Profitability reporting: 3 steps to detailed insights with SAP S/4HANA

February 3, 2025

2 minutes

Clear insights into profitability are crucial in today’s competitive market. Are you still relying on Excel for profit margin analysis? Step up your game, with SAP S/4HANA! From basic margin analysis to advanced profitability reporting: discover three ways to get a grip on your numbers – and make smarter decisions.

Despite the many tools available, controlling and accounting teams keep relying heavily on manual processes, with Excel sheets taking center stage. If you’re running SAP S/4HANA, it’s so easy to shift into higher gear. S/4HANA offers three levels of profitability analytics, so that you get real-time insights into margins in no time.

Build a solid foundation with S/4HANA Margin Analysis

At the heart of SAP S/4HANA is the Universal Journal: a single source of truth that consolidates all financial transactions into one, unified table. With its intuitive,built-in Margin Analysis tool you gain instant access to real-time, reconciled financial data.

Here’s how that helps you make smarter decisions:

Real-time insight into margins, revenues and costs;
Visibility into profit and loss (P&L) details across product types, sales regions, customer segments, channels, and more;
As data is automatically reconciled between financial and controlling modules, complex reconciliation is no longer needed.

Harness the power of embedded analytics

The S/4HANA suite comes with a powerful set of easy-to-use, out-of-the-box analytical tools that let you dive deep into your data, create basic graphs and generate detailed reports.

This is how it provides the profitability insights you need:

Drill-down capabilities that allow you to explore specific data points across multiple dimensions, such as product lines, regions, cost centers, etc.;
Customization features to tailor reports to your needs, e.g. by creating custom hierarchies or structure;
Data is automatically reconciled with financial statements

Plan for the future with SAP Analytics Cloud and Datasphere

Looking for deeper strategic insights? SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC) offers advanced analytics and visualization tools, as well as planning and predictive capabilities. When combined with Datasphere it integrates both internal and external sources.

Here’s how these tools provide a comprehensive view of your profitability and business performance:

Advanced, customizable data visualization with clear, interactive dashboards, ….
Predictive analytics that help you identify patterns and relationships between data, forecast future trends, simulate scenarios and prepare for changes in profitability;
Comprehensive data view that integrates SAP and non-SAP sources.

TIP: Can’t say goodbye to your Excel spreadsheets? There’s a SAC add-in that integrates MS Excel versions in SAC – so you can keep using your familiar interface.

Getting started with profitability analytics

Why wait? Getting started with profitability analytics is easier than you might think. If you’re running S4/HANA, you already have powerful embedded features at your fingertips to understand your organization’s performance.

Need assistance along the way? The Flexso Analytics team is just a call away. Reach out, and let’s look how we can unlock the full power of analytics to drive smarter, data-driven decisions – and help your business thrive.