Change of Account type from Balance Sheet to P&L account

There are times you commit mistakes in creating general ledger account master record. Instead of creating it as P&L account sometimes it's created as Balance Sheet account (& vise-versa). More often than not, that mistake of g/l account setting becomes apparent only and notice when there are already posted transactions to the account. The SAP standard won't allow change of g/l account from P&L account to Balance Sheet account if transactions exist with the account.

Error Message:

When trying to change, the error message that appear  is " Change balance sheet control in spite of account balance".

Analysis and Diagnosis:

You've changed the G/L account from a "balance sheet acount" to a "P&L account" or conversely.

The g/l account that has changed from P&L account to balance sheet account (& vise versa) has an existing transaction balance.

Soluation:

The message is under application area FH. You can set as warning message applicable to all users (user name is blank), for online processing and/or for bakground processing. The save the change.

In your testing after the change, the message "Change balance sheet control in spite of account balance" is now only a warning message, hence; you can save the change in g/l account from P&L account to Balance Sheet account or conversely.

And always run Balance Carryforward (FAGLGVTR) transaction after the change to classify correctly the balance of the g/l account changed.

In the standard SAP, the message "Change balance sheet control in spite of account balance" is set as an error message. Hence, if this message appear you can not save the change.

As an alternative solution, you can change the message control from an Error (E) to Warning (W) message only. To do that follow this useful guide and procedures:

Path: SPRO → Controlling → General Controlling → Change Message Control.

Transaction Code: OBA5

The message is under application area FH. You can set as warning message applicable to all users (user name is blank), for online processing and/or for bakground processing. The save the change.

In your testing after the change, the message "Change balance sheet control in spite of account balance" is now only a warning message, hence; you can save the change in g/l account from P&L account to Balance Sheet account or conversely.

And always run Balance Carryforward (FAGLGVTR) transaction after the change to classify correctly the balance of the g/l account changed.

source: sap-knowledge.com