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Architecture Governance and Standards

THE ARCHITECTURE OF SAP ENTERPRISE RESOURCE PLANNING (ERP)SAP ARCHITECTURE BLUEBOOK

Find more Information in the Architecture Library: https://portal.wdf.sap.corp/go/architecture-library

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THE BEST-RUN BUSINESSES RUN SAP

This book provides the first comprehensive description of the architecture concepts of SAP

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). It is an extended compilation of the Architecture

Bluebooks about SAP ERP Operations, SAP ERP Financials, and SAP ERP Human Capital

Management (HCM) written by the following authors:

Satish Karthik (SAP ERP Operations) joined SAP Labs India in 2003 and has been working

as a Solution Architect in IMS development support India for Materials Management (MM). In

the past years, Sathish also worked across development areas such as consulting, custom

development, or product management within SAP.

Currently, Sathish is working in the SAP APO (Advanced Planner & Optimizer) area at SAP

Labs Palo Alto.

Sushil Kumar (SAP ERP Financials) started in SAP IMS development support India in 2005

with the FI Business Warehouse topic and has become an expert of the financial

inconsistencies area which deals with database corrections for customer financials data.

In his current role as an Associate Architect he has overall responsibility for various financials

topics which are supported in India, including GL inconsistencies, archiving, and analytics.

Sagar Joshi (SAP ERP HCM) joined SAP Labs India in 2000 and since then worked in the

HCM Development team. In the initial years with SAP, he focused on the HCM country

version for India and was a key contributor to delivering the payroll and HR localization to

Indian customers. Since 2004, Sagar is working as Architect on various topic in the area of

HCM self services and shared services. His current responsibility is the renovation of HCM

user interfaces.

i

Jochen Bder, Bernhard Grne (Editors)

Sathish Karthik R, Sushil Kumar, Sagar Joshi (Authors)

The Architecture of SAP Enterprise

Resource Planning (ERP)

SAP Architecture Bluebook

Internal

Version 1.0

December 2010

SAP Architecture Bluebook: SAP ERP

ii Internal Copyright SAP AG 2010

2010 SAP AG. All rights reserved.

SAP, R/3, SAP NetWeaver, Duet, PartnerEdge, ByDesign, SAP BusinessObjects

Explorer, and other SAP products and services mentioned herein as well as their

respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP AG in Germany and

other countries.

Business Objects and the Business Objects logo, BusinessObjects, Crystal Reports,

Crystal Decisions, Web Intelligence, Xcelsius, and other Business Objects products and

services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered

trademarks of Business Objects Software Ltd. in the United States and in other countries.

All other product and service names mentioned are the trademarks of their respective

companies. Data contained in this document serves informational purposes only. National

product specifications may vary.

These materials are subject to change without notice. These materials are provided by

SAP AG and its affiliated companies (SAP Group) for informational purposes only,

without representation or warranty of any kind, and SAP Group shall not be liable for

errors or omissions with respect to the materials. The only warranties for SAP Group

products and services are those that are set forth in the express warranty statements

accompanying such products and services, if any. Nothing herein should be construed as

constituting an additional warranty.


Copyright SAP AG 2010 Internal iii

Table of Contents

Foreword ............................................................................................................ 1

Preface ................................................................................................................ 2

1 Architecture of SAP ERP .............................................................................. 3

1.1 SAP ERP Overview ............................................................................................... 4

1.2 SAP ERP Operations ............................................................................................ 4

1.3 SAP ERP Financials ............................................................................................. 5

1.4 SAP ERP Human Capital Management .............................................................. 6

2 SAP ERP Operations ..................................................................................... 7

2.1 Introduction of SAP ERP Operations ................................................................. 9 2.1.1 Master Data and Reuse .........................................................................................10 2.1.2 Integration with SAP Business Suite ......................................................................13

2.2 Material Master ................................................................................................... 16 2.2.1 Architecture Overview ............................................................................................16 2.2.2 The View Concept of Material Master ....................................................................17 2.2.3 Database Design of Material Master ......................................................................20

2.3 Business Partner Master Data .......................................................................... 22 2.3.1 Partner Determination ............................................................................................22

2.4 Sales and Distribution ....................................................................................... 24 2.4.1 Architecture Overview ............................................................................................24 2.4.2 Integration ..............................................................................................................27 2.4.3 Pricing ....................................................................................................................28 2.4.4 Availability Check ...................................................................................................36

2.5 Production Planning .......................................................................................... 43 2.5.1 Master Data ............................................................................................................43 2.5.2 Integration ..............................................................................................................44 2.5.3 Planning Functions .................................................................................................45 2.5.4 Production Execution .............................................................................................51

2.6 Materials Management ....................................................................................... 56 2.6.1 Procurement of Materials .......................................................................................57 2.6.2 Procurement of Services ........................................................................................58 2.6.3 Integration ..............................................................................................................58 2.6.4 Framework-Based Implementation of Purchase Requisition ..................................60 2.6.5 Pattern-based User Interface .................................................................................64

2.7 Logistics Execution ........................................................................................... 70 2.7.1 Architecture Overview ............................................................................................70 2.7.2 Integration ..............................................................................................................71 2.7.3 Inbound Delivery Processing ..................................................................................71 2.7.4 Outbound Delivery Processing ...............................................................................72 2.7.5 Transportation Management ..................................................................................76 2.7.6 Warehouse Management .......................................................................................79

2.8 Quality Management .......................................................................................... 83


iv Internal Copyright SAP AG 2010

2.8.1 Quality Planning .................................................................................................... 84 2.8.2 Quality Inspection .................................................................................................. 86 2.8.3 Quality Control ....................................................................................................... 88 2.8.4 Quality Notification ................................................................................................. 88 2.8.5 Quality in Procurement Processing ....................................................................... 88 2.8.6 Quality Certificate Processing ................................................................................ 89

2.9 ERP OPS Further Reading .................................................................................91

2.10 ERP OPS Glossary .............................................................................................92

3 SAP ERP Financials .................................................................................... 93

3.1 Introduction to SAP ERP Financials .................................................................95 3.1.1 Overview of SAP ERP Financials .......................................................................... 96 3.1.2 Financial Accounting ............................................................................................. 96 3.1.3 Management Accounting ....................................................................................... 98 3.1.4 Financial Supply Chain Management .................................................................... 99 3.1.5 Treasury .............................................................................................................. 100 3.1.6 Accounting Interface ............................................................................................ 100 3.1.7 Deployment ......................................................................................................... 101

3.2 Recording Financial Transactions Using the Accounting Interface ...........102 3.2.1 Create Interface ................................................................................................... 103 3.2.2 Post Interface ...................................................................................................... 105

3.3 Financial Accounting .......................................................................................107 3.3.1 The Financial Document ...................................................................................... 108 3.3.2 Financial Interface ............................................................................................... 109 3.3.3 FI Document Posting ........................................................................................... 110 3.3.4 New General Ledger Accounting ......................................................................... 113 3.3.5 FI Document Processing with NewGL ................................................................. 115 3.3.6 Sub-Ledger Processing ....................................................................................... 116 3.3.7 Clearing ............................................................................................................... 122 3.3.8 Tax Accounting .................................................................................................... 123 3.3.9 Periodic Processing ............................................................................................. 125 3.3.10 Asset Accounting ................................................................................................. 129 3.3.11 Special Purpose Ledger ...................................................................................... 131

