4EVOLUTION OF SAP'S INTEGRATED ACTIVITY-BASED COSTING

The previous chapters focused on the costing philosophies supported by SAP and the conceptual differences that exist between an SAP ERP system and a standalone analytical system to support the ABC philosophy. This chapter is a historical perspective, focusing on how the SAP ABC system matured to its current state. Exhibit 4.1 depicts the time line of ABC functionality provided by each major release of SAP.

Exhibit 4.1 SAP ABC Functionality Timeline

Timeline shows year, R/3 release, and key ABC functionality added for release such as 1994; 2.2; parallel ABC via transaction codes, 1995 to 1996; 2.2; parallel ABC via menu path, and so on.

As illustrated in the time line, SAP has supported ABC since 1994, dedicating significant development efforts to expand and support the ABC philosophy. Therefore, the functionality provided within SAP has matured to provide an exceptionally advanced cost management solution. The next sections provide more information on each of the releases noted in Exhibit 4.1 and a projection of future SAP ABC capabilities to be supported. The following chapters describe in more detail the exact ABC functionality supported by the mySAP.com edition using the business applications in SAP R/3 Release 4.6C.

PRE-SAP R/3 2.2

Prior to Release 2.2, no true ABC functionality existed within the SAP system. Exhibit 4.2 depicts the standard flow for overhead costs to the product cost. The cost centers assign costs via an activity type, such as Labor Hour for A1 or Machine Hour for A2. These activity types ...

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