The document below describes how ByD can be used to manage an inhouse repair process starting from a service request, returning parts, repairing them and sending them back to the customer.

Step 1 - Create a Service Request:

WoC Service Desk - Common task 'New Service Request': Enter Reference Product, because this will be checked later when you manually link the return document with the service order (see step 6).

Remark: The process could also start with step 2, but the service request ID could be used as a kind of RMA ID, which then can also be entered in the internal notes field of the Customer return notification document as a reference.

Step 2: Create Customer Return Notification. Goro  WoC Inbound Logistics - Common task 'New Customer Return Notification

     Important: Enter follow-up Activity: Repair at Own Service Center in step 2 of the guided activity. This will do two things:

1. Goods will be still externally owned, even when visible in your stock overview.
2. References do not need to be maintained for that item.

Step 3: Perform inbound process: As a result the returned part will be shown in the stock overview owned by the customer. In addition a return document will be created automatically. See WoC Service Orders, View Returns.

Step 4: Repair returned part.

1. Create a service order from service request and plan the repair process by adding items for services and spare parts needed to repair returned part, if already known.
2. Release service order to service execution.

Step 5: Confirm and complete the service execution for the service order in the work centers 'Field Service and Repair' and 'Service Orders' with the standard process for service orders.

Step 6: To enhance transparency link the service order to the returns document as follows: Edit the returns document, select the item for the returned part and perform action 'Assign Reference'. Enter the respective Service Order ID and click o.k., even if the system complains, that it does not find any order with that ID. The service order information is then visible in the returns document item details (see screen shot in step 7). In addition the link between service order and returns document is visible in the document flow.

Step 7: In the same 'Returns' UI you can trigger sending the repaired part back to the customer with the action 'Request Outbound Delivery'.

Step 8: Do the outbound delivery from the Delivery proposals list in the WoC Outbound Deliveries. The document flow now gives a good overview of all involved documents.

Step 9: Invoice the customer based on the service execution.

Very interesting article from Bob Anderson from Gartner on SAP Business ByDesign.

"...it’s hard not to be a cheerleader with respect to SAP’s ability to reinvigorate and go “pedal to the metal” with ByDesign."

More here.

Hi,

In the live sessionSAP ByD Platinum Engineering "Meet the Expert" Session: “Intercompany Project Time and Expenses” we discussed the purchase order item  "unlimited over-delivery" indicator.

Here is a wrap-up of what we discussed enhanced with additional information.

The issue tackled by using the indicator is the following:

In many cases intercompany staff or even 3d party staff - the latter maybe only working for one customer who is the ByD customer - work in projects on a regular, long lasting appointment. Now, the project lead of an individual project when doing their individual planning needs to estimate for how many hours the respective resources are needed for their individual project. They may or may not know this. But for sure, very often they do not want to extend an existing PO or even create a new one. One of the reason for this is that this usually comes with resources not being able to record time to a project because a PO is exhausted = finally delivered and thus cannot be used in time recording any more. Then non-availability of time recording in a timel manner of course immediately influences the ability to create customer invoices in a timely manner as well.

There are mainly two approaches used:

• Create PO items with a quantity that is usually not exceeded. 1000 hours, e.g.
• Tick the over-delivery indicator either when ordering from the project or directly in the PO item.

And now for the caveat:

The latter option is usually perceived as the more appropriate one. But you have to be aware that it in some situations it requires some discipline in order to make the system work as expected.

Consider a long running project. From time to time, usually at period end, at year end, or when prices change, you may wish to close POs and create new ones.

And now the very behavior of the "unlimited over-delivery" indicator has to be considered. If you want/need the old PO items to disappear from a resource's time sheet for a project you must manually reset the "unlimited over-delivery" indicator!

The rationale behind this is:

The time sheet usually takes the PO item's delivery status "completely delivered" as an indicator for not offering this PO item any more.

However, this is not possible when the "unlimited over-delivery" indicator is used: As the PO item is still set to "completely delivered" once the ordered quantity is exceeded, this status value is ignored in the time sheet when the "unlimited over-delivery" indicator is set.

Best regards

  Otfried

In this blog, we'd like to introduce you to one of the things that are new or have been changed in the May 2015 version of SAP Business ByDesign.

Of course, you can find more information in the What's New in SAP Business ByDesign documentation, which is available online or as a pdf.

Today, we are going to talk about Earned Value Analysis by Project Structure Report.

You may already know that Earned Value Analysis (EVA) is a common standard method in project management to enable an accurate valuation of the progress of a project in terms of scope, schedule, and costs. Earned Value Analysis by Project Structure Report is a new report in the Project Management work center.

In the Earned Value Analysis by Project Structure Report, you can now view the planned values, actual cost and earned values for the project tasks of a single project and its snapshots. By tracking the planned values, actual cost, and earned values of a project, you can generate a performance trend. The report is created using the baseline and snapshot data.

Are you familiar with the What's New Video in SAP Business ByDesign. You can have a look at it here

In this blog, we'd like to introduce you to one of the things that are new or have been changed in the May 2015 version of SAP Business ByDesign.

Of course, you can find more information in the What's New in SAP Business ByDesign documentation, which is available online or as a pdf .

Today, we are going to talk about Canceling and Copying of Project Invoice Request.

In many industries, invoicing clerks create invoice requests through manual entry of quantities such as invoice quantity, written off quantity, and written off expenses. When an invoice request goes for audit, there may be changes required in the invoice request, which may lead to its cancellation and recreation of new invoice request. In order to simplify this process of recreating the invoice request, we introduce the Cancel and Copy feature in Project Invoice Request View.

With cancel and copy, you can now cancel a project invoice request and the invoice items of the invoice request are copied into a new project invoice request. You can thereby make the changes in the desired fields without starting the project invoice request from the scratch. You can cancel and copy a project invoice request only for Released status of the project invoice request.

Are you familiar witn the What's New Video in SAP Business ByDesign? You can have a look at it here.

In this blog, we'd like to introduce you to some of the things that are new in the May 2015 version of SAP Business ByDesign.

