SAP stands for ‘systems applications products’ in data processing of a business, FI stands for Finance and CO for Controlling, in a SAP FICO certification. SAP was founded in 1972 by Wellenreuther, Hopp, Hector, Platner and Tschira. It was renamed SAP in 1977, before that it was known as the System Analysis and Program Development. SAP is an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. ERP is an amalgamation of business management practice, where information technology assimilates with the core processes of your business to facilitate the attainment of explicit business objectives.
SAP has many advantages. It helps integrate many different modules, it’s faster and cheaper, all the reporting can be done in real time, it is in multiple languages (40+) in multiple countries (225+) dealing with multiple currencies (200+). It also greatly reduces the man power needed for the work.
SAP has many modules two of which are Finance (FI) and Controlling (CO). the FICO module deals with internal and external accounting. The functional components of FICO are for Finance: General ledger, account receivables, account payables, fixed assets. For the Controlling; cost centre accounting, internal orders, profit centre accounting, product costing, and profitability analysis.
SAP Financial accounting (FI) is an imperative core module where real-time financial processing transactions can be captured which then provide the basis through which data can be drawn for the use of external reporting. The SAP FI module of the SAP software helps the companies to unite many parallel modules which otherwise might have needed the use of many software packages. SAP FI has the capacity to meet all the financial and accounting needs of an organization. Usage of this module allows for better strategic planning and judgment making.
“Managerial Accounting” is referred to as ‘Controlling’ in SAP. The organizational elements of CO were just mentioned above showing that the SAP CO module facilitates the managers by giving reports on profit centers; cost centers, profitability etc. In disparity to FI, CO centers more on internal users. The transactions that are posted in FI are delivered to CO for cost accounting processing, audit-controlling and analytical reporting.
To get a SAP FICO certification, you need to read the courses of TFIN50 and TFNI52. The syllabus of this certification can be checked from. But, one should be a bit more patient when surfing through the website since it has a lot of heavy graphics and might take some time to load the. The syllabus also provides emphasis on which subjects are to be concentrated more on. There are only a few steps to follow to get you registered for the certification. This certification is a very crucial step in careers of a lot of accountants and other finance majors out there since Financials and Controlling are the two major categories of functionality which are required to the run the accounts of a company. There are many different colleges and even companies that offer training in SAP FICO and it is an opportunity that should not be missed.
