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Accounting in ERP Systems
requesting and processing a second payment for the $5.00 would cost both parties more
than $5.00. In this case it is better to accept the $1,000 check as payment in full and
account for the difference as a variance. Figure 5-14 shows the SAP ERP Change View
screen for tolerance groups. The Permitted payment differences section in this figure
shows that the system would allow the user to process a payment that was in error by no
more than 1 percent or $10.00. In Figure 5-14, the group field is blank, which indicates
that this group is the default tolerance group. If an employee is not assigned to any other
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tolerance group, then by default the limits in the default group apply. As with
authorizations, it is a safe policy to define a default tolerance group with low limits and to
err on the side of less authority rather than more authority.

No group specified,
so this is the default
tolerance

Default setting
allows posting of
documents for
$1,000 or less

Payments can differ
by $10 or 1%

Source Line: SAP AG.

FIGURE 5-14 Default tolerance group

Financial Transparency
A key feature of any ERP system is the ability to drill down within a report to get to the
source documents (transactions) that were used to create the report. For example, if sales
figures for a region look unusually high, the user can verify the results by double-clicking
the figure in the report to drill down to review the specific sales orders that constitute the
overall sales figures. The ability to drill down from within reports to get to transaction
information makes it easier for auditors to confirm the integrity of the reports. Figure 5-15
shows a general ledger account balance for raw material consumption. This general ledger
accounts for all raw material usage at the company.

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