Of course, you can find more information in the What's New in SAP Business ByDesign documentation, which is available online or as a pdf.

You can also read more about the topics that are highlighted in the What's New in SAP Business ByDesign, May 2015 video here.

Today, we’re going to talk about Dunning by Key Date

You can now restrict the dunning only to the items that are open and overdue as per the Dunning Strategy as on a specified cut-off date. The new fields Cut-Off Date and Exclude cleared Items are hidden by default. You can add them to your screen by personalizing the screen.

For more information on creating dunning runs, see Quick Guide for Dunning Runs.

Are you familiar with the What's New video in SAP Business ByDesign? You can have a look at it here.

In this blog, we’d like to introduce you to one of the things that is new or has changed in the May 2015 version of SAP Business ByDesign.

Of course, you can find more information in the What's New in SAP Business ByDesign documentation, which is available online or as a pdf.

Today, we're going to talk about Payment Tolerance for Incoming Payments

You can now set a tolerance amount to clear the incoming payments with higher payment amounts. This can be set up in the business configuration, along with a payment difference reason code.

To set up the tolerance for overpayment, maintain values for Absolute Amount for each Transaction under Tolerance for Over Payment.

To define the default payment difference reason code for automatic overpayment clearing, go to Business Configuration > Reasons for Payment Differences. Select a country, and then select 5-Under-and-Overpayment. Then select a difference reason code, and mark it a Default Over Payment Clearing.

For more information on clearing strategies, see Configuration: Clearing Strategies.

Are you familiar with the What's New video in SAP Business ByDesign? You can have a look at it here.

In this blog, we'd like to introduce you to one of the things that are new or have been changed in the May 2015 version of SAP Business ByDesign.

Of course, you can find more information in the What's New in SAP Business ByDesign documentation, which is available online or as a pdf .

Today, we are going to talk about Enriching Scanned Invoice Data from Template Invoice.

Scanned Invoice data from template invoice introduced in this release, would support the completion of an invoice by using data from invoice templates. This would enrich the scanned invoice data and thereby ensure the reduction of errors owing to wrong tax ids and wrong accounting information.

You can now select a template ID from input help in Reference documents when you create New Scanned Invoice in Common Tasks. The template data of the corresponding template ID is proposed in the new scanned invoice. You can access this in Supplier Invoicing work center in New Scanned Invoice under Common Tasks.

Are you familiar with the What's New video in SAP Business ByDesign? You can have a look at it here.

In this blog, we’d like to introduce you to one of the things that is new or has changed in the May 2015 version of SAP Business ByDesign.

Of course, you can find more information in the What's New in SAP Business ByDesign documentation, which is available online or as a pdf.

Today, we’re going to talk about Provision to Stop Automatic Release of Outbound Delivery in the TPOP Process

By default the outbound deliveries in third-party order processing are released automatically.
You can choose to manually release outbound deliveries in third-party order processing by deselecting the scoping question Do you want to release outbound delivery automatically in third-party order processing scenario?

To view this question, go to Manufacturing, Warehousing, and Logistics > Outbound Logistics > Outbound Delivery in Business Configuration.

Are you familiar with the What's New video in SAP Business ByDesign? You can have a look at it here.

SAP Cloud Applications Studio is an easy to use, software development kit which allows you build an application extension or a new application with SAP Business ByDesign, running in the cloud. You can create and deploy just one application to deliver to all of your customers together. Once a new version is released, your applications will remain compatible without the need to update your applications everytime.

With this openSAP course, you will learn the basics of the SAP Cloud Applications Studio,

including creating custom content, extending the standard solution, along with advanced development topics and lifecycle management.

In this course, Application Development for SAP Business ByDesign, learners will have the opportunity to get hands-on practice for developers, studio admins, and business users. Ideally learners will have a basic understanding of the business process in SAP Business ByDesign, programming skills, and experience with SOAP and/or REST-based Web Services. If you already have an installation of SAP Business ByDesign, you will be able to perform the hands-on exercises, depending on the version you have. If you are new to SAP Business ByDesign, you can complete the hands-on exercises using our cloud systems. More details will be provided throughout the course.

Application Development for SAP Business ByDesign begins from June 3 and runs over 6 weeks. Each week, learners are required to spend 4-6 hours completing the content, submitting assignments, and hands-on practice. As with all openSAP courses registration, learning content, and final exam are free of charge and open to everyone interested in learning about SAP’s innovative solutions.

Register today and find out how to develop applications on SAP Business ByDesign with SAP Cloud Applications Studio.

Interested in learning about the transformation to the cloud? Check out Transformation to Hybrid Landscapes

In this blog, we'd like to introduce you to some of the things that are new in the May 2015 version of SAP Business ByDesign.

Of course, you can find more information in the What's New in SAP Business ByDesign documentation, which is available online or as a pdf.

You can also read more about the topics that are highlighted in the What's New in SAP Business ByDesign, May 2015 video here.

Here is what we've presented so far:

• Earned Value Analysis by Project Structure
• Cancel and Copy Project Invoice Requests
• Asset under Construction
• Dunning by Key Date
• Payment Tolerance for Incoming Payments
• Lean Leads (Leads without Accounts)
• Provision to stop automatic release of Outbound Delivery in the TPOP Process
• MOSS Tax Returns
• Enriching Scanned Invoice Data from Invoice Templates

Are you familiar with the What's New video in SAP Business ByDesign? You can have a look at it here.

We'll add blogs about other topics as we bring them to you. Stay tuned!

Navigator is thrilled to sponsor the 4th Annual SAP Business ByDesign Users Conference, October 11-14 at the fabulous Mirage Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.  The 2014 conference had more than 240 people in attendance, and we expect more than 350 attendees in 2015.

Whether you are brand new to the ByDesign world, currently implementing, or a live customer, here is WHY YOU SHOULD ATTEND:

• Hear directly from top SAP executives on what's next for SAP ByDesign
• Learn best business practices and implementation tips from customers and Navigator, SAP's #1 Global Partner for SAP Business ByDesign
• Network and learn from other SAP Business ByDesign users
• Participate in 50+ role-specific breakout sessions designed to help your end users
• Discover industry-leading extensions from top-tier SSPs (software solution partners), and Navigator's development team, enabling you to better leverage your SAP solution
• Meet with SAP-certified consultants who will offer FREE guidance and direction regarding your implementation and/or fully deployed solution.
• Enjoy a night out in Las Vegas socializing with other ByDesign users & SAP executives
• And much, much more!

