3762649 - Asset Depreciation Cost Allocation to Profitability Segment Attributes in WBS Elements Without Month-End Settlement

When attempting to settle costs from an overhead or investment WBS element to a Profitability Segment (PSG), the profitability segment characteristics are incorrectly assigned to both the credit and debit line items. As a result, the receiver characteristics are copied back onto the sender line item, neutralizing the financial impact (+100 and -100 amounts on the same characteristics) and making the period-end settlement reporting ineffective in Margin Analysis.

Additionally, standard SAP Help Portal documentation may inaccurately imply that profitability characteristic attribution in journal entries only applies to WBS elements designated as billing elements, causing confusion for overhead or depreciation scenarios.

SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition

1. Create a settlement rule from an Overhead WBS element to a PSG.
2. Run settlement for the WBS.
3. Open the resulting journal entry and review the line items.
4. Observe that the PSG characteristic is populated on both the sender and the receiver line items.
5. Review reporting by PSG characteristic and note that equal credit and debit amounts result in a 0 value per PSG.

The issue occurs because a manual month-end settlement run is being executed to transfer the costs. In SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, Margin Analysis attribution is activated by default. When a 100% settlement rule to a Profitability Segment is maintained on a WBS element, the system automatically reads this rule and applies the characteristics during the actual asset depreciation run or initial expense posting. Running a subsequent settlement process creates offsetting lines that carry the same attributes, neutralizing the reporting values.

To successfully reflect asset depreciation costs at the Profitability Segment level with specific customer or market attributes, eliminate the month-end settlement step entirely and utilize real-time attribution:

1. Maintain the Settlement Rule Early: Ensure that a proper 100% settlement rule to the Profitability Segment (PSG) is fully maintained in the WBS element before the asset depreciation run or any expense postings occur.

2. Execute Postings: Run the asset depreciation or post expenses to the designated WBS element.

3. Verify Journal Entries: Review the resulting G/L line items generated by the depreciation run. The system automatically derives and populates the end-customer and profitability characteristics directly into the initial journal entry line items via default Margin Analysis attribution.

4. Skip Period-End Settlement: Do not execute a separate period-end settlement for these WBS elements, as the reporting attributes are already captured in real time and a settlement run will neutralize the balances.

Asset Depreciation, WBS Element, Profitability Segment, PSG, Margin Analysis, Attribution, Settlement Rule, YPSOVH, YPSAUC, Overhead Project , KBA , CO-OM-OPA-2CL , Overhead Orders (Public Cloud) , Problem