Find out where a plant's money goes with SAP CO, from the cost map to the month-end close.
SAP is the business software large companies use to run purchasing, production, accounting and more. SAP CO (Controlling, also called management accounting) is the part that shows what each activity and each product really costs. A specialization is a complete course on one SAP area: you practice in a simulator, with reference sheets (short course pages) alongside.
This one puts you in charge of management accounting at Glass+ Iberia, the Spanish subsidiary of Glass+, a fictional glass group. This is not a real SAP system: our screens are our own creation, designed so you already have the habits (which screen, in what order, and why) the day you open SAP.
You draw its cost map (the layout of its cost centers, the units that costs are charged to, such as a department or a machine). You track a furnace shutdown on an internal order (a separate record that collects all the costs of one job), share a gas and electricity bill between departments, work out what a glass panel costs, follow the cost of making a batch of panels (a production order) and read the margin by customer (what is left of the selling price once costs are covered).
On March 31, you close the month yourself: you run the month's cost calculations in the right order, then lock the period so that costs can no longer be moved, charged or settled in it.
Know, do, prove.
All three unfold over two months of management accounting at the Valencia plant.
Understand the module
Each concept is explained when the task calls for it. Alongside the simulator, you have 38 reference sheets (grouped in 9 sections, more than 25,000 words) and 25 diagrams of our own, readable on a phone, from the cost map to the month-end close. Every task has a "Read the card" link that takes you to the matching reference sheet.
Do the job
46 hands-on tasks (jobs you do on screen) in the simulator put you in charge of the management accounting of a plant. For example, the system refuses to put a price on maintenance hours until you plan their hourly rate for 2028 (the year of the simulation). You meet this refusal here, in practice, so it is not a surprise on a real project.
Practice for the certification
The specialization covers the topics in the official scope of the SAP Management Accounting certification: every topic has its own reference sheet, and most are practiced in the simulator at Glass+, with our own cost centers, products and amounts (about one in five is only explained on its sheet). The certification exam itself is not included in the price: you register for it and take it separately, with SAP. A ninth episode, Exam review, gives you 41 practice questions we wrote ourselves.
You may have heard of cost centers. But you couldn't say where a plant's money really goes.
A cost center is a unit that costs are charged to, such as the furnace, the cutting line or maintenance. A production order is the record that plans the making of a quantity of product and collects what it costs. A variance is the gap between what an order should have cost and what it did cost. It comes in two kinds. A price variance means things cost more than planned. A quantity variance means more was used than planned. Normally, the variance shown is the sum of the two. You may have read a cost report before, or taken management accounting classes. Then, on the night of the month-end close, a production order (here order 1000124, once its 150 panels were delivered on March 6) shows only a €66.00 variance. Yet its price and quantity variances add up to €274.50. Where did the other €208.50 go? The new standard price (the fixed internal price each panel is valued at in the accounts) is €1.39 higher per panel. When the 150 panels are delivered, the order is relieved of their value, counted at the standard price: €31.39 each instead of €30.00, so 150 × €1.39 = €208.50 more. That amount is taken off the order's costs: the higher the standard price, the larger the deduction and the smaller the variance that remains. €274.50 minus €208.50 leaves €66.00. Nothing on the screen tells you to look there.
Hours with no price
Maintenance spent 36 hours on the furnace. In SAP, a kind of work that one cost center supplies to others (here, the maintenance hour) is called an activity type, and each one needs a price planned for the year. You enter the hours and the system refuses to value them, because nobody planned that price for 2028. Once you plan €55.00 an hour, the 36 hours are worth €1,980.00 (36 × €55.00) and can be charged to the furnace.
Two ways to share, two ways to read
The furnace receives €720.00 of maintenance supplies (its 60% share of €1,200.00) and €10,800.00 of energy (its 60% share of €18,000.00). A cost element is the type of cost: supplies, gas, wages. A distribution passes a cost on with its original cost element, so the first amount still reads "supplies". An assessment passes it on under a new, "secondary" cost element, so the second amount no longer shows whether it was gas or electricity. If you don't know which cycle (a saved sharing rule you run each month) did what, the furnace's cost lines stop making sense.