To learn more and register, visit http://sapbydesignconference.com

Using Microsoft Excel VBA and SAP Business ByDesign web services you can easily build Excel templates to process mass updates of ByDesign data, tailored to your specific mass change scenario.

This blog post

• briefly presents a sample Excel template to query and change ByD data
• explains how to adapt the Excel template to change other fields or other ByD business objects
• explains ByD web service features to efficiently process mass updates using ByD web services
• provides you a collection of sample Excel templates

Background:

ByD offers standard MS Excel integration scenarios to download data from ByD work centers into Excel ("Export to Microsoft Excel") as well as creating new data from Excel (for example "New Journal Entry Voucher from Microsoft Excel"). However, often very specific mass change scenarios are required, for example to change values of extension fields.

This page is about building such specific mass change solutions using Microsoft Excel and ByD web services.

Excel Sample Templates

The Excel samples contain Marcos and Visual Basic (VBA) modules and forms.

Your security policy must allow VBA/Macro execution; the Excel template requires macros to be enabled.

In the sheets there are several named areas defined that are used in the VBA modules.

The VBA coding uses MSXML 6.0.

Data retrieval and update are being performed via https web service calls to your SAP ByD System.

All examples below have been built and tested for Microsoft Windows 7 and Microsoft Excel 2010 32-bit.

Windows 8 or Excel 64-bit versions require some VBA code refactoring due to incompatible changes in MSXML.

I will add Windows 8/Excel 2013 examples to the list below in the upcoming weeks.

Please feel welcome to follow this blog post to get notifications about new Excel samples.

Attached sample Excel templates

Excel Samples for Mass Changes of ByD Data using Excel VBA and ByD Web Services:
http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/index?rid=/library/uuid/a07afaa7-cadb-3210-82a5-a8d1cce17d5f
Zip-file incl. the following example Excel templates:

• SAP_ByD_MassChange_SupplierGeneralData_Windows7_Excel2010.xlsm: Very simple, mass updates of ABC classification on supplier header level - good to get familar with the Excel template.
• SAP_ByD_MassChange_MaterialSalesData_Windows7_Excel2010.xlsm: Reads product sales data (sub-node of products) and enables mass-updates of sales lifecycle status codes; reads product descriptions in a given language.
• SAP_ByD_MassChange_Supplier_CreateFromBupa_Windows7_Excel2010.xlsm: Uses the generic business partner web service to read existing business partners and the supplier web services to assign role "Supplier" to these business partners.

Please note: the Excel templates are no SAP products but instructive coding examples how to use ByD web services with Microsoft Excel and VBA.

How to use the Sample Excel?

Example scenario

The purpose of the following sample Excel template is to change the ABC classification of ByD supplier:

1. Query and download all relevant supplier from ByD into your Excel template
2. Change the ABC classification of the supplier offline
3. Write back the changed supplier ABC classifications to ByD

To ensure data integrity and to avoid accidental changes, you would like to make sure, that the Excel can be used to change the ABC classification of existing suppliers only. It shall not be possible to create supplier, to delete supplier or to change any other supplier data except the ABC classification.

The sample Excel template SAP_ByD_MassChange_SupplierGeneralData_Windows7_Excel2010.xlsm is designed to serve this scenario.

Create a user to access the ByD web services

The Excel template in our example uses the ByD web services QuerySupplierIn and ManageSupplierIn to query, read and update ByD data. The logon user used in the Excel template must have authorizations for these ByD web services.

Steps to be performed in ByD to create the required user:

1. Create a communication system representing the Excel template
   1. Open ByD work center Application and User Management, view Communication Systems
   2. Create a new communication system via button New
      1. Enter an ID, host name (any name… irrelevant for this scenario)and the System Access Type "Internet"
      2. Add a system instance via button Add Row and enter a System Instance ID and the Preferred Application Protocol "5 - Web Service"
      3. Activate the communication system via button Actions>> set to Active
      4. Save and close the communication system
2. Create a communication scenario incl. all required ByD web services
   (alternatively to step 2 you can use standard communication scenarios provided by SAP as well)
   1. Open ByD work center Application and User Management, view Communication Scenarios
   2. Create a new communication scenario via button New
      1. Enter a communication scenario name
      2. Press button Add Operations, filter by the service description "*Supplier*" and select the operations with service description "Check suppliers", "Maintain suppliers" and "Find suppliers"
      3. Press button OK, save and close the communication scenario
3. Create a communication arrangement
   1. Open ByD work center Application and User Management, view Communication Arrangements
   2. Create a new communication arrangement via button New
      1. Select the communication scenario from step 2 and continue with button Next
      2. Select the communication system from step 1 and continue with button Next
      3. Select the authentication method "User ID and Password", edit the credentials and continue with button Next
      4. Review your settings and complete the communication arrangement with button Finish

To change the credential of an existing communication arrangement:

1. Open ByD work center Application and User Management, view Communication Arrangements
   1. Select and open the communication arrangement which includes the required ByD web services
   2. Click on button ViewAll
   3. Goto tab TechnicalData
   4. On section Inbound Communication: Basic Settings:
      1. Select the Authentication Method of your choice (e.g. user ID and password for logon)
      2. Edit the credentials via button Edit Credentialsand change user/password or upload a client certificate.

Query and Change ByD Supplier using the Excel Template

Open the sample Excel template SAP_ByD_MassChange_SupplierGeneralData_Windows7_Excel2010.xlsm.

The Excel file consists of 5 pages:

• _DATA_MASTERcontains the ByD data. Using the menu buttons “Query”, the data is retrieved from the ByD system. If you change data in the relevant field(s), the corresponding records will be marked as modified. Using the menu buttons “Simulate” and “Update” the changed records will be sent back to the ByD system (for simulation resp. update as expected).
• Query allows you to filter the data that is retrieved via button „Query“
• Config holds important design time parameters. Most of the parameters are consisting of XML snippets.
• Terms and Conditions contains information about the source and usage of the sample Excel template.