3.4 Management Accounting .................................................................................134 3.4.1 Management Accounting ..................................................................................... 135 3.4.2 Profitability Analysis ............................................................................................. 137 3.4.3 Profit Center Accounting ...................................................................................... 138

3.5 Financial Supply Chain Management .............................................................141 3.5.1 Collections and Dispute Management ................................................................. 141 3.5.2 Biller Direct .......................................................................................................... 143 3.5.3 Credit Management ............................................................................................. 145

3.6 Treasury .............................................................................................................147 3.6.1 Treasury and Risk Management: ......................................................................... 147 3.6.2 Cash and Liquidity Management ......................................................................... 148 3.6.3 In-House Cash ..................................................................................................... 152

3.7 Outlook: Other topics of ERP Financials .......................................................154

3.8 ERP FIN Further Reading .................................................................................155


Copyright SAP AG 2010 Internal v

3.9 ERP FIN Glossary ............................................................................................. 155

4 SAP ERP Human Capital Management .................................................... 157

4.1 Introduction to SAP ERP HCM ........................................................................ 159 4.1.1 Supported Business Processes............................................................................159 4.1.2 Layers of HCM Applications .................................................................................160 4.1.3 Scope of the Document ........................................................................................162

4.2 HCM Core Applications ................................................................................... 163 4.2.1 Personnel Administration (PA) .............................................................................163 4.2.2 Personnel Development (PD) ...............................................................................164 4.2.3 Organizational Management ................................................................................166 4.2.4 Personnel Time Management ..............................................................................167 4.2.5 Payroll ..................................................................................................................169 4.2.6 Appraisals, Evaluation and Survey Engine ...........................................................172

4.3 HCM Extension Applications .......................................................................... 174 4.3.1 Talent Management Overview..............................................................................174 4.3.2 Career and Succession Management ..................................................................176 4.3.3 Compensation Management ................................................................................178 4.3.4 Performance Management ...................................................................................179 4.3.5 E-Recruiting..........................................................................................................180 4.3.6 Enterprise Learning ..............................................................................................182

4.4 HCM Service Delivery Applications ................................................................ 185 4.4.1 Self Service Applications ......................................................................................185 4.4.2 HCM Processes and Forms .................................................................................192 4.4.3 Employee Interaction Center (EIC) .......................................................................194

4.5 Enterprise Services in HCM ............................................................................ 199 4.5.1 Service Enabling in HCM .....................................................................................199

4.6 ERP HCM Further Reading .............................................................................. 201

4.7 ERP HCM Table of Acronyms ......................................................................... 202

5 Appendix .................................................................................................... 203

5.1 ERP OPS Appendix .......................................................................................... 204 5.1.1 Material Master .....................................................................................................204 5.1.2 Sales and Billing ...................................................................................................205 5.1.3 Production Planning .............................................................................................206 5.1.4 Materials Management .........................................................................................208 5.1.5 Logistics Execution ...............................................................................................209 5.1.6 Quality Management ............................................................................................212

5.2 ERP FIN Appendix ............................................................................................ 214 5.2.1 Accounting Interface .............................................................................................214 5.2.2 Financial Accounting ............................................................................................214 5.2.3 Financial Supply Chain Management ...................................................................217 5.2.4 Treasury ...............................................................................................................219 5.2.5 Debit Credit in Financial Accounting .....................................................................223

5.3 ERP HCM Appendix ......................................................................................... 226 5.3.1 Software Components in SAP HCM .....................................................................226 5.3.2 PD Objects in HCM and Organizational Management .........................................227


vi Internal Copyright SAP AG 2010

5.3.3 PD Objects in E-Recruiting .................................................................................. 228 5.3.4 Business Object Models in SOA .......................................................................... 228


Copyright SAP AG 2010 Internal vii

Table of Figures

Figure 1-1 Overview of SAP ERP ................................................................................... 4

Figure 2-1 Architecture Overview of SAP ERP .............................................................. 9

Figure 2-2 Architecture Overview of SAP ERP OPS.................................................... 11

Figure 2-3 Integration Overview of SAP ERP OPS ...................................................... 14

Figure 2-4 Overview of Material Master ....................................................................... 16

Figure 2-5 Screen Sequence in Material Master .......................................................... 18

Figure 2-6 Views and Maintenance Status ................................................................... 19

Figure 2-7 Database Table Structure of Material Master (see also Appendix 5.1.1) ... 20

Figure 2-8 Partner Determination and Address Management used in SD ................... 23

Figure 2-9 Architecture Overview of Sales and Distribution ......................................... 25

Figure 2-10 Condition Technique Example ................................................................. 30

Figure 2-11 Architecture of Pricing ................................................................................. 32

Figure 2-12 Reuse of Condition Determination Technique ............................................ 33

Figure 2-13 Conditions Customizing for Pricing ............................................................. 34

Figure 2-14 Output Control ............................................................................................. 35

Figure 2-15 Control Parameters for Availability Check in SD ........................................ 39

Figure 2-16 Architecture of ATP Logic ........................................................................... 40

Figure 2-17 Architecture of ATP Server ......................................................................... 41

Figure 2-18 Architecture of Production Planning and Production Execution ................. 45

Figure 2-19 Material Requirement Planning ................................................................... 49

Figure 2-20 Architecture of Production Execution .......................................................... 53

Figure 2-21 Architecture of Production Order Confirmation Processing ........................ 55

Figure 2-22 Architecture of Materials Management ....................................................... 56

Figure 2-23 Business Entities and Dependencies .......................................................... 60

Figure 2-24 Architecture of Purchase Requisition Framework ....................................... 62

Figure 2-25 Preconditions and Dependencies of Validation Rules ................................ 63

Figure 2-26 Enjoy Transaction User Interface Layout ................................................. 65

Figure 2-27 Enjoy Transaction - Architecture Overview ................................................. 66

Figure 2-28 Business Logic Extensions ......................................................................... 68

Figure 2-29 Processing Purchase Order Extensions ..................................................... 69

Figure 2-30 Architecture of Logistics Execution ............................................................. 70

Figure 2-31 Shipping Point Determination ..................................................................... 73

Figure 2-32 Route Determination ................................................................................... 75

Figure 2-33 Inbound Shipment Cost Processing ............................................................ 77


viii Internal Copyright SAP AG 2010

Figure 2-34 Outbound Shipment Cost Processing .........................................................78

Figure 2-35 Outbound Processing in LE.........................................................................81

Figure 2-36 Architecture Overview of Quality Management ...........................................84

Figure 3-1 Architecture Overview of SAP ERP ............................................................95

Figure 3-2 Architecture Overview of SAP ERP Financials ...........................................97

Figure 3-3 SAP ERP Fin Software Components ........................................................101

