SAP Community - SAP Business One

Scan Contact Persons into Business Partner Master Data

2023-08-24T00:03:29+02:00

In the fast-paced world of business, networking remains a cornerstone of success. Whether you're attending an in-person conference, trade show, or casual meetup, exchanging business cards is a time-honoured tradition. The new function is transforming the way we manage our professional contacts.

Starting with SAP Business One version 10.0 FP 2111 a new app has been added to the web client for scanning business cards and creating business partner master data records on the fly.

For more information click here

With the new app, a frequently asked capability was to enable adding a new contact person to an existing business partner (and not create an entirely new business partner). Starting with SAP Business One version 10.0 FP 2305, this option is available.

The new functionality is particularly intuitive and easy for those of you who have already tried the business partner scan.

The steps to add a new contact person to an existing business partner are consistent with SAP Business One business logic and required validations.

After choosing the new option 'Create a contact for an existing business partner', you only need to define the type and the code of the business partner you want to update with a new contact person.

For detailed setup and usage information click here

Contact Person’s scanning can increase productivity and efficiency, I invite you to try it in your next in-person event.

Your feedback matters, if you have any ideas how to further improve this capability please raise them here

Localized Demo Databases Now Available for SAP Business One 10.0 FP 2305

2023-08-27T20:30:21+02:00

Demo, learn, teach, and test SAP Business One with fresh demo environment!

We are glad to announce that the SAP Business One localized demo databases have been upgraded to the latest release 10.0 FP 2305 and are available for download.

Along with the upgraded environment to release 10.0 FP 2305, we provide enhanced and recent transactional data to make your demos look fresh and tidy!

The localized demo databases contain a pre-configured SAP Business One environment in 39 localizations. They are based on the model company OEC Computers and are offered for both the MS SQL version and the SAP HANA version of SAP Business One.

Download the Localized Demo Databases for SAP Business One

Analyzing Customer Performance with Advanced SQL Queries in SAP Business One

2023-08-31T22:14:42+02:00

With businesses that continue to grow and automation of processes is taking place, it is important to take a deep dive to gain insights into customer’s behaviour and its performance that can have a significant impact on the outcome on the business. SAP Business One has that flexibility and it also provides tools to extract key information from our data that can help us make informed decisions. Through this blog, we will try to explore and advanced SQL query that can help us analyze different aspects of business partner.

Introduction:
Businesses pay utmost importance on customer relationship and utilise that effectively for their business growth and success. SAP Business one allows us to dig deep into our customer data which helps us understand the purchasing behaviour, their credit utilization, payment terms and average pay days. In this below discussion, we will try to go through a comprehensive SQL query that allows us to have insights into customer patterns.

The Query:

-- Declare the period of analysis



DECLARE @StDt DateTime



DECLARE @EndDt DateTime



-- Define/Set the start and end dates for the analysis



SET @StDt = DATEFROMPARTS(YEAR(GETDATE()), 1, 1) -- Start of the current year



SET @EndDt = GETDATE() -- Current date



-- Calculate the average pay days using a Common Table Expression (CTE)



;WITH AvgDaysToPay AS (



SELECT



T4.CardCode,



T4.CardName,



AVG(CASE WHEN T4.DocDate = T1.DocDate THEN 0  -- Same day payment, 0 days to pay



ELSE DATEDIFF(DAY, T4.DocDate, T1.DocDate)



END) AS 'AverageDaysToPay'



FROM OCRD T0



INNER JOIN ORCT T1 ON T0.CardCode = T1.CardCode



INNER JOIN RCT2 T3 ON T3.DocNum = T1.DocNum



INNER JOIN OINV T4 ON T4.DocEntry = T3.DocEntry AND T3.InvType = '13'



WHERE



(T4.DocDate BETWEEN @StDt AND @EndDt)



GROUP BY T4.CardCode, T4.CardName),



-- Subquery that calculates AvgDaysToDN and AvgDaysToInvoice



-- This query is not time restricted



OrderDeliveryInvoice AS (



SELECT DISTINCT



T7.Cardcode,



T3.[DocDate] AS OrderDate,



T5.DocDate AS DeliveryNoteDate,



T7.Docdate AS InvoiceDate



FROM OPKL T0



right outer JOIN PKL1 T1 ON T0.AbsEntry = T1.AbsEntry



right outer JOIN RDR1 T2 ON T2.LineNum = T1.OrderLine AND T1.OrderEntry = T2.DocEntry AND T1.BaseObject = 17



right outer JOIN ORDR T3 ON T3.DocEntry = T2.DocEntry



LEFT outer JOIN DLN1 T4 ON T4.BaseEntry = T2.DocEntry AND T4.BaseLine = T2.LineNum AND T4.BaseType = T3.ObjType



LEFT outer JOIN ODLN T5 ON T5.DocEntry = T4.DocEntry



LEFT outer JOIN INV1 T6 ON T6.BaseEntry = T4.DocEntry AND T6.BaseLine = T4.LineNum AND T6.BaseType = T5.ObjType



LEFT outer JOIN OINV T7 ON T7.DocEntry = T6.DocEntry



WHERE  T3.[CANCELED] = 'N'  AND T7.Cardcode IS NOT NULL )



-- Main query that analyzes customer performance and join with the subquery



SELECT



T2.CardCode [Customer Code],



T2.CardName [Customer Name],



RANK() OVER (ORDER BY ISNULL((ArInvoices.ArcLineTotal - ISNULL(ArCredits.ArcLineTotal, 0)), 0) DESC) AS CustomerRank,



T3.GroupName [Group Name],   T2.[CreditLine] AS [Credit Limit],



(ISNULL((SELECT SUM(Balance) FROM OCRD WHERE CardCode = T2.CardCode), 0) / NULLIF(T2.[CreditLine], 0)) * 100 [Credit Utilization %],



T1.PymntGroup AS [Payment Terms],   T2.[Currency],



T4.SlpName [Sales Employee Name],



ISNULL((SELECT SUM(Balance) FROM OCRD WHERE CardCode = T2.CardCode), 0) [Current Receivables],



CASE



WHEN ISNULL(ArInvoices.ArcLineTotal, 0) = 0 THEN NULL



ELSE CAST(CEILING((ISNULL((SELECT SUM(Balance) FROM OCRD WHERE CardCode = T2.CardCode), 0) / ISNULL(ArInvoices.ArcLineTotal, 0)) * DATEDIFF(DAY, @StDt, @EndDt)) AS INT)



END [Accounts Receivable Days],



AvgDaysToPay.AverageDaysToPay,



ISNULL(ArInvoices.ArcLineCount, 0) [A/R Invoices],



ISNULL(ArCredits.ArcLineCount, 0) [A/R Credits],



ISNULL((ISNULL(ArInvoices.ArcLineTotal, 0) - ISNULL(ArCredits.ArcLineTotal, 0)), 0) [Total Net Sales],



ISNULL((ISNULL(ArInvoices.ArcGrssProfit, 0) - ISNULL(ArCredits.ArcGrssProfit, 0)), 0) [Gross Profit],



CASE



WHEN ArInvoices.ArcLineCount = 0 THEN NULL



ELSE (ISNULL((ISNULL(ArInvoices.ArcGrssProfit, 0) - ISNULL(ArCredits.ArcGrssProfit, 0)), 0) / NULLIF((ISNULL(ArInvoices.ArcLineTotal, 0) - ISNULL(ArCredits.ArcLineTotal, 0)), 0)) * 100



END [Gross Profit %],



OrderDeliveryAvg.AvgDaysToDN,



OrderDeliveryAvg.AvgDaysToInvoice



FROM



[dbo].[OCRD] T2



LEFT JOIN [dbo].[OCRG] T3 ON T2.GroupCode = T3.GroupCode



LEFT JOIN [dbo].[OSLP] T4 ON T2.SlpCode = T4.SlpCode



LEFT JOIN [dbo].[OCTG] T1 ON T2.GroupNum = T1.GroupNum



LEFT JOIN (



-- Subquery that calculates total AR invoices and their attributes



SELECT



T0.CardCode,



COUNT(DISTINCT T0.DocNum) AS ArcLineCount,



SUM(CASE WHEN (T1.[Quantity] = 0 AND (T1.[StockPrice] * T1.[Quantity]) = 0)



THEN T1.[LineTotal] ELSE (T1.[INMPrice] * T1.[Quantity]) END) AS ArcLineTotal,



SUM(T1.GrssProfit) AS ArcGrssProfit



FROM



[dbo].[OINV] T0



INNER JOIN [dbo].[INV1] T1 ON T0.DocEntry = T1.DocEntry



WHERE



T0.DocDate BETWEEN @StDt AND @EndDt



AND T0.[CANCELED] = 'N'