Query ByD Supplier:

1. Open Tab Query and enter suitable selection parameters
2. Query and read ByD supplier via button "Query" of section "SAP ByD" (Excel quick access toolbar, tab Home); enter your ByD system and user/password on the logon popup (the Logon screen automatically pops up on the first query):
   
3. Review the extracted supplier records on tab "_DATA_MASTER"

Change Supplier ABC Classification and update Supplier in ByD:

1. Change the ABC classifications in column E
   Observe, that all touched suppliers get the status "Modified" in column B:
2. Optional: Simulate the update of ByD supplier using button "Simulate" of section "SAP ByD" (Excel quick access toolbar, tab Home).
   Observe: successfully checked lines are marked green, lines with errors are marked red and system messages are added as field comments in column B.
   
3. Write back your changes to ByD using button "Update".
   If you simulated the update before, then Excel only sends lines to ByD that are marked "OK".
   If you did not simulate the update, then Excel sends all modified lines to ByD. In this case the complete update is rejected if one or more line are erroneous. Successfully updated lines are marked green, unprocessed lines or lines with errors are marked yellow or red and system messages are added as field comments.
   

Press "Update" again to repeat the write back to ByD for the unprocessed lines w/o errors.

Test mode:

On tab "Config" you can set the Test Mode = "On" to review web service requests and responses.

Volumes:

Volume recommendations strongly depend on the business document and the data retrieved and updated per business document instance.

As an example I recommend the following limits for ByD product data:

• Query: The query process uses paging and can load high numbers of records. However, to avoid too long runtimes, I recommend to choose selection parameter values such that the total number of hits (e.g. material - sales organization - distribution channel combinations) does not become too high (< 10.000 records).
• Update/Simulate: Assume all changed records are updated to ByD in a single web service call. To avoid timeouts, I recommend editing a limited number of records for each update/simulation run only (start with < 500 and check what is possible for your use case).

Value Help

The Excel template does not yet support value helps. Feel free to enhance the sample Excel; helpful ByD web services are QueryCodeListIn and QueryObjectDescriptionIn (see as well How to get ByDesign Code Lists via Web Service QueryCodeListIn).

ByD web service concepts to efficiently process mass updates

ByD web services provide a comprehensive set of web service delta handling features to process data updates.

For data integrity reasons and to avoid accidental mass changes via Excel, I would recommend to use those delta handling features to update dedicated fields only.

Below I describe the main features which I used in the Excel templates above.

Please check the Web Services on SAP Business ByDesign – SAP Help Portal Page for more details.

The examples below refer to the samples Excel template SAP_ByD_MassChange_MaterialSalesData_Windows7_Excel2010.xlsm.

Please find attached the used sample web service request and response xmls.

Retrieve minimum ByD data needed:

Use the node element RequestedElements to specify which nodes of ByD business objects shall be returned by the query web service.
Transmission request codes are:

In the material sales data example above I would like to retrieve the material ID, material description and material sales data. Hence I use the transmission request code 2 for the header data (root level), transmission request code 1 for the description and transmission request code 2 for sales data (I'm not interested in sales nodes, so I request the sales top level data only). All other material data shall not be returned and hence I set transmission request code 4 (actually that would have been not necessary because the transmission request code 2 on header level implies 4 as default one level below).

Use action codes "06 - No Action" and "02 - Update" to change dedicated business object nodes only:
Action code 06 makes sure that the business object node is not changed.
Action code 02 updates existing node instances; if the node instance does not exist the system returns an error.
In the attached example I use action code 06 on header level to make sure that no header level data is changed.  In the sub-node Sales I use action code 02 because that that is the sub-node I want to change. I don't use "01 - Create" or "04 - Save" because I want to make sure, that existing material sales node instances are updated only and no instances are create accidentally (e.g. if a user changes the distribution channel in some Excel line).

Use list complete transmission indicator "false" to make sure that you don't overwrite lists:
The list complete transmission indicator "false" makes sure that all business object node instances not listed in the web service request remain unchanged. For example by setting attribute salesListCompleteTransmissionIndicator "false" I make sure that only the sales node instances that have been changed in my Excel are changed in ByD as well. All other sales node instances of the same material remain untouched. If I would transfer salesListCompleteTransmissionIndicator "true", then the system would assume that the list of transferred material sales node instances to be complete and hence delete all sales node instances which are not included in the material instance of the web service request.

Create update xml request with key elements and elements that shall be changed only:
You have to list all key elements in the update request xml, which are required to identify the node instance that shall be changed.
Elements that are not listed in the xml remain unchanged in ByD.
Example: In the sub-node Sales I provide the key elements SalesOrganisationID and DistributionChaannelCode (both are read-only) and the element LifeCycleStatusCode which is subject of the mass change. By omitting all other elements, I make sure that those are not changed accidentally.

Use object node sender technical IDs to assign system messages to Excel table lines:
The object sender technical IDs which you provide in the update request xml are returned by ByD in log items of the web service response. You can use that feature to assign ByD system messages to the corresponding Excel lines.
In the sample Excels the corresponding line number of table _SAP_DATA_0001 is added to the web service request as ObjectNodeSenderTechnicalID. As this ID is included in log items of the web service response, you can assign these log items to Excel table lines using VBA.

Adapt the Excel Template to your specific mass-change scenario

Excel VBA and XMLHTTP:

The Excel templates use VBA and the XMLHTTP object to call ByD web services. The world wide web offers plenty of good tutorials how to use VBA and XMLHTTP. In the world wide web you find plenty of good examples and tutorials how to use XMLHTTP.

Steps to adapt the Excel template to a new web service pair:

The attached Excel templates are build for ByD web services following the Query - CheckMaintainBundle - MaintainBundle pattern. These kind of ByD web services have the characteristics that

• you can query and read deeply structured ByD business objects with one web service call (Query interface),
• you can update multiple deeply structured business object instances of the same type in a single web service call (MaintainBundle operations) ,
• you can simulate the update of multiple deeply structured business object instances of the same type in a single web service call (CheckMaintainBundle operations),
• MaintainBundle and CheckMaintainBundle operations share the same xml payload structure.