Figure 3-4 The Accounting Interface as Integration Hub ............................................102

Figure 3-5 Data Flow in Accounting Interface ............................................................104

Figure 3-6 Financial Accounting Overview .................................................................107

Figure 3-7 Financial Interface .....................................................................................110

Figure 3-8 FI Posting (Classic) ...................................................................................111

Figure 3-9 FI Posting (NewGL) ...................................................................................114

Figure 3-10 Dunning .....................................................................................................118

Figure 3-11 Automatic Payment ...................................................................................120

Figure 3-12 Clearing .....................................................................................................122

Figure 3-13 Tax Accounting ..........................................................................................124

Figure 3-14 Foreign Currency Valuation .......................................................................126

Figure 3-15 InterCompany Reconciliation ....................................................................128

Figure 3-16 Asset Accounting .......................................................................................129

Figure 3-17 Special Purpose Ledger ............................................................................132

Figure 3-18 Cost Objects Relation ................................................................................134

Figure 3-19 Management Accounting ...........................................................................135

Figure 3-20 Profitability Analysis ..................................................................................137

Figure 3-21 Profit Center Accounting ...........................................................................139

Figure 3-22 Collections and Dispute Management ......................................................141

Figure 3-23 Biller Direct ................................................................................................144

Figure 3-24 Credit Management ...................................................................................146

Figure 3-25 Treasury and Risk Management ...............................................................147

Figure 3-26 Cash Management ....................................................................................149

Figure 3-27 Liquidity Planner ........................................................................................150

Figure 3-28 In-House Cash ..........................................................................................153

Figure 4-1 SAP ERP ...................................................................................................159

Figure 4-2 Architecture Overview SAP ERP HCM .....................................................161

Figure 4-3 Architecture of Time Management Application .........................................167

Figure 4-4 Architecture of Payroll Application ............................................................169

Figure 4-5 Schema and Rules Relationships .............................................................171


Copyright SAP AG 2010 Internal ix

Figure 4-6 Architecture of AES Engine ...................................................................... 173

Figure 4-7 Adobe flash Islands in Web Dynpro .......................................................... 175

Figure 4-8 Architecture overview of Career and Succession Management. .............. 177

Figure 4-9 Architecture overview of Compensation Management ............................. 179

Figure 4-10 Architecture of E-Recruiting ...................................................................... 180

Figure 4-11 Architecture of Enterprise Learning .......................................................... 183

Figure 4-12 Architecture of ESS WD ABAP Applications (Portal Agnostic) ................. 187

Figure 4-13 Architecture of WD ABAP Application based on BOL (e.g. Personal Information Scenarios in ESS) .................................................................. 188

Figure 4-14 Architecture of ESS and MSS Applications .............................................. 189

Figure 4-15 Detailed View of Floor Plan Manager WD Java for ESS and MSS .......... 190

Figure 4-16 Architecture of HCM Processes and Forms.............................................. 193

Figure 4-17 Architecture of EIC (based on CRM) ........................................................ 195

Figure 4-18 Architecture of EIC (based on ECC) ......................................................... 197

Figure 5-1 T Accounts ................................................................................................ 224

Figure 5-2 Software Components used in SAP ERP HCM ........................................ 226

Figure 5-3 PD Objects in HCM and Organizational Management ............................. 227

Figure 5-4 PD Objects in E-Recruiting ....................................................................... 228

Figure 5-5 Business Object Models in SOA ............................................................... 229

1

Foreword

SAP ERP (and the former SAP R/3) is the product which was the main reason for

success and growth of SAP in the past. The excellent implementation of functional and

quality requirements of our customers business in software was crucial for this success.

This book provides the first comprehensive architecture description of the concepts of

SAP ERP.

An important feature of enterprise standard software is to cover the requirements of many

customers in a flexible way, allowing on the one hand standardized processes and

standardized software, on the other hand flexibility to tailor the processes to the individual

needs. A number of concepts have been developed and combined in SAP ERP to allow

both, standardization and flexibility.

Also in future, many products and solutions will use SAP ERP functionality via interfaces,

either directly or indirectly. Therefore basic knowledge about the architecture concepts of

SAP ERP is a prerequisite to develop new products in time and ready for the market.

Documenting architecture is much more than just abstracting source code in various

types of diagrams. Source code and data type definitions contain no information about

development or architecture decisions, and it is very hard to recognize business

abstractions in the implementation. This book provides these reasons and business

abstractions and fills the gap between user documentation and implementation.

Like software, this book is not complete and finished follow-up editions are planned

which will provide additional information such as the central data model of SAP ERP.

Gordon Mhl

Head of Architecture Governance and Standards


2 Internal Copyright SAP AG 2010

Preface

Architecture Bluebooks have a long tradition at SAP. Twenty years ago, in 1990, work on

the first bluebooks about the architecture of the R/3 basis system started. Since then, an

impressive number of internal technical reports about products and technology in SAP

were written by skilled writers with deep technical and architectural background.

In 2006, the scope of architecture bluebooks was widened to also cover the architecture

of SAP business applications. With the architecture bluebooks about SAP ERP

Operations, SAP ERP Financials, and SAP ERP Human Capital Management, all major

business applications of SAP Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) have been covered

with a bluebook. The content of the three architecture bluebook has been combined in

this book, which provides the first comprehensive architecture overview of SAP ERP.

Surely you cannot expect learning all details of these applications that took thousands of

man years to program and refine. Nevertheless, you will learn a lot about the various

business problems and the architecture of the applications that solve these problems.

The appendix provides more details and references to further information.

Although this book is about the architecture of SAP ERP, a reader will require some basic

knowledge of SAP technology such as the Application Server ABAP or the Enqueue

mechanism. All architecture diagrams show models following the TAM (Technical

Architecture Modeling) notation.

This book provides five parts:

Part 1. Architecture of SAP ERP, provides an architecture summary of SAP ERP and

its main components.

Parts 2. SAP ERP Operations, 3. SAP ERP Financials, and 4. SAP ERP Human

Capital Management describe the architecture of the corresponding SAP ERP

components.

Part 5. Appendix provides additional information for each SAP ERP component, such

as concrete program names or database tables.

The editors want to thank the three authors for their excellent work and their managers for

their support. Big thanks also go to the subject matter experts and reviewers. Since

readers are always interested in contacts for further questions, the names of the

colleagues involved in the architecture bluebooks are listed in each part separately.

Finally, the editors want to thank our board and senior management who support our

long-term goal to make architecture knowledge tangible.

The Editors

Jochen Bder, Bernhard Grne

Architecture Governance and Standards

3

1 Architecture of SAP ERP

1 Architecture of SAP ERP SAP ERP


1.1 SAP ERP Overview

SAP Enterprise Resource Planning (SAP ERP) embraces SAP ERP Operations (ERP

OPS), SAP ERP Financials, and SAP ERP Human Capital Management, complemented

by common Corporate Services. Most industry solutions use or extend SAP ERP

functionality.

SAP ERP integrates with many other systems, such as SAP Customer Relationship

Management (SAP CRM). Figure 1-1 gives an overview of SAP ERP and the most

important integration systems.