GROUP BY



T0.CardCode  ) ArInvoices ON T2.CardCode = ArInvoices.CardCode



LEFT JOIN (



-- Subquery that calculates the total AR credits and their attributes



SELECT



T0.CardCode,



COUNT(DISTINCT T0.DocNum) AS ArcLineCount,



SUM(CASE WHEN (T1.[Quantity] = 0 AND (T1.[StockPrice] * T1.[Quantity]) = 0)



THEN T1.[LineTotal] ELSE (T1.[INMPrice] * T1.[Quantity]) END) AS ArcLineTotal,



SUM(T1.GrssProfit) AS ArcGrssProfit



FROM



[dbo].[ORIN] T0



INNER JOIN [dbo].[RIN1] T1 ON T0.DocEntry = T1.DocEntry



WHERE



T0.DocDate BETWEEN @StDt AND @EndDt



AND T0.[CANCELED] = 'N'



GROUP BY



T0.CardCode



) ArCredits ON T2.CardCode = ArCredits.CardCode



LEFT JOIN AvgDaysToPay ON T2.CardCode = AvgDaysToPay.CardCode



-- Join with the subquery



LEFT JOIN (



SELECT



Cardcode,



AVG(CASE WHEN OrderDate = DeliveryNoteDate THEN 0 ELSE DATEDIFF(DAY, OrderDate, DeliveryNoteDate) END) AS AvgDaysToDN,



AVG(CASE WHEN OrderDate = InvoiceDate THEN 0 ELSE DATEDIFF(DAY, OrderDate, InvoiceDate) END) AS AvgDaysToInvoice



FROM OrderDeliveryInvoice



GROUP BY Cardcode



) OrderDeliveryAvg ON T2.CardCode = OrderDeliveryAvg.Cardcode



WHERE



EXISTS (



-- Subquery that filters valid customers based on invoice and credit transactions



SELECT 1 FROM (



SELECT T0.CardCode FROM [dbo].[OINV] T0 WHERE T0.DocDate BETWEEN @StDt AND @EndDt and T0.[CANCELED] = 'N'



UNION



SELECT T0.CardCode FROM [dbo].[ORIN] T0 WHERE T0.DocDate BETWEEN @StDt AND @EndDt and T0.[CANCELED] = 'N'



) X WHERE X.CardCode = T2.CardCode )



ORDER BY



CustomerRank, T2.CardCode;

Insights:

Customer Ranking: This query helps to calculate customer ranks based on their sales, identifying our top customers.

Credit Utilizations: This query helps us to understand how much percentage of credit limit a customer has utilised.

Payment Terms vs Days to Pay: Comparing the terms of payment with the average days to pay can help us understand the payment performance of a specific customer and we can identify if there are any payment delays.

Receivables vs Receivable Days: This area of analysis can offer insights into the outstanding balances and the average number of days it takes for customers to pay by that customer.

Invoice vs Credit Counts: To identify the customer activity and interaction of customer with our business can be analysed in this section of the report by seeing the number of invoices and credits issued during that period.

AR Sales vs Gross Profit: Total receivables outstanding and how much gross profit a customer is having can be evaluated here with its financial impact.

Gross Profit Percentage (%): The gross profit (GP) percentage defines the profitability of customer during the defined period.

Average days to serve: the query also helps us to understand the customer service aspect of our business by providing us average days deliver/invoice a customer. This section can help us improve our inventory management as well if our business is serving a customer longer than normal due to out-of-stock issues.

Conclusion:

It is critical to analyze customer performance to optimize business operations effectively. The above SQL query allows us to see how SAP Business one can used as a tool to extract maximum and meaningful information from our data. By analyzing various matrices, one can make informed decisions to effectively grow and enhance customer relationship. This also helps to improve credit management and on the other side, It also evaluates our performance that in how many days we can serve a customer once a sales order is placed to our business.

Document Information Extraction Templates with SAP Business One

2023-09-05T15:53:01+02:00

As a user of SAP Business One you can consume the capabilities of Document Information Extraction (which is part of the SAP AI Business Services Portfolio) for importing documents to SAP Business One.

In this blog I would like to provide summary of how to better use its potential in connection to the newly delivered functionality.

The basic functionality is described in the relevant SAP Note 3060961 (and related SAP Notes) and this blog.

The additional functionality coming in the release of SAP Business One FP 2305 include the following template management feature:

Using the Templates as part of the Document Information Extraction service. The details of the template feature are provided in this blog. The advantage of the using of the templates is to specify for repeating layouts a template which will improve the extraction results for the documents of this type.

As part of the Template feature there is a possibility to define also a constant value for a specific output field. Therefore, for example if you know that template shall over the layouts of particular vendor you can specify its name or Tax ID as a constant value and then you can make sure that the specific value is always there.

The template can help to work for additional languages. For example the documents in Hebrew can be processed with better recognition result.

For standard integration between SAP Business One and Document Information Extraction service there is used in the background the feature of “autoselect” of the template. It means the following:
1. If there is no template used for a specific Document Information Extraction service account there is always used the standard model.
2. If there is a template used then service tries to match the particular document to the base template. However, if there is not any match the standard model is used for the data extraction.

The standard integration solution supports the templates created for the standard SAP scheme – “SAP_Invoice_Schema”. The scheme includes all standard fields included in the Document Information Extraction service.

The processing with template is similar to the basic functionality:

Prerequisites:

The Document Information Extraction protocol is setup and activated

The Electronic Document Service is running with "ConnectorDOX-1 (DOX)" processing

Steps:

The document in pdf (or other supported format) is taken from the predefined location by the Electronic Documents Service.

The document is processed to the Document Information Extraction service considering the above mentioned “autoselect” option.

The result is generated in a form of a JSON file. The processed document JSON file would include the following elements:

The results is stored in ECM8 table in the SAP Business One database and then it can be processed by wizard - Electronic Documents Import Wizard (EDIW) for Document Information Extraction protocol.

The completion process in the Electronic Documents Import Wizard was enhanced in version SAP Business One 2305, see the related blog.

What’s next?

This is a short summary of available functionality in SAP Business One. It should help you to get the better results from the integration between SAP Business One and Document Information Extraction service.

Regardless of the industry it’s undeniable that with the help of AI, specifically the Document information Extraction, can help you overcome various challenges in the area of data recognition.

I would like to ask you to share your feedback or thoughts in a comment or ask questions in the Q&A tag area here:

SAP Business One Community

The additional related materials can help you as well:

The template feature with own schema can be used for the SAP Build Process Automation automations. Please see the related documentation in Open SAP microlearning.

Related documentation for the set-up of an account on the SAP Business Technology platform can be viewed at the following Web link.

Electronic Documents Import Wizard Enhancements

2023-09-05T15:54:07+02:00

In relation to the use of Document Information Extraction (which is part of the SAP AI Business Services Portfolio) with Electronic Documents Import Wizard for importing documents to SAP Business One, the additional functionality coming in the release of SAP Business One FP 2305 include the following s several interesting enhancements.

In this blog I would like to provide some tips and tricks how to better use its potential.

The basic functionality is described in the relevant SAP Note 3060961 (and related SAP Notes)

The enhancements are mainly relevant also for the Electronic Documents Import Wizard available in SAP Business One.

For the creation of a document is SAP Business One there is a need to have Business Partner identified. Therefore, it is essential to have it extracted from the original document. Apart from the option of the constant value (when using the template feature) it is possible to specify the value right in the step 2 of the Electronic Documents Import Wizard. The value will be then used further in the process of creation of the document draft, regardless of the value in the imported document.

The definition of the parameters for the Business Partner identification is in the step1 of the Electronic Documents Import Wizard:

The similar cases with the item codes. There are in general 4 rounds of the search done by the system based on the imported values – the system is checking the item code, item description, values in Business Partner Catalogue or bar code. If the search is unsuccessful, it is possible to select the value manually by the user directly in the grid of the Electronic Documents Import Wizard.

It is possible also to create the document as service type (not item), In this case the wizard allows the specification of service G/L account manually. The option here is also to check the Electronic File Manager mapping for Document Information Extraction import in which it is possible to predefine the account to be used for specific condition. For example:

In the Electronic Documents Import Wizard, it is possible not to import all the rows. For example in case that the Document Information Extraction service is recognizing the additional rows which are not really available on the original document. In this case you can use “Skip” option for particular row.

The processing document received from the Document Information Extraction service is based on use of the Electronic File Manager import mapping file. It is possible to based on the system one, to create your own version by adjusting it. For example for the definition of condition for the G/L account for service document.

For the testing purposes it is possible to take the imported file in a form of XML Data Source - on step 2 of the Electronic Documents Import Wizard, so you can validate the mapping on the real data.

