object class

The object class categorizes Controlling objects according to their business function and enables you to analyze cost flows within Controlling from different business perspectives.

The following object classes are available:

• Overhead
• Production
• Investment
• Profitability analysis and sales

While certain object types automatically belong to a particular class (for example, cost centers belong to the "Overhead" class), others need to be explicitly assigned to an object class in their master record (this is the case with internal orders and work breakdown structure elements, for example).

In addition to the functional area, the object class is required to determine or explain certain values in the external accounting components.

Example

The balance of all objects in the Production class is categorized as Work in Process (WIP).

object currency

A currency defined in the master record of a Controlling object (cost center, internal order, and so on).

When you create a Controlling object, the controlling area currency is defaulted as the object currency. You can change this.

object list

A list of objects that were processed in a processing step in collective processing.

A typical object list also includes values calculated in the processing step.

object to be planned

A business object in the SAP System for which a cost estimate can be created with Easy Cost Planning.

This object is the reference object of costing.

Example

• Internal order
• Work breakdown structure element
• Appropriation request

object type

A type of account assignment object.

Example

• Cost centers
• Business processes
• Internal orders
• Work breakdown structure elements
• Profitability segments

ocean bill of lading

A contract between an exporter and an international carrier for transport of merchandise to a specified foreign market overseas.

Ocean shipments require for domestic transport an inland bill of lading, and for international transport an ocean bill of lading (representing the ownership of the floating merchandise). In combination with the purchase order, it transfers ownership and physical rights to the goods contained in the document. For guaranteed payment transactions, especially letters of credit, in which ship transport is required, it is the primary documentation for the goods.

Forms of the document include the "Forwarding Certificate of Receipt" (FCR) and the "Fiata - Bill of Lading" (FBL).

ODETTE

Organisation for Data Exchange by Tele Transmission in Europe

An organization for data exchange by EDI in Europe.

Project conceived by the European automobile industry.

office of exit

The customs area in close proximity to an exit for departing from the Customs territory.

official receipt

A legal document that confirms receipt of payment, including value-added tax.

Official receipts can be issued:

• Before payment (based on invoice)
• After payment (based on payment document)

Companies primarily issue official receipts before payment if they employ a third party to collect payment on their behalf, in which case the official receipt must be printed before the payment is posted.

offsetting entry

The second of two entries made under the double-entry accounting procedure.

OFX

An Internet standard for the electronic transfer of financial data between financial institutions (banks, insurance companies and others) and theircustomers.

It defines the following levels:

• Transport (Internet/HTTP protocol)
• Security concept (SSL and application level)
• Format (OFX is a XML type format)

one-step stock transfer procedure

A posting procedure for stock transfers from storage location to storage location or from plant to plant.

When using the one-step procedure, you only have to record one transaction in the system to post the removal from storage at the point of issue and the placement in storage at the point of receipt.

The system creates one material document for a stock transfer.

As an alternative to the one-step procedure, the SAP system also enables you to post stock transfers using a two-step procedure.

one-time account

An account on which the transaction figures are recorded for a group of customers or vendors that you only conduct business once, or rarely.

One-time accounts require a special master record.

Certain customer or vendor data (such as address and bank details) is not entered in the master record, but in the actual document.

one-time customer

A term for a collective master record used for the processing of transactions involving miscellaneous customers with whom you do not regularly do business.

When you record a transaction involving a one-time customer, you must enter the customer data manually.

one-time customer

A term for a collective customer master record used for processing transactions with customers with whom you do not regularly do business.

When you enter a transaction for a one-time customer, you must enter the customer data manually.

one-time vendor

A term for a collective vendor master record used for processing transactions with vendors with whom you do not regularly do business.

If an RFQ or a PO is sent to a one-time vendor, you must enter the vendor data manually.

on-order stock

The sum of all open purchase order quantities for a material.

on-time delivery performance

In the vendor evaluation system, a subcriterion of the main criterion "Delivery".

This subcriterion is used to assess how closely the vendor adheres to the delivery dates set out in the purchase order.

open item management

A stipulation that the items in an account must be used to clear other line items in the same account.

Items must balance out to zero before they can be cleared. The account balance is therefore always equal to the sum of the open items.

open purchase order quantity

The quantity of a purchase order item that is to be delivered.

The open PO quantity is calculated as follows:

Open PO quantity = ordered quantity - quantity delivered to date

If the complete PO quantity or more has been delivered, the open PO quantity is zero.

Example

You ordered 100 boxes (bx) of screws from your vendor Miller Corp. on 08.24.2000.

