SAP COPA Interview Questions and Answers

Looking for a bright career in Sap Copa? Worried about what type of interviews Question will be asked in the interviews. Don’t worry we have provided all levels of Sap Copa interview question and answers on our ACTE site page. If you are familiar with the SAP and also with Sap Copa Advanced concepts then there are many leading companies that offer job roles like SAP COPA, SAP COPA Consultant, Sr. Software Engineer/ Lead Analyst-SAP COPA, SAP FI COPA Product Costing Consultant, SAP FICO Treasury Consultant, SAP FICO COPA Requirement, Sap co (copa) – Technical/functional and many other roles too. Below are some frequently asked Sap Copa job interview questions and answers which will make you feel better to face the interview.

1. Explain The Organizational Assignment In The Pa Module?

Ans:

• The operating Concern is the highest node in Profitability Analysis.
• The operating concern is assigned to the Controlling Area.
• Within the operating concern all the transactions of Profitability Analysis are stored.
• The operating concern is nothing but a nomenclature for defining the highest node in PA.

2. What Do You Mean By Period Based Accounting (gl Based) And Cost Of Sales Accounting (copa Based)? Period Based Accounting?

Ans:

“Period based” means that during the month or period, all and only actual events / transactions are posted in the appropriate period.  At the end of the period estimated accruals and deferrals are made and posted to that posting period to give a more accurate view of profit.  IE any expected revenues and expenditures that should relate to the current period are accrued for and equally any prepaid expenses or revenues are deferred to the next period.  (Accruals and Deferrals are posted temporarily, usually to special accounts, and reversed prior to the next period end.)
Cost of Sales Accounting:
Cost of Sales in SAP means that we attempt to record or rather report the “costs of sales” against the actual sale at as low a level as possible and during the period. (In CO-PA this is down to a transaction level.)   This enables the company to get a reasonably accurate view of profitability on a real time basis.
This is done by using either standards or estimates for many of the components that make up the “cost of goods sold”.  Any variations from the standards are usually posted through to the cost of sales system either at month end or when they occur.

3. What Are Non-fixed Characteristics Or User Defined Characteristics?

Ans:

Up to 50 non-fixed characteristics can be added to an operating concern.
Create -> Derived the value from Table PAPARTNER (SD partner that can be used in COPA) -> Create user defined characteristic name WW008 -> Save

4. What Is A “value Field” In The Co-pa Module?

Ans:

Value fields are number/value related fields in profitability analysis such as quantity, sales revenue, and discount value.

5. What Is A “characteristic Field” In The Co-pa Module?

Ans:

Characteristics are analytical information fields used in CO-PA. Typical examples include customer number, brand, and distribution channel.

6. What Do You Mean Fixed Characteristic Fields?

Ans:

Predefined characteristic fields in SAP R/3 system, which are obvious, are known as fixed characteristic fields such as product, sales org and customer

7. What Do You Mean By Value Field Groups?

Ans:

Value Field Groups represent the possible combinations of value fields in an operating concern.
Value field groups are used to specify:

• Which value should be made available to users entering or displaying a line item
• In what order these value fields should be displayed
• Which specific value fields can be filled

8. Describe Three Ways Of Disposing Of An Asset From A Company Code In Sap R/3?

Ans:

An existing asset can be scrapped (transaction ABAVN), transferred to another company code (ABUMN), sold to a customer account in the accounts receivable module (F-92), sold with revenue but the revenue is booked to a GL account (ABAON).

9. What Is The Basic Difference In Customizing In Profitability Analysis As Compared To Other Modules?

Ans:

In PA when we configure the system i.e. creating operating concern, maintain structures no customizing request is generated. The configuration needs to be transported through a different transaction called as KE3I.

10. How Do You Configure The Assignment Of Variances From Product Costing To Copa Module?

Ans:

The variance categories from product costing along with cost element are to be assigned to the value fields in COPA.

11. What Are Statistical Key Figures In Co?

Ans:

SKF’s are statistical (or information values) used in cost allocations such as assessments and distributions.