The adjusted mapping can be then imported to SAP Business One and used for the import process.

The Electronic Document Import Wizard currently allows also the possibility to create Sales Orders from the Purchase Orders. If you have the relevant JSON file for the processed Purchase Order by the Document Information Extraction service then you can import it via the Electronic Documents Import Wizard as a Sales Order. For more details see the SAP Note 3251295.

What’s next?

This is an overview of the possibilities to use this functionality in SAP Business One. It should help to increase the system flexibility when importing the electronic documents. It is not relevant only to import for the Document Information Extraction but also other Electronic Documents Protocols.

In the related blog there is described the function related to the "template" option for the Document Information Extraction service with use "autoselect" option.

In case you have used the functionality, I would like to ask you to share your feedback or thoughts in a comment or ask questions in the Q&A tag area here:

SAP Business One Community

SAP B1If 2.0 – Migration from SAP B1If 1.x

2023-09-07T22:06:26+02:00

Hi friends!

In this post we will detail some of our experience in migrating packages from SAP B1If 1.x to SAP B1If 2.0, more specifically migrating packages related to a custom REST API for SAP Business One.

Our migration process basically involved three distinct processes, the last process of which has not yet been completed:

Migration Tool 1.x to 2.0

2.0 adjustments keeping B1If Compatibility

2.0 tuning to make B1If 2.0 pure package

After the migration from 1.x to 2.0, some adjustments were required in several places for the steps to perform minimally in B1If 2.0. These adjustments for minimal execution maintained compatibility with 1.x.

Therefore, to get the expected improvements with B1If 2.0, it will still be necessary a Tuning step, aiming to eliminate the 1.x elements of the steps and migrate definitively from the "Smart Message Model" to the "Freestyle Message Model".

1. Migration Tool

The first step in migrating a package from B1If 1.x to B1If 2.0 is to use the Migration Tool in SAP B1If 1.x. In this process we use the option [Create Scenario for Each Step] in Package Structure.

Migration Tool

2. Adjustments in Migrate Package

After the successful migration, we performed several adjustments in B1If 2.0 in order to have a functional version:

Adjust the structure of the package, using the "Flow Editor" tool. Unfortunately the feature is only textual, and the possibility of dragging steps between scenarios would be welcome.

Suitability for 1.x features not available in 2.0, such as "Call Scenario Step" in synchronous mode.

Replacing global microservices defined in another package (such as log write) with calls via the REST API or by SELECT JDBC.

General adjustments related to Inbound and Outbound Properties, use of the variable $settings for [Global Properties], inclusion of Allways in Branch so as not to lose previous messages, etc.

Below we detail some of the solutions found in this process of adjustments in the packages migrated to 2.0:

Internal Microservices of the package, implemented as synchronous processes. Solution: [1] use of [Include] for microservice call in the main step with simplified request and response handling and within Branch/Unbranch with Always, [2] use of inbound/outbound ENQI/ENQO in the synchronous step, [3] need to add alone [External Adapter Call] for each distinct [Call Adapter] performed in the synchronous step (e.g., JDBC.1, 1, B1SJ.1) to create the respective portID in the main atom (eliminating error "XCE009 Unknown port ID").

External Microservices to the package, implemented as synchronous processes. Solution: [1] in some cases a new endpoint was created in the base Custom API and the synchronous [Call Scenario Step] was replaced by [Adapter Call] HTTA.1; in other cases it has been replaced by [Adapter Call] JDBC.1.

Inbound Configuration: [pltype] must be removed; if it is equal to xml generates error in queryParams and if it is equal to json gives problem with GET.

Outbound Configuration: Included are [httpheader.htta.reporterror]=true and [htta.returnpltypeforce]=json

Header parameters: You must remove the vpf prefix.

HTTA.1: Unexplained error when using a created Xform instead of a migrated Xform, requiring the use of migrated Xform to make it work. In the migrated Xform the "sysid" is empty and works, in the created Xform the "sysid" is equal to the reference atom and gives the error "Reference SysId missing in SLD". Even changing from "jrexml" to "sapxml" in BizFlow didn't help.

Inbound HTTP

Finally, we list some limitations and difficulties encountered:

Inbound Timer: the options of setting the recurrence values for the CRON Adapter in a fixed mode or with the need to create SLD T.AnySystem seemed confusing to us, and we considered that this definition should have the flexibility found in version 1.x (where the Schedulers are defined in the Setup phase).

Inbound HTTP RESTfull: Endpoints in HTTP scenarios will now always have an endpoint containing the package, scenario, and step names and the deployment name. With this, it was necessary to create new steps for endpoints that used a subpath of the RESTfull URL.

Obfuscation only encrypts XSL files but does not encrypt the Step flow, allowing changes even in obfuscated package. We believe that the reason for this is that in B1If 2.0 the definitions of Inbound and Outbound are carried out in the flow itself.

As a final result of the entire process, which required about 140 hours for about 70 scenarios steps, all packages related to the custom API REST for SAP Business One are operating correctly in SAP B1If 2.0.

Below is the final structure of the package in the SAP B1If 2.0 Deployment Panel.

Deployment Panel

3. Tuning in Migrate Package

The next steps of the conversion project will now involve Tuning the steps, aiming to make them 100% compatible with B1If 2.0 and thus obtain all the expected performance improvements.

As soon as we have details of this process that will still be carried out, we will launch a new article with all the details.

References

Integration Framework 2.0. - Package Migration from Version 1

SAP B1If 2.0 - How to adjust Synchronous Step and Call Scenario Step from SAP B1If 1.x?

SAP Business One Integration Framework 2.0

Mastering Inventory Management with Advanced SQL Techniques: Through Fast- Slow- Non Moving(FSN) and ABC analysis, intriguing discoveries await.

2023-09-13T17:21:56+02:00

Being the core of a prosperous venture, it heavily hinges upon inventory management to be handled effectively. And this goal can be easy to achieve using effective management that encompasses three crucial aspects:

Expenses reduction through optimal resource allocation,

Fulfilling customers’ requirements through adequate supply chain management,

and streamlining processes through data analysis and key insights gleaned therefrom.

This article demonstrates pros and implementation processes in SAP Business One by examining two key inventory management strategies – FSA analysis and ABC Analysis.

Comparing FSN and ABC via parallel methods will reveal their differences initially.

Analysis	FSN	ABC
Approach	Movement dynamics/Categories (Fast-Slow-Non-Moving)	Value and importance
Objective	Reduce holding costs and optimal stock levels and	Informed decisions and Resource allocations and
Categories	Fast Moving (F), Slow Moving (S), Non-Moving (N)	Category A, Category B, Category C
Purpose	Efficiently manage slow-moving items, prevent stockouts and manage replenishment, and address obsolete Inventory	Control stock of critical items, Optimize storage costs for low-value items, and balance stock levels for moderate-value items,
Benefits	Avoid understocking and overstocking and minimize the carrying costs	Maximize revenue from high-value items and efficiently allocate resources.

The Query:

-- Define the AvgQuantityCTE to calculate various metrics for FSN Analysis

WITH AvgQuantityCTE AS (

SELECT

T1.[ItemCode],

T1.[ItemName],

T4.[FirmName],

T0.[WhsCode],

T0.ONHAND AS 'In Stock',

T0.[AvgPrice] * T0.[OnHand] AS "Stock Value",

MAX(T5.DocDate) AS 'Last Sales Date',

-- Calculate days since the last sale

DATEDIFF(

day,

CASE WHEN MAX(T5.DocDate) IS NOT NULL THEN MAX(T5.DocDate) ELSE T1.LASTPURDAT END,

GETDATE()

) AS days_since_last_sold,

T1.LASTPURDAT AS 'Last Purchase date',

-- Calculate the average quantity sold in the last 12 months

ROUND(ISNULL((

SELECT SUM(Total.Quantity) / 12

FROM (

-- Calculate the quantity sold

SELECT SUM(T5.Quantity) AS Quantity

FROM INV1 T5

WHERE T5.DocDate >= DATEADD(Month, -12, GETDATE()) AND T5.[ItemCode] = T1.[ItemCode]

UNION ALL

-- Calculate the quantity returned

SELECT -SUM(R5.Quantity) AS Quantity

FROM RIN1 R5

WHERE R5.DocDate >= DATEADD(Month, -12, GETDATE()) AND R5.[ItemCode] = T1.[ItemCode]

) AS Total

), 0), 1) AS 'Avg Quantity Sold Last 12 Months'

FROM OITW T0

INNER JOIN OITM T1 ON T0.ITEMCODE = T1.ITEMCODE

INNER JOIN OITB T2 ON T1.ITMSGRPCOD = T2.ITMSGRPCOD

LEFT JOIN ibt1 t3 ON t3.itemcode = t0.itemcode AND t3.whscode = t0.whscode

INNER JOIN OMRC T4 ON T1.[FirmCode] = T4.[FirmCode]

