Reporting Q & A

Read more about Non-IFRS measures, XBRL reporting, currency effects, and more

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  • Which accounting standard does SAP use for its annual financial statements?

    Since 2008, SAP prepares its consolidated financial statements in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) endorsed by the European Union (EU). In addition to providing the disclosures required under IFRS, the notes to our statements contain a great deal of additional detail, which we provide voluntarily.

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  • When SAP will announce its next quarterly figures?

    Announcement dates are listed on Events and Presentations

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  • In what currency are SAP´s results reported?

    SAP is a European company, so our results are reported in euros.

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  • Segment Reporting

  • SAP changed its segment reporting in Q3 2012 – why?

    Following its increased focus on the cloud business, in the third quarter 2012 SAP changed both the structure of the components that the SAP management uses to make decisions about operating matters and the main profit measure used for the purposes of allocating resources to these components and measuring their performance. For more information please watch our webinar and view the related slides.

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  • Non-IFRS

  • Why does SAP report Non-IFRS financial results?

    SAP reports its financial results in accordance with IFRS and additionally discloses certain financial results on a non-IFRS basis. Certain non-IFRS measures (for example non-IFRS revenue, non-IFRS operating profit and non-IFRS operating margin) are provided both, on a nominal currency basis (as reported basis) and on a constant currency basis.

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  • XBRL

  • Read more about the XML based computer software language for the electronic communication of business and financial data.

  • What is XBRL?

    XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) is an XML-based computer software language for the electronic communication of business and financial data. It is an open standard for financial reporting and provides a unique, electronically readable tag for each individual disclosure item within the financial statements. Each item on the financial statements is tagged with such individualized information, thus permitting the automatic exchange and reliable extraction of financial information. XBRL is not an accounting standard; it is simply a standard for providing an identifying tag for business and financial data. XBRL-tagged data can be read by any software that includes an XBRL processor and thus can be easily transferred between computers.

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  • What XBRL information do we provide?

    Due to our listing in the US, we prepare IFRS Consolidated Financial Statements in accordance with the requirements of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Going forward, the SEC is expected to require these consolidated financial statements (form 20-F) to be filed in an XBRL format. Therefore, SAP has decided to publish the consolidated financial statements in XBRL format already. Starting with the 2009 IFRS consolidated financial statements; we publish this information in XBRL format, including the block-tagged notes to the consolidated financial statements.

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  • How did we prepare our XBRL files?

    We prepared our XBRL files using the application SAP BusinessObjects XBRL Publishing by UBmatrix. Further information regarding this product can be found at www.sap.com/epm

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  • What XBRL taxonomies do we use?

    The tags used in XBRL data are contained in taxonomies. Taxonomies are dictionaries that define the specific tags that are used for individual items of data (such as "revenue"), their attributes and their interrelationships. Since 2011, we prepare our XBRL data based on the 2011 XBRL taxonomy for International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs) developed and maintained by the IASC Foundation. Previously, the 2010 and 2009 XBRL taxonomy was used. Going forward, we will continue to use the most up to date XBRL taxonomy available.

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  • What is needed to view the XBRL files?

    To view the XBRL data in a readable format, the XBRL files must be loaded into an XBRL viewer. Such a viewer is available for free, for example, on the website of the SEC. For the convenience of the reader, we have also included an HTML version of our XBRL files.

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  • Where can I find SAP’s most recent XBRL files?

    The most recent XBRL files are available in the section Financial Reports.

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  • Currency Effects

  • Why does SAP provide constant currency period-over-period numbers?

    We believe it is important for investors to have information that provides insight into our sales. Revenue measures determined under IFRS provide information that is useful in this regard. However, both sales volume and currency effects impact period-over-period changes in sales revenue. We do not sell standardized units of products and services, so we cannot provide relevant information on sales volume by providing data on the changes in product and service units sold. To provide additional information that may be useful to investors in breaking down and evaluating changes in sales volume, we present information about our revenue and various values and components relating to operating profit that are adjusted for foreign currency effects. We calculate constant currency revenue and operating profit measures by translating foreign currencies using the average exchange rates from the previous year instead of the current year.

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  • How does SAP calculate constant currency numbers?