Your vendor delivers the ordered screws as follows:

Date Qty. deliv. Total qty. deliv. Open PO qty.

08.24.2000 80 bx 80 bx 20 bx

08.28.2000 20 bx 100 bx 0 bx

On 08.24.2000, Miller Corp. delivers 80 boxes of screws. The open PO quantity in respect of your purchase order for 100 boxes of screws is 20 bx. On 08.28.2000, Miller Corp. delivers a further 20 boxes. The open PO quantity is now 0 bx.

open subitem

A line item that contains the open residual amount of a partially cleared item.

In each renewed partial clearing of an open subitem, the residual amount is reduced by the respective amount cleared.

opener

An importer or a person who opens a letter of credit through the person's bank.

opening bank

A financial institution that puts the requirements for merchandise purchased to be imported into a letter and sends it to a bank in the exporter's country.

operating concern

A representation of a part of an organization for which the sales market is structured in a uniform manner.

By setting off the costs against the revenues, you can calculate an operating profit for the individual market segments that are defined by a combination of classifying characteristics (such as product group, customer group, country, or distribution channel). The market segments are called profitability segments.

You can assign multiple controlling areas to one operating concern.

operating concern template

An operating concern template is a predefined example of an operating concern.

You can display the template's customizing settings, or change and copy them.

operating level

The planned or actual performance (or both) of a cost center for a period.

The operating level represents the output, and is measured, for example, in:

• Output quantity
• Production time
• Machine hours

operating rate

The ratio of the actual and planned operating level, expressed as a percentage.

The operating rate measures the effective utilization of an activity type at a cost center.

operational version

The actual version that represents the "main" version in CO.

This should be the version that represents your primary controlling approach, and is the only version in which controlling transactions involving activity allocation are stored. As well as this version, you can define up to two additional actual versions.

operations layout

A list of costing results taken from product costing and final costing.

The costing results are sorted by operation.

Orbian Active Account

A G/L account that is required in the books of a company when it processes incoming and outgoing payments with Orbian Credits.

The Orbian Active Account is used to mirror the active account with Orbian in the SAP system.

Orbian Credit

An electronic means of payment made available by Orbian.

An Orbian Credit is issued for a specified amount in a particular currency and with a precise maturity date. Advantages of this means of payment include:

• Security of the payment
• Certainty of future cash flows
• Option of extending existing payment terms

Orbian Credits can be used by a company to pay trade payables to a business partner who is also an Orbian Member

Subject to certain constraints, Orbian Credits received can:

• Be discounted to cash prior to their maturity date
• Be paid out by Orbian on their maturity date
• Be used in turn to pay trade payables to business partners that are also Orbian Members

Orbian Member

A company which is entitled to use the Orbian payment system.

Orbian Members require an Orbian Sponsor, who introduces them to Orbian, guarantees their line of credit and provides services for using the Orbian system.

Orbian Reserve Account

A G/L account that is required in the books of a company to administer Primary Orbian Credits.

The Orbian Reserve Account is used to mirror the reserve account with Orbian in the SAP system.

Orbian Sponsor

A company or group of companies undertaking certain tasks including:

• Introducing businesses as Orbian Members
• Provision of services for using the Orbian system
• Provision of a line of credit to Members which will enable them to issue Primary Orbian Credits

The role of Sponsor is typically undertaken by financial institutions such as banks.

order

A description of a simple task or measure within a controlling area.

Supports action-oriented planning as well as monitoring and allocation of costs.

order BOM cost estimate

A cost estimate of the BOM of a sales order item.

This cost estimate is created outside of the sales order.

Order BOM cost estimates are supported for all individual requirements materials in the BOM structure.

order combination

A combination of whole sales orders, of individual order items from different sales orders, or of partial deliveries of individual order items in a delivery.

Order combination in a delivery is only possible when you authorize it for the customer in the customer master record or when you manually authorize it for individual sales orders in the sales order document header.

order for provision of material

A request by a subcontractor to a customer for the customer to make available material required for the execution of an order that the customer placed with the subcontractor.

order group

A grouping of orders.

Order groups can be used wherever you want to process or analyze several reports at the same time, such as in order planning or the order information system.

order hierarchy

The hierarchy used to summarize the values in orders, level by level.

Characteristics (such as controlling area, plant, and business area) define the individual levels of the order hierarchy. A total is calculated for each characteristic value (such as Plant 1000, Plant 1100, and Plant 1200).

The following values are totaled:

• Planned costs
• Actual costs
• Target costs
• Work in process
• Variances
• Commitments

order phase

A system control instrument for the order master data.