12. What Are Account Assignment Models?

AAM’s are blocks of document line items that can be used repeatedly to prevent manual re-entry. Which fields are included in the AAM layout can be configured using O7E3

13. How Data Flows From Sd To Copa?

Ans:

The normal SD document flow is as follows:

• Sales order
• Delivery (the delivery creates the goods issue, which debits COGS and credits Inventory – COGS is updated in CO-PA at this time)
• Billing Document (the billing document updates A/R, Sales revenue, Discounts, Freight, etc.)

14. What Are Statistical Internal Orders?

Ans:

Statistical real internal orders are dummy cost objects used for analysis and reporting purposes. They must be posted to in conjunction with a real cost object such as a cost center.

15. What Is The Difference Between “costing Based” (cb) And “account Based” (ab) Co-pa ?

Ans:

• AB can easily be reconciled with FI at account level through the use of cost elements. In CB can only be reconciled at account group level (such as revenues, sales deductions etc) as values are stored in “value fields” as opposed to accounts.
• In CB data is stored by posting periods and weeks. In AB storage is only by periods.
• In CB transactions can be stored in operating concern currency and company code currency. In AB transactions are stored in controlling area currency, company code currency and transaction currency.
• In CB you can create cross controlling area evaluations or cross controlling area plans. In AB you cannot as the chart of accounts may differ.
• In CB the cost of good sales (COGS) are updated via material price valuations. Stock change values can be transferred to CB COPA during billing. Timing differences can occur if the goods issue and billing documents are in different posting periods. In AB the value posted in the stock change is posted simultaneously to COPA.

16. Name Some Settlement Receivers For Co Internal Orders?

Ans:

Typically CO Internal Order is settled to:-

• Other internal orders
• Fixed assets (including assets under constructions)
• GL Accounts
• Cost Centres

17. Can Both Account Based And Costing Based Profitability Analysis Be Configured At The Same Time?

Ans:

Yes. It is possible to configure both types of costing based profitability analysis at the same time.

18. Why Does Sap Talk About Statistical Assignments In Co – Why Are These Different From Real Cost Accounting Assignments?

Ans:

The reason is to facilitate reconciliation between FI and CO. The sum of all ‘real’ assignments in CO should add up to the sum of all expense and revenue postings (where cost/revenue elements have been created for the GL account of course) in FI.   A normal expense invoice posting to expense accounts / cost elements will be a ‘real’ posting. If the system is displaying an error message insisting on a ‘cost accounting assignment’ and you think you have entered one, then possibly you have specified a statistical assignment. A common error is in thinking that the business area will do – Business areas are FI elements not CO elements.

19. How Data Flows From Co To Copa?

Ans:

Through Assessments. Allocates costs from cost centers to profitability segments. 

20. How Data Flows Through Mm Into Fi?

Ans:

Through Account assignment model OKB9. Automatic postings created in materials management, can be passed on to CO-PA by means of automatic account assignment to a profitability segment.

21. How Data Flows From Pp Into Fi & Copa?

Ans:

Through Production Variances. It Posts variances from the production (product cost) estimates or standards to the GL accounts and to Profitability Analysis if real costs are required (vs standard costs).  Standard cost figures would have been used to update Stock and Cost of Goods sold figures when finished stock was issued from the production runs. 

22. What Are Characteristics Values?

Ans:

Characteristics are aspects on which we want to break down the profit logically such as customer, region product, sales person etc. 

23. What are the configuration settings maintained in the costing variant?

Ans:

Costing variant forms the link between the application and Customizing since all cost estimates are carried out and saved with reference to the accosting variant. The costing variant contains all the control parameters for costing. The configuration parameters are maintained for costing type, valuation variants, date control, and quantity structure control. In the costing type, we specify which field in the material master should be updated. In the valuation variant, we specify the following) the sequence or order the system should go about accessing prices for the material master (planned price, standard price, moving average price, etc).b) It also contains which price should be considered for activity price calculation and .c) How the system should select BOM and routing.