Figure 1-1 Overview of SAP ERP

1.2 SAP ERP Operations

SAP ERP Operations (SAP ERP OPS) is SAPs core solution for procuring, selling,

producing, stocking, shipping, and transporting of material.

Using Sales and Distribution (SD), products are sold and sent to business partners or

services are performed for them. Data about products, services and business partners

are the basis for sales processing. The sales process is based on a set of business

documents such as customer inquiry, quotations, and most important the sales order.

These business documents are maintained and stored by SD. Follow-up activities are

triggered based on them. The calculation of prices for material and services is based on

the condition technique.

Production Planning (PP) supports the development and execution of efficient production

plans, which takes warehouse, material, and production capacity information as well as

SAP ERP

Operations Human Capital

Management ( HCM)

Financials

Financial Accounting

(FI)

Management

Accounting (CO)

Financial Supply Chain

Management (FSCM)

Treasury

Industry-Specific Functionality

Sales and Distribution

(SD)

Materials Management

(MM)

Production Planning

(PP)

Logistics Execution

(LE)

Quality Management

(QM)

HCM Core

(Payroll, ...)

HCM Extensions

(E-recruiting, ...)

HCM Service Delivery

(ESS, ...)

Co

rpo

rate

Serv

ices

SAP SCM

(Supply Chain

Management)

SAP CRM

(Customer Relation-

ship Management)

SAP SRM

(Supplier Relation-

ship Management)

SAP NetWeaver BW

(Business

Warehouse)

SAP MII (Manufactu-

ring Integration and

Intelligence)

SAP NetWeaver PI (Process Integration)

SAP GRC

(Governance & Risk

Compliance)

R

Text

Corporate Services

Operations

Human Capital Management ( HCM)

SAP ERP

Financials

Financial Accounting (FI)

Management Accounting (CO)

Financial Supply Chain Management (FSCM)

Treasury


Sales and Distribution (SD)

Materials Management (MM)

Production Planning (PP)

Logistics Execution (LE)

Quality Management (QM)

HCM Core (Payroll, ...)

HCM Extensions (E-recruiting, ...)

HCM Service Delivery (ESS, ...)

SAP SCM (Supply Chain Management)

SAP CRM (Customer Relation-ship Management)

SAP SRM (Supplier Relation-ship Management)

SAP NetWeaver BW (Business Warehouse)

SAP MII (Manufactu-ring Integration and Intelligence)


SAP GRC (Governance & Risk Compliance)

14-SAP ERP Overview.vsd

SAP ERP 1.3 SAP ERP Financials

Copyright SAP AG 2010 Internal 5

sales planning into account. When the production plan is transformed to a production

order in order to trigger execution, PP reserves and procures required raw material using

MM.

Materials Management (MM) provides the functions that are necessary to deal with the

inbound flow of goods and services. MM supports procurement using the business

documents purchase requisition and subsequently purchase order. The arrival of the

ordered goods results in a goods receipt and is handled by the inventory management.

MM maintains the central inventory for the complete enterprise, which means that also

outgoing material movements are communicated to MM. MM provides a pattern-based

user interface implemented in ABAP Dynpro. The purchase requisition functionality is

based on a framework.

Logistics Execution (LE) controls and organizes the movement of material within the

enterprise (warehouse management), but also transportation between enterprises. The

central business documents which are maintained and stored by LE are the delivery, the

shipment document, and the transfer order. They are used to trigger and control material

movement.

Quality Management (QM) allows planning and conducting inspections to check the

quality characteristics of material. It is integrated in procurement, production, and sales

processes.

To support reliable business processes across the different ERP OPS components based

on consistent data, they are closely integrated using database integration. Based on the

same mechanism, SAP ERP OPS communicates with SAP ERP Financials. All compo-

nents share the same material master data.

The functional scope of SAP ERP OPS can be extended by integrating it with the other

applications provided by SAP ERP Business Suite, such as SAP Customer Relationship

Management, SAP Supply Chain Management, and SAP Supplier Relationship

Management.

1.3 SAP ERP Financials

SAP ERP Financials (SAP ERP FIN) is SAPs core solution for financial accounting,

controlling, financial supply chain management and treasury functions. SAP ERP FIN

consists of the following application components:

Financial accounting (FI) records, classifies, and summarizes the financial transactions of

a company. For this purpose financial accounting provides general ledger, accounts

payables and receivables, and asset accounting. Financial accounting records business

transactions, such as customer invoice, vendor invoice, payment, and clearing, as

financial documents. Based on Transaction Figures / Balances on these documents,

financial accounting periodically generates the balance sheet as well as profit and loss

financial statements which are then reported to the government, investors, and other

interested parties.

1 Architecture of SAP ERP SAP ERP


Management accounting (CO) is used for internal accounting within a company to

prepare operating data such as product costing, cost of goods sold, overheads, and

actual costing of inventory. This operative data is used for the business analysis of the

company and to support management decisions.

Financial supply chain management (FSCM) processes accounts receivables and

accounts payables to ensure a smooth inflow of funds. In addition, it contains collection

management, dispute management, online payment facilities for customers (Biller Direct)

and vendors (Payer Direct), and credit management to check on credit awarded to a

customer.

Treasury applications ensure proper cash flow and liquidity of the company for smooth

day-to-day operations. Funds, derivatives, securities, loans, financial stocks and market

risks are also managed within treasury.

1.4 SAP ERP Human Capital Management

SAP ERP Human Capital Management (SAP ERP HCM) is the SAP solution for

managing the people working for an organization. SAP ERP HCM is part of SAP

Enterprise Resource Planning (SAP ERP), but it can be deployed separately from the

other ERP applications to protect sensitive employee data.

SAP ERP HCM is split into three layers of applications. The foundation are the HCM core

applications which implement the core HR processes such as organizational

management, personnel administration, payroll, personal development, and time

management. They provide data and functions, which are reused by HCM extension

applications which support additional processes such as e-recruiting and enterprise

learning. On top reside the HCM service delivery applications, which enable users to

interact with the HCM applications via different channels and media, for example self-

services, employee interaction center and online forms.

The HCM data model is based on infotypes. One infotype defines the data structure for

semantically related data, which is stored together on the database and also displayed

together on the user interface. Infotypes support the time-dependent storage of data,

which is important in HCM processes.

HCM processes are typically country-specific and have to comply with many legal

requirements. Infotypes support different country-specific variants of UI logic. Also the

business logic can be extended for processing of country-specific logic. In payroll country-

specific payroll drivers have been introduced to provide country-specific payroll runs.