You can develop mass-change scenarios using other ByD web services as well, but this would require some more VBA coding changes than described below.

Step 1: Copy Excel template.

Step 2: Tab "Config"

1. Adapt URLQuery and URLMaintain.
   For example /sap/bc/srt/scs/sap/querysupplierin1 and /sap/bc/srt/scs/sap/managesupplierin1.
   1. Get ByD web service access URL from ByD work center Application and User Management, view Communication Arrangementsor Service Explorer
2. Assemble sample query request and response xmls:
   1. Download WSDL from ByD work center Application and User Management, view Communication Arrangements.
   2. Create sample request xml using a web service test tool (e.g. SoapUI).
   3. Test sample request using the web service test tool.

3. Enter Query request xml template incl. default values and variables framed with ##  (for example  "##SelectionByInternalID##").
   Observe: The xml must not contain soap envelop elements, but the payload only.
   Do not change the variables used in processing conditions (##MaxHits##, ##UnlimitedHits##, ##LastReturnedObjectID##)!
   Example:
   

4. Enter Query response: leading xml Node (xPath) which is the xml node that corresponds to a table line in Excel.
   Example: Enter "//Supplier" if each table line corresponds to a supplier header instance.
5. Assemble sample request and response xmls for update (operation MaintainBundle) and simulation (operation CheckMaintainBundle):
   1. Download WSDL from ByD work center Application and User Management, view Communication Arrangements.
   2. Create sample request xml using a web service tool (e.g. SoapUI)
   3. Test sample request using the web service tool.
6. Enter Update request: xml template and Update request: xml template for update simulation.
   These xmls are the xml frames for update and simulation web service requests. The included variable ##BDO## will be replaced by the business document object body during runtime.

7. Enter Update request: business document object body (BDO) incl. default values and variables framed with #...# (e.g. "##ABCClassificationCode##").
   Use the variable name "##row##" for elements ObjectNodeSenderTechnicalID.
   The BDO is used for simulation as well as update web service requests.

   Example:
   

Step 3: Tab "Query"

1. Maintain query parameter according the query parameter used in the Query request: xml template.
   1. Do not change the cell names of the generic parameter "Max Hits" and "Unlimited"!
   2. Rename Field ID in column C (e.g. rename C3 by SAPBYD_QueryParam_SelectionByInternalID);
      use Formulars> Name Manager to rearrange field names
      
2. Enter default values in column C.

Step 4: Tab "_DATA_MASTER"

1. Adapt title
2. Adapt steps to process; add important remarks if needed.
3. Adapt header line of table _SAP_DATA_0001;
   1. Do not change column B!
   2. Do not delete column A, B or C!
   3. Insert additional columns if needed.
   4. Delete columns not needed (do not delete column A, B and C).
4. Add remarks per column in line 4 if needed (e.g. code values).

Step 5: Adapt VBA program

1. Open Visual Basic Editor via Excel quick access toolbar, tab Developer
2. Open module "modInterfaceAdapter" (this module contains all Excel - web service mappings)
   1. Map Excel Query Parameter (tab Query) to Web Service Query Request XML
   2. Map Web Service Query Response XML to Excel content table (tab _DATA_MASTER)
   3. Map Excel content table (tab _DATA_MASTER) to Web Service Update Request XML
   4. Define columns that shall trigger an update (A=1, B=2,...)

Examples from Excel template SAP_ByD_MassChange_SupplierGeneralData_Windows7_Excel2010.xlsm: 

• Example query parameter mapping:

• Example mapping between Excel table header and query response respectively update/simulation request:

Step 6:

1. Change Excel file properties/advanced properties and adapt the "Prerequisites" on tab "Terms and Conditions".
2. Prepare Excel before sharing with others
   1. Remove data on tab "_DATA_MASTER" (run query with empty result)
   2. Remove target systems on tab "Config" (remove system favorites)
   3. Remove private data

How to get Access URLs and WSDLs of ByD web services?

ByD UI: Open work center Application and User Management, view Communication Arrangements.

Select and open the communication arrangement to get the web service access URLs (service endpoints) and to download web service documentations and WSDLs.

Problem Description: Currently(till ByD release 1502) in the approval process definition, Work Distribution categories are fixed and pre-delivered by SAP.  There is no possibility for the customer to add their own work distribution category, with their specific custom responsible determination logic.

In some cases, customer has to create multiple steps in approval process with same condition differing only in work distribution.

Also in few cases,customer has to create multiple steps in approval process with same work distribution differing conditions.

With custom work distribution category , these duplicate steps can be avoided by PDI Studio implementation.

For example, consider the example of shopping cart(Internal Request) with same work distribution category(Direct approval) with various conditions.

Step1 : Direct approval for User 1 if the total value is less than 1000 USD

Step2 : Direct approval to User 2 if the total value is greater than 1000 USD and less than 2000 USD

Step3 : Direct approval to User 3 if the total value is greater than 2000 USD and less than 5000 USD

Step4:  Direct approval to User 4 if the total value is greater than 5000 USD

Similarly there can be many steps with only changes in conditions

Using custom responsibility determination,this can be implemented with one step.

Solution: In release 1505 of ByD, we provide the possibility for the customers to define and add their own work distribution category ,specific to a given approval process by means of Partner solution implementation.   In addition to the set of pre-delivered  Work Distribution categories, new custom Work distribution categories can now be added by defining them in Partner development (PDI) solution, along with the custom responsibility determination logic. This can be achieved broadly with the following steps,

     a) Defining the new custom work distribution category code(s) as Business configuration(BC set) entries in Partner studio

     b) Implementing the responsibility determination logic as enhancement(BADI) implementation in the Partner studio

a) Steps for defining the custom work distribution category in Partner(PDI) studio

As per the example given above for shopping cart(Internal request), partner has to create one work distribution category with the enhancement determination logic.

