P_S4FIN_1909-SAP ERP Finance Experts Interview Questions

S/4HANA is the next generation of SAP’s in-memory enterprise applications platform, which is designed to make SAP’s core business applications faster and easier to run.  The P_S4FIN_1909-SAP ERP Finance Experts exam is the final exam to become SAP Certified Application Professional in Financials. Essentially, to pass the interview phase, you should have deep knowledge about architectural and configuration changes as well as the business processes that happen in an SAP S/4HANA implementation project. Additionally, you should possess the ability to complete all phases of a project to convert an SAP ERP system to SAP S/4HANA, including planning and execution. 

Although there is no guaranteed list of questions that will be asked, we do know what common topics come up during the P_S4FIN_1909 interview process. So below we have a comprehensive list of the top interview questions that will help you become an SAP ERP Finance Expert.

Advanced Interview Questions

Can you explain the architecture of SAP ERP and how it relates to the financial module?

SAP ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) is an enterprise software suite that integrates various business functions such as finance, accounting, sales, inventory management, production, and human resources. It provides a centralized and integrated view of an organization’s business processes and data, enabling organizations to make informed decisions and improve business performance.

The architecture of SAP ERP is based on a three-tier client-server model, which consists of the following components:

1. Presentation Layer: This is the front-end interface that users interact with. It allows users to access and perform transactions on the system through various clients such as SAP GUI (Graphical User Interface) and web browsers.
2. Application Layer: This is the middle layer of the architecture, which contains the business logic and controls the flow of data between the presentation layer and the database layer. It also contains various functional modules such as financials, logistics, and human resources.
3. Database Layer: This is the back-end layer that stores and manages the data. It typically uses a relational database management system such as Oracle, SQL Server, or IBM DB2.

In terms of the financial module, it is one of the core modules of SAP ERP that provides financial management capabilities such as accounting, budgeting, financial reporting, and cost accounting. The financial module is integrated with other modules such as Sales and Distribution, Materials Management, and Production Planning, to provide real-time financial information and support decision-making. Some of the key functionalities of the financial module include:

• General Ledger Accounting: It provides an overview of the financial performance of an organization and allows for the management of financial accounts such as assets, liabilities, and equity.
• Accounts Payable: It provides functionality for managing vendor invoices and payments.
• Accounts Receivable: It provides functionality for managing customer invoices and payments.
• Cash Management: It provides functionality for managing cash transactions and forecasting cash flow.
• Financial Planning and Budgeting: It provides functionality for creating and managing budgets, forecasting future financial performance, and analyzing variances.
• Financial Closing: It provides functionality for closing the books at the end of a period, creating financial statements, and reporting financial results.

Overall, the financial module of SAP ERP is an essential component of the system that provides organizations with accurate and real-time financial information that they need to make informed decisions and improve their business performance.

How have you used the financial module in previous projects and what were the results?

As an AI, I do not have the ability to work on previous projects, so I do not have any personal experience using the financial module in SAP ERP. However, I can provide you with a general explanation of how the financial module can be used in projects and what kind of results it can achieve.

The financial module in SAP ERP is typically used to manage an organization’s financial transactions, including accounting, budgeting, forecasting, and reporting. It can be used to automate and streamline financial processes, such as accounts payable and receivable, general ledger, and financial reporting. In a project, it can be used to integrate with other modules, such as sales and distribution, and materials management, to provide an end-to-end view of financial performance.

When implemented and configured properly, the financial module can help an organization to improve the accuracy and efficiency of financial transactions, provide real-time visibility into financial performance, support compliance with financial regulations, and improve decision-making through the use of financial data. Some of the results that can be achieved from using the financial module in a project include:

• Improved data accuracy and completeness
• Reduced manual data entry and errors
• Automation of financial processes
• Improved financial reporting and analysis
• Increased visibility into financial performance
• Improved budgeting and forecasting capabilities
• Better compliance with financial regulations

It’s important to note that the specific results will depend on the organization’s needs and requirements, as well as the proper configuration and integration of the financial module with other SAP ERP modules.

Can you explain the steps involved in the closing process in SAP ERP Financials?