A shutdown lost in everyday costs
Isabelle, the group's chief financial officer (CFO), wants to see the full cost of the furnace's three-day shutdown, kept apart from normal operations. Without an internal order (a record that follows the cost of one particular job) and a settlement rule (which says where the cost is passed on once the job is done), the €32,600.00 (€26,000.00 of bricks plus 120 maintenance hours at €55.00, which is €6,600.00) disappears into the cost centers' everyday costs. With a rule of 70% to the furnace and 30% to cutting (cutting stops during the shutdown too), the shutdown gets its own cost figure. In SAP, settling an order means passing its cost on to the cost centers that bear it. It has nothing to do with paying a bill.
A standard price that won't move
The cost estimate says €31.39 per panel, against €30.00 last year. To make it the March standard price, you "mark" it (save it as the future standard price), then release it (make it the active standard price). The marking is refused: the company code (the legal entity, here Glass+ Iberia) has no marking allowance, a permission that has to be opened for that period. You only learn that step by running into it.
Work in process mistaken for a variance
At the end of February, order 1000124 is still running. It has already collected €3,910.50 of costs and delivered nothing yet (it will deliver its 150 panels on March 6). That is work in process (the value of what is started but not finished), not a variance, and treating it as one means booking a loss that does not exist. Order 1000123 is different: it is delivered, so it does have a real variance of €458.00. Of that, €285.20 is price variance (the glass, the gasket and the hours cost more than planned) and €172.80 is quantity variance (more glass and more hours were used than planned).
In interviews, closing stays abstract
An interviewer asks how a month-end close works in management accounting. You can list the steps, but not why the actual price of an hour (recalculated once all the month's costs are in) comes after the sharing cycles, or what happens to a reposting (moving a cost to another cost center) entered after the period lock (the block on moving, charging or settling costs in that month). A close you have run to the end, refusals included, gives you a precise case to talk through.
The story: a plant that knows how much it earns, not where its money goes.
Glass+ is a fictional company, and everything happens in a simulator. In Valencia, Glass+ Iberia's 2027 accounts are closed and approved. Now the group wants to know what the float furnace (where the glass is made), the cutting line, maintenance and energy really cost, before it renegotiates panel prices. Inés Navarro, the site's management accountant, guides you. She is a character in the story, not a real tutor.
The simulation starts on February 1, 2028 (a made-up date). With Inés, you first draw the cost map: the layout of the cost centers that shows who spends what. The story ends on March 31, when you close the month yourself, in order.
We don't explain CO to you. We have you do it.
Glass+ Iberia hands you its management accounting for two months. Each episode starts from an email from Isabelle or Inés, most often with exact figures. The simulator checks what you enter. The 8 episodes of the mission, from February 1 to March 31, 2028, end with a full close. A ninth episode, Exam review, follows on April 3, once March is closed.
Vidrios Quelmar wants to renegotiate the price of our glazed panels. Before I walk into that room, I want to know what a panel costs us from March. The current standard price, €30.00 per panel, dates from last year.
Isabelle asks, Inés spells it out
When it comes to costs, Isabelle Morel, the group CFO, asks the questions. Inés Navarro, the site's management accountant, turns them into precise requests: a cost center, a cost element, a sharing key (the measure used to split a cost, such as floor area). Both are characters in the story, not real tutors. You enter the values they give you exactly as stated.
Episode 2: a refusal that teaches you something
The first entry of the 36 maintenance hours on the furnace is refused: the hour was never given a price for 2028. You plan the hour at €55.00 (of which €22.00 covers costs that do not change with the number of hours), enter the hours again, and the line is valued.
Episodes 8 and 9: you close a month, then hand it over
Episode 8 is the March close: Inés's list, worked through in order from the sharing cycles to the period lock, with a forgotten reposting (a cost move) that arrives too late. Every episode wraps up with a summary ("Key points" for the eight mission episodes, "Five habits to keep" for the review), so in an interview you can explain what you entered and why. Episode 9, Exam review, comes after the mission. Its final deliverable is a handover file: Inés is away for three weeks, and you write the document that lets her replacement take over Valencia's management accounting without calling her. A "Your mission portfolio" sheet then lists what you can do, episode by episode, so you can talk about it in a job interview.