For this partner has to follow the below steps,

1. BC set creation:

Choose the business configuration object(Object name - ApprovalCustomResponsibilityCategory)to create the BC set.

Add the entries to create the custom Work Distribution Category

Business Object type code : this can be one of the below multi step approval(MSA) enabled business objects. We are supporting only SAP pre-delivered business objects in 1505 .

Responsibility Category code: This is a numeric field. Responsibility category code and business object type code combination should be unique.

2. Once the BC set is created, this BC set has to be attached with the business process relevant for the Business object using Business Adaptation Catalog (BAC element)

Create a BAC element

3. Once the BAC element is created then this business option needs to be scoped by selecting the scoping question  (which in turn would trigger the BC deployment in background)

4. After scoping, this category code will be available in Approval process

b) Implementing the responsibility determination logic as Enhancement implementation in the Partner development studio

  On creation of new shopping cart(Internal Request), this custom work distribution category will be called to determine the approver. Partner needs to implement the Enhancement implementation(BADI) to determine the approver for this custom work distribution category.

Enhancement filter should have the responsibility category as filter parameter and enhancement implementation will be called to determine the approver.

Enhancement method Input Parameter Structure has the following fields:

Please implement the custom logic in the partner development studio.

Blow is sample Enhancement implementation for illustration purpose.

Prerequisites:

• Custom work distribution category for a given Business Object (Object Type code) can be scoped only if the respective Business Object is Multi-step approval (MSA) enabled.
  In the following example ,
  62 object type code (Shopping cart or InternalRequest) is Multi step approval enabled, so custom work distribution category can be maintained for this business object code.
• In partner enhancement implementation, solution check needs to be done to ensure the implementation processes for the relevant object type code.

For example , 2 partners have defined the same category code for shopping cart Business Object (62) and Expense Report (47).

There can be two enhancement implementations for same Responsibility category code “100”, but one for  shopping cart(Internal request) Business object (62) and Expense Report (47).

Lets say a Shopping Cart is sent for approval. Both enhancement implementations will be called during run time since they match the filter value 100. Solution check implementation would help the enhancement implementation in 2nd solution (YabcdefghY) to skip the processing.

Though both enhancement implementations would be called, the system would consider only the results from the correct implementation (Y12345678Y) and ignore the results from the other implementations.

Limitations:

• Currently custom work distribution category is supported only for the pre-delivered SAP business objects. Partner created Business objects are not supported
  • Business configuration entries(BC set entries) for the responsibility category code and enhancement implementation needs to be maintained in the same partner solution.(Across solution is not supported )

Using SAP Lumira and SAP Business ByDesign OData for Analytics you can combine analytics data from multiple ByD systems (and other sources) into a global dashboard to perform gross-system analytics like global spend or global sales analysis.

In this blog I connect SAP Lumira with two SAP Business ByDesign systems using ByD OData for Analytics and assemble a global sales volume dashboard.

In other words two ByD reports from different ByD systems are combined into a single global analytics view:

My Scenario:

I have two ByD systems to run sales subsidiaries in Germany and US and I would like to setup a global sales volume dashboard with combined data of both ByD systems.

To avoid unnecessary long runtimes and superfluous data in Lumira, I utilize ByD analytics capabilities and aggregate data within ByD before it is transferred to Lumira.

Step 1: Prepare analytics reports in the ByD source systems

Lumira will retrieve ByD data via the ByD OData for Analytics interface. Of course you can do most of the selection and filtering setting OData parameters in Lumira as well, but the configuration in Lumira becomes much easier if you prepare the data sources in ByD.

Hence, in the following I assemble custom ByD reports tailored to the Lumira scenario having the usage via OData in mind.

1. Work center Business Analytics, view Design Reports:
   1. Copy ByD standard report "Sales Order Volume" via "New" >> "Report as Copy"
   2. Select key figures
   3. Select characteristics: I reduced the number of selected characteristics to the information I really need in Lumira.
   4. Remove the "Default Values" in step "5 Define Variables" via bottom "Maintain Default Values".
      The ByD report default values always apply using OData, regardless which filter criteria you are defining in the OData URL later on.
      If you keep the default values, they restrict the data that can be transferred to Lumira. On the other hand using relative default values you can refine user authorizations (for example using a default value "my accounts") or pre-select data (for example setting a default value "current fiscal year").
   5. Assign the new report to a suitable work center view (for example some view in work center "Account Management"). All business users with access to this work center view will have access to this analytics report; this applies as well if I access the report via OData.
   6. Get the report ID: Open the new report and click on Details: on the Technical Information popup you'll find the Report ID, which you will refer to in the Lumira OData connector. Example custom report ID: Z050C6681A68E961A6B7C71
2. Check report data
   1. Open the work center to which you assigned the report. Open the custom report and assemble a report view with all relevant fields.
   2. Check if all fields which you plan to use in Lumira are filled. For example check if the state is filled for all accounts to be able to assemble geographical heat maps in Lumira (check your account master data if any data is missing - you can navigate directly from the report line to the account master data by clicking on the account name or ID)
3. Create similar ByD reports in all ByD systems.
4. Make sure you have a business user with access to the ByD reports in each system. These users are used for OData access in Lumira.
   Align the language of your OData user in all ByD systems to make sure you extract the data in the same language (click on Personalize >> My Settings).

As result you have well-prepared ByD reports that can be accessed via ByD OData.

Step 2: Check the OData access to ByD and assemble the ByD OData URL

In this step I prepare and test the ByD OData URL. In particular I use the OData parameter $top to overwrite ByD default max. number of records returned and $select to make sure that I load aggregated data from ByD.

