FICO-Questionnaire

Finance/Controlling Questionnaire

Instructions

This questionnaire is a tool you can use to collect information about your
business that will be useful for tailoring the R/3 System to your business needs. You
will need Microsoft Word for Windows to work with this document. Enter your
answers in the fields after the questions, using the TAB key to move from field to
field. You may save and later change your answers in this questionnaire just as you
would with any other Word document.

1 Organization Structure

1.1 Company Codes

A company code is an independent accounting unit for which a balanced set of

books is produced. It is a legal entity. Balance sheets and Profit and Loss statements
are required at the company code level.

What are the legal entities that constitute your business? ?

Do you produce a Profit and Loss Statement and a complete Balance Sheet
with retained earnings for each legal entity? (If a complete balance sheet including
equity section is not produced, then it is not a company.) Yes

No

Does each legal entity have a separate Federal tax ID Number? Yes

No

Which of these entities are true operating companies that transact business at
arms length with vendors and customers? ?

Which of these entities are holding companies? ?

What is your percentage of ownership for each legal entity? ?

Does one entity supply customers with products valued as inventory under
another entity so revenue is reported in the selling entity though the cost
(inventory) resides in elsewhere? ?

 In which currency does each legal entity operate? ?

In which currency does each legal entity report? ?

When does each legal entitys fiscal year begin? ?

For each legal entity, list the number of periods (both accounting and special
periods) used. Include the beginning and ending dates for each period. ?

1.2 Business Areas

A business area is a special economic unit within a company code for which
internal balance sheet and profit and loss statements can be created.

Are you subject to segment reporting in accordance with FAS14? ?

If your answer is yes, identify your industry segments. ?

If not, do you generate a Profit and Loss Statement including Earnings before
Taxes, and a complete balance sheet (exclusive of Retained Earnings) for any
component of your company (for example, division)?. ?

1.3 Chart of Accounts

Does each company code have its own operating chart of accounts with a
unique numbering convention, or do all companies use a common chart of accounts
with a consistent numbering scheme? ?

If each company has its own operating chart of accounts, are you interested in
standardizing the charts into a common num

bering scheme? ?

If each company has its own operating chart of accounts, are they mapped to a
consolidation/corporate chart of accounts for reporting? ?

 Are any of the companies required to report in a statutory chart of accounts?

(For example, France, Germany, etc.) ?

Do these companies use the statutory chart of accounts as their primary

operating chart of accounts (i.e., all posting and account analysis is made using the
statutory account code), or do they use the statutory chart for reporting only? ?

Identify the different levels of Consolidation (e.g., by Country, by Region,

etc.): ?

Please list the external financial views of your organization by which you would
expect to produce complete Profit and Loss Statements and Balance Sheets. (Legal
entity, country, regions, continents, etc.) ?

How many general ledger accounts do you currently have? ?

Describe your current general ledger account number (for example, division,
cost center, natural account, expense code). ?

 In R/3, the FI general ledger account number consists only of the natural
account. Other information resides in different modules. For example, cost centers
are defined in CO and are not part of the FI account number.

For each company, how detailed is its operating chart of accounts? Is it

optimized so that detail data (for example, sub-ledger reconciliation account data) is
captured via control accounts? ?

If not, please explain why detail information is being captured with the chart of
accounts instead of the operational sub modules. (Assumption is that there may be
no integration between modules.) ?

1.4 Consolidation

Identify the current system used to generate consolidated financial statements

(e.g., Excel, Hyperion). ?

If you plan to replace the current system with SAP, please complete questions
below.

Which of your legal entities represent a minority interest? ?

 How many monthly elimination entries do you have? ?

Identify any situations where inventory is transferred between companies, such

that profit/loss in inventory that has to be eliminated on the consolidated books. ?

2 Financial Application

2.1 Master Records - GL Accounts

Do your general ledger accounts fall into discrete number ranges (for example,
cash accounts are 1000 - 1999)? ?

