:

23: main()

24: {

25:     /* Initialize the pointers. */

26:

27:     i_ptr = i_array;

28:     f_ptr = f_array;

29:

30:     /* Print the array elements. */

31:

32:     for (count = 0; count < MAX; count++)

33:         printf("%d\t%f\n", *i_ptr++, *f_ptr++);

34:

35:     return 0;

36: }

Output:

0       0.000000

1       0.100000

2       0.200000

3       0.300000

4       0.400000

5       0.500000

6       0.600000

7       0.700000

8       0.800000

9       0.900000

            Analysis:

·         Line 5 set 10 in line 5; it is used throughout the program.

·         In line 9, MAX is used to set the number of elements in an array of ints named i_array. The elements in this array are initialized at the same time that the array is declared.

·         Line 13 declares two additional int variables. The first is a pointer named i_ptr. The other variable is a simple type int variable named count.

·         In line 17, a second array is defined and initialized. This array is of type float, contains MAX values, and is initialized with float values.

·         Line 21 declares a pointer to a float named f_ptr.

·         Line 27 and 28 assigns the beginning address of the two arrays to the pointers of their respective types. Remember, an array name without a subscript is the same as the address of the array's beginning.

·         A for statement in lines 32 and 33 uses the int variable count to count from 0 to the value of MAX.

·         For each count, line 33 dereferences the two pointers and prints their values in a printf() function call. The increment operator then increments each of the pointers so that each points to the next element in the array before continuing with the next iteration of the for loop.

Workshop:

1)      Is there a difference between a pointer to a string and a pointer to an array of characters?

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2)      Why are pointers so important in C?

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3)      How does the compiler know the difference between * for multiplication, for dereferencing, and for declaring a pointer?

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4)      What happens if I use the address-of operator on a pointer?

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5)      Are variables always stored in the same location?

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PART C - PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT

Pointer Demonstration Program

1.      The program will use arrays of a type character, integer, and float with 5 elements. The program will then accept user inputs to fill the arrays thru a looping statement (while for set01, for for set02, and Do..while for Set03).

2.      After filling the content of the array, the program will then print the memory address  and data types of the corresponding inputs. The program should use pointers arithmetic operators (Set01 will use Increment/pointer++, Set02 will use Decrement/pointer--, and Set03 must use both).

Sample Output:

Enter Five Characters:

a

t

s

e

x

Enter Five Integers:

1

4

5

7

3

Enter Five Floats:

1.3

4.0

5.3

1.1

1.0

           

            Value               Memory Address        Data Type

            a                      FFDC                            Char

            t                       EDRC                           Char

            s                       SDEC                            Char

            e                      FEDC                            Char

            x                      FRWE                           Char

            1                      FJCJ                              Integer

            4                      ERGB                           Integer

            5                      DGFV                           Integer

            7                      CDWF                          Integer

            3                      SVCD                           Integer

            1.3                   CDFR                           Float

            4.0                   VDES                            Float   

            5.3                   ZSDV                            Float

            1.1                   ZCVD                           Float

            1.0                   CSDR                           Float

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Title: C's POINTERS

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