1. Get OData "containers" for your ByD logon user (available work centers for the logon user) and note the "container" (analytics work center view ID) of the work center view to which you assigned the report.
   Example:
   • OData URL: https://my123456.sapbydesign.com/sap/byd/odata
   • "Container" taken from the OData response:crm_accountmanagement_analytics.svc
2. Get entity set and entity metadata of your ByD custom report. The metadata contains all relevant information to assemble the ByD OData URL incl. property names, labels and filterable attributes.
   Example:
   • OData URL: https://my123456.sapbydesign.com/sap/byd/odata/crm_accountmanagement_analytics.svc/$metadata
   • The OData response contains your custom report as EntitySet Name="RP<report ID>QueryResults" (marked red in the 1st screenshot below) and the entity property names (field names) that can be used for selection (marked orange in the 2nd screenshot).
     Example:
     
     
3. Assemble and test the ByD OData URL with all required OData parameter:
   1. $select: By choosing the fields to be selected I implicitly define the level of pre-aggregation in ByD before the data is transferred to Lumira.
      In scenarios like this I would recommend to not add document IDs or time stamps to the list of selected fields, because in this case ByD does not aggregate data and Lumira loads all transactional documents. Make sure you select less than 50 fields, because that is the max number of fields ByD OData supports.
      I take the name of the fields from the entity metadata.
   2. $filter: Using the filter parameter I already filter the data on ByD side before transmission to Lumira. Sure I could filter in Lumira as well, but then I loaded already much more data than needed.
   3. $top: By default ByD OData returns at max. 50 records. Using the parameter $top I overwrite this default. Unfortunately the Lumira OData connector does not yet support dynamic paging using the OData parameter $top and $skip, but if you expect high volumes you could create multiple Lumira datasets and combine them afterwards on the Lumira Prepare screen (for example 1st dataset: $top=500; 2nd dataset: $skip=500&$top=500; … 4th dataset: $skip=1500&$top=500).

As result I know the ByD OData container, my custom entity set name, and I assembled the OData parameter string to access ByD in Lumira later on: 

• OData container/base URL: https://my123456.sapbydesign.com/sap/byd/odata/crm_accountmanagement_analytics.svc
• Entity set name: RPZ050C6681A68E961A6B7C71QueryResults
• OData parameter string:
  $select=KCITEM_COUNT,FCITV_NET_AMT_DC,KCITV_NET_AMT_DC,FCITV_NET_AMT_RC,KCITV_NET_AMT_RC,FCITV_REQU_QTY_BU,KCITV_REQU_QTY_BU,FCITV_REQU_QTY_SU,KCITV_REQU_QTY_SU,CIPY_BUYER_PTY,TIPY_BUYER_PTY,CIPY_BUY_CNTCD_N,TIPY_BUY_CNTCD_N,CIPY_BUY_CTYNM_N,CIPY_BUY_REGCD_N,TIPY_BUY_REGCD_N,CITV_FSTREQ_E_DT,CDBA_DISTRCHN_CD,TDBA_DISTRCHN_CD,CIPR_CATCP_N,TIPR_CATCP_N,CIPR_PRODUCT,TIPR_PRODUCT,CIPY_SLS_UNT_PTY,TIPY_SLS_UNT_PTY&$top=2000

You find more details about ByD OData for Analytics in the SCN blog OData for SAP Business ByDesign Analytics.

Step 3: Create Lumira Dataset

In this step I create the first Lumira dataset. Later on I will append further datasets referring to other source systems to this dataset.

1. Open Lumira Desktop Client
2. Create a Lumira Dataset: Select from the menu "File" >> "New" and choose the data source "Query with SQL" >> "Generic OData 2.0"
   1. Enter the ByD base URL with container as Service Root URI:
      https://my123456.sapbydesign.com/sap/byd/odata/crm_accountmanagement_analytics.svc (Lumira adds /$metadata to retrieve the metadata itself).
   2. Enter user name, password and http proxy if applicable.
   3. Enter the OData parameter string in field "Custom Authentication Parameter" (not sure if this field was designed for that purpose, but it works - the parameter string seem to be added to the OData URL correctly). This cannot be changed after completing the Dataset!
      
   4. Check advanced settings and make sure that the Lumira timeout is sufficiently high.
   5. Go to the next screen with bottom "Connect".
3. On the Dataset I selected my custom entity in the CATALOG_VIEW tree; observe that the entity is added to the Query.
   1. After clicking on "Preview" I select the fields needed for my Lumira dashboard.
   2. I enter "Global Sales Volume" as dataset name because this will be the dataset to which I will append all other datasets later on.
4. With clicking on "Create" I complete my Lumira Dataset for the first ByD system.

Step 4: Combine the Lumira Datasets of multiple source systems

1. Switch to Lumira view Prepare
2. Add further datasets for other ByD systems (compare step 3)
   • Make sure all Datasets select the same fields from the ByD data source.
   • I named my second data set "Sales Volume US" because it connects to my US ByD system.
3. I switch to the first dataset which I named "Global Sales Volume" and append all others: Click on "Combine" >> "Append":
   
4. Feel free to add and append Datasets from other SAP or non-SAP data sources
5. Rename measures and dimensions
6. Create geographic hierarchies
7. Create time hierarchies

As result I have a combined Lumira Dataset, ready for visualization. By the way in field KCITEM_COUNT I see how many ByD sales order items have been pre-aggregated in ByD for each record in Lumira.

Step 5: Define Lumira Visualizations

1. Switch to Lumira view Visualize
2. Create visualizations of your combined Dataset. I like in particular the geographical heat map and the pie with depth chart.

Step 6: Compose and share the Lumira Story

1. Lumira view Compose: Create a new story and arrange the visualizations of step 5
2. Lumira view Share: Publish your Story to your SAP Lumira Cloud or your SAP Lumira Server

Result:

More information about SAP Lumira:

Lumira homepage: http://www.saplumira.com/

SAP Help: http://help.sap.com/Lumira

SCN Lumira Space: http://scn.sap.com/community/lumira

SAP Idea Place - Lumira space: https://ideas.sap.com/SAPLumira

Related information about SAP Business ByDesign:

ByD OData for Analytics:OData for SAP Business ByDesign Analytics.

ByD Help:SAP Business ByDesign – SAP Help Portal Page

.

Like snowflakes, no two businesses are alike, and at times it’s necessary to customize your ERP solution to ensure it works exactly the way your business does.

In this video we’ll demonstrate 5 brilliant examples of how you can customize SAP Business ByDesign to ensure it accommodates your most unique and critical business needs.