LEFT JOIN INV1 T5 ON T1.[ItemCode] = T5.[ItemCode]

LEFT JOIN RIN1 R5 ON T1.[ItemCode] = R5.[ItemCode]

GROUP BY

T0.ITEMCODE, T1.ITEMCODE, T1.[ItemName], T4.[FirmName], T0.[WhsCode], T0.ONHAND,      T0.[AvgPrice], T1.LASTPURDAT ),

-- Define the SKUStatsCTE to calculate the stock value and percentiles for ABC Analysis

SKUStatsCTE AS (

SELECT

[ItemCode],

[ItemName],

[FirmName],

[WhsCode],

[In Stock],

[Stock Value],

[Last Sales Date],

[days_since_last_sold],

[Last Purchase date],

[Avg Quantity Sold Last 12 Months],

-- Calculate the 75th percentile for FSN categorization

PERCENTILE_CONT(0.75) WITHIN GROUP (ORDER BY [Avg Quantity Sold Last 12 Months]) OVER () AS Top25Percentile,

-- Calculate the 25th percentile for FSN categorization

PERCENTILE_CONT(0.25) WITHIN GROUP (ORDER BY [Avg Quantity Sold Last 12 Months]) OVER () AS Bottom25Percentile

FROM AvgQuantityCTE

),

-- Define the ABCAnalysisCTE to calculate stock value percentage and ABC category

ABCAnalysisCTE AS (

SELECT

[ItemCode],

[ItemName],

[FirmName],

[WhsCode],

[In Stock],

[Stock Value],

[Last Sales Date],

[days_since_last_sold],

[Last Purchase date],

[Avg Quantity Sold Last 12 Months],

[Top25Percentile],

[Bottom25Percentile],

-- Calculate the stock value percentage for ABC categorization

StockValuePercentage,

-- Determine the ABC category based on cumulative percentages

CASE

WHEN CumulativePercentage <= 0.8 THEN 'A'

WHEN CumulativePercentage <= 0.95 THEN 'B'

ELSE 'C'

END AS 'ABC Category'

FROM (

SELECT *,

-- Calculate stock value percentage

[Stock Value] / TotalStockValue AS StockValuePercentage,

-- Calculate cumulative stock value percentage

SUM([Stock Value] / TotalStockValue) OVER (ORDER BY [Stock Value] DESC) AS CumulativePercentage

FROM (

SELECT *,

-- Calculate total stock value

SUM([Stock Value]) OVER () AS TotalStockValue

FROM SKUStatsCTE

) AS Subquery

) AS ABCSubquery

-- Final query to get ABC Analysis results along with inventory movement type

SELECT

[ItemCode],

[ItemName],

[FirmName],

[WhsCode],

[In Stock],

[Stock Value],

[Last Sales Date],

[days_since_last_sold],

[Last Purchase date],

[Avg Quantity Sold Last 12 Months],

[ABC Category],

-- Determine inventory movement type based on percentiles

CASE

WHEN [Avg Quantity Sold Last 12 Months] = 0 THEN 'Non-Moving'

WHEN [Avg Quantity Sold Last 12 Months] >= [Top25Percentile] THEN 'Fast Moving'

ELSE 'Slow Moving' END AS 'Inventory Movement Type'

FROM ABCAnalysisCTE

WHERE

[In Stock] > 0



ORDER BY [ABC Category] DESC, [Stock Value] DESC

Query Understanding:

Part 1 – Defining the Metrics.

This part will help us understand the calculations of various metrics and how our products are moving.

Collection of information about each of our inventory items, such as item code, name, it’s location where the item is stored, in our case it’s warehouse code.

Determining how many of each item we currently have in stock and how much these items are worth.

Calculation of how quickly we are selling the items by calculating when our last item was sold.

We are also interested in when we last purchased that item.

Then finally to get the sense of how well we are selling our items, we calculate the average quantity sold in the last 12 months for each item.

. Part 2 – Statistical Model

After defining the initial and basic information about our inventory, we want to calculate/define stats that will help us classify our inventory items.

In this section, we are trying to define the 75^th and 25^th Percentile for the above-calculated average quantity sold in the last 12 months. This section will categorize our items based on their performance into three groups.

The top 25% will be classified as Fast-moving,

The bottom 25% will be classified as Non-moving.

And middle ones are our Slow-moving items.

Part 3 – ABC Analysis Categories

In this part, we are going to assign categories (A, B, C) to each of our inventory items based on their value and importance.

Firstly, we calculate a percentage of how much each of our items contributes to the overall value of the stock.

Then we use that percentage to determine whether an item falls into categories A, B, or C.

“A” items are the most valuable but are normally sold in smaller quantities.

“B” items have moderate values and may have moderate quantities sold as well.

“C” items are less valuable but sold in larger quantities.

By producing different metrics for our analysis, this SQL query empowers us to make informed decisions based on our data results and compare those results with Industry standards. This can help us identify critical items such as obsolete or Non-Moving inventory efficiently.

Conclusion:

To keep our inventory at optimal levels, FSN and ABC analysis are vital tools for business management. FSN Analysis helps us to get a better understanding of the classification of items based on their movement dynamics and on the other hand, ABC analysis defines prioritizes based on the value of the items and their importance.

By adopting these tools and methodologies using this SQL query in SAP Business One, we can modernize our operations by reducing inventory carrying costs. We can achieve balanced growth through efficient Inventory controls.

Selection of Multiple values in UDF with FMS

2023-10-05T00:20:41+02:00

Greetings all..!!

Hope you guys doing well..

This will be my first blog, but certainly not the last. Inspired by the likes of Linus Torvalds and Steve Jobs, I've made the decision to contribute to the community by sharing the knowledge and experiences I've gained over the past few years. I've spent over 5 years working with an SAP Partner, and during this time, I've encountered some unique yet genuine requirements from customers. Leveraging the knowledge I've acquired, I've made every effort to address these requirements to the best of my ability and come as close as possible to meeting their needs.

Where it Started:

About 3 years ago, one of my colleagues encountered a customer requirement. The customer wanted to populate batches at the Sales Order level for informational purposes, without the need for reservations. In response, we provided a solution using FMS (Formula Management System) with a UDF (User-Defined Field) called "U_batch" at the Sales Order row level. However, the challenge arose when they requested that all batches of the item be displayed in the FMS, complete with their quantities, and the ability to select multiple batches, including alternative ones. This is where the need for a Multi-Selection FMS over the UDF came into play. After searching the entire internet and concluding that it wasn't possible, I decided to tackle the problem myself.

And here it landed :

To achieve this, I came up with the idea of concatenating the results. So, I created a UDF called "U_batch" at the row level of the Sales Order.

Now, let's delve into the FMS aspect. Ordinarily, FMS returns a single value in a field, a fact we are well aware of. But what if we click on the same FMS (the magnifying glass icon) and select another value? It replaces the existing value in the field. To meet our objective, we had to concatenate the existing result set with the newly selected value, and that proved to be the key. I came across information stating that the value for FMS selection originates from the first column itself. Therefore, the first column of the query had to be present, albeit hidden manually.

So, Lets get started with the steps to the achieve our requirements,

Create the UDF for batch.

Align the UDF on required location over document.

Create the FMS
- I have created the FMS as "ORDR_Batch_MJ_V-2.0".

Assign the FMS on Document, in this case its SO.

Now, as seen in trailing image, the highlighted column on the left is the one which consist the value of FMS, which we can not hide with the form settings.

But this will also show all the concatenated values of our result (like below image). Which basically we don't want to.

So, to overcome this, We have to select column edge and drag it to the very end of the left side.

In this way the column will be present on the left but hidden from the view. This will result in showing two lines on the left side, but wont interfere with the values and can go unnoticed.

Here's the FMS code in SQL as well as HANA.

-- Script for SQL---

/*-----------------------------------------------------

Author : MJ

Created On : 21/06/2019 @12:45 PM

Task Name : Fetch multiple values in sigle UDF with FMS.

Latest Version : 2.0

Last Revision : 26/02/2020 @06:30 PM 

-----------------------------------------------------*/

declare @str nvarchar(200)

declare @itm nvarchar(20)

declare @btnm nvarchar(max)

declare @sql nvarchar(max)



set @itm=$[$38.1.0]

set @str= $[$38.U_batch.0]



set @btnm = convert(nvarchar(max),(select concat('''',replace(@str,',',''','''),'''')))



set @sql = 'select (case when '''+@str+'''='''' then B.BatchNum else 

concat('''+@str+''','','',B.BatchNum) end ), B.BatchNum,B.ExpDate,B.Quantity from OIBT B where B.ItemCode='''+@itm+'''

and B.BatchNum not in ('+@btnm+') and B.Quantity > 0.0'



exec(@sql)

-- Script for HANA---

/*-----------------------------------------------------

Author : MJ

Created On : 22/06/2019 @03:33 PM

Task Name : Fetch multiple values in sigle UDF with FMS.

