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SAP Financial Specifications

   According to Greek GAAP all Commercial Companies (Legal Entities) are obliged to follow specific posting rules and be able to provide Legal reports in specific formats to the authorities. In this document we’ll try to introduce the main aspects of Greek localization.

       1. Greek Chart of Accounts:

     The most important part of FI Localization is the obligation of posting all business transactions in General Ledger using a specific structure of accounts, based on the principles of the Greek General Chart of Accounts (CAGR). The Greek Uniform Chart of Accounts is a tree structured Chart of Accounts up to four levels, based on the number of digits of the account numbers with specific rules per group of accounts. E.g.: Predefined codes and descriptions in Greek Language.

          2. Taxes & Withholding Tax:

       Another big part of the Localization that influences both Sales & Purchases is the Greek Value Added Tax rate, which is 23% for most goods and services, including property purchase and sale. There is also a reduced rate of 13% for food, medical equipment, hospitality, tourism services etc. The lower rate of 6,5% applies to very few goods like books, drugs and newspapers. For some islands of the Aegean Sea, all of those rates are further reduced by 30%.  For Greece a tax calculation procedure has been created with the code ‘TAXGR’. This tax procedure is linked to country GR. Sample VAT, and EC acquisition codes have been defined within this procedure. Taxes on sales and purchases are calculated on sales and purchases transactions in accordance with the principles of VAT. Furthermore, an additional set up regarding withholding tax is followed , which consists of a certificate, that is submitted by the company to each vendor and shows the withheld tax amounts and their between transactions and a summary report of withheld tax amounts of vendors that is electronically submitted to the authorities.

          3. Post – dated Checks and Bills of Exchange:

       In Greece, checks and bills of exchange are among the most important forms of payment. The R/3 System allows you to record, store, and use them according to local requirements. Furthermore, it handles both checks and bills of exchange using the system's bill of exchange functions. Starting from Release 4.6C on SAP offers standard programs for the posting processes of checks/bills of exchange (BoE) first for Turkey and afterwards in Greece. The Post –dated Checks and Bills of Exchange functionality is part of the Turkey Localization. You can find additional information on the following link:

http://help.sap.com/erp_hcm_ias_2012_03/helpdata/en/aa/2e6e9c1fed11d3b4d2006094b9ec21/content.htm?frameset=/en/aa/2e6e9c1fed11d3b4d2006094b9ec21/frameset.htm

          4. Sales and Purchases Reconciliation Report

     Every company, according to Greek GAAP, should submit a file that includes Customers and Vendors' transactions within previous calendar year and have a base amount more than 300 euro per transaction.  This procedure is used by the Greek State so as to cross-check the transactions between companies and prevent tax evasion. This file has a pre-defined format and since it includes transactions made during a year, possible containing data not appropriated posted, specific tools need to be used in order to perform it correctly.

    The SAP procedure regarding Sales and Purchases Reconciliation Report constitutes of a set of programs that perform the following phases: Master Data Check, Calculation of Amounts, Edit phase, Load phase and Export phase.

          5. Year – end FI closing procedures:

     Apart from the technical settings supported by standard SAP procedures (e.g. opening of periods, etc.), the Year-end procedures for Greece should be performed under specific rules and conditions applying to Greek legislation. Special attention on the document type and period usage should be given during a Roll-out, as well as fulfillment of different Journal printing.

      6. Year start FI Opening Procedures:

   After the balances of previous year have been defined and updated, the following activities must take place:

-   Transfer of G/L Balances to the new fiscal year

-   Transfer of A/R and A/P balances to the new fiscal year

An opening document is defined – through both customizing and the aforementioned actions – and is depicted on Journal, as required by Greek legislation.

      7. Legal Books:

   According to the Greek Books and Data Code Regulations specific reporting is provided with descriptive but not fully defined layout. It consists of Journals, Trial Balances, Warehouse Book, Assets Register, etc. while some of them are official and must be submitted with a certain file format.