Specifically, the video covers:

1. How Development Works in SAP Business ByDesign
2. Basic User Assistance – Sales Order Duplicate Check
3. More Advanced Validation – External Reference Required for Release
4. Store Custom Data – Approved Supplier List
5. Upload Custom Data – File Input
6. Automate Processes – Freight on Customer Invoice

The webinar was conducted on June 2nd, 2015 by Dan Edelman, Senior SAP Business ByDesign Consultant.

FMT Consultant is a leading SAP Business ByDesign partner serving all of the US and Canada with a significant presence in San Diego County, Orange County and Los Angeles County.

Migration of G/L account balances enables you to migrate all general ledger account balances of a company. You can migrate account balances for multiple accounts at the same time.

The system automatically creates one journal entry per balance, and an offsetting entry, so that the overall balance is zero.

Note: The Offsetting G/L account is always - Initial data carry-forward account for fixed assets, exclusive for migration purpose only.

But what if you try to enter the G/L Account which belong to other sub=ledger in G/L Account Balances Migration ? ( For explanation purpose we considered the G/L Account Migration & Open item Payable here )

This account belongs to AP

And you entered the same unknowingly

The message says that G/L 200000 is replaced by migration clearing account 990010 - Initial Data Carry-forward AP Account and this is done as per the posting logic

If you migrate G/L account balances and you include a G/L account which belong to the above, the amounts are posted on the G/L accounts of the corresponding sub ledgers as well. This way, the same amount would be posted twice on a G/L account and to avoid this the G/L account that you enter is automatically forwarded to migration clearing accounts.

For AP the migration clearing account is 990010 - Initial Data Carry-forward AP Account

You may have noticed this or not but if you proceed further and complete the G/L Migration the end result of the posting may something look like the below screenshot.

Note:

1.If you refer to the data that you entered, it is GL 200000 but here you see GL 990010 and this done as per the posting logic posting to the migration clearing account of AP

2.For all the G/L Migration the offsetting entry is always Initial Data Carry-forward Asset Account only ( this is only migration purpose )

Now if you further proceed with Open item Payable Migration which may result in posting to G/L 200000 due to the account determination of the supplier used in the migration

Now if you compare the both the posting, having this posting logic not in place, you would end up posting double the amount and the Outstanding balances on the G/L 200000 would have been -2000 but system did not do it and avoided this duplicate posting.

Now refer to this below screenshot which shows the exact posting logic which we can see in the above postings.

You can see this same screenshot in help document - Configuration: Migration of G/L Account Balances

Furthermore to explain, With the G/L Account migration directly posting the amount to G/L 200000 on the credit side of G/L Account for domestic payable is wrong, instead it needs to be posting to Migration clearing account for payable, which is right and we can see the same behavior in our postings as well.

Whenever such posting occurs the balances of the Migration Clearing account for payable will be nullified, as you can see in G/L Migration this account is posting to credit and in the AP migration it is debited resulting which there is no balance in this account.

Note:

Further more the same posting logic applies for the following migration activities:

• Migration of Fixed Assets
• Migration of Inventory
• Migration of Open Items Receivable
• Migration of Balances for Bank Accounts
• Migration of Open Outgoing Checks
• Migration of Open Goods Receipts
• Migration of Bills of Exchange Payables
• Migration of Bills of Exchange Receivables

When you migrate these objects, the amounts are posted on the G/L accounts of the corresponding sub-ledgers,To avoid this, the G/L accounts (that you assigned to the corresponding G/L account in the SAP Business solution) are forwarded automatically to migration clearing accounts for instance for payable it is Initial data carry-forward A/P Account.

Thanks

Lokesh Sharma

A new "Meet the Expert" Session from the "SAP ByD Platinum Engineering“ team is available.

This session gives an overview of the Business Analytics functionality in SAP Business ByDesign:

Please find the presentation and the recorded session here: https://service.sap.com/sap/bc/bsp/spn/esa_redirect/index.htm?gotocourse=X&courseid=70287180

Business Case:

At the moment SAP provides three standard reports for

• an Actual/Plan comparison for different periods (Current period, year to period, Year to date) --> Report: “Financial Statements - Plan/Actual”
• a Two Year comparison, comparing actual values and the corresponding last year’s values -->Report: “Financial Statements - Two Years”
• and a version Comparison, comparing Actuals with different Plan Versions --> Report: “Financial Statements - Plan/Actual - Version Comparison”

If you want the information of the three above mentioned reports in only one report view you can do this by creating restricted Key Figures with Restriction Typ “Variable”.

I would like to show you how you can create such an Integrated Financial Reporting:

1. Create new report based on Data Source “Financial Statement”
2. Create the following Key Figures:
   1. Actuals Period/Year (= Actuals for a specific month)
      Restricted Key Figure based on Key Figure “Amount Company Currency”
      
      
      Remarks:
      For the Characteristic “Accounting Period/Year” the Restriction Type “Variable” is chosen which means that this Variable with the name “Period Actuals Period/Year” is later on available in the selection area of the report. I specified that in the selection area only the entry of a “Single Value” – in our case a specific month – is allowed and that the entry will be mandatory.

          b.   Plan Period/Year (= Plan Values for a specific month)
                Restricted Key Figure based on Key Figure “Amount Company Currency

                  Remarks:
                  Additionally to what I described above I specified for the Plan Value that a Plan Version needs to be selected in the selection area of the report.

             c.  Actuals LY Period/Year (= Last year’s Actuals for the corresponding month)
                  Restricted Key Figure based on Key Figure “Amount Company Currency”

You would now create Key Figures for “Year to Period” or “Year to Date” accordingly, changing the Selection Type from ”Single Value” to “Intervall” as you want to see not only one month but a specific timeframe.

As a result you get – I have to admit - a quite sophisticated Selection Screen in your report, but you easily can reduce the complexity for your customer by creating predefined monthly views:

This approach allows you to enhance the report just as you like (e.g. comparing also different Plan Versions, including more specified timeframes and so on). You just have to keep in mind that your Selection Screen “grows” accordingly.