The 2026 SAP Controlling Conference brought together controllers and SAP experts to discuss developments in SAP Finance and Controlling. Clarkston clients attending the conference liked the practical discussions with people with shared interests.  Conversations throughout the conference focused heavily on artificial intelligence (AI), alongside new SAP capabilities and the continued transition from SAP ECC to S/4HANA. 

Across these discussions, AI emerged as a practical consideration for finance teams as they evaluate how their work may change. That evolution is happening as organizations make decisions about when to adopt SAP innovations and move their existing environments forward. 

SAP Controlling Conference 2026: Takeaways

1. SAP Joule is Bringing AI Closer to Day-to-Day Finance Processes

New capabilities in SAP Joule demonstrated how AI can become part of existing finance workflows rather than operate as a separate tool.  SAP first develops Joule apps in Public Cloud and then rolls them out to Private Cloud and on-premise. 

In the session Automation with SAP Situation Handling and Joule: Transforming Finance Operations, Raghu Ram Thatavarthy demonstrated how SAP Situation Handling can surface relevant information for users while maintaining a “human in the loop” for verification. 

For finance teams, this model could apply to processes such as purchase order approvals or journal entry workflows. Rather than requiring users to identify each issue on their own, the system can bring situations requiring attention directly to them while keeping people involved in reviewing the action. 

This provides a practical example of how AI could support existing finance processes without removing human oversight.

2. AI Is Becoming a Practical Part of How People Work

The conference also explored AI beyond SAP-specific capabilities. 

During Beyond the Space Bar: How AI Became My Co-Worker, In SAP and In Life, Rogerio Faleiros demonstrated how he uses multiple AI tools together. He described using ChatGPT to help frame an idea and Claude for execution, connecting the tools through a private application. 

The presenter showed examples of 196 work instructions from eight process streams generated from source process recordings by one person with AI conversations and a structured template. 

The session illustrated how professionals may begin using different AI tools based on the task at hand rather than relying on a single platform. For organizations, this raises questions about how employees will use AI alongside enterprise systems and where human review should remain part of the process. 

3. SAP Continues to Expand Controlling Capabilities

Several sessions highlighted SAP’s continued investment in Finance and Controlling, including Universal Component Breakdown capabilities in SAP Public Cloud and Universal Parallel Accounting in SAP Private Cloud and on-premise. 

Universal Component Breakdown provides greater transparency into product costs across the value chain and supports more detailed cost analysis.  Universal Parallel Accounting allows both group valuation and profit center valuation across logistics and financial value chains.  Multinational companies with global supply chains stand to benefit from this new functionality. 

These developments are relevant as companies evaluate their S/4HANA environments and consider how new functionality fits into their longer-term SAP architecture. For finance leaders, the capabilities available within each S/4HANA environment can help inform future technology decisions.

4. Margin Analysis Can Provide Greater Visibility into Profitability

Margin Analysis was another important topic at the conference. In my session, Sales Reporting Leveraging SAP Margin Analysis, I discussed how organizations can use SAP Margin Analysis to gain real-time insight into sales performance and profitability. 

Key takeaways include using the Manage Allocations app to allocate revenue and costs across customers and products using business-defined allocation bases. The team should also evaluate embedded analytics for reporting key sales and profitability measures, such as Return on Sales, and use profitability applications to create custom analytical queries tailored to business reporting needs. 

Having this information available within SAP can give controllers greater visibility into performance and support more timely business decisions. As companies develop their S/4HANA environments, Margin Analysis is one capability to consider within the broader Finance and Controlling roadmap.

5. The Transition from ECC to S/4HANA is Still a Work in Progress

Conference participation provided an interesting snapshot of where organizations are in their SAP journeys. Approximately one-third of participants were still using SAP ECC, while roughly two-thirds were on S/4HANA. 

Among the S/4HANA organizations represented, most were using Private Cloud. Only a handful of attendees represented Public Cloud environments. 

The conference audience includes many long-time SAP customers that have developed enhancements within their existing environments, which provides useful context for those numbers. The continued presence of ECC users also suggests that some organizations represented at the conference expect to remain on ECC beyond the 2027 migration deadline and use extended support. 

For these organizations, migration timing may also affect access to newer SAP capabilities. As innovation shifts toward S/4HANA, companies remaining on ECC will need to consider that tradeoff as they plan their transition. 

Looking Ahead 

This year’s conference highlighted two developments that finance leaders are navigating: the growing use of AI within everyday work and the ongoing transition to S/4HANA. SAP Joule offered examples of how AI could support established finance processes while maintaining human review. 

Conference attendance also showed that organizations are at different points in their S/4HANA journeys. As SAP introduces new functionality, companies will need to consider how migration timing affects the capabilities available to their finance teams. 

As AI becomes more integrated into SAP and other business applications, organizations will also need to determine where these tools are most useful and where human judgment should remain central.