Phases divide the life cycle of an order into different stages and determine the operations that are allowed or prohibited on the order in the respective stage.

An order can go through the following phases:

• Opened
• Released
• Completed
• Closed

order phase

A technical attribute that controls the master data of orders.

The life cycle of an order is divided into phases. In each phase, only certain actions can be performed on the order.

An order can pass through the following phases:

• Created
• Released
• Completed
• Closed

order price history

A series of purchase prices charged by a vendor for a material or service over a certain period up to the present.

order status

A control that dictates whether an order may be planned and whether it may receive postings.

It reflects the operational progress of an order and determines:

• Whether line items are created during cost element planning
• The transactions (planning, actual cost posting, and so on) allowed in each status
• When the order can be flagged for deletion

order unit

A unit of measure enabling Purchasing to order a material in a unit that differs from the base unit defined for the material.

order with revenues

An item that can serve the following purposes:

• If you are not using SD, you can use them to replace the CO functions of SD sales orders.
• If billing is not automated, you can use them to obtain a revenue-to-cost comparison. This is often the case for miscellaneous revenues - revenues that are not generated from the company's core business.

Orders with revenues should be settled at the latest to a profitability segment at the end of the period.

order-related production

A type of production in which the manufactured products are delivered to inventory without reference to a sales order.

The order costs are collected on production orders and settled to inventory.

Typically, cost object controlling (CO-PC-OBJ) is based on the order quantity.

ordinary depreciation

The planned distribution of the acquisition costs of an asset over the course of its useful life using a depreciation method.

Ordinary depreciation depicts the value reduction caused by the wear and tear on the asset during normal use. Therefore, the calculation of depreciation should be based on the normal expected useful life.

organization registration number

A tax number assigned, in Sweden, to legal persons.

organizational release code

A two-character identifier with which a person responsible for processing a document can release (approve) an item of a purchase requisition, a complete purchase requisition, or a complete external purchasing document, or cancel such release, that is, revoke an approval.

In the case of the organizational release code, the user department specifies which user can work with which release code.

origin

Detailed information on the source of the costs assigned to a cost element.

Example

• Material numbers in the case of material costs
• Cost centers and activity types in the case of internal activities

origin

The business-related origin of the data leading to a payment.

Essentially, this is the application triggering the payment. For example, in the case of:

• Accounts payable, Accounts Payable Accounting (FI AP)
• Bank account carry forwards, Treasury Cash Management (TR CM)
• Employee payments, Payroll (PY)

origin group

The detailed information on the source of material costs or the origin of the overhead shown next to the cost element in the information system.

For material costs, the origin group is entered in the material master record and can be used in the definition of:

• Calculation bases for overhead
• Cost elements for material cost estimates
• Capitalization rules for calculating work in process

For overhead costs, the origin group must be entered in the credit key of the costing sheet. It provides more information on the origin of the overhead.

original document

A document that serves as proof that a posting is correct.

other elimination difference

The difference that occurs within intercompany elimination if two trading partners portray their common transactions in each of their individual financial statements differently.

Example

• Temporal posting differences
• Individual value adjustments in the accounts receivable
• Not (fully) accepted accounts payable
• Falsely posted entries

outline agreement

A longer-term arrangement between a purchasing organization and a vendor for the supply of materials or provision of services over a certain period based on predefined terms and conditions.

There are two types of outline purchase agreement:

• Contracts
• Scheduling agreements

outline agreement release

A document used to request from the vendor part of the total quantity or value of goods or services stipulated in an outline agreement.

The release authorizes the vendor to deliver and contains data such as the quantities to be delivered and the delivery dates.

Example

Types of release include:

• Release order issued against a contract
• Forecast delivery schedule issued against a scheduling agreement
• JIT delivery schedule issued against a scheduling agreement

In addition to being a generic term for ordering against established longer-term purchase agreements, the term "release" is used in MM Purchasing for approving planned expenditure. For example, the release of a purchase requisition gives Purchasing authorization to issue RFQs or order materials.

outline level

Text lines dividing large sets of service specifications on a hierarchical basis.

Example

The service specifications (bill of quantities) for roadworks contain the outline levels "surfacing" and "excavation work." The surfacing work is divided into "asphalting" and "paving." Below these outline levels are the individual service items defining each particular service (task).

output

Information sent to the customer by mail, EDI, or fax.

Examples of output are:

• Printed quotation or order confirmations
• Order confirmations sent by EDI
• Shipping notifications sent by fax

output group

A system object that tells the Generic Withholding Tax Reporting program what sorts of output you want it to produce.