Six projects you will have seen through.
On the evening of March 31, 2028, Isabelle has the new standard price of the panel in place, the margin by customer on her desk and March closed on time. The entries behind those figures are yours.
Draw the cost map
You will know how to create cost centers under the right branch of the standard hierarchy (the tree that organizes them), an activity type (a unit of work, like a maintenance hour) with its allocation cost element (the cost element that carries those hours from one cost center to another), and a statistical key figure (a number such as floor area, used later to share costs).
Correct and charge between cost centers
You will know how to repost (move) a cost booked to the wrong cost center without changing its cost element, plan the price of an activity, and charge hours from one cost center to another.
Track a shutdown on an internal order
You will know how to create an internal order with a settlement rule in percentages (70% and 30%), charge hours to it, then run the settlement (sending the order's costs to where they belong) as a test before the real run.
Share service costs
You will know how to share the costs of the departments that serve the others (maintenance, the building): run a distribution, create an assessment cycle with its segment (the senders and the receivers) and a floor-area key, and see how much of each service's cost ends up on the furnace and on the cutting line.
Cost a product
You will know how to work out what a manufactured product costs (the cost estimate), grant the marking allowance, then mark and release the new standard price.
Read a margin, close the month
You will know how to calculate work in process and variances, settle a production order (send its remaining costs to where they belong), read the margin (what is left of the selling price once costs are covered) by product and by customer, then close and lock the period.
Who it is for, and who it is not.
Inés Navarro guides you on site (she is a character in the story, not a real tutor), every task comes with hints, and your first task is simply to choose your controlling area (the unit inside which a group manages its costs). Starting from scratch is fine. If you have never done any accounting, start with the reference sheet "Management accounting: what it measures and how costs flow", which links management accounting to financial accounting. Some accounting or SAP background makes the first episodes easier.
This specialization is for you if…
- You want to understand why a cost doesn't land where you expect, or why a variance (a gap between planned and actual cost) doesn't add up, and which sequence of steps fixes it.
- You come from accounting or controlling and want to see how the system sorts costs by cost center, by order and by product.
- You are retraining toward SAP consulting and want to be able to talk about a month-end close you ran yourself.
- You are starting out with CO on a project, have only seen one part of it (cost centers, or product costing) and want to follow the whole path to margin.
- You are aiming for the SAP Management Accounting certification and want to have run most of these processes before the exam.
This specialization is not for you if…
- You are already a seasoned CO consultant: these projects are part of your daily work.
- You want human support throughout a career change: that is what our complete path with human follow-up, Beyond the Horizon, is for, and it includes a specialization of your choice.
- You want to plan a plant's full budget: in the simulation, the only thing you plan is the hourly price of an activity, such as the maintenance hour. Budgets and the other planning functions have a reference sheet but are not practiced.
- You would rather work on accounting, sales or procurement: look at the SAP FI (Financial Accounting), SAP SD (Sales and Distribution) or SAP MM (Materials Management) specializations.
Nine episodes, from the cost map to exam review.
A single plant, Glass+ Iberia in Valencia, followed from February 1 to March 31, 2028. Eight episodes make up the mission, in four blocks and a final episode that lead up to a full month-end close. A ninth episode, Exam review, then helps you prepare for the SAP certification exam (taken separately with SAP, not included) and ends with a handover file.
The cost map
At the start, maintenance and the building have no cost center of their own, so their costs land on the Administration cost center. You create 410005 and 410006 under the site services branch of the hierarchy, not under the general branch of the whole company, then the activity type for maintenance hours and a key figure for floor area in square meters, which is used later to share costs.
Sorting out February's costs
A €4,800.00 burner servicing invoice landed on the Administration cost center by mistake: you move (repost) it to the furnace. Then comes the furnace's winter shutdown, which you track on internal order 700001: €26,000.00 of bricks plus 120 maintenance hours at €55.00 (€6,600.00), €32,600.00 in all. A rule settles it 70% to the furnace and 30% to cutting.