The closing process in SAP ERP Financials is a set of steps that are performed at the end of a financial period to close the books and prepare financial statements. The closing process typically involves the following steps:

• Pre-closing activities: Before the closing process begins, a number of pre-closing activities must be completed. This includes ensuring that all transactions for the period have been entered and posted, reconciling accounts, and performing any necessary adjustments.
• Period-end closing: This step involves posting period-end closing entries, such as depreciation and amortization, to the general ledger. This step also includes the posting of any accruals and deferrals to the general ledger.
• Financial statement version (FSV): This step is preparing the financial statement version, which is a summary of the general ledger accounts that are used in the financial statements.
• Fiscal year-end closing: This step involves posting fiscal year-end closing entries, such as profit and loss, to the general ledger. It also includes the posting of any balance sheet accounts to the general ledger.
• Financial statement preparation: This step involves the preparation of financial statements such as the balance sheet, income statement, and cash flow statement, using the information from the general ledger and FSV.
• Final closing: This step is finalizing the closing process by posting the final closing entries and updating the system status.
• Post-closing activities: After the closing process is complete, a number of post-closing activities must be performed, such as reconciling accounts, preparing reports, and archiving data.

It’s important to note that the specific steps involved in the closing process may vary depending on the specific requirements and configuration of an organization’s SAP ERP system. Additionally, the process may also be different from country to country, as per the accounting and tax regulations.

Can you describe how you would set up and maintain cost centers and cost elements in the system?

Cost centers and cost elements are used in accounting to track and allocate expenses within a company. To set up cost centers and cost elements in a system, you would first need to define the different types of expenses that your company incurs. These could include things like labor costs, materials, overhead, and so on.

Next, you would need to create a cost center for each area of the business where expenses are incurred, such as a cost center for production or for sales. Each cost center would be assigned a unique code for tracking purposes. Once the cost centers have been set up, you would then need to create cost elements for each type of expense. These cost elements would also be assigned unique codes and would be linked to the appropriate cost center.

To maintain cost centers and cost elements, you would need to regularly update and review the codes and the way expenses are allocated. You may also need to add or remove cost centers and cost elements as the needs of your business change. It would be important to keep accurate records and to ensure that the cost centers and cost elements are used consistently across the organization. This will enable accurate reporting, budgeting, and forecasting.

Overall, the process of setting up and maintaining cost centers and cost elements can be complex and requires a good understanding of accounting principles, as well as the specific needs of your business. It is best to seek the help of an accountant or financial expert to ensure that your system is set up correctly and is being used effectively.

How do you handle currency conversions and revaluations in SAP ERP Financials?

SAP ERP Financials is a software system that includes a set of tools for managing financial transactions and reporting. To handle currency conversions and revaluations in SAP ERP Financials, you would use the following steps:

1. Define the currencies you will be using in the system. This is done by creating a currency key in the system and assigning it a short code and a description.
2. Set up exchange rates. This can be done by maintaining exchange rates manually or by automatically updating them from a financial source.
3. Use the exchange rate to convert the amounts to a common currency. This is done by using the exchange rate in the currency conversion function in the system.
4. Create a revaluation process to periodically revalue the balances of foreign currency accounts. This is used to adjust the balances of these accounts to reflect changes in exchange rates.
5. Run the revaluation process to update the foreign currency accounts. This will update the account balances with the new exchange rates.
6. Review and analyze the revaluation results. This will give you an overview of the impact of exchange rate changes on your accounts.
7. Finally, post the revaluation results to the general ledger.

It is important to note that the process of currency conversion and revaluation may vary depending on the specific configuration of your SAP ERP Financials system and the business requirements. It is best to consult your internal team, or a financial consultant with experience in SAP ERP Financials to ensure that the process is set up correctly and is being used effectively.

How do you handle financial reporting and budgeting in SAP ERP Financials?

SAP ERP Financials provides several features and functionalities for financial reporting and budgeting, including:

1. Financial Statement Version (FSV): This is a summary of the general ledger accounts that are used in financial statements. It allows organizations to create and manage multiple versions of financial statements and perform period-end closing activities such as creating financial reports and financial statements.
2. Profit and Loss (P&L) and Balance Sheet (BS) Reports: SAP ERP Financials provides standard P&L and BS reports that can be generated based on the FSV. These reports provide a detailed view of an organization’s financial performance and position.
3. Budgeting: SAP ERP Financials provides a budgeting module that allows organizations to create and manage budgets for different financial dimensions such as cost centers, projects, and accounts. It also allows organizations to perform budgeting activities such as budget planning, budget monitoring, and budget controlling.
4. Financial Planning and Analysis (FP&A): SAP ERP Financials provides a financial planning and analysis module that allows organizations to perform financial forecasting, scenario planning, and variance analysis. It also allows organizations to create and manage financial plans and budgets, and to perform what-if analyses.
5. Financial Closing: SAP ERP Financials provides a financial closing module that allows organizations to perform period-end closing activities such as posting period-end closing entries, preparing financial statements and financial reports, and reconciling accounts.
6. Financial Consolidation: SAP ERP Financials also provides a Financial Consolidation module that allows organizations to consolidate the financial data from multiple legal entities, subsidiaries, or different systems into one single financial report.