Can you define groups of general ledger accounts that require similar
information on the master record? ?

How do you wish to control general ledger account creation and maintenance?
Will it be done at the company level or the corporate level? ?

 Do you currently use templates or prototypes to create general ledger

accounts? ?

How many retained earnings accounts do you maintain per company code? ?

How many reconciliation (control) accounts do you need for each sub-ledger?

Example: Accounts Payable must have at least one reconciliation account in

general ledger, but some companies might choose to have more (domestic
payables, foreign payables). ?

Do you wish to retain line item detail (open item managed) for every general
ledger account? If not, what are the exceptions? ?

Please examine the attached Frame Chart of Accounts. Can this frame be used
as a starting point to build your chart of accounts? (The advantage in using the
Frame Chart of Accounts is that you will need to make only minor changes to the
Automatic Account Determination.) ?

2.2 General Ledger Transaction Processing

What types of general ledger transactions do you process? General Journals

Recurring Journals

Accruals/Deferrals

Inter-company transactions Incoming payments

Outgoing payments

Down Payments

Bills of exchange

Others: ?

What is the current structure of your general ledger transaction number? ?

How is the number assigned by your current system? Internally

 Externally

Are your transaction numbers specific to fiscal year, or do they flow from year
to year? ?

Do you have a need for repetitive or model journal entries? ?

What types of reversing journal entries do you have? ?

Do you calculate interest on any general ledger accounts? ?

Do journal entries require any type of approval before they are posted to the
general ledger? ?

 Describe your current process for reconciling sub-ledgers (accounts receivable,

accounts payable, fixed assets) with your general ledger. ?

Describe any special requirements to posting to particular general ledger

accounts (for example, expense accounts require an associated cost center). ?

Is there information that you wish to require for certain types of journal entries
or general ledger accounts? ?

Is there certain information that you wish to be able to display when you view
journal entries online? ?

Describe your period-end closing process. ?

What types of daily, weekly, periodic, and ad hoc transaction reports do you
need for general ledger? ?

2.2.1 Closing Operations

How do you carry out reconciliation in accounting? Manually

Automatically

Daily

Weekly

Monthly

When do you close current posting period? Always on same date

When required

On certain day of next month

Date for GL accounting

Date for AR accounting

 Date for AP accounting

Which evaluations belong to month-end closing? Balance audit trail

Open item list

Balance List

Adva

nce return for tax on sales and purchases

Balance Sheet

Profit and Loss statement

When do you close current fiscal year? Always on same date

When required

 On certain month

Date for GL accounting

Date for AR accounting

Date for AP accounting

Which evaluations belong to year-end closing? Balance audit trail

Open item list

Balance List

Advance return for tax on sales and purchases

Balance Sheet

 Profit and Loss statement

2.3 Master Records - Customers (AR)

How many customer master records do you currently have? ?

What is the current structure of your customer number? ?

Is the number internally assigned by your current system or externally

assigned by a user? ?

Do you intend to keep your existing number structure? ?

Are there classifications or groupings currently assigned to your customers (for

example, grouping by local customers, foreign customers, government
customers)? ?

 If there are currently no classifications or groupings for your customers, could

you create them? If so, what would they be? ?

What types of customer master records are there? Domestic Goods & Invoice
recipients

Abroad Goods & Invoice recipients

Branches / Head Offices Agents / Sales Reps

Commission Recipients

One-Time Customers

Employees

Is there any information that you wish to require for certain customers? ?

Do you have any customers who are also vendors? ?

 Do you have one-time customers (customers with whom you expect to do

business only once)? ?

List the payment terms that you offer your customers (for example, 2%
discount if paid within 10 days, net amount due in 30 days). ?

Do you have holdback/retainage agreements with your customers? ?

Do you have agreements with customers which call for installment

payments? ?

Have you defined acceptable ranges (tolerances) within which your customer
payments can deviate from the amount billed to them? ?