    It is a two-step process to get from our IFRS numbers to our constant currency non-IFRS numbers:
     

    Step 1: We eliminate certain effects from our IFRS numbers (see a description of these adjustments in our Explanation of non-IFRS Measures which is available at www.sap.com/investor for more details on these eliminations). The resulting figures are our non-IFRS numbers.

    Step 2: We then adjust those non-IFRS numbers by eliminating currency effects. The result is our non-IFRS constant currency financial measures.

    The elimination of currency effects is achieved by translating foreign currencies using the average exchange rates from the previous year’s period (i.e. quarter) instead of the current year.

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  • SAP’s guidance format – based on constant currencies

    SAP provides a yearly outlook, which is based on non-IFRS at constant currencies. We provide guidance on a non-IFRS constant currency basis because these numbers are used as a basis for SAP’s internal management reporting as well. In addition, we provide guidance at constant currencies since we cannot influence currency movements, and it helps prevent frequent changes in guidance due to fluctuations in currency.

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  • P&L Structure Adjustment since 1/1/2012

  • Learn why SAP adjusted its P&L structure in early 2012. SAP reported its preliminary financial results for the fourth quarter and full-year 2011 on January 25, 2012. On that day SAP announced a change in its income statement structure going forward and announced to make available in due course on its website updated income statement numbers based on this change for the four quarters of 2011. See below for a description of the changes made containing preliminary numbers in a multi-quarter summary. In addition, the company is providing, for all four quarters of 2011, updated software revenue by region numbers reflecting the reclassifications made to transfer to the new income statement structure.

  • Why did SAP change its income statement presentation?

    In light of SAP’s strong focus on the cloud, SAP intends to realign its income statement, for periods starting on or after January 1, 2012 (and all reported prior periods). By doing this, SAP provides additional transparency into its revenues from software and software-related services, particularly into revenues from cloud subscription and support.

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  • Which line items on the income statement are affected?



    • Software revenue
    • Support revenue
    • Subscription and other software-related service revenue

    Cloud subscriptions and support will no longer be included in the line item Subscription and other software-related service revenue, but will be presented as a separate line item within Software and software-related service revenue (SSRS revenue).

    Revenues from multi-year licensing arrangements and all other revenues so far included in the Subscription and other software-related service revenue line item will be split into their software portion and support portion with these portions being allocated to the Software and Support revenue line items respectively.

    As a consequence of this change, the Subscription and other software-related service revenue line item will no longer exist and the Software and Support line items for 2011 and all prior periods reported will increase.

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  • Will total revenue or SSRS revenue amounts change?

    No, the change is a reclassification that only affects sub line items of SSRS revenue. The total of SSRS revenue and consequently total revenue figures will not be affected by this change.

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  • How does this change affect quarterly revenues for 2011?

    The changes discussed in this Webmessage will also affect the quarterly revenues previously reported. Please see the following link for the updated 2011 quarterly income statement numbers.

    Multi-Quarter Summary (PDF) >

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  • How does this change affect SAP’s revenue by region numbers for 2011?

    Total revenue and SSRS revenue for 2011 and all prior periods are unaffected by the change in the income statement, as well as the corresponding revenue by region numbers. However, Software revenue by region did change. Please see the following link for the updated quarterly 2011 software revenue by region numbers reflecting the reclassifications made to transfer to the new income statement structure.

    Software by Region Numbers (PDF) >

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  • The new format

    See the following link for a snapshot of the income statement in its new format. Please also note the added line items to provide more transparency on our cost of revenue: Total cost of revenue and Gross profit. The values of Cost of software and software-related services and Cost of professional services & other services were not affected as a result of this income statement change. The rest of the income statement remains unchanged. Please see the attachment for the reconciliation from non-IFRS to IFRS in the new format (PDF).

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  • P&L Structure Adjustment since Q4 2012

  • What is the new line item “Software & Cloud Subscriptions Revenue”?

    Starting with the reporting for the fourth quarter and full year 2012, SAP has introduced, in the revenue section of its income statement, a new line item “Software & Cloud Subscriptions Revenue” which is the subtotal of the existing line items ‘Software Revenue’ and ‘Cloud Subscriptions and Support Revenue’. The content of the line items included in the subtotal as well as of all other line items in the income statements remain unchanged.

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