1827184 - Overhead Distribution Run Distributes Cost Center Costs Incorrectly

You want to distribute only a certain amount of a cost center A to another cost center B. The remaining costs shall stay on cost center A.
Therefore you create a distribution rule for cost centers and maintain cost center A as sender cost center.
As receiver cost center you maintain a certain percentage for cost center B and for the rest you maintain cost center A also as receiver (i.e. 30% cost center B, 70% cost center A).
After executing the Overhead Distribution Run you notice that the run distributed the costs of your sender cost center A incorrectly:

• The total distribution amount  is much higher than the cost amount of your sender cost center
• The run distributed 100% of the sender cost center A to receiver cost center B, instead of just a certain percentage (i.e. 30%)
• The run distributed another amount (higher than the total cost amount of the sender cost center A) to and from the sender cost center A

SAP Business ByDesign

Create Distribution Rule for Cost Centers

1. In the Cost and Revenue workcenter navigate to the Allocation view and there to the Distribution Rules subview.
2. Press New - Distribution Rule for Cost Centers.
3. In the first step, maintain the Sender cost center. By default the following settings are maintained: Press Next to select the Receivers (step 2)
   • Select Receiver Type: 2-Cost Centers
   • Distribution Basis: All costs
   • Select Cost Centers: Manually
   • Distribution Factors: Fixed
4. From the Available Cost Centers list, select the cost center that you want to distribute a certain percentage to, i.e. cost center B. And also select cost center A.
5. Press Next (step 3).
6. Enter the Distribution Factors for the selected cost centers, i.e. 0,3 for cost center B and 0,7 for cost center A.
7. Press Next (step 4).
8. Maintain a distribution rule ID XXX and description and, if you wish, the account determination group. Under Distribution Rule Assignment – Assign This Distribution Rule: Only to the current sender is maintained.
9. Press Next [step 6 (step 5 is skipped automatically)] and Finish.

Execute Overhead Distribution Run

1. In the Cost and Revenue workcenter navigate to the Periodic Tasks view and here to the Overhead Distribution subview.
2. Press New-Distribution Run.
3. Maintain a run description and the company. Maintain your new distribution rule XXX and maintain the respective period/year.
4. Press Start Now to execute the run.
5. After the run is finished navigate to the log results and there to the Postings tab.
6. Here you notice that the costs of the sender cost center have been distributed incorrectly:
• The total distribution amount  is much higher than the cost amount of your sender cost center
• The run distributed 100% of the sender cost center A to receiver cost center B, instead of just a certain percentage (i.e. 30%)
• The run distributed another amount (higher than the total cost amount of the sender cost center A) to and from the sender cost center A

Currently, overhead distribution only supports distribution 100% of the sender costs. Partial distribution is currently NOT supported.
The workaround of distributing a certain percentage to receiver cost center (i.e. 30%) and the rest back to the sender cost center (i.e. 70% does not work).
Instead, the overhead distribution run transfers 100% of the sender cost center A to the receiver cost center B. To achieve this it generates a posting of extra costs from the sender cost sender A back to the sender cost center A in order to achieve a 100% transfer of the costs to the receiver cost center B in a second posting.

As only 100% overhead distribution is supported the following workaround can be used:

Use a dummy cost center and create two distribution rules. One for distributing a certain percentage from your sender cost center A to cost center B (i.e. 30%) and the dummy cost center C (70%). And a second one to distribute the costs of the dummy cost center C back to cost center A. Then execute two separate overhead distribution runs, first for your first and then for the second distribution rule. This way the 70% will be transferred back to your initial sender cost center.

Create a new cost center in your org structure or, alternatively, find a cost center for which no postings have been created.

A) Create the first distribution rule for cost centers - from cost center A to dummy cost center C

1. In the Cost and Revenue workcenter navigate to the Allocation view and there to the Distribution Rules subview.
2. Press New- Distribution Rule for Cost Centers.
3. In the first step, maintain the Sender cost center. By default the following settings are maintained:Press Next to select the Receivers (step 2)
   • Select Receiver Type: 2-Cost Centers
   • Distribution Basis: All costs
   • Select Cost Centers: Manually
   • Distribution Factors: Fixed
4. From the Available Cost Centers list, select the cost center that you want to distribute a certain percentage to, i.e. cost center B. And also select your dummy cost center C for the rest (i.e. 70%).
5. Press Next (step 3).
6. Enter the Distribution Factors for the selected cost centers, i.e. 0,3 for cost center B and 0,7 for the dummy cost center C.
7. Press Next (step 4).
8. Maintain a distribution rule ID XXX and description and, if you wish, the account determination group. Under Distribution Rule Assignment – Assign This Distribution Rule: Only to the current sender is maintained.
9. Press Next [step 6 (step 5 is skipped automatically)] and Finish.

B) Create the second distribution rule for cost centers - from the dummy cost center C back to cost center A

1. In the Cost and Revenue workcenter navigate to the Allocation view and there to the Distribution Rules subview.
2. Press New- Distribution Rule for Cost Centers.
3. In the first step, maintain the dummy cost center C as Sender cost center. By default the following settings are maintained:Press Next to select the Receivers (step 2)
   • Select Receiver Type: 2-Cost Centers
   • Distribution Basis: All costs
   • Select Cost Centers: Manually
   • Distribution Factors: Fixed
4. From the Available Cost Centers list, select cost center A.
5. Press Next (step 3).
6. Enter the Distribution Factor 1 for the selected cost center.
7. Press Next (step 4).
8. Maintain a distribution rule ID YYY and description and, if you wish, the account determination group. Under Distribution Rule Assignment – Assign This Distribution Rule: Only to the current sender is maintained.
9. Press Next [step 6 (step 5 is skipped automatically)] and Finish.

 C) Execute two separate overhead distribution runs

1. In the Cost and Revenue workcenter navigate to the Periodic Tasks view and here to the Overhead Distribution subview.
2. Press New-Distribution Run.
3. Maintain a run description and the company. Maintain the first distribution rule XXX and maintain the respective period/year.
4. Press Start Now to execute the run.
5. After the run is finished navigate to the log results and there to the Postings tab.
6. Here you can see that a certain percentage has been transferred to cost center B (i.e. 30%) and the rest was transferred to the dummy cost center C (ie.70%).
7. Now create a new run via New-Distribution Run.
8. Maintain a run description and the company. Maintain the second distribution rule YYY and maintain the respective period/year.
9. Press Start now to execute the run.
10. After the run is finished navigate to the log results and there to the Postings tab.
11. Here you can see that 100% of the costs of the dummy cost center C have been transferred to cost center A, so that, in the end, 70% of the initial costs of cost center A remain on cost center A.

overhead distribution run; all costs , KBA , SRD-FIN-COR , Cost & Revenue , How To