Does your company perform credit management on customers? If so, please

describe the credit management process in detail. ?

 Do you wish to perform dunning (reminder letters for overdue amounts) for
your customers? If so, please list your dunning requirements. ?

Are any security access authorizations needed? Company Related

Department Related

Personnel Related

Master Record Related

Field Related

Field-Group Related

What criteria are there for deleting a customer master? No open items

No transactions for more than 1 year

No transactions for 2 years No transactions for 3 years

Balance is less

than:

Other:

2.4 Customer Transaction Processing

What types of customer transactions do you process (for example, customer

invoices, credit memos, customer payments)? ?

What is the current structure of your transaction numbering? Manually

Assigned

Automatically Generated

Are your transaction numbers specific to fiscal year, or do they flow from year
to year? ?

Are there foreign currency transactions? ?

Do you receive down payments (advance payments) from your customers? ?

Do you charge customers interest on overdue amounts? ?

If yes, is interest calculated on balances or days overdue? ?

Do customer invoices require any type of approval before they are posted to
the general ledger? ?

Describe any taxes which must be calculated on customer transactions. ?

Describe your cash receipts process (for example, manual, lock box). ?

 Do you receive a single payment for multiple invoices from your customers? ?

How are payments matched to customer invoices? ?

What types of adjustments do you perform on customer invoices (for example,

adjustments for defective material, shipping damage)? ?

Is there certain information that you wish to be able to display when you view
customer entries online? ?

What types of daily, weekly, periodic, and ad hoc transaction reports do you
need for accounts receivable? ?

2.4.1 Outgoing Invoices

How do you compare documents with Sales & Distribution? Number of

documents

 Total amounts

Other: ?

What information do you include in outgoing invoices? Foreign Currency

Payment Terms

Tax on sales and purchases

Texts

Invoice Number

Cost Center

PO number

Project

Personnel number

Asset number

 Tax ID number

Dunning indicator

Other: ?

How do you make account assignments when manually entering invoices or

credit memos? Account assignment stamp

Central Account assignment Local Account assignment

in accounting

in sales

2.4.2 Incoming Payments

How do you process incoming payments? Manually

Automatically

Both

What types of payment do you process? Cash payments

Bank Transfers

Bills of exchange

Other:

How do you process payment differences? Difference is charged up to specific

amount

Residual amount is carried forward

Grace period for cash discount deduction in days

2.4.3 Dunning

What types of dunning notices do you use? Notices as payment reminders

 notices with dunning levels

account statements

What is dunning frequency

? Weekly

Bi-weekly

Other

Do you dun various customer groups at different intervals? Yes

No

When do you dun an account? By due date for net payment

when grace period is exceeded

How many dunning levels do you have? ?

Do you calculate dunning charges or interest? Dunning fees at dunning level

Interest at dunning level

Do you vary the text on dunning notices? by dunning level

by customer groups

Both

2.5 Master Records - Vendors (AP)

How many vendor master records do you currently have? ?

 What is the current structure of your vendor number? Is it internally assigned

by your current system or externally assigned by a user? ?

Do you intend to keep your existing numbering structure? ?

Are there classifications or groupings currently assigned to your vendors (for

example, grouping by local vendors, foreign vendors, 1099 vendors)? ?

If there are no classifications or groupings for your vendors, could you define
some? If so, what would they be? ?

Is there any information that you wish to require for certain vendors? ?

Do you have any vendors who are also customers? ?

 Do you have one-time vendors (vendors with whom you expect to do business
only once)? ?

List the payment terms that you offer your vendors (for example, 2% discount
if paid within 10 days, net amount due in 30 days). ?

Do you have holdback/retainage agreements with your vendors? ?

Do you have agreements with vendors that call for installment payments? ?

Have you defined acceptable ranges (tolerances) within which your vendor
payments can deviate from the amount billed to you? ?