2 SAP ERP Operations

Author: Sathish Karthik R (IMS Logistics)

2 SAP ERP Operations SAP ERP


Acknowledgement

This bluebook was created during my fellowship with the Office of the CTO - Architecture

Excellence team. The following colleagues contributed in various ways to make this or

previous editions of the document possible:

Rdiger Buck-Emden, Jochen Bder, Bernhard Grne, Wolfram Kleis (Office of the CTO),

and Ralf Mller (Development Architect)

I would like to thank in general the following colleagues

Ursula Nani

Sven-Eric Eigemann

Frank Nuxol

Thomas Christ

For PP topic I would like to thank mainly the architects

Thomas Lehnecke

Andreas Siebel

For MM topic I would like to thank mainly the architects

Markus Wolf

Sven Richter

Marcel Kieser

For SD topic I would like to thank mainly the architects

Manfred Hirn

Martin Arzt

For LE topic I would like to thank mainly the architects

Volker Barth

Martin Beykirch

Thomas Steiner

For material master topic I would like to thank mainly the architects

Carsten Pluder

Rolf Walthemathe

For QM topic I would like to thank mainly the architect

Holger Ulrich Eisele

I would also like to thank the following colleagues for acting as additional reviewers

Thomas Gruber

Andreas Kasper

Michael Eyd

Satish Karthik

SAP ERP 2.1 Introduction of SAP ERP Operations


2.1 Introduction of SAP ERP Operations

Enterprises want to provide the right products and services at the right price, to the right

customer at the right time. To achieve this kind of operational excellence business

processes in procurement, in logistics execution, in product development, in

manufacturing, as well as in sales and service have to work hand in hand. To support

end-to-end processes across these areas SAP provides SAP ERP Operations (SAP ERP

OPS) as part of the application SAP Enterprise Resource Planning (SAP ERP) as shown

in figure 2-1.

All applications share one common database. However, it is possible to deploy SAP ERP

HCM on a separate system with its own database. SAP ERP FIN, SAP ERP OPS, and

corporate services always run on one system.

Figure 2-1 Architecture Overview of SAP ERP

The functionality of the SAP ERP OPS is bundled into the following components (see

figure 2-2):

Sales and Distribution (SD) which includes creation of sales orders, checking the

availability of the requested products, price calculation, and finally delivery and billing.

Materials Management (MM) which includes creation of purchase orders for procuring

material and services from external vendors, verifying incoming invoices, and

managing the inventory.

Production Planning (PP) which includes planning the production of the materials and

execution.

SAP ERP

Operations

Human

Capital

Manage-

ment

(HCM)

Financials


Sales and Distribution

(SD)

Materials Management

(MM)

Production Planning

(PP)

Logistics Execution

(LE)

Quality Management

(QM)C

orp

ora

te S

erv

ice

s

SAP SCM

(Supply Chain

Management)

SAP CRM

(Customer Relation-

ship Management)

SAP SRM

(Supplier Relation-

ship Management)

SAP NetWeaver BW

(Business

Warehouse)

SAP MII (Manufactu-


Intelligence)


SAP GRC

(Governance & Risk

Compliance)

R

Text

Corporate Services

Operations

Human Capital Manage-ment (HCM)

SAP ERP

Financials


Sales and Distribution (SD)

Materials Management (MM)

Production Planning (PP)

Logistics Execution (LE)

Quality Management (QM)


SAP CRM (Customer Relation-ship Management)

SAP SRM (Supplier Relation-ship Management)

SAP NetWeaver BW (Business Warehouse)



SAP GRC (Governance & Risk Compliance)

19-SAP ERP Overview-OPS.vsd



Logistics Execution (LE) which controls and organizes the movement of material1

Quality Management (QM), which includes quality planning, quality inspection, and

quality control during sales, production and procurement.

For application-to-application-communication (A2A) between the different sub-

applications as there are SD, MM, LE, PP and quality management - database

integration is used. In addition SAP ERP OPS and SAP ERP FIN are integrated in the

same way. In database integration the sending and receiving application share database

tables. To transfer data the sending application creates records in these tables, which

triggers then follow-up processing in the receiving application. The sending application

creates the records in the transfer tables within the same logical unit of work as it stores

the business data processed in the transaction. This makes database integration very

reliable. Data transfer only happens, when the business transaction can be processed

successfully.

2.1.1 Master Data and Reuse

Within SAP ERP OPS the most important master data is the material as it is shared

across SD, MM, and LE (see figure 2-2). The material master data has a set of attributes

which are common and separate sets to cover the specific requirements of sales,

logistics, and procurement. Business partner information, such as vendor or customer

master data, is not shared. So MM and SD store their own master data versions of their

respective business partners. Besides material master the most important master data for

PP is the bill of material (BOM), which lists all components required to manufacture a

certain product. Routing master data is also used by PP which has information about the

operations need to be performed to produce the finished product.

1 In this context material is the general term. It includes products (material which is build from pieces to

be sold), goods (material to be shipped), raw material and parts (material as input for production). If a

dedicated type of material is intended, we use the corresponding term.



Figure 2-2 Architecture Overview of SAP ERP OPS

Reuse components which are used across all SAP ERP OPS applications are provided

either by the general functions, by the cross-application components or within the basis

which is part of SAP NetWeaver (see figure 2-2).

ERP Database

Application Data

ERP Central Component

ERP OPS

General

Functions

Batch

Management

Serial Number

Processing

Handling Unit

Management

Logistics

Information

Systems

ERP OPS Applications

QM

PP

Production Planning

MMSD

Sales Order

Processing

Delivery

Processing

Billing

Production Execution

Purchasing

Inventory

Management

Invoice

Verification

LE

Transportation

Management

Shipment Costs

ProcessingShipping Processing

Sales

Orders

Deliveries

Purchase

Orders

Production

Orders

Master Data

Material BOM

Routing

CustomerVendorCustomizing

Data

Cross Application Components

Classification SystemDocument Management

System

Inspection Lot

Processing

Inspection

Planning

BASIS Components

Central Address

Management

Workflow

Functions

Change

Documents

Functions

Archiving

Functions

R

R

R

R

R

R

Master Data

MM

SD

QM

PP

Production Planning

Production Execution

Application Data

General Functions

Batch Management

Serial NumberProcessing

Handling Unit Management

Sales Order Processing

Logistics Information Systems

DeliveryProcessing

Billing

Purchasing

InventoryManagement

Invoice Verification

Material

BOM

Routing

Customer

Inspection Lot Processing

Vendor

Inspection Planning

BASIS Components

Classification System

Shipping Processing

TransportationManagement

Shipment Costs Processing

Central Address Management

Workflow Functions

Change Documents Functions

Archiving Functions

ERP OPS

ERP OPS Applications

LE

ERP Central Component

Sales Orders

Deliveries

Purchase Orders

Production Orders

21-SAPERP_Overview_ECC2_JB.vsd



General functions provide additional functions to support specific processes in the

supply chain. Examples are batch management, variant configuration, handling unit

management, and logistics information systems (LIS).

Cross-application components provide reuse components for all SAP ERP functions.

It includes the classification system which allows maintaining characteristics of a

material, and the document management system (DMS) for attaching documents

(e.g. design or engineering diagrams) to objects (e.g. material master or business

documents).

The basis component provides central address management, workflow, change

document functions for writing the change documents in the transactions, and

archiving functions.

Enterprises adapt the software of SAP ERP to their individual requirements by

maintaining customizing settings. At runtime the customizing data influences the

execution of SAP ERP OPS.

