Interviews - Repository of Interview Questions and Answers

MySQL Interview 2

2012-10-10T12:11:00.000-07:00

What are HEAP tables in MySQL?
HEAP tables are in-memory. They are usually used for high-speed temporary storage. No TEXT or BLOB fields are allowed within HEAP tables. You can only use the comparison operators = and <=>. HEAP tables do not support AUTO_INCREMENT. Indexes must be NOT NULL.

How do you control the max size of a HEAP table?
MySQL config variable max_heap_table_size.

What are CSV tables?
Those are the special tables, data for which is saved into comma-separated values files. They cannot be indexed.

Explain federated tables. ?
Introduced in MySQL 5.0, federated tables allow access to the tables located on other databases on other servers.

What is SERIAL data type in MySQL?
BIGINT NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY AUTO_INCREMENT

What happens when the column is set to AUTO INCREMENT and you reach the maximum value for that table?
It stops incrementing. It does not overflow to 0 to prevent data losses, but further inserts are going to produce an error, since the key has been used already.

Explain the difference between BOOL, TINYINT and BIT. ?
Prior to MySQL 5.0.3: those are all synonyms. After MySQL 5.0.3: BIT data type can store 8 bytes of data and should be used for binary data.

Explain the difference between FLOAT, DOUBLE and REAL. ?
FLOATs store floating point numbers with 8 place accuracy and take up 4 bytes. DOUBLEs store floating point numbers with 16 place accuracy and take up 8 bytes. REAL is a synonym of FLOAT for now.

If you specify the data type as DECIMAL (5,2), what’s the range of values that can go in this table?
999.99 to -99.99. Note that with the negative number the minus sign is considered one of the digits.

What happens if a table has one column defined as TIMESTAMP?
That field gets the current timestamp whenever the row gets altered.

But what if you really want to store the timestamp data, such as the publication date of the article?
Create two columns of type TIMESTAMP and use the second one for your real data.

Explain data type TIMESTAMP DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP ON UPDATE CURRENT_TIMESTAMP ?
The column exhibits the same behavior as a single timestamp column in a table with no other timestamp columns.

What does TIMESTAMP ON UPDATE CURRENT_TIMESTAMP data type do?
On initialization places a zero in that column, on future updates puts the current value of the timestamp in.

Explain TIMESTAMP DEFAULT ‘2006:09:02 17:38:44? ON UPDATE CURRENT_TIMESTAMP. ?
A default value is used on initialization, a current timestamp is inserted on update of the row.

If I created a column with data type VARCHAR(3), what would I expect to see in MySQL table?
CHAR(3), since MySQL automatically adjusted the data type.

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MySQL Interview 1

MySQL Interview 1

2012-10-10T12:10:00.000-07:00

What's MySQL ?

MySQL (pronounced "my ess cue el") is an open source relational database management system (RDBMS) that uses Structured Query Language (SQL), the most popular language for adding, accessing, and processing data in a database. Because it is open source, anyone can download MySQL and tailor it to their needs in accordance with the general public license. MySQL is noted mainly for its speed, reliability, and flexibility. ...

What is DDL, DML and DCL ?

If you look at the large variety of SQL commands, they can be divided into three large subgroups. Data Definition Language deals with database schemas and descriptions of how the data should reside in the database, therefore language statements like CREATE TABLE or ALTER TABLE belong to DDL. DML deals with data manipulation, and therefore includes most common SQL statements such SELECT, INSERT, etc. Data Control Language includes commands such as GRANT, and mostly concerns with rights, permissions and other controls of the database system.

How do you get the number of rows affected by query?

SELECT COUNT (user_id) FROM users would only return the number of user_id’s.

If the value in the column is repeatable, how do you find out the unique values?

Use DISTINCT in the query, such as SELECT DISTINCT user_firstname FROM users; You can also ask for a number of distinct values by saying SELECT COUNT (DISTINCT user_firstname) FROM users;

How do you return the a hundred books starting from 25th?

SELECT book_title FROM books LIMIT 25, 100. The first number in LIMIT is the offset, the second is the number.

You wrote a search engine that should retrieve 10 results at a time, but at the same time you’d like to know how many rows there’re total. How do you display that to the user?

SELECT SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS page_title FROM web_pages LIMIT 1,10; SELECT FOUND_ROWS(); The second query (not that COUNT() is never used) will tell you how many results there’re total, so you can display a phrase "Found 13,450,600 results, displaying 1-10". Note that FOUND_ROWS does not pay attention to the LIMITs you specified and always returns the total number of rows affected by query.

How would you write a query to select all teams that won either 2, 4, 6 or 8 games?