Sharing service costs
The building carries €18,000.00 of gas and electricity, and maintenance carries €1,200.00 of supplies. You create the energy cycle, a saved rule that shares the bill by floor area: 2,400 m² for the furnace and 1,600 m² for cutting, so €10,800.00 (60%) and €7,200.00 (40%). Inés's distribution cycle splits the supplies 60/40 as well: €720.00 for the furnace and €480.00 for cutting.
From panel cost to margin
The standard price of the glazed panel goes from €30.00 to €31.39 (13.44 + 5.95 + 12.00). Order 1000123, delivered, leaves a €458.00 variance. Order 1000124, still running at the end of February, holds €3,910.50 of work in process, then delivers its 150 panels on March 6. Next comes the answer to Isabelle. The margin (the share of the selling price left after costs) is 40.8% on the panel against 32.1% on float glass, the plain glass sheets. By customer, it is 38.8% on Instalaciones Glasur against 48.3% on Vidrios Quelmar. In short, the panel earns more than float glass, and the highest margin is on Vidrios Quelmar, the very customer that wants to renegotiate the price.
Closing the month
On March 1, you release the standard price you prepared in February: it is the price of the month you are closing. On March 31, you check off Inés's list in order. A €4,000.00 insulation invoice for the shutdown is settled through order 700001, on top of the €32,600.00. The actual price of the cutting hour, recalculated once all the month's costs are in, comes out at €53.35, above the planned €48.00. Order 1000124, delivered on March 6, closes on a €66.00 variance. Then the period is locked, and a €415.00 reposting (glass roof cleaning, a cost to move) that arrives afterward is refused: March is closed to new entries, so the correction goes through in April.
Getting ready for the SAP certification
March is closed, and the certification exam is next (taken separately with SAP, not included). The episode opens with an email from Inés, who proposes going back over everything, topic by topic, with the Glass+ figures. For each topic, a short reminder, the classic traps, then a few practice questions. Inés also lists the topics the simulator does not have you practice (planning, budget, accruals, overhead on orders, indirect activity allocation, the material ledger, transfer prices), saying you still need to be able to explain them. There are 41 practice questions in all, and they are ours: 32 multiple-choice and 9 where you predict what the system will answer. None of them comes from the exam. Inés also has you reopen three screens, in three hands-on tasks, to check that you can still use them. Then comes your final deliverable, the handover file: Inés is away for three weeks, and you write the document, outside the simulator, that lets her replacement take over Valencia's management accounting without calling her.
Three choices you will not find in a video.
Always a test before the real run
From the first settlement, the rule is set: you always start with a test, read the list, then run it for real. A surprise in a test costs you a minute. In a real run, you have to cancel it and start over.
Two months that move with you
The date in the story moves forward, from February to March 31, 2028, and nothing starts over. To validate a step, the simulator checks what you actually entered: the cost center, the cost element and the amount on each line. Everything runs in your browser, on screens of our own creation.
Traps the instructions don't point out
Hours entered with no planned price, a marking refused for lack of an allowance, a forgotten reposting that arrives after the month is locked. When you are stuck, three or four hints (depending on the step) are waiting, from the lightest nudge to the most detailed.
XiaoXiao and Pierre wrote the simulation.
XiaoXiao Liu
SAP consultant since 2014, business administration graduate (FH Aachen, Hochschule Trier)
XiaoXiao works on multi-country SAP projects (MM, PP and QM modules) and teaches in English, German and Mandarin Chinese. She wrote this simulation with Pierre Balbinot, co-founder of Key User Training.
The simulator's screens are our own creation, designed so you find your bearings the day you open SAP.
What our learners say about Key User Training.
These reviews are about our training in general. This specialization is too new to have its own, but it is built the same way: concrete cases, inside a simulated company.
The simulation is what unlocked it for me
I tried courses on Udemy, explored the SAP Learning modules, and something was always missing to become a junior SAP consultant. The simulations and module configurations based on virtual companies are really what sets Key User Training apart. Every euro spent is truly worth it.
It is like you are on SAP
I already worked as a SAP user, so I did this course to refresh my knowledge. The interactive way of the course is the best, it is like you are on SAP. It is dynamic, with a base of an enterprise case, so it helps you understand and think in those terms. I will always recommend this course.