All application data, master data, and customizing data created and used by SAP ERP

OPS is stored in the central database of SAP ERP.

2.1.1.1 General Functions

The general functions of SAP ERP OPS provide specific functions to handle material.

Enterprises can activate general functions if required. The activation is typically enabled

by configuration of the material master. The most often used general functions are

described below, however the details of their architecture are not covered within the

scope of this book.

Batch Management

In various industries particularly in the process industry, there is a need to work with

homogenous partial quantities of a material or product throughout the logistics supply

chain. This homogenous partial quantity is called a batch. Managing material in batches

is required for the following reasons:

Legal requirements, for example the guidelines set out by GMP (Good Manufacturing

Practice or regulations on hazardous material

Defect tracing, callback activities, and regression requirement

The need for differentiated quantity-and value-based inventory management, for

example, due to heterogeneous yield/result qualities or varying constituents in

production.

Differences in usage and the monitoring thereof in materials planning in SD and PP

Production or procedural requirements, for example settlement of material quantities

on the basis of different batch specifications

Batch management is integrated in all applications of SAP ERP OPS to support the

management and processing of batches in all operational business processes.



Serial Number Processing

Serial number processing is used to identify individual items of material by consecutive

identifiers. It supplements the material master record, which contains the attributes which

describe the material and are required to manage it. The serial numbers are used in

various business procedures within logistics. For each material with a serial number,

serial number processing creates a transaction history and tracks its status.

The serial numbers can be used within the following business processes:

Component involved Business procedure or operation

Production Planning Production order

Sales and Distribution Sales order, inquiry, quotation Delivery and returns delivery

Completeness check for deliveries and

returns deliveries

Quality Management Original value recording of inspection lots

Inventory Management and Physical

Inventory Goods movements,

Entering the physical inventory count

Posting inventory differences

Handling Unit Management

When using handling unit management (HUM) multiple materials are can be combined to

a handling unit, which movements are tracked within the logistics processes. Goods

movements processing deals then with the entire handling units and the materials they

contain instead of tracking the movement of each material individually.

Handling unit management works together with the existing packing function in shipping

and warehouse processing in the warehouse management system.

2.1.2 Integration with SAP Business Suite

To support end-to-end business processes, SAP ERP Operations is closely integrated

with the other SAP Business Suite applications using RFC (see figure 2-3).

The functionality of SD can be extended by SAP Customer Relationship Management

(SAP CRM) which provides additional pre-sales functions, and supports marketing and

sales order management. Sales orders created in SAP CRM are transferred to SD for

further processing such as delivery and billing. In addition SD can be extended by SAP

Global Trade Services (SAP GTS) which automates global trade processes in imports

and exports. SAP GTS provides tools to exchange required information with government

and custom authorities electronically.

MM can be integrated with SAP Supplier Relationship Management (SAP SRM) which

provides additional procurement functionalities such as shopping cart, maintaining



catalogs for products, contract management, and sourcing. MM and SD can also be

integrated with SAP Advanced Planner and Optimizer (SAP APO). SAP APO provides

additional planning functionalities such as demand planning, forecasting the requirements

for materials, and global availability check for materials.

Figure 2-3 Integration Overview of SAP ERP OPS

SAP Extended Warehouse Management (EWM) provided by SAP Supply Chain

Management (SAP SCM) enhances LE with functionalities to effectively manage the

operations in a warehouse.

Transportation management system (TMS) is a part of the SAP SCM solution that

provides functions to support the planning and the execution of the transportation of the

goods or materials from the shipper to the consignee (party who receives the goods;

usually the buyer). Some of the functions include for example service provider

management, transportation forecasting, freight order tracking, freight cost calculation

and settlement.

Supply Network Collaboration (SNC) is a part of the SAP SCM solution that provides a

platform for vendors to manage the inventory and handle special processes like

SAP ECC (ERP Central Component)

ERP OPS

Cross Application Components

BASIS Components

ERP data

SD

(Sales and

Distribution)

SAP SCM (Supply

Chain Management)

SCM data

SAP APO (Advanced

Planner and Optimizer)

SAP GTS (Global

Trade Services)

SAP EWM (Extended

Warehouse Managem.)

SAP TMS (Transportat.

Management System.)

SAP SNC (Supplier

Network Collaboration)

LE (Logistics Execution)

PP

(Production

Planning)

QM

(Quality

Management)

MM

(Materials

Management)

SAP CRM

(Customer Relationship

Management)

CRM data

SAP SRM

(Supplier Relationship

Management)

SRM data

SAP NW BI

(Business

Intelligence)

BI data

Integration

SAP MII (Manufactu-


Intelligence)

SAP NW PI (Process

Integration)

PI data

MII data

To external Systems

and Devices

R

Text

R

SAP ECC (ERP Central Component)

ERP OPS

Cross Application ComponentsBASIS Components

ERP data

SD (Sales and Distribution)


SCM data

SAP APO (Advanced Planner and Optimizer)

SAP GTS (Global Trade Services)

SAP EWM (Extended Warehouse Managem.)

SAP TMS (Transportat. Management System.)

SAP SNC (Supplier Network Collaboration)

LE (Logistics Execution)

PP (Production Planning)

QM (Quality Management)

MM (Materials Management)

SAP CRM (Customer Relationship Management)

CRM data

SAP SRM (Supplier Relationship Management)

SRM data

SAP NW BI (Business Intelligence)

BI data

Integration


SAP NW PI (Process Integration)

PI data

MII data

To external Systems and Devices

24-SAPERP_Overview_ECC4BG.vsd



subcontracting and consignment stocks. Consignment stock is any stock that the vendor

has placed in the warehouse of the manufacturer without charge until the stock is used.

For analyzing SAP ERP OPS data, SAP NetWeaver Business Information can be

connected to the system. Business data is replicated to the business information

warehouse, where it is prepared for analysis and reporting.

SAP ERP OPS provides business application programming interfaces (BAPI) and

enterprise services to access the functionality from outside. Non-SAP applications can be

integrated with SAP ERP OPS using SAP NetWeaver Process Integration (formerly

known as SAP NW XI) for message transfer, routing, and mapping..

SAP Manufacturing Integration and Intelligence (SAP MII) can be used to integrate

external devices such as barcode scanners to track material along the supply chain.

For more details about enterprise service provisioning of SAP Business Suite please refer

to the bluebook on mySAP Service Provisioning [SAP06].



2.2 Material Master

Almost all business operations in a company deal with material. Material is procured,

produced, stocked, sold, delivered, and transported. As it is typically the same material

which is produced, stocked, sold, and so on, it has been decided to maintain common

material master data to be used by MM, SD, PP, LE, QM, and SAP ERP FIN (financials,

controlling, see figure 2-4). This approach avoids redundant storage and maintenance of

material data and ensures consistency within end-to-end business processes. In addition

industry or company-specific extensions to material master data structure can be done at

a single place.