Do you always want to take any discounts offered by your vendors? ?

2.6 Vendor Transaction Processing

What types of vendor transactions are currently being processed (for example,
vendor invoices, credit memos, vendor payments). ?

What is the current structure of the transaction number? ?

Is the number internally assigned by your current system, or externally

assigned by the user? ?

Are your current transaction numbers specific to fiscal year, or do they flow
from year to year? ?

Are there foreign currency vendor transactions? ?

Do you make down payments (advance payments) to your vendors? ?

 Do vendor invoices require any type of approval before they are posted to the
general ledger? ?

Do your vendors charge interest on overdue payments? ?

If yes, is interest calculated on balances or days overdue? ?

Describe any taxes that must be calculated on vendor transactions. ?

Do you issue a single payment for multiple invoices from your vendors? ?

How are payments matched to vendor invoices? ?

 Is there certain information that you wish to be able to display when you view
vendor entries online? ?

What types of daily, weekly, periodic, and ad hoc transaction reports do you
need for accounts payable? ?

2.6.1 Outgoing Payments

How do you pay vendors? Manually

Automatically

Both

Please describe the process: ?

How do you post outgoing payments? To an outgoing payments clearing

account

per payment method

 per bank

per payment method & bank

What types of automatic payment do you process? Checks

Bank Transfers

Postal Transfers

Bills of Exchange

Elimination w/ affiliated companies

Checks/bills of Exchange

Bank Transfers Abroad

Other: ?

How often do you make payments? Daily

 Once a week

Twice a week

Three Times a week

Other: ?

How is the payment method determined for automatic payments? Indicator in

Vendor Master

Indicator in Open Item document

Depending on Payment Amt.

Depending on number of items to be paid

How do you process cash discounts received? Manual Posting

Automatic Posting

Additional account assignment to Cost Center of Products

How do you post exchange rate differences in foreign currency payments?

Manual Posting

Automatic Posting

Additional account assignment to cost center or products

When payment is made

In bank debit entry of payment

How do you plan funds? In each payment run

by a single bank

by several banks

Do you optimize payment methods? Optimization in bank transfers

Optimization in checks

 No Optimization

How do you process vendor credit memos? Are Due immediately

The value date is set as the due date

Can be invoice-related

How are payment media created? ?

Are down payments paid automatically? Yes

No

Are receivables from a vendor who is also a customer considered during

payment? Manual Check

Automatic Clearing

 No Clearing

Which evaluations do you have for accounts payable accounting? Vendor List

List of Account Balances

Open Item List

Due Date List

Line Item List

Account Statement

2.7 Master Records - Banks

Please list the banks with which your company has bank accounts (checking
accounts, payroll accounts, lockbox). ?

Please list the bank accounts within each of the above banks. ?

Are any of these accounts held in a foreign currency? ?

Do you perform electronic funds transfers with your customers or vendors such
that you need to maintain their bank information? ?

2.8 Taxes

Do you currently have an interface to any third-party tax packages (for

example, Vertex or Taxware)? ?

Do you charge sales tax on your sales? ?

If yes, on what types of sales? ?

 Please list the States, Counties, Cities and/or Jurisdictions to which you remit
sales tax: ?

Do you have any international tax issues on your sales? ?

Are you charged taxes on: Inventory Items

Assets

Expense items

Services

Any others? Please specify:

Do you pay use tax? ?

 If yes, please list the states to which you remit use taxes: ?

Do you withhold taxes from your vendor payments? ?

Do you receive Exemption Certificates from your vendors for Withholding

Taxes? ?

Do you have 1099 or 1042 Reporting requirements for vendor Withholding

Taxes? ?

2.9 Currencies

List the local currency (operating currency) for each of your company codes: ?

Do you report in currencies other than the operating currencies of your

companies? ?

 Do you perform consolidated reporting (grouping more than one companys

results) in a different currency? ?