Latest Version : 2.0

Last Revision : 28/02/2020 @11:35 AM 

-----------------------------------------------------*/

declare str nvarchar(200);

declare itm nvarchar(200);

declare btnm nvarchar(200);

declare sql1 nvarchar(7000);



itm := $[$38.1.0];

str := $[$38.U_BatchNo.0];



select( CAST((SELECT (''''|| replace(:str, ',',''',''')|| '''') FROM DUMMY) AS nvarchar(5000))) into btnm from dummy;



sql1 := 'select (case when ''' || :str || '''='''' then B."BatchNum" else 

 (''' || :str || ''' ' || '||' || ''',''' || '||' || ' B."BatchNum" ) end ) as "Selection", B."BatchNum",B."ExpDate",B."Quantity" from OIBT B where B."ItemCode"=''' || :itm || '''

and B."BatchNum" not in (' || :btnm || ')';



EXECUTE IMMEDIATE(:sql1);

And voilà, here's the final result.

High's and Low's :

This may save a extra UDF creation on the forms where just multiple values needs to be stored.

The stored values in the UDF with comma separation, can be fetched in queries and utilized further in any operation like normal value. (Values can be processed with dynamic query or using string_split() function in query)

So, as nothing is perfect, this workaround does have the limitations as well. Which is,

You can not select multiple values at the same time, you have to chose one by one.

If values are too much like more than 10 or so, then using this workaround will be totally depended upon user conveniency as it will be manual recursive work for user.

.. And here, the story concludes with the proposed solution. This solution can be applied to various scenarios involving other objects as well.

I hope, this blog may help someone out there, who is looking after the solution like this.

If you need any help with similar things or have suggestions for the blog post, feel free to leave a comment below.

Thanks for your time... see you soon..

Cheerio..!!

New Changes Coming to SAP PartnerEdge Program in 2024

2023-10-16T00:10:41+02:00

The latest round of upcoming updates to the partner program incorporates new changes to align it closer to SAP’s cloud strategy.

Sell and Service partners were officially notified by email on October 9 of the upcoming changes to the partner program notification. The notice, which includes a variety of profound changes, strongly signals to the Sell and Service partners whose business models revolve around on-premise products. The notification stated that those partners will be strongly impacted if they continue to transact on-premise products as the partner program will only reward cloud-based motions moving forward.

The October 9 notification informed partners in the Sell and Service tracks about the fundamental changes that will start going into effect in phases starting in 2024:

Simplification of the program requirements, alignment of the sell and service tracks by making competencies a core requirement.

Enhanced recognition of partner groups by allowing partners to meet the certified solution consultant requirements as a group.

Updates to rules governing how value points are earned from on-premise sales and for SAP certifications.

Introduction of the Customer Success Guide, a new document that is an extension of the partner program guide highlighting key milestones and metrics to ensure an optimal post-sales experience for our joint customers.

Partners should be mindful of the various updates that will go into effect in 2024, and in particular, this upcoming change that is explained below which is important as it informs partners that by transacting on-premise products they can no longer earn value points to maintain their current program levels.

Discontinuation of Value Points for On-Premise Products – Effective February 2024

In 2024, SAP is evolving the partner program levels to reflect the cloud-focused emphasis of SAP’s Customer Value Journey. In the first phase, SAP will stop awarding value points earned for on-premise solutions revenue (except for SAP Business One and countries without an SAP cloud portfolio).

Partners that are selling on-premise products will no longer be able to earn value points towards maintaining or attaining the gold level and its associated benefits. SAP encourages partners who want to continue their successful partnership with SAP's cloud journey to adjust their business models accordingly.

- Existing gold level partners will not immediately be in danger of losing their gold level status since the changes are going into effect after the January program level-down evaluation, but they will not be able to help maintain their gold level via on-premise software sales after February 2024, as these transactions will no longer earn value points.

- Silver level partners will not be able to earn value points towards achieving gold level status by selling on-premise software after February 2024.

A Clear Signal to Partners About Upcoming New Program Levels Approach

The other big item that was communicated to partners is that SAP is sending a clear signal on the directional change in which SAP will further evolve program levels and criteria. A key foundation in the new approach for partner recognition will be focused on achievements in alignment with SAP’s strategy and priorities for the cloud. That means that All partners will have to be reassessed to see where they are in the new leveling approach with the exception of SAP Business One partners and countries where there is no cloud portfolio available.

The upcoming redesigned levelling for the SAP PartnerEdge program focuses on cloud customer success-oriented metrics. There will be no path forward for a partner to achieve or maintain gold level, by selling or focusing on on-premise solutions. To reward cloud activities, market development funds earning will be restricted to cloud solutions reselling. Partners can still sell on-premise solutions but it will not be recognized for program level advancement.

Now is the time for partners who know that they will be affected to begin having conversations with your partner business manager to figure out the best route to shift to cloud products and to discover some best practices to help make a smooth and successful transition with the right coaching and guidance from SAP partner teams.

In 2024, SAP will provide partners with more clarity on the new program leveling approach and what partners should expect.

Partners Are Our Best Asset

2023-10-30T10:34:32+01:00

As SAP continues its transformation apace, including the launch of a fresh, new, visual identity, Andrew Kisslo, Global Head of Partner Marketing, outlines his strategy for partners.

“Partners are our best asset – we need them more than ever to help us attract, grow, and retain customers of all shapes and sizes, especially in our transition to the cloud. In our largest enterprises, partners can help our existing customers understand how to move to the cloud and begin a shift to ‘clean core’ which is at the centre of our ERP strategy. For midmarket and below we need partners to attract new customers which increases our market share. With our new product offerings, partners can introduce customers to the value of SAP and why our approach is the best option in the market.

My role exists to empower every partner across their business with SAP, to help them build business demand and attract customers to close more business. Customers have more choice than ever so partners need to differentiate themselves which is why I am so focused on this.

Empowering partners:

Empowering partners is about enabling them with content, coaching, and guidance on how to increase awareness of their capabilities. We invest deeply in programmes designed to help partners generate demand, so they become part of any customer’s consideration phase of purchasing. For example, we have digital workshops dedicated on how to build a great value proposition which helps a partner be very clear about how they uniquely stand out. We have courses on how to become a ‘Lead Master’, where – through a series of classes – partners attain different levels of certification in how to generate their own leads.

These courses have a large impact for partners. For example, those who go through the Lead Master course can generate well over 10,000 leads and a minimum of two sales deals within the first 12 months alone. There is a very noticeable difference in the growth of their pipeline when compared to partners who do not complete the workshop. These things can make a big difference if partners take the time to participate.

Introducing new support from the Partner Marketing Team:

As a baseline, we’re always optimising our offerings including overhauling the Partner Benefits Catalogue. The second thing is that, in today’s digital world, we know that partners need to learn how to scale themselves through digital selling which is why we continue to invest in workshops focused on how to build a ‘social selling’ approach using marketing tactics on platforms such as LinkedIn. Finally, AI is rapidly becoming central to many customer discussions so in the year ahead you can expect brand-new support on how partners can talk about AI and SAP’s solutions which ensures every prospect knows how to learn from SAP for future innovation. I think partners should lean in now more than ever, especially with so much noise in the market which can confuse customers.”

VAT Changes as of January 1st, 2024 in Switzerland

2023-11-02T17:21:43+01:00

The objective of this blog post is to give you a guidance how to proceed with the setup of the SAP Business One for the existing customers in order to reflect the upcoming legislation changes in the system.

The tax authorities in Switzerland have announced that as of January 1, 2024, the following VAT (value-added tax) rates will apply in Switzerland:

Standard rate: 8.1%

Reduced rate: 2.6%

Special rate for accommodation: 3.8%

The changes in VAT rates follow a vote on September 25, 2022, that accepted an amendment to the AHV Act and the federal decree on the supplementary financing of the AHV.

If we compare current status with the expected, it looks like this:

	Standard Rate	Reduced Rate	Special Rate for Accommodation Services
Current VAT Rates (as of 1.1.2018)	7.7%	2.5%	3.7%
Applicable VAT Rates as of January 1^st, 2024	8.1%	2,6%	3.8%

It can be assumed that the Tax Authorities approach will be identical to the VAT changes from January 1st, 2018. Special attention must be paid to applying the correct tax rate (old / new) when issuing invoices in the year 2023 and if these invoices are partially or fully relevant to the year 2024. Such an example could be invoice partial payment, invoice down payment, invoices for periodic services, but conversely also to subsequent pay reductions and returns received in 2024, which relate to the 2023 service period.