2.2.1 Architecture Overview

Material master data record consists of common attributes shared by all applications and

processes, such as material id, name, base unit of measure, and application-specific

attributes which are used only in a certain context, for example the cost price of the

material which is maintained in the material master is used by the pricing application, the

country specific tax details are maintained in the material master is used by SD

applications for tax calculation. Similarly production planning makes use of certain

attributes of material master like goods receipt processing time and whether the material

should be produced in-house during the planning phase.

Figure 2-4 Overview of Material Master

In SAP ERP OPS material master is a set of database tables for storing material master

data together with a set of read interfaces and maintenance transactions. The common

SAP ERP

Material Master DataMaterial Master Data

Maintenance

COFIQM

SD

SAP CRM SAP SCM

Plug In

UpdateStock/Price/Forecast/

Consumption

MM PP

R

Text

R

R

R

FI

QM

PP

MM

SD

SAP ERP

SAP CRM

SAP SCM

Plug In

Update

Stock/Price/Forecast/Consumption

Material Master Data Maintenance

Material Master Data

CO

26-SAPERP_Material_master_Overview.vsd

SAP ERP 2.2 Material Master


attributes are stored in a set of tables, which are separated from the tables which store

sales relevant data, purchasing relevant data, and so on.

Creation and update of material master data can only be performed using the

maintenance transactions of material master. These transactions provide the necessary

user interface screens, validate the input data, and manage the database access for

creating and updating material master data.

In general the different applications, which make use of material master, have only read

access using the corresponding interfaces. They are only allowed to update some

context-specific attributes of material master data, for example MM updates the stock and

price information and PP maintains the forecast and consumption data.

When SAP ERP is used together with other SAP applications such as SAP SCM and

SAP CRM at an enterprise, material master data is created and updated centrally in SAP

ERP and data is replicated to SAP CRM and SAP SCM. The material master data in SAP

ERP corresponds to the product master data in SAP CRM and SAP SCM.

In both cases the exchange of material master data is performed using the plug-in, which

exchanges iDocs with SAP CRM and synchronous RFC calls to communicate with SAP

SCM. When material master data is updated in SAP ERP OPS business transaction

events (BTE) are called which trigger communication with the external systems.

2.2.2 The View Concept of Material Master

As mentioned material master data has a set of common attributes as well as application-

context specific attributes. Altogether to create one material master data instance a lot of

attributes have to be maintained. For displaying and maintaining the attributes on the

user interface they are grouped in views. One view embraces a set of semantically

related attributes, for example a set of sales-specific attributes or a set of common

attributes. Every view is implemented as an ABAP Dynpro screen and displayed as a tab

in a tab strip control.

2.2.2.1 View Sequence

Which views and also which fields need to be maintained to create a material master data

record depends on the intended usage of the material, which is influenced for example by

the following factors:

Material type2 to which a material is assigned. If, for example, the material is a raw

material, the sales screens are not displayed because raw materials are not sold.

Industry sector of the enterprise: for example in chemicals industry other attributes

need to be maintained than in automotive or retail sector.

2 Material master data is categorized by material type, for example raw material, finished good, and

variant material. All material master data instances of one material type share a set of properties, for

example raw material cannot be sold or finished goods are produced in-house. Enterprises can create

additional material types if required.



Organizational level at which data is entered. If, for example, data is entered at plant

level only, storage-location-specific fields are hidden.

Used SAP application components: in case a company does not use the warehouse

management component, the warehouse management views do not appear.

So, when creating a material master record the maintenance transactions need to

determine which views need to be maintained. As certain attributes depend on each

other, also the sequence in which the views are displayed needs to be evaluated. Both

are done by the view sequence controller. It determines the next view that needs to be

displayed based on the specific material type and the industry sector.

Figure 2-5 Screen Sequence in Material Master

The material master maintenance transactions provide the following view sequence (see

figure 2-5):

1. First the initial screen is displayed for entering basic material data, such as material

type and industry sector. This information influences which additional views need

to be maintained.

2. The view sequence controller triggers the display of the view selection popup. The

user can select multiple views which should be maintained for the material

3. The view sequence controller checks whether the selected views require the

maintenance of additional organization-specific data. If yes, a corresponding

maintenance view is displayed. For example if the purchasing view is selected

plant data needs to be maintained and for sales views a sales organization is

required.

4. Now the view sequence controller displays the main maintenance screen, which

consists of a sub-screen for material master header data and a tab strip offering


Tabs for Multiple View

Initial

ScreenViews

Selection

UI Org Units Specific

Subscreen Area 1

Subscreen Area 2

Subscreen Area 10

Subscreen for Header Data

1

3

23

4

R

Text

R

R

R

Initial Screen

ViewsSelection

UI Org Units Specific

Subscreen Area 1

Subscreen Area 2

Subscreen Area 10

Tabs for Multiple View

Subscreen for Header Data


1

3

2

3

4

28-SAPERP_Material_master_Screen_Flow.vsd



multiple views. Each view is implemented by an ABAP Dynpro screen, which

consists of one or more sub-screens. The sub-screens are used to group fields.

The relationships between the views, screens, and sub screens are defined in

customizing. The customizing also allows creating industry-specific materials, such as

article in retail.

When displaying a view the field selection logic determines the properties of the fields. In

customizing every field is assigned to a field selection group which defines whether the

field is hidden, displayed, mandatory, optional, and so on.

2.2.2.2 Authorizations

Typically in enterprises the material master data maintenance is distributed across

different departments. For example the sales department is responsible to maintain the

sales attributes and the purchasing department maintains the purchasing views of

material master.

Figure 2-6 Views and Maintenance Status

Thus it is required that certain views and even attributes are only maintained by certain

users. To do so, all views and attributes which should be accessible altogether share the

same maintenance status (see figure 2-6). For example all views which display sales

attributes have the maintenance status sales.

Maintenance statuses are also defined for individual attributes. For example the attribute

purchasing group belongs to purchasing and is not relevant for sales. Hence this field

will not appear on a sales view. But if purchasing group needs to appear on an

View Sequence

View

Additional Data View

Sub Screen

Standard Program or Extensions

Dynpros

Program

1

1..*

Screen ContainerMaintenance

Status

1..*

1

1..*

1

1

1..*

1..*

1

User

1

1..*

1..*

1

1..*

11

0..*

1

1..*

{}

role

1..*

role

1..*

View Sequence

View

Sub Screen

Standard Program or Extensions

Dynpros

Additional Data View

Program

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1

1

Screen Container

29-SAPERP_Material_master_Class_diagram_Cust.vsd



accounting view for some reason the field has the maintenance status of both purchasing

and accounting.

At runtime when performing authority checks a user can only see and maintain the views

and attributes which are assigned to him using the maintenance status.

2.2.3 Database Design of Material Master

The database design of material master reflects the view concept (see figure 2-7).

Figure 2-7 Database Table Structure of Material Master (see also Appendix 5.1.1)

There is one central table (MARA) which stores the material ID and references multiple

tables with more specific data (see figure 2-7). These tables can be categorized in three

types:

Basic data: these tables store the header data of material master, such as material

group and dimensions of the material (gross weight, net weight, volume).