In summary, SAP ERP Financials provides a wide range of functionalities for financial reporting and budgeting, including financial statement versions, P&L, and BS reports, budgeting, financial planning and analysis, financial closing, and financial consolidation. These functionalities enable organizations to gain a comprehensive view of their financial performance and position, as well as to plan and control their financial resources effectively.

Can you describe your experience with SAP ERP Financials in an international or multi-currency environment?

SAP ERP is a comprehensive enterprise resource planning software that includes a range of modules for different business functions, such as financials, materials management (MM), and sales and distribution (SD). The financial module in SAP ERP is integrated with other modules to provide a seamless flow of data and information across the different business functions.

The integration between the financial module and the MM module allows for the automatic posting of financial transactions related to the procurement of goods and services. For example, when an MM purchase order is created and then converted into a purchase invoice, the financial module will automatically post the relevant accounting entries, such as the accounts payable and the inventory accounts.

The integration between the financial module and the SD module allows for the automatic posting of financial transactions related to the sale of goods and services. For example, when an SD sales order is created and then converted into a billing document, the financial module will automatically post the relevant accounting entries, such as the accounts receivable and the revenue accounts. In addition, the integration between the financial module and other modules allows for the automatic updating of master data, such as cost centers, vendors, and customers, across the different modules.

Overall, the integration between the financial module and other modules in SAP ERP allows for real-time data flow and eliminates the need for manual data entry, reducing the risk of errors and increasing efficiency. It also allows for a more integrated view of the business and helps with financial and business analysis.

How do you handle auditing and compliance requirements in SAP ERP Financials?

SAP ERP Financials provides several features and functionalities for handling auditing and compliance requirements, including:

1. Audit Logging: SAP ERP Financials provides an audit logging feature that allows organizations to track and record user access and changes to the system. This includes changes to master data, transactions, and configuration settings.
2. Segregation of Duties (SoD): SAP ERP Financials provides a segregation of duties feature that allows organizations to enforce role-based access controls and prevent users from performing conflicting tasks. This can help to prevent fraud and errors, and ensure compliance with regulations such as Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) and the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS).
3. Compliance Reports: SAP ERP Financials provides a set of standard compliance reports that can be generated based on the audit log and SoD data. These reports can be used to identify and address compliance issues, and to demonstrate compliance to auditors and regulators.
4. Access Control: SAP ERP Financials integrates with Azure Active Directory (AAD) for user authentication and authorization, which allows organizations to manage and control access to the system. This includes the ability to enforce role-based access controls and to monitor and audit user access and changes to the system.
5. Data Retention and Archiving: SAP ERP Financials provides a data retention and archiving feature that allows organizations to retain and archive data for a specified period of time, and then remove it from the system. This can help to meet compliance requirements and to reduce storage costs.
6. Data Governance: Azure Purview can be used in conjunction with SAP ERP to provide comprehensive data governance capabilities. It allows organizations to discover, understand, and govern their data across on-premises, multi-cloud, and SaaS environments. It enables organizations to define and apply governance policies to data assets, such as data quality, compliance, and security.
7. Data Encryption: SAP ERP Financials can be configured to encrypt data at rest and in transit using Azure Key Vault. This can help to meet compliance requirements and to protect sensitive data from unauthorized access.

In summary, SAP ERP Financials provides a wide range of functionalities for handling auditing and compliance requirements, including audit logging, segregation of duties, compliance reports, access control, data retention and archiving, data governance, and data encryption. These functionalities help organizations to meet compliance requirements, prevent fraud and errors and ensure the security and integrity of the data.

Can you explain the use of a special ledger in SAP ERP Financials?

The special ledger in SAP ERP Financials is a feature that allows for more detailed and accurate reporting of financial data. It enables the creation of a separate set of accounts, known as special ledger accounts, which can be used to report on specific areas of the business, such as legal entities, cost centers, or projects.

The special ledger accounts are separate from the general ledger accounts and can be used in parallel with them. They provide a more granular view of financial data and can be used for reporting and analysis purposes.

There are two types of the special ledger in SAP ERP Financials:

• The Document Splitting Special Ledger which allows splitting document entries into different accounts based on a specific logic.
• The Profit Center Accounting (PCA) Special Ledger which allows reporting on a profit center basis.

The special ledger accounts can be configured in the system according to the specific requirements of the business and can be used for reporting in different currencies and with different charts of accounts.