Tax Codes

In order to fulfill the tax authorities requirement, you need to perform these steps in the system:

Add new temporary tax code for each currently valid tax codes where since 1.1.2024 a new tax rate should apply

Add definition for each temporary tax code added to the system

Change the definition of original tax codes

Update VAT Declaration Boxes and BAS Code Definition

Invoicing - recommendations

1. New Temporary Tax Codes

During the transition phase of the tax increase, the situation will arise where services for 2024 will already be invoiced in 2023. It will also happen that services provided in 2023 will be offset in 2024. To do this, temporary tax codes must be added to the system as follows:

Add temporary tax codes to the “Tax Groups – Setup” table

Path: Administration -> Setup -> Financials -> Tax -> Tax Groups

Each temporary tax code is a copy of its currently valid tax code. The difference is in the “Tax Definition – Setup”.

List of Codes for which the temporary codes should be added (this setup might differ based on business needs):

Code	Category	Name		Temporary code
I1	Input Tax	Vorsteuer Import Dienstleistungen	->	I1T
V1	Input Tax	Vorsteuer Materialaufwand	->	V1T
V2	Input Tax	Vorsteuer Dienstleistungen	->	V2T
V3	Input Tax	Vorsteuer Invest./Betriebsaufwendung	->	V3T
V5	Input Tax	Vorsteuer Betriebsaufwendung 50 % Abzug	->	V5T
V6	Input Tax	Vorsteuer Materialaufwand	->	V6T
V8	Input Tax	Vorsteuer Invest./Betriebsaufwand	->	V8T
V9	Input Tax	Vorsteur Sondersatz Beherbergungsaufwand	->	V9T
A1	Output Tax	Mehrwertsteuer 7,7%	->	A1T
A2	Output Tax	Mehrwertsteuer 2,5%	->	A2T
E1	Output Tax	Mehrwertsteuer 7,7% Eigenverbrauch	->	E1T
E2	Output Tax	Mehrwertsteuer 2,5% Eigenverbrauch	->	E2T

Add temporary tax codes to the “Tax Groups – Setup” table. The setup of temporary codes is a duplicate of the original codes. The tax definition is different. Please, follow the instructions from the text below.

2. Temporary Tax Codes Definition

In the transition phase of the tax increase, the situation will work like this: In the year 2023 services for 2024 will already be invoiced. It will also happen that services provided in 2023 will be charged in 2024. To do this, temporary control codes must be opened as follows:

For example, in case of Code I1 (Vorsteuer Import Dienstleistungen) with currently valid tax rate 7.7%, you need to add a temporary tax code, e.g. I1T and setup the definition in “Tax Definition – Setup”

Path: Administration -> Setup -> Financials -> Tax -> Tax Groups (Click on Tax Definition button for a particular I1T temporary tax code added to the Tax Groups – Setup table.)

Example of the definition setup for such a temporary tax code where the tax rate will change from 7,7% to 8.1% as of January 1^st, 2024.

Tax Definition Setup for I1T

Example of the definition setup for such a temporary tax code where tax rate will change from 2.5% to 2.6% as of January 1^st, 2024.

Tax Definition Setup for V6T

Example of the definition setup for such a temporary tax code where tax rate will change from 3.7% to 3.8% as of January 1^st, 2024.

Tax Definition Setup for V9T

The original code is already defined. Temporary codes can already exist in your databases following the legal changes from the year 2018. In such a case it is possible re-activate them and change the definition for the actual VAT Rate increase.

The reversal of the tax rates means that for the document date from 2023 the new VAT rate 8.1% will apply for services that will be provided in 2024 and for the document date from 2024 and the service provided in 2023 the VAT rate relevant for the year 2023 (7,7%) will apply.

3. Original Tax Codes Definition

Changes are required in case of these Tax Codes:

I1, V1, V2, V3, V5, A1, E1 - please, follow the setup according to the Screenshot No.1

V6, V8, A2, E2 - please, follow the setup according to the Screenshot No.2

V9 - please, follow the setup according to the Screenshot No.3

Path: Administration -> Setup -> Financials -> Tax -> Tax Groups (Click on Tax Definition button for a particular Tax Code)

Screenshot No.1

Screenshot No.2

Screenshot No.3

4. Tax Declaration Boxes and BAS Code Definition Adjustment

The following must be taken into account: The decisive factor for how the individual services are to be declared in the billing is the time or period in which the service was provided. Services provided until December 31, 2023 are subject to the previous tax rates. Services provided from January 1, 2024 are subject to the new tax rates. Since the tax rates applicable until the end of 2017 are no longer shown in the available statements, sales from services before January 1, 2018 must be reported to the Tax Authorities in writing outside of the statement.

VAT Form as of January 1st, 2024

Currently there is no separate VAT Form for the transition period from July 1^st, 2023 to December 31^st, 2023.

https://www.estv.admin.ch/estv/de/home/mehrwertsteuer/mwst-abrechnen/mwst-formulare.html

https://www.estv.admin.ch/dam/estv/de/dokumente/mwst/formulare/abrechnung-2024/4470-eff.pdf.download.pdf/mwst-4470-eff-d.pdf

In SAP Business One, the boxes in Tax Declaration Boxes – Setup must be updated according to the VAT Form 2024 changes:

Open the existing definition.

Path: Administration -> Setup -> Financials -> Tax -> Tax Declaration Boxes

These are examples how the "Tax Declaration Boxes - Setup" should be adjusted from the 3rd quarter of 2023 and from January 1st, 2024. This setup might differ based on business needs.

Path: Administration -> Setup -> Financials -> Tax -> Tax Declaration Boxes

From the 3rd quarter of 2023

As of January 1st, 2024

5. Invoicing - recommendations

Special attention must be paid to applying the correct tax rate (old/new) when issuing invoices during 2023 (transition period) in order to ensure correct processing of VAT.

The tax rate determination is dependent on the date of the service provisioning. On A/R Invoice you have to split it into two lines, one is for the service until 31.12.2023 (A1) and second is for service provided from 1.1.2024 (A1T) for invoices in 2023. In 2024 it will change to until 31.12.20123 to A1T, and from 1.1.2024 to A1.

The date of the tax declaration is the document date of invoice or any down payment. Deliveries and services without invoice will be declared on the date of payment.

On A/R Invoice the items should be split.

A/R Invoice

In the print layout both tax codes should be printed.

Print layout

For the new companies created in the SAP Business One in 2024 the updated tax rates and adjusted Tax Declaration Boxes and BAS Code Definition will be available with the SP2402 release.

In this blog post you could learn how to proceed with the setup of Tax Codes, Tax Declaration Boxes plus learn about invoicing during the transition period while the new VAT Tax rates will be valid as of January 1st, 2024.

I would like to invite you to provide feedback or ask clarifying questions regarding the topic in the comment section.

Comprehensive Guide on SAP ECC to SAP S/4HANA Migration

2023-11-21T16:18:29+01:00

SAP is pulling the plug on ECC support by 2027, and if you're still on it, it's time to think about making the jump to S/4HANA.

Many of you may still feel that 2027 is quite far off. This has happened before too – the initial deadline for discontinuing ECC was 2025, but it was extended by 2 years because not many organizations were making the shift to S/4HANA, so SAP had to delay their plans for 2 more years.

However, the 2027 deadline seems pretty solid so far, and it’s definitely not as far off as you may think. Migration from SAP ECC to SAP S/4HANA is an arduous task that takes considerable time and effort. For large enterprises, a complete system conversion can even take months due to the high volume of data and complex workflows. So, if you wait too long, you may need to rush the conversion process, which will not only increase the risk of errors but also disrupt core business processes.

But even before the actual migration, a lot of planning and preparation is involved during the pre-conversion phase. In this post, I'll quickly run you through a step-by-step approach to efficiently prepare for ECC to S/4HANA migration. These steps are not just standard best practices, but the road to smooth and seamless migration.

SAP implementation is a complex process that demands specialized expertise, extensive resources, precise configuration, and strategic planning. Overcoming these challenges can be difficult, but each challenge encountered presents an opportunity to refine business processes and maximize the potential of this robust ERP system. If you’re striving to get more out of your SAP system, then it’s time to revise your current processes and follow the best practices for ERP implementation.

Step 1: Familiarization with SAP S/4HANA

To ensure a smooth transition from SAP ECC to S/4HANA, it's crucial for ECC users to become familiar with the new system. This involves hands-on exploration of S/4HANA's features, functionalities, modules, and workflows. Understanding the capabilities of S/4HANA is essential for maximizing its benefits, and also helps you to choose the right deployment option among the different versions of S/4HANA.