Structured, progressive, concrete
Key User trainings take you by the hand. They are structured, progressive and combine theory with practice through demonstrations based on concrete situations encountered every day in companies.
Tailor-made and a perfect fit
Key User Training is to SAP training what a good tailor is to the textile industry: hand-stitched, elegant, and for me it was tailor-made and fit like a glove.
A leap forward in my SAP practice
Already a SAP user across several modules for a few years, the Key User Training team really helped me take a leap forward and genuinely moved my SAP practice ahead. The professionalism and availability of the trainers are their main strengths.
Five trainings, same clear structure
Five trainings already with Key User Training. It is really the same structure whatever the course: theory and practice through concrete situations. The big plus is the responsiveness, the trainers getting back to you on questions or difficulties.
Practice inspired by the hands-on format of the SAP Management Accounting certification (exam not included)
SAP's Management Accounting certification (reference C_TS4CO) is taken in a real SAP system: you are asked to carry out complete tasks, not just pick the right answer.
The specialization covers the topics of the official scope of this certification, and every topic has its own reference sheet. Most of them are practiced in the simulator, with our own cost centers, products and amounts at Glass+ Iberia, up to the March close that puts them all to work again. You work through these six main areas, each grouping several topics of the scope:
- Cost center accounting (costs by department)
- Internal orders and their settlement (following the cost of one job)
- Product costing (what a product costs)
- Production order controlling (planned against actual cost of making a product)
- Margin analysis by product and by customer
- Month-end close and period lock
About 8 of the roughly 40 topics are explained on a reference sheet but not practiced in the simulator, because they need configuration (setting SAP up itself) or screens the simulator does not have. These are the 8 topics (two lines group two notions each):
• bulk changes to master data (the data that describes cost centers, orders and products);
• cost planning (beyond the one activity price you plan);
• accruals (costs recorded in the month they belong to, even if paid earlier or later) and imputed costs (costs counted without an invoice);
• indirect activity allocation (letting the system calculate the hours to charge, instead of entering them one by one);
• overhead on orders (an added percentage for indirect costs);
• budget planning and availability control (watching spending against a budget);
• the material ledger (SAP's register of each material's actual cost, which recalculates the real price of stock);
• transfer prices (internal prices between company units).
A note on product costing: costing one product is practiced in the simulator (episode 5). Mass costing (the cost of all products in one run) is only explained on a reference sheet.
The review episode still brings all of them back, as practice questions. Inés lists them in the email that opens it, saying you still need to be able to explain them.
By exam day, you will have run most of these processes from start to finish in the same plant, and you will have seen what happens when a price or an allowance is missing. The exam itself takes place in a real SAP system, so its screens will not look exactly like our simulator's.
The ninth episode, Exam review, gives you 41 practice questions we wrote ourselves: 32 multiple-choice and 9 where you predict what the system will answer. They are for practice only, and none of them comes from the exam.
9 episodes, lifetime access, updates included.
One-time payment, immediate access, 14-day guarantee. You progress episode by episode, at your own pace, and come back whenever you want.
SAP CO Specialization
SAP controlling in practice, inside a simulated plant, from the cost map to the month-end close.
Episode by episode, you work through management accounting at Glass+ Iberia: the cost map, corrections and charged hours, the furnace shutdown, the shared energy bill, the cost of a panel, production orders and margin by customer, up to the March 31, 2028, close. A ninth episode, Exam review, helps you prepare for the SAP certification exam and ends with a handover file. It all runs in your browser, with nothing to install.
14-day money-back guarantee
If the specialization is not right for you, a simple email within 14 days is enough. Full refund, no justification required.
The questions we get before people start.
What is Glass+?
Glass+ is a fictional company we created for this training: a glass group whose Spanish subsidiary, Glass+ Iberia, has just closed and approved its 2027 accounts and now wants to know where its money goes in Valencia. It is the setting for the whole specialization, and everything takes place in a simulator. The people you meet there, such as Inés and Isabelle, are characters in the story, not real tutors. You need nothing else, no other course and no prior knowledge of Glass+, because everything is inside the simulation.
Do I need to take another specialization first?