How do you currently maintain your exchange rates? For example, are they
manually entered into a table or downloaded from a service such as Dow Jones? ?

What types of exchange rates do you maintain (for example, average rate,
bank buying rate, bank selling rate)? ?

Do you enter customer or vendor invoices in foreign currency? ?

If yes, how is the foreign currency rate determined? ?

Do you perform foreign currency re-valuations on either account balances (for

example, a bank account held in a foreign currency) or open items (unpaid items for
customers or vendors)? ?

 Describe your foreign currency revaluation process and which valuation

methods you use: ?

2.10 Planning/Budgeting

What type of financial planning/budgeting is currently performed (for example,

by company, by cost center, by product line)? ?

Please describe your planning process: ?

Do you plan on a monthly, quarterly, half-yearly, or annual basis? ?

How do you distribute planned amounts to individual planning periods (for

example, equal distribution among periods, seasonal distribution)? ?

Does your planning take into consideration non-financial (statistical) data? ?

2.11 Reporting

List the management reports that are currently used: ?

By which organizational units are management reporting functions structured

(for example, company, divi

sion, product line)? ?

Do you require internal balance sheet or profit & loss reporting (Business Area
by regions or branches)? ?

Do you want to report daily or weekly balances? If yes, then you need Special
Ledger. ?

2.12 Consolidation

Do you require group consolidation across companies? Yes

No

Is consolidation performed in steps? Please describe the consolidation process. ?

Do you require consolidation by Business Area? Yes

No

2.13 Correspondence

Please list the types of correspondence that are currently produced for Accounts
Receivable and Accounts Payable (for example, dunning letters, account balance
statements, checks, payment advice). ?

Will you need additional types of correspondence to meet your future needs? ?

3 Frame Chart of Accounts

Assets

1000 Petty cash

1050 Cash in Bank

1100 Deposits

1200 Accounts receivable

1201 Accounts receivable clearing

1220 Allowance doubtful accounts

1300 Raw material inventory

1301 Clearing account stock take results

1305 Trading goods inventory

1310 Packaging material inventory

1315 Semi finished goods inventory

1320 Finished goods inventory

1325 Spare parts inventory

1390 Reserve for obsolete inventory

1700 Assets

1710 Machinery & equipment

1720 Furniture & Fixtures

1800 Accumulated depreciation Assets

1810 Accumulated depreciation machinery & equipment

1820 Accumulated depreciation Furniture & fixtures

Liability

2000 Accounts payable

2001 AP clearing

2010 Clearing supplier discounts (Net method)

2050 Goods received invoice received clearing

2100 Sales tax accrued

2110 Use tax accrued

2200 Employee tax withheld FICA

2210 Employee tax withheld federal

2300 Accrued salary payroll

2310 Accrued hourly payroll

2400 Accrued sales rebate

2500 Freight clearing

2510 Freight provisions

2520 Customs duty clearing

2530 Freight other

Capital/Equity

3000 Capital stock

3010 Paid in capital

3990 Retained earnings

Revenues

4000 Sales revenues domestic

4100 Sales revenues export

4200 Freight revenues

4500 Discounts

4510 Price discounts

4520 Volume rebate

Cost of Sales

5000 Cost of goods sold finished goods

5010 Cost of sales other Materials

5100 Consumption raw material

5110 Consumption spare parts

5120 Consumption packaging material

5200 Inventory change finished goods

5210 Inventory change other

5300 Scrap

5310 Sample

5400 Gain/Loss inventory tra

nsfer

5410 Freight inventory transfer

5500 Gain/Loss inventory revaluation

5550 Gain/Loss inventory other

5600 Freight in

5700 Purchase discount

5710 Purchase price variance

5720 Small price difference variance

5999 Cost of goods sold miscellaneous

Admin Expenses

6000 Salaries and wages

6010 Direct labor

6020 Indirect labor

6030 Maintenance Labor

6040 Purchased labor

6050 Outside consultants

6100 Freight out

7000 Air transportation

7010 Rental car (travel)

7020 Training seminars

7030 Office supplies

7040 Telephone

7050 Insurance vehicle and equipment

7060 Depreciation

7070 Miscellaneous expense

8499 Miscellaneous expense

Other Income and Expenses

9000 Interest Income

4 Cost Center Accounting (CO)

4.1 Organization Structures

List the legally independent organizational units that are to be illustrated in cost
accounting. ?