24. How does SAP go about costing a Product having multiple Bill of materials within it?

Ans:

SAP first costs the lowest level product, arrives at the cost, and then goes and costs the next highest level and finally arrives at the cost of the final product.

25. What does the concept of cost roll-up mean in product costing context?

Ans:

The purpose of the cost roll-up is to include the cost of goods manufactured of all materials in a multilevel production structure at the topmost level of the BOM(Bill of Material) The costs are rolled up automatically using the costing levels.1) The system first calculates the costs for the materials with the lowest costing level and assigns them to cost components.2) The materials in the next highest costing level (such as semi-finished materials) are then costed. The costs for the materials cost first are rolled up and become part of the material costs of the next highest level.

26. What are the ‘Components of Controlling’?

Ans:

There are three major submodules in CO and each of these submodules has many components as detailed below:

• Cost Element Accounting
• Cost Controlling
• Cost Center Accounting
• Internal Orders
• Activity-Based Costing
• Product Cost Controlling
• Profitability Analysis
• Profit Center Accounting

27. Explain ‘Cost Center Accounting.’

Ans:

‘Cost Center Accounting’ deals with the difficult task of managing ‘overheads’ within your organization. Since overhead costs are something that you cannot directly associate with a product or service, which can be difficult to control, cost center accounting provides you with the necessary tools to achieve this.

28. What are the important Terminologies in Product Costing?: Results Analysis Key?

Ans:

This key determines how the Work in Progress is calculated

• Cost Components
• The break up of the costs which get reflected in the product costing eg. Material Cost, Labour Cost, Overhead, etc
• Costing Sheets
• This is used to calculate the overhead in Controlling
• Costing Variant

For All manufactured products the price control recommended is Standard Price. To come up with this standard price for the finished good material this material has to be costed. This is done using Costing Variant. Further questions down below will explain this concept better.

29. What is ‘Cost Object’?

Ans:

‘Cost Object,’ also known as a CO Account Assignment Object, in SAP denotes a unit to which you can assign objects. It is something like a repository in which you collect costs, and, if necessary, move the costs from one object to another. All the components of CO have their own cost objects such as cost centers, internal orders, etc.

The cost objects decide the nature of postings as to whether they are real postings or statistical postings. All the objects that are identified as statistical postings are not considered cost objects (for example, profit centers).

30. What is ‘Cost Element’?

Ans:

• ‘Cost Elements’ represent the origin of costs. There are two types of cost elements:
• Primary Cost Elements
• Secondary Cost Elements

31. Why do You Need ‘Cost Element Accounting’?

Ans:

Cost Element Accounting’ (CO-OM-CEL) helps you to classify costs/revenues posted to CO. It also provides you the ability to reconcile the costs between FI and CO. CO-OM-CEL provides the structure for assignment of CO data in the form of cost/revenue carriers called cost elements or revenue elements.

32. Explain Cost Center Accounting?

Ans:

‘Cost Center Accounting’ deals with the difficult task of managing ‘overheads’ within your organization. Since overhead costs are something that you cannot directly associate with a product or service, which can be difficult to control, cost center accounting provides you with the necessary tools to achieve this.

33. What is ‘Activity-Based Costing’?

Ans:

‘Activity-Based Costing,’ popularly known as ABC, helps you to view overhead costs from the point of business processes. The result is you will be able to optimize costs for the entire business process. As a single business process, activity-based costing will cut across several cost centers and will give you an enhanced view of the costs incurred.

34. What is ‘Product Cost Controlling’ (CO-PC)?

Ans:

• ‘Product Cost Controlling’ (CO-PC) deals with estimating the costs to produce a product/service. CO-PC is divided into two major areas:
• Cost of materials
• Cost of processing
• With CO-PC, you can calculate:
• Cost of goods manufactured (COGM)
• Cost of goods sold (COGS)
• CO-PC is tightly integrated with Production Planning (PP) and Materials Management (MM), in addition to FI. The functionality helps to:
• Calculate Standard Costs of manufactured goods
• Calculate the Work-in-Progress (WIP)
• Calculate the Variances, at period-end
• Finalize settlement of product costs
• Note that CO-PC deals only with production costs as it deals only with the production.