No. The specializations are independent: the first episode starts from the basics: what a cost center and a cost element are. If you have already done FI (Financial Accounting), you pick up Glass+ Iberia right after its 2027 closing, seen this time from the management accounting side. With MM (Materials Management), EWM (Extended Warehouse Management) or SD (Sales and Distribution), you will recognize Valencia and the Glass+ group.
Do I need SAP access to take this specialization?
No. Everything happens inside the simulation, from your browser. No installation, no SAP system to set up on your side.
I am a beginner. Is it doable?
Yes. The simulation explains each concept when it is needed, starting with what a cost center is, and guides you step by step. If you first want to understand what CO is, read our SAP CO guide. Some accounting or SAP background makes it more comfortable, but it is not required.
How long does it take?
It mostly depends on how comfortable you already are with SAP, so we do not give a duration. You go episode by episode, at your own pace, and you can stop and resume whenever you want. Access is for life.
What if I get stuck, with no coaching?
Each step offers three or four hints (depending on the step), revealed one at a time, and the reference sheets stay open alongside. Every task also has a "Read the card" link to the matching sheet. If you want human support and a complete path, that is what Beyond the Horizon offers, with a specialization of your choice included.
How long do I have access?
Lifetime access to the specialization content, updates included. You can come back to it as often as you need. Access covers the learning content and the simulation, not an SAP system.
What will I actually do?
You go through 9 episodes in the management accounting of a simulated plant: the 8 episodes of the mission, plus an Exam review episode. You carry out 46 hands-on tasks in the simulator. They use 31 transactions (SAP calls each data-entry screen a "transaction"; here they are the simulator's own screens), from creating a cost center to month-end cycles and settlements. Alongside, you lean on 38 reference sheets and 25 diagrams. By the end, you will have run a full month-end close and written the handover file that lets Inés's replacement take over without calling her.
What does the simulation not cover?
It focuses on cost centers, repostings and activity allocations, internal orders, distribution and assessment, product costing, production orders, margin analysis and the month-end close. It works in euros, on a single plant, and the only planning is the price of activity types: no cost plan or budget, no mass costing run (calculating the cost of many products at once; costing a single product is practiced in episode 5), and no invoicing between two companies of the same group. To read the margin, you open a ready-made report that starts from the accounting entries; you do not build it.
About 8 of the roughly 40 topics of the official scope are explained on a reference sheet but not practiced: bulk changes to master data, cost planning, accruals and imputed costs, indirect activity allocation, overhead on orders, budget planning and availability control, the material ledger and transfer prices. Some of the limits above overlap with these 8 topics. The "What this simulator simplifies" sheet explains these choices. We would rather tell you upfront.
Which SAP version is this on?
The simulation reflects management accounting on SAP S/4HANA, SAP's current system, where financial accounting and management accounting read the same accounting entry. Our screens are our own creation. You work mostly on the classic screens, with six tiles from the modern interface (the tile-based home page of recent SAP versions), arranged in four spaces. The concepts covered (cost centers, cycles, product costing, variances) stay valid from one version to the next.
Does this course prepare me for the SAP Management Accounting certification (the controlling exam)?
Yes, in part. SAP's Management Accounting certification has the reference C_TS4CO. The specialization covers the topics of its official scope and takes its inspiration from the hands-on format of the exam, using our own cases at Glass+ Iberia. Every topic has its own reference sheet. Most are practiced in the simulator, and about 8 of the roughly 40 are only explained on a sheet. A ninth episode, Exam review, gives you 41 practice questions we wrote ourselves, none of them from the exam. The exam is not included in the price. You take it directly with SAP, in a real SAP system whose screens are not exactly those of our simulator, and we advise you to also review the variants it may test.
What if it is not right for me?
You have a 14-day money-back guarantee. A simple email is enough, no justification required, and we refund you in full.
Can I get an invoice for my company?
Yes. Key User Training is a Luxembourg-based training organization: we issue an invoice in your company's name after payment. If you need specific details on the invoice, contact us before purchasing.
Valencia's cost map is waiting for you.
In the simulation, maintenance and the building do not even have a cost center yet. Nine episodes later, you are the one closing Glass+ Iberia's month and writing the handover.