SELECT team_name FROM teams WHERE team_won IN (2, 4, 6, 8)

How would you select all the users, whose phone number is null?

SELECT user_name FROM users WHERE ISNULL(user_phonenumber);

What does this query mean: SELECT user_name, user_isp FROM users LEFT JOIN isps USING (user_id) ?

It’s equivalent to saying SELECT user_name, user_isp FROM users LEFT JOIN isps WHERE users.user_id=isps.user_id

How do you find out which auto increment was assigned on the last insert?

SELECT LAST_INSERT_ID() will return the last value assigned by the auto_increment function. Note that you don’t have to specify the table name.

What does –i-am-a-dummy flag to do when starting MySQL?

Makes the MySQL engine refuse UPDATE and DELETE commands where the WHERE clause is not present.

On executing the DELETE statement I keep getting the error about foreign key constraint failing. What do I do?

What it means is that so of the data that you’re trying to delete is still alive in another table. Like if you have a table for universities and a table for students, which contains the ID of the university they go to, running a delete on a university table will fail if the students table still contains people enrolled at that university. Proper way to do it would be to delete the offending data first, and then delete the university in question. Quick way would involve running SET foreign_key_checks=0 before the DELETE command, and setting the parameter back to 1 after the DELETE is done. If your foreign key was formulated with ON DELETE CASCADE, the data in dependent tables will be removed automatically.

When would you use ORDER BY in DELETE statement?

When you’re not deleting by row ID. Such as in DELETE FROM techpreparation_com_questions ORDER BY timestamp LIMIT 1. This will delete the most recently posted question in the table techpreparation_com_questions.

How can you see all indexes defined for a table?

SHOW INDEX FROM techpreparation_questions;

How would you change a column from VARCHAR(10) to VARCHAR(50)?

ALTER TABLE techpreparation_questions CHANGE techpreparation_content techpreparation_CONTENT VARCHAR(50).

How would you delete a column?

ALTER TABLE techpreparation_answers DROP answer_user_id.

How would you change a table to InnoDB?

ALTER TABLE techpreparation_questions ENGINE innodb;

When you create a table, and then run SHOW CREATE TABLE on it, you occasionally get different results than what you typed in. What does MySQL modify in your newly created tables?

VARCHARs with length less than 4 become CHARs
CHARs with length more than 3 become VARCHARs.
NOT NULL gets added to the columns declared as PRIMARY KEYs
Default values such as NULL are specified for each column

How do I find out all databases starting with ‘tech’ to which I have access to?

SHOW DATABASES LIKE ‘tech%’;

How do you concatenate strings in MySQL?

CONCAT (string1, string2, string3)

How do you get a portion of a string?

SELECT SUBSTR(title, 1, 10) from techpreparation_questions;

What’s the difference between CHAR_LENGTH and LENGTH?

The first is, naturally, the character count. The second is byte count. For the Latin characters the numbers are the same, but they’re not the same for Unicode and other encodings.

How do you convert a string to UTF-8?

SELECT (techpreparation_question USING utf8);

What do % and _ mean inside LIKE statement?

% corresponds to 0 or more characters, _ is exactly one character.

What does + mean in REGEXP?

At least one character. Appendix G. Regular Expressions from MySQL manual is worth perusing before the interview.

How do you get the month from a timestamp?

SELECT MONTH(techpreparation_timestamp) from techpreparation_questions;

How do you offload the time/date handling to MySQL?

SELECT DATE_FORMAT(techpreparation_timestamp, ‘%Y-%m-%d’) from techpreparation_questions;

A similar TIME_FORMAT function deals with time.

How do you add three minutes to a date?

ADDDATE(techpreparation_publication_date, INTERVAL 3 MINUTE)

What’s the difference between Unix timestamps and MySQL timestamps?

Internally Unix timestamps are stored as 32-bit integers, while MySQL timestamps are stored in a similar manner, but represented in readable YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS format.

How do you convert between Unix timestamps and MySQL timestamps?

UNIX_TIMESTAMP converts from MySQL timestamp to Unix timestamp, FROM_UNIXTIME converts from Unix timestamp to MySQL timestamp.

What are ENUMs used for in MySQL?

You can limit the possible values that go into the table.

CREATE TABLE months (month ENUM ‘January’, ‘February’, ‘March’,…); INSERT months VALUES (’April’);

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MySQL Interview 2

SAP Logistics (PP) Interview

2012-08-08T20:46:00.003-07:00

Explain how the PP Module is Organized in SAP.

