2. Fiscal year variant Page 2
Table of Contents
1. What is a fiscal year variant? ...................................................................................................................3
2. Types of fiscal year variants......................................................................................................................3
2.1 Year dependent...................................................................................................................................3
2.2 Year Independent................................................................................................................................4
3. What is a year shift/displacement in a fiscal year?..................................................................................4
4. Non calendar months in a non calendar year...........................................................................................5
5. What is a Shortened fiscal year?...............................................................................................................5
5.1 what precautions should you take when defining a shortened fiscal year ........................................5
3. Fiscal year variant Page 3
1. What is a fiscal year variant?
To post business transactions to a period, you must define or maintain an accounting year or financial
year. In SAP R/3 or in mySAP Financial, this is called the fiscal year.
2. Types of fiscal year variants
2.1 Year dependent
A year-dependent fiscal year is valid for a particular year that you are defining ,If you are using a year-
dependent fiscal year, then each and every year you have to maintain the definition of the fiscal year.
EX: of a shortened fiscal year, is year dependent fiscal year.
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2.2 Year Independent
A year-independent fiscal year is not relevant to a particular year. This can be further subdivided in to
two areas
a) Calendar year- A calendar year always starts on January 1 and ends on December 31,
b) Non- calendar year- This can start in any month of the year.
3. What is a year shift/displacement in a fiscal year?
when the fiscal year is not the same as the calendar year we need to define a displacement factor for
each of the posting periods to correctly identify the number of posting periods.
Ex: Fiscal year variant V3- From April 1st to March 31st
Month Displacement factor
April-Dec 0
Jan-March -1
When a entry is posted on Jan it will be interpreted as the 10th period.
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4. Non calendar months in a non calendar year
You can define non calendar months as periods in a non calendar year by indicating the beginning and
ending date of each period.
5. What is a Shortened fiscal year?
A Shorten fiscal year is one having less than 12 months.
This type of fiscal year is been used when you set up a company or when you switch over from the
existing type of fiscal year to another type.
5.1 what precautions should you take when defining a shortened fiscal year
• Shorten fiscal year variants are always year dependent.
• Shorten fiscal year has to be followed by a full fiscal year.
• Both the shorten fiscal year and full fiscal year has to be defined using the same fiscal year
variant.