SAP S/4HANA Cloud, public edition:
- Hosted in a public cloud environment.
- Offers scalability and flexibility.
- Managed and maintained by SAP.

SAP S/4HANA Cloud, private edition:
- Hosted in a private cloud, providing more control over infrastructure.
- Offers enhanced security and customization.
- Managed and maintained by SAP.

SAP S/4HANA On-Premises managed by SAP (HEC):
- On-Premise deployment with SAP managing the infrastructure (HANA Enterprise Cloud).
- Allows for a controlled environment.
- Provides the benefits of On-Premise with reduced operational burden.

SAP S/4HANA On-Premises:
- Traditional On-Premise deployment.
- Offers maximum control and customization.
- Requires in-house management of the entire system.

Choosing the right deployment option depends on factors like business requirements, infrastructure preferences, and desired levels of control and customization.

Step 2: Data Analysis and Classification

The next step is to segregate data into categories of hot, warm, and cold. This is essential for optimizing the migration process, because not all data needs to be migrated. So, deciding how much data needs to be transferred from your ECC database to S/4HANA is a crucial step when preparing for system conversion.

Here's a quick guide on how to classify data:

Hot Data:

Definition: Frequently accessed, critical data.

Action: Should be transferred and store in the S/4HANA tenant database.

Benefits: Ensures high-performance access to essential information.

Warm Data:

Definition: Less frequently accessed but still relevant data.

Action: Store in the S/4HANA system database.

Benefits: Balances performance and storage efficiency.

Cold Data:

Definition: Infrequently accessed or historical data.

Action: Archive as legacy data, reducing the load on the live system.

Benefits: Optimizes system resources and maintains compliance.

Why Classify Data?

Efficiency: Not all data needs to be migrated, preventing unnecessary strain on resources.

Performance: Ensures that crucial data is readily available in the live system for optimal performance.

Cost-Effectiveness: Reduces storage costs by archiving cold data rather than migrating it.

Step 3: Data Cleansing

After segregating data, the critical step of data cleansing comes into play. This process involves refining and enhancing the quality of data to ensure accuracy and reliability during migration. Here's a brief overview of the processes involved and the tools available from SAP:

Processes Involved in Data Cleansing:

Duplicate Removal: Identify and eliminate duplicate records to prevent redundancy and data inconsistency.

Standardization: Normalize data formats, units, and values for consistency across the dataset.

Validation: Verify data accuracy by validating against predefined rules and criteria.

Enrichment: Augment data with additional information to enhance its completeness and relevance.

Correction of Errors: Rectify any inaccuracies or errors in the data, ensuring it aligns with quality standards.

How Data Cleansing Works:

Data Profiling: Analyze the dataset to understand its structure, relationships, and potential issues.

Automated Cleansing: Employ automated tools to execute predefined cleansing rules and corrections.

Manual Review: Involve data experts to manually review and validate complex or critical data points.

SAP Tools for Data Cleansing:

SAP provides tools and solutions to facilitate efficient data cleansing as part of the migration journey. These tools include:

SAP Data Services: Offers comprehensive data integration and transformation capabilities.

SAP Information Steward: Enables data profiling, quality monitoring, and cleansing.

By undergoing thorough data cleansing, organizations ensure that the migrated data is accurate, consistent, and aligned with business requirements, laying a solid foundation for a successful transition to SAP S/4HANA.

SAP and APPSeCONNECT’s strategic partnership dates to 2022 when we participated in the SAP SMB Innovation Summit held in Manila. The event brought together SAP partners and customers to discuss the latest trends and developments in the industry. We showcased our integration platform, APPSeCONNECT, and demonstrated how it helps businesses streamline their operations by connecting their SAP systems with other applications.

Step 4: Readiness Check

SAP Readiness Check is a tool designed to assess the compatibility and readiness of a system for specific SAP upgrades or migrations. It provides an overview of how well the current system aligns with the target applications, helping organizations plan and execute digital transformation effectively. The tool is used for various SAP solutions, including SAP ERP and SAP S/4HANA upgrades.

Purpose of SAP Readiness Check:

System Analysis: Analyzes the existing SAP ECC system to evaluate its readiness for migration.

Simplification Items Identification: Identifies simplification items specific to the S/4HANA version, helping businesses understand the impact on existing processes.

Custom Code Analysis: Examines custom code to detect incompatibilities and provides insights into necessary adjustments for compatibility.

Data Volume Management: Assesses data volumes to optimize storage and performance during migration.

Business Process Analytics: Evaluates current business processes to align them with S/4HANA best practices.

Steps in SAP Readiness Check:

Initiation: Start the readiness check through SAP tools or cloud services.

Data Collection: Collect system data, including configurations, custom code, and usage statistics.

Analysis: Utilize the collected data to perform a comprehensive analysis, generating a detailed report.

Dashboard and Recommendations: Provides a user-friendly dashboard summarizing results and offering recommendations for a successful migration.

SAP Readiness Check offers self-service tools to facilitate efficient planning for the next steps in SAP ECC to SAP S/4HANA migration.

Follow these four steps thoroughly to prepare a solid foundation for your SAP S/4HANA conversion. Of course, this is only the pre-conversion phase, and there’s still a lot of other phases involved in system conversion. If you want to learn more about essential factors involved in the migration, feel free to check out the resource below:

Important Considerations for SAP ECC to SAP S/4HANA Migration

Views APIs - SAP Business One Web Client Extensibility

2023-12-07T00:46:25+01:00

When creating your own extension, you may sometimes need to redirect to a specific View in the SAP Business One Web Client. For this purpose, you will need to utilize the Views APIs.
This feature has been available since version 10.0 FP 2105.

The Views APIs can be used to generate URLs for the following views:

List view and detailed view for an object.

Analytics views.

The image below shows a Fiori app that redirects back to a specific Business Partner and a specific Item.

Fiori App

Views APIs for List View and Detailed view

In order to access a specific View in the Web Client, such as a specific Sales Order view, you will need to provide the information listed below:

The type of the object : System Object or User Defined Object.

The Business Object name (e.g. Orders).

Business Object value : this can be obtained by using the Service layer .

Demo App

You can review the sample code and the demo application here :Sample Code

Views APIs for Analytics views

In order to access a specific Analytics View in the Web Client, you will need to provide the information listed below:

Analytics Type can be either 'Dashboard' or 'ChartContainer.

Variant GUID - the Analytics group that contains the View.

Analytic View code.

Demo App

You can review the sample code and the demo application here :Sample Code

Future planning

Support for Views APIs began with version 10.0 FP 2105 , and Analytics views APIs with version 10.0 FP 2208. In each version, we continue to support more Business Objects(BOs), so you can track the new features in our Help Portal

Additionally, we provide an introduction video :

I hope you found this blog informative as an introductory guide to Views APIs.I am keen to learn about your experiences and insights from utilizing this API. Your feedback is highly valued, kindly share your thoughts in the comments section below.

Your Perspective, Our Priority: Creating Better Documentation Together

2024-01-04T09:32:21+01:00

The User Assistance team for SAP Business One has been busy finding the most innovative and convenient ways for you to give us your feedback on our documentation and receive answers to your questions. It’s our priority to make sure that you find the information that you need, delivered in the format that you prefer.

Here are 3 ways that you can give us your feedback or ask questions about our documentation for SAP Business One, Web client. Whether you only have a minute to share your feedback, or you are ready to start a dialog, all feedback is valuable and can help us tailor the content to customer needs.

Can’t find what you needed in a topic but you don’t have time for more than one click? We’ve got you covered. Answer the “Was this page helpful?” rating on SAP Help Portal.

Identified a problem in a topic or have a suggestion on how we can improve? Need an answer to your question? Log in to SAP Help Portal and choose the Feedback button to start a conversation with our technical authors. The new feedback feature offers a rich text editor for commenting that supports screenshots and hyperlinks. To provide transparency about the processing status of your feedback, our authors will assign various statuses to the comments as they proceed through the workflow. You’ll receive an automatic email notification each time your comment is responded to. Once you are satisfied with the reply or documentation updates, you can change the status to Answered.

Dissatisfied with scrolling through long text to find what you need? Or rather would you appreciate more context and detail? What about images and examples? If you'd like to share your opinion, sign up to participate in a research project testing different documentation prototypes. This will take the form of an online session for 60–90 minutes. For more information, please contact jane.orihel@sap.com.

Your valuable feedback and collaboration can help us boost the quality of our documentation. By implementing changes that address the gaps and actual issues that you have identified, we can provide better documentation that contributes to faster problem resolution and improved software usability.

We are looking forward to your feedback!

