Profitability Analysis (CO-PA) is a module of the enterprise resource planning (ERP) software SAP[1] that allows users to report sales and profit data using different customized characteristics (such as customer, country, product) and key figures (such as number of units, price, cost, etc.)
CO-PA derives its data from the SD[2] (Sales and Distribution), MM[3] (Materials Management), and CO[4] (Controlling) modules of SAP, and as such its configuration is closely tied to those modules.
CO-PA was originally designed as a strategic reporting tool rather than as a financial reporting tool, but soon it began to be used for financial reporting. Because CO-PA recognizes sales differently than the CO and GL modules, this caused some reconciliation issues.
In response, SAP enhanced CO-PA to derive data from the CO and GL modules. This "flavor" of CO-PA is known as "account-based CO-PA", while the original functionality is known as "costing-based CO-PA".
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