The use of special ledgers in SAP ERP Financials can be beneficial in a variety of ways. It allows for more detailed financial reporting and analysis, which can be used for budgeting, forecasting, and strategic decision-making. It also enables to meet of legal and regulatory reporting requirements, and it can improve internal control and compliance.

In summary, the special ledger in SAP ERP Financials is a powerful tool that enables the creation of a more granular view of financial data and can be used to support decision-making, compliance, and control.

Basic Interview Questions

1. Could you elucidate the utility of SAP, and what it does?

S.A.P stands for Systems Applications and Products in Data processing. SAP provides innovative software and services to customers in a wide range of industries. By developing software that helps companies run better and work smarter, our solutions are designed to help improve business performance.

2. What are the two main kinds of products that SAP offer?

From high-performance enterprise software to business-ready platforms and services, SAP provides solutions for the challenges faced by medium and large businesses around the globe.

• SAP R/3 (Release 3) stands for three-tier architecture, i.e., Presentation, Logic, and Data tier. It has many modules like SD (Sales and Distribution), FI (Financials), HR (Human Resources), etc. that encompass most enterprise departments.
• mySAP is a collection of products that includes SAP R/3, as well as other packages, including SRM, PLM, CRM, and SCM.

3. What was your experience using the different ERP tools?

ERP stands for Enterprise Resource Planning Software and is an integrated computer-based system used to manage a company’s assets, resources, and employees more effectively. It’s a powerful tool for managing all business aspects simultaneously, even when the business is growing, shrinking, or restructuring.

4. Can you name the various types of ERP tools available?

Below-mentioned is some of the prominent ERP tools used around the globe:

• SAP
• Baan
• JD Edwards (now acquired by Oracle)
• Siebel
• Peoplesoft (now acquired by Oracle)
• Microsoft Dynamics

5. What do you understand by the SAP S/4HANA conversion?

When you migrate data from an existing SAP Business Suite system to S/4HANA, you might prefer to keep your current IT landscape significantly intact by using the Brownfield Approach for system conversion.

6. How would you explain the post-conversion activities that need to be performed in SAP S/4HANA?

• Firstly, you need to do the post-processing and application follow-up tasks
• Second, you need to import transport requests in the s/4hana production environment.
• Then, you must run the Application Post Processing.
• Further, Custom Code Adaption is to be done
• Subsequently, the delta Process / Functionality
• Moreover, the delta Development – Fiori / Report/ Enhancement and Testing
• Last but not the least, you should release the transport requests.

7. Can you distinguish between both SAP S/4HANA conversion and post-conversion?

When converting to SAP S/4HANA, we’re basically moving our business onto the latest version. In the conversion phase, we adapt our processes to take advantage of new features. In the final post-conversion phase, we follow up on activities to ensure that we get maximum value from our SAP S/4HANA solution.

8. What makes conversion and migration in SAP differ?

Data conversion simply is the act of changing data from one format to another, while Data migration is the transfer of data between different systems or formats.

9. In order to successfully convert to SAP S/4HANA, what practices should you follow?

Here are some of the best practices for a successful migration to SAP S/4HANA:

• Firstly, ensuring that data is part of the timeline
• Secondly, getting the executive buy-in early
• Then, aligning business rules, processes, and goals with master data
• Every department or unit should have a “champion” to enforce rules and regulations
• Last but not the least, leveraging the available tools 

10. In a nutshell, could you explain the SAP UX strategy?

The SAP User Experience (UX) strategy is focused on bringing great products to the customers. Using the very important design thinking principles, SAP maintains its core value of listening to customers’ needs and incorporating their feedback into SAP products in the future.

11. What do you know about SAP S/4Hana Finance?

SAP S/4HANA Finance is an application, which is designed to integrate real-time business data from all areas of your company. These areas include transactional, analytical, as well as forecasting data. This integration in turn helps you make smarter and informed decisions faster than ever, and hence gain unprecedented insight into the company’s performance at literally every stage of its entire life cycle.

12. Can you explain the architecture layers of SAP S/4HANA?

Three layers make up the SAP software presentation, application, and database. In a one-tier architecture, these layers are installed on one server.

13. What is the distinction between the 2 tier and the 3-tier architecture?

A two-tier architecture consists of two layers—the client tier and the data tier. A three-tier architecture consists of three layers—the client layer, the business logic tier, and the data access layer. Moreover, it is very easy to build, maintain and upgrade as well

14. How would you describe the 5 system architecture in SAP?

The SAP landscape architecture is called the N+1 System Landscape; this name reflects that the next release of an SAP system is already available for development and testing. 

15. Can you explain what is R1 R2 R3 in SAP?

SAP’s first product was released in 1973, and it followed a business structure that today is called the SAP R1 (“one”) system. The next release of the SAP system, in 1983, was called SAP R2 (“two”).

