SAP ERP Financials and FICO Handbook

232 CHAPTER 6 FICO QUICK TOUR
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A fiscal year variant contains the definition of posting periods.
Generally, a posting period represents a month. In Figure 6.2,
you defined how many posting periods a fiscal year will have.
There are two types of posting period; (1) normal posting
period and (2) special posting period. A normal posting period
represents a month of a fiscal year, while a special posting period
is a virtual posting period. Special posting periods are used to
track year-end activities.
While posting a transaction, you enter the document posting
date. Based upon the document posting date, the system
determines the posting period and the fiscal year to be posted.
To record transactions in foreign currencies, you maintain
translation ratios through various tools in mySAP Financial.
These are (1) inversion, (2) base currency, and (3) exchange
rate spreads. With the exchange rate spread, you will maintain
an average rate, and the system will derive the buying rate and
selling rate. With base currency, you will maintain an exchange
rate between the base currency and foreign currencies.
6.3 GENERAL LEDGER (G/L) ACCOUNTING
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Each G/L is set up according to a chart of accounts (COA).
The COA contains the definitions of all G/L accounts. The
definitions consist mainly of the account number, account
name, and the type of G/L account, i.e., whether the account is
a P&L type account or a balance sheet type account.
Each company code uses one COA for the G/L. This COA
is assigned to the company code, and a COA can be used by
multiple company codes. This means that the G/L of these
company codes have an identical structure. A COA is an index
of G/L accounts. Since the COA is a client-dependent master,
you have two views for a G/L account master: (1) general data,