Implementing SAP in Brazil - Hints

Brazil is a country of continental proportions. It has 5.568 cities, 75,8 thousand km of roads and 84,72% of the population lives in urban areas. Just to give an idea of the distribution, with a population of 211,8 million people, only the greater area of Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte, and Brasilia cities holds 45,7 million - 4 different geographical locations that hold a bit more than 20% of the population

Brazil is ranked SECOND in TMF Group’s Global Business Complexity Index (GBCI) 2020 and FOURTH in Rules, Regulations, and Penalties report.

It is a well-known fact by Brazilian SAP expert consultant companies that Brazil sits at the top 3 complex worldwide SAP Implementations.

The Brazilian government has a wide range of mandatory reports whose content is cross-referential. Any deviance may cause heavy legal fees. (too many mandatory cross-functional reports tied to the operations that are shared with the Brazilian government)

An ERP implementation is always a time-consuming activity that is more complex than rollouts, however, a rollout from overseas into Brazil will require many changes with a large impact on already defined standards due to the legal compliance (invoice, material inbound, chart of accounts, ...). It is critical to review all the rollout strategies - and required additional time - for Brazil. The whole supply chain process will greatly change due to the legal requirements.  

Brazilian Localization means changes - but I need to stress this subject. There is a wide range of changes with a direct impact on global reports. I saw many international projects that underestimated the complexity of Brazilian localization and did pay the price afterward.

I will try to give a glimpse of the impact on a helicopter view in order to allow the reader to understand it:

For the goods inbound and outbound the whole operation is heavily impacted and due to the legal requirements (with heavy fees in case of no compliance), the nonlocalized SAP standard does not apply either for the orders or the invoicing. Exporting and importing processes are bound into several government servers, compliance, and reports. Any kind of goods cannot leave the company premises without a fiscal document supporting it. The whole operation is heavily linked to Brazilian rules. Goods need to fit into the specific categorizations set by the government for both internal and international markets. 

It is not only reports but inbound/outbound are controlled in a real-time scenario. Brazilian government servers will check invoices, and data within the invoice and then will approve or not the goods movement. An approved invoice does not mean that it attends to the whole legal requirements. Further reports that are to be delivered on a monthly basis to the government will be analyzed according to the comprehensive change of rules that applies here. The traditional (EU/US) perception of invoices does not apply here. 

It is not only inbound and outbound but also the financials and controlling, as it was recognized by the GBCI. 

Tax is one of the key issues here. A chart of accounts will need to accommodate it. OB40 will have its toll as well. There are two yearly reports that any company needs to comply with. ECD manual has 224 meanwhile the ECF manual has 667 pages to dwell into - and there are only a few of the legally required reports. Any of the guidelines are based on a large number of laws and court decisions, therefore, tax advisory is a great deal in Brazil. According to Brazilian legislation, it is not an option to say that you do not have an acknowledgment of the rules. The rules within ECF most likely will have an impact on a "not localized" chart of accounts. 

There are other local aspects that may require consideration.

The bank communication in Brazil does not use the XML standards applied elsewhere. Bank operations in Brazil are set by a local agency called Febraban and all Brazilian operations use the standards issued by Febraban. This standard has been set long ago then it is pretty much consolidated everywhere. 

Unlike the majority of European countries, due to the legal requirements, we do need to run a material ledger in Brazil, then, on a monthly basis, you do have a heavier use of the server. Due to the constraints, there are many specific PEC procedures that could impact server sizing and local operations.  

Because the expedition is not just shipping goods by truck, there are several documents required by law for all involved in the process - the customer, the truck driver, the truck license plate, the logistic company, and the supplier. Due to the bureaucracy and required controls, there is a tendency for heavy automatization and integrations on a cross-functional process because otherwise, a company loses agility and the operations will be costly due to the people required to handle everything. 

Payment terms, conditions, and formats are another special scenario, especially for retail. Do not underestimate the Brazilian creativity here. A B2C operation could have the payment happening after 30 days or split in 3, or 12 times. A customer may pay using a combination of a credit card and a debit card. There is a document called "boleto" that is another "offline payment" strategy. Consolidating the payments between the bank entries and the POS-DM is always a challenge. 

These are a few of the many subjects linked to Brazilian localization. It is not only ERP but the process, culture, and a few additional software to support the local legal requirements.

Because the article is both specific and dry, then it is very likely that you are interested in this subject, therefore, below are some links that may help with the subject.