Are allocations within cost accounting required between these units? Yes No

Is an overall view of all units desired in cost accounting? Yes No

Will access to cost center reports be regulated through security authorizations?

Yes No

If yes, describe ?

4.2 Master Data in Cost Accounting

How are the cost accounting objects organized? by Cost Centers

by Orders

by Projects

If other, please describe:

Estimate the number of objects that exist for each object type. Indicate
whether a manual data transfer is possible or practical. ?

When should the transfer of cost accounting data take place? At the change of
the fiscal year

During the fiscal year

How many cost elements from financial accounting are processed further in
cost accounting. ?

Which costing-based elements do you have? depreciation

interest

employee benefit cost

Please list all others:

4.3 Actual Postings to Cost Accounting

4.3.1 Billings, Cash Receipts, Posting Documents

How will on-periodically occurring costs be treated? direct transfer from financial
accounting

imputed costs in financial accounting imputed costs in cost accounting

How does reconciliation of imputed costs between financial accounting and cost
accounting take place? Manually

Via an allocation cost center Via a standard order

At which intervals? ?

4.3.2 Actual Activity Allocation

Do you execute direct actual activity allocations between cost centers? This
means activity allocations made on the basis of hours or other activity units. Yes No

4.3.3 Personnel Costs

How do you treat employee be

nefit costs? direct transfer from financial accounting

imputed costs in financial accounting imputed costs in cost accounting

How does reconciliation of imputed costs between financial accounting and cost
accounting take place? Manually

Via an allocation cost center Via a standard order

At which intervals? ?

4.3.4 Capital Costs

Is cost accounting depreciation divided into proportional and fixed elements?

Yes

No

Is interest calculated on fixed assets? Yes

No

How do you treat non-periodically occurring costs for Capital Costs? direct
transfer from financial accounting

imputed costs in financial accounting imputed costs in cost accounting

4.3.5 Periodic Tasks in Actual

What assessments or distributions do you carry out in actual? Prepare a list of

assessments you carry out in cost accounting. ?

Describe the basis for the assessment of the individual costs (such as number
of employees, water usage, etc.). ?

Do these assessments occur as conceived in planning? ?

4.4 Planning in Cost Accounting

4.4.1 Cost Element Planning

In what level of detail does your cost element planning take place? ?

In which periods does your cost element planning occur? ?

How are revenues planned? ?

Are the cost elements divided into proportional and fixed elements? ?

4.4.2 Periodic Allocations in Plan

Prepare a list of the individual assessments you carry out in cost accounting.
Describe the basis for the assessments of the individual costs. ?

Do you execute direct plan activity allocations between cost centers? This
means activity allocations made on the basis of hours or other activity units. Yes

No

Do you carry out plan imputed cost in cost accounting? Yes

No

Costs falling outside periods are often rounded off in cost accounting (such as
vacation bonus, contributions, etc.). List the cost elements you treat in this manner
and whether they occur as conceived in planning. ?

4.5 Reporting

What management reports do you require? ?

Do you have Balance Sheet and Profit Loss reporting on cost centers Yes

No

How do you report on current actual costs? by Cost Centers

by Business Areas

by Cost elements

by Product

Others - please describe:

Do you perform a comparison of the above actual costs to planned costs? Yes

No

Which types of profit do you display in cost accounting? Cost Center Profit

Profit Center Profit

Cost Object Profit

Operating Profit

Other: ?