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Cost elements classify an organization's valued consumption of production factors within a controlling area. They
provide information concerning the value flow and value consumption within the organization. A cost element
corresponds to a cost-relevant item in the chart of accounts.
Note
Cost elements are represented in the system as a type of G/L account.
You maintain cost elements in the SAP Menu under Accounting Financial Accounting General
Ledger Master Records G/L Accounts Individual Processing Centrally (transaction FS00) or the
corresponding Fiori app.
03 Accrual/deferral per This cost element category can only be used with the percentage method of
surcharge accrual calculation in Cost Center Accounting. You can post directly
in Financial Accounting to record actual costs. The system also uses this cost
element category to post accrued costs in Cost Center Accounting.
04 Accrual/deferral per This cost element category can only be used with the target=actual method of
debit = actual accrual calculation in Cost Center Accounting. You can post directly
in Financial Accounting to record true actual costs. The system also uses this
cost element category to post accrued costs in Cost Center Accounting.
11 Revenues In Controlling, revenues are displayed with a negative sign (–) except
in Profitability Analysis (CO-PA) where revenues are displayed with a positive
sign (+).
Note
If you post revenues to cost centers, the values appear as statistical
information only. This means that while you can repost revenues for posting
adjustments to other cost centers, other allocations are not possible.
Revenues are ignored in iterative activity price calculation and are therefore
not included in the allocation price of an activity type.
90 Cost element for When you create an account, cost elements of this category are created
balance sheet automatically if all of the following conditions are true:
accounts in The account has the G/L account type Balance Sheet Account.
Financial The account is a reconciliation account for assets or materials.
Accounting You selected the checkbox Apply Acct Assignments Statistically in Fixed
Asset Acct / Material Acct.
Note
The checkbox Apply Acct Assignments Statistically in Fixed Asset Acct /
Material Acct is only visible if the account is defined in account
determination as either of the following:
o A fixed asset balance sheet account in a depreciation area that
manages acquisition and production costs and posts to the general
ledger
o A material account
You can check this as follows.
For an asset account:
o In Customizing, choose Financial Accounting (New) Asset
Accounting (New) Integration with General Ledger Assign G/L
Accounts (transaction AO90). On the Balance Sheet Accountsview,
make sure the account is defined as a balance sheet account for
acquisition and production costs.
o In the SAP Easy Access Menu, choose Accounting Financial
Accounting General Ledger Master Records G/L
Accounts Individual Processing Centrally (transaction FS00).
o On the Type/Description tab, make sure the G/L account type
is Balance Sheet Account and the account group is Fixed asset
accounts.
o On the Control Data tab, make sure the Reconciliation Account for
Account Type is set to Assets.
For a material account:
o In Customizing, choose Materials Management Valuation and
Account Assignment Account Determination Account
Determination Without Wizard Configure Automatic Postings .
Choose Goto Account Assignment and make sure the account
is entered for the inventory posting procedure.
If you enter a CO account assignment, it is only updated statistically even for
true CO objects.
Cost elements of category 90 enable you to control the costs of an order or
project budget during the acquisition of fixed assets that can be directly
Category Name Description
capitalized. To achieve this, you enter a capital investment order or work
breakdown structure (WBS) element in the appropriate field in the asset
master data. The Asset Management (AM) component ensures that when the
asset is acquired, the order or WBS element is automatically entered in the
document. In Controlling, orders and WBS elements are debited statistically.
This statistical debit is checked with the budget during availability control.
31 Order/project results Cost elements of this category are used to save the order or project
analysis results analysis data on the relevant order or project.
41 Overhead rates Cost elements of this category are used to allocate overhead from cost
centers to orders based on overhead rates.
42 Assessment Cost elements of this category are used to allocate costs using the
assessment method.
43 Internal activity Cost elements of this category are used for internal activity allocation
allocation and in Activity-Based Costing.
50 Project-related incoming Cost elements of this category are used for sales revenues from sales
orders: Sales revenue orders with incoming orders in the current period of the project-related
incoming order.
51 Project-related incoming Cost elements of this category are used for other revenue (such as
orders: Other revenues imputed interest) from sales orders with incoming orders in the current
period of the project-related incoming order.
52 Project-related incoming Cost elements of this category are used for costs from sales orders with
orders: Costs incoming orders in the current period of the project-related incoming
order.
61 Earned value Cost elements of this category are used for earned value analysis
in Project System.
Note
Cost element characteristics depend on the controlling area and the allocation methods used in your
organization. The cost element characteristics are maintained at the controlling area level. If you change a setting
for a cost element attribute within a company, it affects all companies in the controlling area.