Stored Procedure Notification

2024-01-28T10:34:53.548000+01:00

I want to Block Duplicate Batch No for item using Stored Procedure Notification.

Thanks

Help us make SAP Business One better!

2024-02-15T12:39:32.595000+01:00

Dear SAP Business One Customers, Consultants, and Partners!

SAP Business One uses the Customer Influence session for collecting, tracking, and prioritizing of product requirements (to be exact, non-legal requirements and all other cases of product improvements but no bugs).

This blog explains how you can improve SAP Business One as a customer or partner.
Embedded in SAP's Customer Influence programs, SAP Business One has its own Influence Session: https://influence.sap.com/sap/ino/#/campaign/887

Every customer and partner is invited to vote on, comment on, and submit improvement requests (IR). To participate, you need a s-user (read this blog in case you never received your s-user).

How all this works

Search and Vote for Existing IRs
Before submitting IRs for new or enhanced functionality, please search for your topic of interest and check if the topic has been submitted already. If you find open IRs and wish to support, just vote for those IRs. Your votes help us to prioritize requests that we will consider for development.
Submit Your Own IR
If you cannot find an IR that matches your need, use the “Submit Improvement” button to create a new IR. Find this video and pdf for guidance. Please check required functions against most recent version of our product.
Once your IR has been submitted, other users can find it via search functions and vote for it.
Please submit your IRs in English only. SAP Business One has customers and partners in more than 170 countries so we operate the Customer Influence site in English to maximize participation and collaboration. If other languages are used, the basic principles of the site such as voting won't work.
Wait for Review
IRs that reach the voting threshold of 25 votes are guaranteed to be reviewed during the following review cycle. Review happens once a year.
The Review Cycle
During the review, our team of Product Managers review all qualified and eventually selected other IRs and use this input for our prioritized backlog and implementation planning.

Your votes help us to prioritize IRs, but other important selection criteria are:

Positive impact for as many customers or partners as possible
Global relevance of the improvement
Reasonable time and effort for realization
Alignment with business and product strategy
No architectural constraints or technical dependencies

Therefore, please understand that reaching a high(er) number of votes does not guarantee a realization.

After the review cycle has ended, a blog is posted with detailed information on the results.
If we are not able to make a final decision on the IR during the review cycle, the IR will be included in the following review cycle.
Although we welcome all IRs and will review each of them according to the voting threshold, some topics are more relevant to our current work than others.

Some additional notes:

All above is also valid for related products of SAP Business One, including Web Client, Extensibility Mobile apps, Integration, etc.
If you are interested in knowing more about our focus areas for the upcoming releases, visit the Product Road Map for SAP Business One.
See also this blog Three short tips on using the SAP Business One Continuous Influence session

How are other matters to be addressed?

Please address product bugs via support incidents to your partner/SAP, see SAP Note 722980
Consulting related questions are handled via our SAP Community
To address legal requirements please follow SAP Note 1028874
On translation corrections partners/customers are supposed to create incidents by choosing the translation component “SBO-CRO-TRL“. This is the only and designated channel.

We really appreciate your collaboration, this helps further improving our product and our mutual success.

Connection - The default connection string cannot be used in sap business one, version for SAP HANA

2024-02-20T10:24:14.586000+01:00

Hello Guys,

Greetings from Mahendrakumar D.P.

Connection - The default connection string cannot be used. To enable the UIAPI default connection string. Refer to sap note 2755380.

To resolve this type of error in SAP Business one version for SAP HANA you have to enable the Default Connection String via

01. The UI API supports a specific connection string and connects to the last started SAP Business One instance. Select the checkbox to enable the connection string for add-on development purposes. However, it is not recommended to use this specific connection string in add-on production.

02. New UI API configuration settings are available on the Administration --> System Initialization --> General Settings -- Services tab. For security reasons, you can enable validations and define allowed lists for file paths, user query tables, and external trusted entities.

Note: Previously you could enable the UI API Default Connection String for debugging UI API add-ons in the configuration file only, however now the checkbox is available to you.

Best Regards,

Mahendrakumar D.P.

Where can I find learning materials to effectively use SAP Business One, Web client?

2024-04-08T13:14:43.787000+02:00

We recommend to access our Exploring SAP Business One, Web Client learning journey

Overview
This learning journey comprises of four courses, which will enable users to effectively use SAP Business One, Web client for their daily tasks, leverage the different tools to boost their productivity and collaboration within the company, and use powerful analytic tools offered in the Web client.

Learning objectives
At the end of this learning journey, you will be able to:

Effectively use and personalize SAP Business One, Web client for managing daily business processes
Leverage the integration capabilities with Microsoft applications to facilitate collaboration
Manage master data and activities to increase customer engagement
Handle the sales and procurement processes to increase business productivity
Use powerful analytics offered in the Web client to enhance visibility on the business performance

Pass all the quizzes and receive a digital badge

Please ask a question related to the digital learning Journey in the Q&A area

Our SAP Learning Experts will get back to you as soon as possible! We are here to support you.

We appreciate your feedback and we will make sure to continue sharing interesting topics.

I want to learn SAP Business One, Web client for my daily tasks. Where can I start?

2024-04-15T11:14:23.044000+02:00

We recommend to access our Exploring SAP Business One, Web Client learning journey learning journey.

Learning objectives
At the end of this learning journey, you will be able to:

Effectively use and personalize SAP Business One, Web client for managing daily business processes
Leverage the integration capabilities with Microsoft applications to facilitate collaboration
Manage master data and activities to increase customer engagement
Handle the sales and procurement processes to increase business productivity
Use powerful analytics offered in the Web client to enhance visibility on the business performance

Pass all the quizzes and receive a digital badge

Please ask a question related to the digital learning Journey in the Q&A area.

Our SAP Learning Experts will get back to you as soon as possible! We are here to support you.

We appreciate your feedback and we will make sure to continue sharing interesting topics.

SAP Business One Web Client Order-to-Cash Pre-sales - Demo _ 2024 Partner Summit

2024-05-06T11:13:52.244000+02:00

2402 SAP Business One Web Client Showcase, a step-by-step click-through based on the workflows of the personas:
Sales Manager > Sales Representative > Warehouse Manager > Accountant

Step-by-step Video: ***removed by moderation*** will be available again asap

This map can be viewed in detail via FIGMA: https://www.figma.com/file/xaN0JRo57aJvykgsNLNp2J/Order-to-cash-flow?type=design&node-id=0%3A1&mode=design&t=JL5sJKtSMb9mNdN9-1

Summarised Highlights for Marketing Documents
Until 2402:

• Long Text (opening and Closing Text)

• Support “Text” and “Subtotal” line types

• Linked list Views

SAP Community - SAP Business One

Scan Contact Persons into Business Partner Master Data

Localized Demo Databases Now Available for SAP Business One 10.0 FP 2305

Demo, learn, teach, and test SAP Business One with fresh demo environment!

Analyzing Customer Performance with Advanced SQL Queries in SAP Business One

Document Information Extraction Templates with SAP Business One

What’s next?

Electronic Documents Import Wizard Enhancements

What’s next?

SAP B1If 2.0 – Migration from SAP B1If 1.x

1. Migration Tool

2. Adjustments in Migrate Package

3. Tuning in Migrate Package

References

Mastering Inventory Management with Advanced SQL Techniques: Through Fast- Slow- Non Moving(FSN) and ABC analysis, intriguing discoveries await.

Selection of Multiple values in UDF with FMS

Where it Started:

And here it landed :

High's and Low's :

New Changes Coming to SAP PartnerEdge Program in 2024

Partners Are Our Best Asset

VAT Changes as of January 1st, 2024 in Switzerland

Comprehensive Guide on SAP ECC to SAP S/4HANA Migration

Step 1: Familiarization with SAP S/4HANA

Step 2: Data Analysis and Classification

Step 3: Data Cleansing

SAP Tools for Data Cleansing:

Step 4: Readiness Check

Purpose of SAP Readiness Check:

Steps in SAP Readiness Check:

Views APIs - SAP Business One Web Client Extensibility

Views APIs for List View and Detailed view

Views APIs for Analytics views

Future planning

Your Perspective, Our Priority: Creating Better Documentation Together

Stored Procedure Notification

Help us make SAP Business One better!

Connection - The default connection string cannot be used in sap business one, version for SAP HANA

Where can I find learning materials to effectively use SAP Business One, Web client?

I want to learn SAP Business One, Web client for my daily tasks. Where can I start?

SAP Business One Web Client Order-to-Cash Pre-sales - Demo _ 2024 Partner Summit

Get started with SAP Business One Web Client!https://www.sap.com/products/erp/business-one/get-started.html

Get started with SAP Business One Web Client!
https://www.sap.com/products/erp/business-one/get-started.html