Output types include:

• Output list
• Printouts for withholding tax certificates or withholding tax returns
• DME files for withholding tax returns

It also tells the program which financial accounting documents to read the withholding tax items from (accounts payable, accounts receivable, or both). You define output groups in Customizing. Then, when you come to run the program, you enter the output group in the selection screen.

output material

A material sourced through a procurement alternative.

output price

The value used in internal activity allocation for the internal movement of costs between cost objects, such as cost centers.

The output price can be entered manually or be determined iteratively.

output price variance

The difference between actual credit and target credit.

An output price variance arises under the following conditions:

• In Overhead Cost Controlling (CO-OM), an output price variance arises when the activity price used is not the same as the monthly iterative price on the basis of the planned activity (for example, a manually entered activity price).
• In Cost Object Controlling (CO-PC-OBJ), an output price variance arises when the material manufactured is transferred to inventory at a price other than the standard price (for example, the moving average price).

output quantity variance

The variance between the actual credit and the target credit caused by differences between the allocated actual quantities and the manually posted actual quantities.

output side

An approach in variance calculation that shows the credits of the following:

• The cost center
• The business process
• The order
• The cost object hierarchy

Variances on the output side arise on the basis of actual allocations:

• In Overhead Cost Controlling (CO-OM), actual allocations are the internal activity allocations to other objects.
• In Product Cost Controlling (CO-PC), the variances on the output side are the lot size variances and the output price variances.

Example

• Lot size variance (only in CO-PC)
• Fixed cost variance (only in CO-OM)
• Mixed price variance (only in CO-PC)
• Output quantity variance (CO-OM)
• Output price variance
• Remaining variance

output tax

A tax levied on customers at all levels of production and trade.

Output tax represents a tax liability.

outward processing

A customs procedure to reduce import costs.

In this procedure, domestic goods are temporarily transferred out of a customs territory while respecting local customs regulations and restrictions.Improvements or manufacturing processes are performed outside of the customs territory. Then the assembled or improved goods are returned to the customs territory. This reduces overall duty costs.

overall release

A procedure in which a document (for example, a purchase order or requisition) is approved in total for issue or conversion into a follow-on document.

overall score

In vendor evaluation, the score that expresses a vendor's general rating.

The vendor's scores in respect of a number of individual main criteria are merged to arrive at this single, all-inclusive figure.

Overhead Cost Controlling

The activities related to the coordination, monitoring and optimization of overhead costs.

By analyzing areas of responsibility (cost centers) and individual orders and projects, Overhead Cost Controlling is used for the display of business information to aid strategic enterprise decision-making.

overhead cost order

An internal order used to monitor overhead costs incurred for a restricted period when executing a job, or for long-term monitoring of portions of overhead costs.

Regardless of the cost center structure and the business processes of the organization, overhead cost orders collect the plan and actual costs incurred. This allows costs to be controlled continuously.

The overhead costs assigned to the overhead cost orders are settled (in full) as costs to:

• Cost centers
• Orders
• Work breakdown structure elements
• Profitability segments

This is generally done at the end of the period.

overhead costing

The most common method of costing cost objects in Cost Object Controlling (CO-PC-OBJ).

This method first assigns the direct costs from Cost Element Accounting (CO-OM-CEL) to the cost object. Prorated overhead costs are then applied to the cost object in proportion to the direct costs, expressed as a percentage.

overhead costs

The costs that cannot be traced directly to a particular allocation base (such as a product).

These include costs that could conceivably be traced directly to cost objects or cost centers, but are allocated by means of overhead keys instead because it is not economically feasible to trace such costs (for example, the costs for screws and other small parts).

overhead group

A key that groups materials to which overhead is applied in the same manner.

overhead key

A tool that enables you to calculate a percentage overhead rate for specific orders or materials.

overhead rate

The rate at which overhead is allocated to direct costs to charge cost objects with the proportion of the overhead costs attributable to them.

This can be a lump sum, percentage, or quantity-based rate.

An example of the use of overhead rates is to allocate overhead from material cost centers to orders by debiting the orders in proportion to the material withdrawals and crediting the material cost centers with the same amounts.

This is also used to allocate sales and administration overhead.

overhead rate

The rate applied to the direct costs to allocate the indirect costs.

This can be a flat rate or a percentage.

overhead structure

An item that defines the rules for the calculation of the values to be posted.

An overhead structure consists of one or more of the following rows:

• Base row -

Contains the amount used as a basis for the overhead application

• Calculation row -

Contains the overhead percentage rate to be applied to the base row

• Totals row -

Contains the sum of the base and overhead amounts

Overhead structures are used in CO-CCA to calculate accrual costs.