35. What is ‘Profitability Analysis’ (CO-PA)?

Ans:

‘Profitability Analysis’ (CO-PA) helps you determine how profitable (denoted by the ‘contribution margin’) your market segments are. The analysis is on the external side of the market. You will be able to define what segments, such as customer, product, geography, sales organization, etc., of the market are required for analyzing ‘operating results/profits.’ With multi-dimensional ‘drill-down’ capability, you have all the flexibility you need for reporting.

36. How is ‘Profit Center Accounting’ (EC-PCA) Different from CO-PA?

Ans:

Unlike CO-PA where the focus is on external market segments’ profitability, ‘Profit Center Accounting’ (EC-PCA) focuses on the profitability of internal areas (profit centers) of the enterprise. Profit center accounting is used to draw internal balance sheets and profit & loss statements. You may use EC-PCA in place of business area accounting.

Both CO-PA and EC-PCA serve different purposes and are not mutually exclusive. You may need them both in your organization.

37. Explain ‘Integration of CO’ with its Components and Other SAP Modules?

Ans:

• The CO module is integrated with FI, AA, SD, MM, PP, and HR:
• FI is the main source of data for CO. All expenses, posted in FI, flow to CO through the ‘primary cost elements’ to the appropriate ‘cost centers.’ Similarly, postings in Asset Accounting (such as depreciation) are also passed on to CO.
• Revenue postings in FI would result in postings in CO-PA and also in EC-PCA.
• The SD, MM, and PP modules have many integration points in CO. Goods issue (GI) to a controlling object or goods receipt (GR) from a ‘production order’ are some examples of integration. These modules are tightly integrated as consumption activities, cost of goods issued, overhead charges, material costs, etc., which are passed on to production objects such as PP production order or sales order. The WIP (Work-in-Progress) and the variances, at period ends, are settled to CO-PA, CO-PCA, and also to FI. Revenues are directly posted when you generate billing documents in SD if the sales order is a cost object item.
• The HR module generates various types of costs to be posted in CO. Planned HR costs can also be passed on for CO planning.

38. What is ‘Primary Cost Element’?

Ans:

‘Primary Cost Elements’ represent the consumption of production factors such as raw materials, human resources, utilities, etc. Primary cost elements have their corresponding GL accounts in FI. All the expense/revenue accounts in FI correspond to the primary cost elements in CO. Before you can create the primary cost elements in CO, you first need to create them in FI as GL accounts.

Note that SAP treats revenue elements also as primary cost elements in CO processing. The only difference is that all the revenue elements are identified with a negative sign while posting in CO. The revenue elements correspond to the revenue accounts in FI and they fall under the cost element category, category 01/11.

39. What is the ‘Secondary Cost Element’?

Ans:

‘Secondary Cost Elements’ represent the consumption of production factors provided internally by the enterprise itself and are present only in the CO. They are actually like cost carriers and are used in allocations and settlements in CO. While creating these elements, you need to mention the cost element category, which can be any of the following:

• Category 21, used in internal settlements
• Category 42, used in assessments
• Category 43, used in internal activity allocation

40. What is ‘Cost Element Category’?

Ans:

All the cost elements need to be assigned to a ‘Cost Element Category,’ to determine the transactions for which you can use the cost elements.

Example:

• Category 01, known as the ‘general primary cost elements,’ is used in standard primary postings from FI or MM into CO.
• Category 22 is used to settle order/project costs, or cost object costs to objects outside of CO (such as assets, materials, GL accounts, etc.).

41.Differentiate Between ‘Real’ and ‘Statistical Postings’ in CO?

Ans:

The CO account assignment objects decide the type of postings allowed. They can be real or statistical postings.

