Item to be decided

Comment

Code of company code (4 Digit Alphanumeric)

You could setup new one later, copying the configuration

Code of Chart of Accounts

Not very visible, but the maintainers of the chart may want to decide this name

Length of the GL A/c number and the account number range guidelines, possibly also the numbers of some key accounts required for automatic postings (see below)

SAP allows 10 digits, however 5-7 appears to be the normal range.  Typically the number of accounts should be in the low hundreds.   Decide on the ranges of numbers for each type of account as much as you can so that the team can start getting used to them. EG: standard SAP usually has 4xxxxx as expense accounts, 11xxxx as Bank Related accounts etc.  

Step

Comment

Define the company code

IMG

Define the name for a chart of accounts

IMG

Maintain the global parameters

IMG - Use standard SAP variants for the parameters to start with & update later

Define the default amount tolerances

IMG - Define for a blank group - so any new test user can post during prototyping

Define document number ranges

IMG - Copy from the standard ranges

Create some of the minimum accounts needed to start off with. 

GL Master data:
A/R and A/P control a/cs, a petty cash or suspense a/c to hold sundry offset postings while debugging, a revenue account, some expense accounts.  This list will expand as you go - see the section on account determination.

Suggest you create with reference from the standard chart and company code and use those specifications (account groups, fields status groups etc)  for now, so that these accounts will be reasonably appropriately setup.

Item to be decided

Comment

Structure of standard cost center hierarchy

The structure should follow the organizations intended responsibility reporting hierarchy (the budgetary responsibility).  Allow the appropriate number of levels.

Hierarchy node name coding

The coding of the nodes is quite important because they can be used to report on the levels in the standard reports, and so will be very visible to the users

Cost Center Naming Standards

Useful to begin following the intended standards ASAP so that test data looks as real as possible.

Step

Comment

Define the controlling area

IMG, not very visible to users, if you are only going to have one, you could default it later

Assign the company code to the controlling area

IMG

Create the beginnings of the standard cost center hierarchy

CO - Cost Center Master data

Create a representative set of cost centers, assigning them to the appropriate node in the cost center hierarchy

CO - Cost Center Master data

Create all the expense accounts as primary cost elements

Either in the IMG - for all GL accounts in a specific range, or individually in the CO - Cost Center Master data

Item to be decided

Comment

GL Account Number of Control accounts

see account number range comments above

Step

Comment

Create the AP and AR Control accounts in the GL

see account creation comments above

Create a couple of customer and vendor accounts

If using SD and MM too, inform the SD and MM analysts so that they can complete the account creation on the SD/MM side for the customer and vendor respectively.

Item to be decided

Comment

SD and MM organization structure and relationship to the FI/CO elements

Not a trivial decision, and may require rework, so at this stage, decide on a simple best guess with the SD/MM team to get you going

Step

Comment

Assign the SD and MM organization elements to the FI/CO elements

IMG; to get prototyping going you need at least 1 set of working relationships that the whole team can work with (EG: 1 Sales Area, 1 Purchasing Organization, 1 Plant etc)

Maintain the basic automatic account determination for each module

IMG; For example : Revenue Account Determination for SD.  As the modules test or prototype expanded functionality, the SAP will look for the accounts to which it should post.  You could maintain on an as needed basis. The SAP documentation and configuration does not always explain clearly which piece of account determination is used for which type of functionality, so it is sometimes difficult to be pro-active.  being reactive has the benefit that hopefully each side (e.g.: MM and FI) can develop an understanding of what the business transaction is and therefore where it should be posting. Otherwise the MM person may not even be aware that he has generated a certain type of posting ! (You'd be amazed at some of the lack of ownership from a logistics consultant for the financial postings that they generate).