16. How is N-tier architecture different from other kinds of architecture?

An N-tier architecture divides an application into physical tiers and logical layers. The tiers separate responsibilities and manage dependencies. Each tier has a specific responsibility. Each layer communicates with the next layer to pass requests up the chain or receive responses from the lower tiers.

17. In SAP S/4Hana, what does the term simple finance mean?

Simple Finance is a business software application that runs on SAP HANA’s in-memory platform. Since SAP HANA stores data in memory, users can run real-time reports on the software’s financial data. Finance software using real-time analysis is crucial for business operations. Simple Finance runs on SAP HANA and offers you a solution with built-in data modeling and CRM capabilities.

18. What do you know about SAP Hana Financial Accounting?

SAP S/4HANA Financial accounting is SAP’s flagship financial solution, with many process improvements over its predecessor, SAP ERP Financials. The solution’s most notable features are the single source of financial truth and real-time financial close. 

19. How would you differentiate between S/4HANA and simple finance?

SAP S/4HANA Finance is a complete finance business solution and was introduced to help companies embrace new, digital technologies faster and without disruption. Simple Finance is an add-on module of SAP ERP that helps companies manage their finances efficiently.

20. Why do SAP users need management accounting?

The management accounting is inclusive of everything ranging from managing to configuring master data that covers cost and profit centers, internal orders, and other cost elements and functional areas. Sole and the chief purpose of the SAP controlling module is planning. This powerful suite of tools allows you to plan, monitor, and analyze the performance of your company’s resources by tracking actual versus expected costs, when a product was made or sold, and how much it costs to manufacture a product.

21. Management Accounting features have been added to S/4HANA. What are they?

HANA, SAP’s cloud-based platform for information processing and data storage, is being used to manage the financial process. The new features will help the financial process to be migrated to the platform and all updates in the architecture of Management Accounting.

22. Should you choose SAP Simple Finance or SAP S/4HANA Finance? 

While SAP S/4HANA Finance has already replaced Simple Finance, many companies still use the term. The reason for this is that SAP Simple Finance (which is based on SAP ERP 6) offers some add-on features on EHP 7 that SAP S/4HANA Finance does not. And although SAP S/4HANA Finance deserves to be considered a complete finance business solution, it’s also worth noting that it is customized to the needs of your particular company and industry, which is something that can’t be said about the generic version of Simple Finance.

23. How do you determine an asset in financial accounting?

A company’s assets, whether tangible or intangible, are the valuable resources it owns or controls. They appear on a business’s balance sheet and are acquired to increase the value of the firm and to benefit its operations. An asset is anything that increases the value of a company, increases income, or provides some other form of benefit.

24. What are the types of assets in accounting?

Assets are generally divided into six categories: current assets, fixed assets, tangible assets, intangible assets, operating assets, and non-operating assets. Your assets can fit into multiple categories. For instance, a building can be an example of a fixed, as well as a tangible asset.

25. How would you describe SAP HANA to beginners?

SAP HANA is a powerful, in-memory data platform that has the processing speed and scalability to support real-time analytics and applications. It also includes SAP’s powerful SQL interface, which makes it simple to use for developing and deploying real-time applications.

26. What is the difference between HANA and S/4HANA?

SAP HANA is basically a database technology that is in-memory. It serves as the foundation for other SAP and non-SAP applications. However, on the other hand, the SAP S/4HANA is a new generation ERP solution built on the SAP HANA database architecture.

27. Is there coding in SAP HANA?

Typically, 90 percent of the staff in an SAP implementation will be from the business side, while 10 percent will be developers who code in the system. 

28. How does SAP Fiori work?

SAP Fiori is an innovative new interface for SAP software. It enables users to start a process on their desktop/laptops and to continue that process on a smartphone or on a tablet. The apps are based on UI5, which has been designed for use on multiple devices and is cloud-enabled.

29. What are the characteristics of SAP Fiori?

The key features of SAP Fiori 3 are:

• Firstly, it establishes the basic rules for consistency across all SAP products.
• Secondly, the new Quartz theme.
• Then, the new aligned shell bar
• Much greater flexibility for the home pages.
• Also, the integration of machine intelligence, that focuses on a human-centric approach.
• Finally, adoption across a wider range of technologies

30. Is SAP HANA a SQL database?

The SAP HANA is ideally, a relational database management system that is developed by SAP. While Microsoft SQL is also a relational database management system which is developed by Microsoft. Both systems are updated versions of their predecessors: SAP HANA 2.0, and Microsoft SQL Server 2019.