Making sense of SAP finance - evolution of the data model

The main purpose of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) for the finance function is to collect information about business activities and prepare it for financial and management analysis.

At its core, this involves saving, manipulating, and retrieving data.

In this context, it's useful for both business and IT people to understand the SAP data model. This is particularly useful when discussing the limitations of systems and considering possible enhancements.

It also reduces the potential for misunderstandings. The interpretation of financial and management results requires a good understanding of the source data and the logic applied to apply any classifications or calculations.

In the detailed article, I'll look at the evolution of the finance data model from SAP R/3 to SAP S/4HANA. The focus will be on several important tables.