Additional data: these tables store specific common attributes, where a material has

typical more than one values. For example there is a table to store all units of

measures and another for storing material short texts in multiple languages.

Application-specific data: these tables store attributes relevant for a specific

application context. Typically these tables correspond to views or sub-screens on the

UI. Examples are sales data, plant data, and storage location data.

In addition the organizational structure of the enterprise influences how material master

data is distributed across different tables. For example the basic data and the additional

data are common across all organizational units. The application-specific data is

Material

Sales Specific

Data

Plant Specific

Data

Storage Locn

Specific Data

Additional DataApplication-Specific Data

Language

Organization Data

ClientSales

Organization

Purchasing

OrganizationPlant

Storage

Location

Short Text

Data

Unit of

Measure Data

Basic Data

R

Short TextData

30-SAPERP_Material_master_single_obj.vsd



maintained based on the selection of the organizational unit chosen from the view popup

(see figure 2-5). If for example the plant 0001 is entered, meaning the material can be

maintained only for the plant 0001 and the plant specific tables are affected. This data

however can be accessed only if the plant 0001 is used by the application. The same

holds true for all other organizational units like sales organization and storage location.

The view together with the organizational data determines which tables store the

information of the material.



2.3 Business Partner Master Data

A company has different business relationships with different business partners. In

dependence of the relationship the business partner acts as a customer, vendor,

employee, or contact person. Within a business transaction a specific business partner

can fulfill multiple functions. For example SD deals mainly with selling products and

services to the customer. The different functions of a customer in a sales process are the

following:

Sold to party

Bill to party

Ship to party

Payer

In SAP ERP OPS these functions are called partner functions. They are assigned to a

partner type, which is for example customer, vendor, and logistic provider.

The different SAP ERP OPS applications store the business partner master data for their

partner type separately. So SD owns the customer master data, MM owns the vendor

master data, LE owns the logistic provider master data, and so on. There is no central

business partner storage and maintenance like for material master data (see chapter 2.2).

However there is some central functionality which is re-used by the master data of all

partner types:

Partner determination

Address management

Partner determination is used to determine the partner functions and their values which

are required by a business transaction. For example sales order processing triggers

partner determination to get the mandatory partner functions that includes sold to party,

bill to party, ship to party and the payer and other partner functions (like forwarding agent)

if determined and also the corresponding partner address that needs to be used.

Address management is a framework for storing and retrieving address data which

belongs to business partner master data.

2.3.1 Partner Determination

As the partner functions vary for different business document types the superset of

partner functions for a specific business document type is defined by a so-called partner

determination procedure. At runtime partner determination determines the partner

functions required in the specific business context.

Partner determination is called during the processing of header of business documents,

such as sales order, purchase order, and delivery. In the following we use sales order

processing as an example to describe the architecture of partner determination.

SAP ERP 2.3 Business Partner Master Data


When a sales order is created, the customer name is entered as sold-to party. To do so,

the user can select an existing customer master data record or create a new one. Then

sales order processing calls partner determination, which performs the following steps

(see figure 2-8):

Partner procedure determination selects the partner procedure which is valid for sales

order

Sales order header processor triggers partner determination logic for the selected

partner procedure

Partner determination logic evaluates customizing rules to identify which partner

functions are required for the current sales process, for example ship-to party, bill-to

party, and payer and what is the data source (for example customer master) to

determine each partner function.

Partner determination logic calls central address management to retrieve the address

data which correspond to the address numbers.

The data is copied to the sales order document.

The partner functions can also be passed on to pricing or output determination for further

usage.

Figure 2-8 Partner Determination and Address Management used in SD

Logic for Partners

Partner Determination

Logic

Customer Master

Data

Partner Buffer Data

Sales Document Processing

Address Data

Header Processor

Partner Procedure

Determination


R

R

Ad

dre

ss

Nu

mb

er

Operational

Customizing

Data

Sales

Document Data

R

R


Sales Document Processing

Address Number

Operational Customizing Data

Sales Document Data

Address Data

Header Processor

Partner Procedure Determination

Logic for Partners

Partner Determination Logic

Partner Buffer Data

Customer Master Data

33-SAPERP_ERP_SD_Partners.vsd



2.4 Sales and Distribution

The Sales and Distribution (SD) application of SAP ERP OPS provides the necessary

functionalities to sell products and services to customers. This includes sales order

processing, creating delivery and shipment documents, delivery monitoring, billing, and

also returns handling.

2.4.1 Architecture Overview

To provide the required functionality SD contains four main components (see figure 2-9):

Sales order processing

Delivery processing

Outbound shipment processing

Billing

Sales order processing is responsible for creation, update, and persistence of the sales

order documents. It triggers availability check and pricing calculations as well as delivery.

Delivery processing creates delivery documents for a sales order document. It triggers

shipment, monitors the delivery, and finally initiates billing.

Outbound delivery processing takes care of the transportation of the ordered products to

the customer.

Billing creates and sends the customer invoice. It is closely integrated with the SAP ERP

FIN application, where the received payments are tracked.

All sales documents such as sales order, delivery, and invoice use material and customer

master data.

In the following the SD architecture is explained by describing a standard sales process.

2.4.1.1 Pre-Sales Processing

SD allows sales departments to perform pre-sales activities via inquiries and quotations.

If a potential customer asks for example about the details of a product or price, the sales

department creates an request for quotation (RFQ) document (also known as inquiry)

using the pre-sales processing component (see figure 2-9). The response of the sales

department is documented as quotation with a reference to the RFQ document. The

quotation contains already information such as price of the product and discounts. Output

determination (see chapter 2.4.3.3) is used to identify the communication channel (e-mail,

letter, fax, B2B message) with which the quotation is sent to the customer. In addition SD

provides functions for maintaining the sales activity data, contact persons, interested

parties, promotions, and competitor data.

SAP ERP 2.4 Sales and Distribution


Figure 2-9 Architecture Overview of Sales and Distribution

2.4.1.2 Sales Order Processing

The most important activity in the sales process is the creation of the sales order

document which is the first step towards the actual sale of a product. The sales order

Materials

Management

(MM)

PP

Sales and

Distribution

(SD)

Sales Order

Processing

Availability

CheckPricing

Delivery

Shipment

Processing

Billing

RRR

Sa

les O

rde

rs

De

live

ry

Ord

ers

Bill

ing

Do

cu

me

nts

RF

Q /

Inq

uiry

Sa

les

Activity

Master Data

MaterialBusiness

Partner

Materials Re-

quirement

Planning (MRP)

Planned Orders

Production Orders

Purchase

Requisition

Processing

R

R

Purchase

MaterialR

Produce

Material

Pu

rch

ase

Re

qu

isitio

n

Purchase

Order

Processing

Pu

rch

ase

Ord

ers

Goods Issue

Processing

Go

od

s

Issu

es

Goods

Receipt

Processing Go

od

s

Re

ce

ipts

Inventory

Update

Invoice

Verification

R

Ship /

Deliver

FI / CO

Financial

Accounting

Controlling-

Profitability

Analysis

R

R

R

FI