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SAP Controlling (SAP CO)

The purpose of the Controlling (CO) module in SAP is to provide organizations with a method of slicing and dicing data to view costs from an internal management perspective and provide a view of profitability beyond that of basic financial reporting. This allows the organization to create information in a manner that is tailored to their specific business measurements needs. Controlling allows an organization to:
  • Plan and track overhead costs within the company's specific organizational structure.
  • Track costs related to specific projects or events and either capitalize those costs or charge them to appropriate departments upon completion.
  • Perform "Activity Based Costing".
  • Perform Product Costing, measuring production cost and variances.
  • Report profitability by product line, division, or other internal measurement.
  • Report sales and gross profitability by external measures such as market segments or customer groups.

Controlling consists of all master data, configuration, and reporting required to analyze both spend and revenues, both within and across organizations. This includes the following master data:

  • Cost Elements - cost and/or revenue accounts
  • Cost Centers - departmental units
  • Profit Centers - business lines, product lines or divisions
  • Internal Orders - projects or events
  • Functional Area - Cost of Sales Accounting
  • Statistical Key Figures - non financial statistics for allocating or measuring financial costs
  • Activity Types - Labor or other activity costs

Business process associated with the SAP CO module:


Subcomponents of the SAP Controlling (SAP CO) Module:

  • CO-OM - Overhead Management
           - CO-OM-CCA - Cost Center Accounting
           - CO-OM-OPA - Internal Order Accounting
           - CO-OM-CEL - Cost Element Accounting
           - CO-OM-ABC - Activity Based Costing
  • CO-PCA - Profit Center Accounting
  • CO-PA - Profitability Analysis
  • CO-PC - Product Costing

This is brief review of the components and processes associated with the SAP CO module. For a more in-depth understanding of the Controlling module, please review our available SAP Controlling training.

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