• ‘Real Postings’ allow you to further allocate/settle those costs to any other cost object in CO, either as ‘senders’ or as ‘receivers.’ The objects that are allowed to have real postings include:
• Cost Centers
• Internal Orders (Real)
• Projects (Real)
• Networks
• Profitability Segments
• PP—Production Orders (make-to-order)
• ‘Statistical Postings,’ on the other hand, are only for information purposes. You will not be able to further allocate/settle these statistical costs to other cost objects. Examples of such objects include:
• Statistical (Internal) Orders
• Statistical Projects
• Profit Centers

42. How do You Define ‘Number Ranges’ in CO?

Ans:

You will be required to define, for each of the controlling areas, the ‘Number Ranges’ for all transactions that will generate documents in CO. Once done for a controlling area, you may copy from one controlling area to other controlling areas when you have more than one such area.

To avoid too many documents, SAP recommends grouping multiple but similar transactions and then assigning number ranges to this group. Further, you may create different number ranges for the plan and actual data. As in FI, the number ranges can be internal or external. The document number ranges in CO are independent of fiscal years.

43. How Does ‘Master Data’ Differ from ‘Transaction Data’ in CO?

Ans:

• The ‘Master Data’ remains unchanged over a long period, whereas ‘Transaction Data’ are short-term. The transaction data are assigned to the master data.
• Though you normally create the master data from transactions, note that you will be able to create these records from the configuration side as well. When you need to create a large number of master data, you may use the ‘collective processing’ option to create related master records in one step. SAP puts master data in ‘groups’ for easy maintenance.
• In the case of master data of cost center/cost elements/activity types, once they are created, you will not be able to change the date. SAP calls this feature the ‘time dependency’ of master data. If necessary, you can extend the ‘time’ by creating a new one and attaching it to the existing objects. In the case of resources, the master data are time-dependent and the system will allow you to delete these objects. Statistical Key Figures (SKF) are not time-dependent; once defined they are available in the system forever.

44. How do you Automatically Create ‘Cost Elements’?

Ans:

You will be able to create ‘cost elements’ automatically by specifying the cost element, the cost element interval, and the cost element category for the cost elements. All these are achieved by creating default settings. The creation of cost elements is done in the background.

The primary cost elements can be created only when you have the corresponding GL accounts in the chart of accounts of the Company Code. Even though the GL account names are used as the names of the primary cost elements thus created by the system, you have the option of changing these names in CO. All the secondary cost elements are created in CO; the name of these cost elements comes from the cost element category.

45.Explain ‘Controlling (CO)’ in SAP?

Ans:

SAP calls managerial accounting ‘Controlling’ and the module is commonly known as ‘CO.’ The CO module is, thus, primarily oriented towards managing and reporting cost/revenue and is mainly used in ‘internal’ decision-making. As with any other module, this module also has configuration set-up and application functionality.

The controlling module focuses on internal users and helps management by providing reports on cost centers, profit centers, contribution margins, and profitability, etc.

46. What are the Important ‘Organizational Elements of CO’?

Ans:

• The important organizational structure of controlling includes:
• Operating Concern (the top-most reporting level for profitability analysis and sales and marketing controlling).
• Controlling Area (central organization in ‘controlling,’ structuring internal accounting operations).
• Cost Centers (lower-most organizational units where costs are incurred and transferred).

47. What is the ‘Controlling Area’? How is it Related to a Company Code?

Ans:

A ‘Controlling Area’ is the central organizational structure in ‘controlling’ (CO) and is used in cost accounting. The controlling area, as in the case of a Company Code, is a self-contained cost accounting entity for internal reporting purposes. The controlling area is assigned to one or more Company Codes to ensure that the necessary transactions, posted in FI, are transferred to controlling for cost accounting processing.

• One controlling area can be assigned one or more Company Codes.
• One chart of accounts can be assigned to one or more controlling areas.
• One or more controlling areas can be assigned to an operating concern.
• One Client can have one or more controlling areas.
• Outline ‘Company Code—Controlling Area’ Assignments.
• There are two types of assignments possible between the Company Code and a controlling area:
• One-to-one: Here, one Company Code corresponds to one controlling area.
• Many-to-one: More than one Company Code is assigned to a single controlling area.