The PP module is made up of the following components:

PP-BD Basic Data
PP-SOP Sales and Operations Planning
PP-MP Master Planning
PP-CRP Capacity (Requirements) Planning
PP-MRP Material Requirements Planning
PP-SFC Production Orders
PP-KAN Kanban
PP-REM Repetitive Manufacturing
PP-PI Production Planning for Process Industries
PP-PDS Plant Data Collection
PP-IS Information Systems

Explain How ‘PP’ is ‘Integrated’ with Other Modules.

‘PP’ is one of the modules in SAP R/3 that is complex as the functions cut across many modules. The following modules are tightly integrated with PP:

CO Controlling
FI Financial Accounting
MM Materials Management
SD Sales & Distribution
PS Project Systems
PD Personnel Planning and Development

What is a ‘BOM’?

A ‘BOM (Bill of Material)’ is nothing but a structured list of components (with the object number, quantity, and unit of measure) that go into the making of a product or an assembly. Depending on the industry sector, they may also be called recipes or lists of ingredients. The structure of the product determines whether the bill of material is simple or very complex.

What are the ‘BOM Categories’ Supported by SAP?

The following are the various Categories of BOM:

Equipment BOM
Material BOM
Sales Order BOM
Document Structure
Functional Location BOM
WBS BOM

What are all the ‘Technical Types of BOM’?

There are two ‘Technical Types of BOM’ supported in SAP:

Variant BOM
Material BOM

Differentiate ‘Variant BOM’ from ‘Multiple BOM.’

While a ‘Variant BOM’ groups together several BOMs that describe different objects (for example, different models of a car) with a high proportion of identical parts, a Multiple BOM groups together several BOMs that describe one object (for example, a product) with different combinations of materials for different processing methods.

The Variant BOMs are supported for the following BOM categories:

Material BOMs
Document structures
Equipment BOMs
Functional location BOMs
Multiple BOMs are only supported for Material BOMs.

Is it Possible to Convert a ‘Multiple BOM’ into a ‘Variant BOM’?

No. You can only create a ‘Variant BOM’ from a simple Material BOM. No multiple BOMs can exist for a material.

What is a ‘Work Center’ in PP?

A ‘Work Center’ in PP (PP-BD-BOM) is an organizational unit that can be a combination of machines or groups of craftsmen, people, and production lines, wherein certain operations are carried out to produce some output. Each of the work centers is assigned to a cost center. A work center can be assigned to a work center in SAP-HR, which will enable assignment of employees, qualifications, etc.

What is a ‘Routing’ in PP?

A ‘Routing’ in PP (PP-BD-RTG) is used to define the sequence of operations (work steps) and resources required to perform certain operations in order to produce a material with or without reference to an order. The standard values of planned time for the various operations need to be entered into the routing.

There are two different types of routing:

Routing
Rate routing

(A similar concept exists in PS where you define a ‘task list,’ which is similar to ‘routing’ in PP.)

What are All the ‘Sub-components’ of Production Orders?

The following are the ‘Sub-components of Production Orders’ (PP-SFC):

Order Planning
Order Execution
Order Close

What is a ‘Product Hierarchy’?

Used in pricing, a ‘Product Hierarchy’ is an alphanumeric character string consisting of a maximum of 18 characters. It thus defines the product and its composition.

Example:

A product hierarchy represented by ‘00050002000300040005.’ The first four characters ‘0005’ could indicate that the product is a car. The next four characters ‘0002’ could indicate the plant in which the car is manufactured. The third set of characters could indicate the color of the car. The next set may determine its engine capacity and so on. Thus, the product hierarchy helps in defining the product composition.

Define ‘BOM Group.’

A ‘BOM Group’ is a collection of BOMs that lets you describe a product or a number of similar products. The value in the BOM group field uniquely identifies the BOM group. You can use the BOM group as an alternative way of accessing the BOM. A BOM group comprises either all the alternatives of a multiple BOM or all the variants of a variant BOM.

When you create a BOM group, the system checks the special characters you use. Apart from the usual alphanumeric characters, you can use the following special characters: ‘-’,‘/’,‘_.’ You cannot use blanks.

Define ‘SOP’ (Sales & Operations Planning).

Suitable for long/medium-term planning, with an aim to streamline a company’s ‘Sales and Operational Planning, SOP’ is a forecasting tool enabling you to set up sales, production, and other supply chain targets based on existing, future, or historical data. SOP is most suitable for planning finished goods, and not for material component planning.

SOP plans are passed on to Demand Management (DEM) in the form of independent requirements, which in turn is fed into MPS (Master Production Scheduling) and MRP (Material Requirements Planning). The results of SOP can be passed on to profitability analysis, cost center accounting, and activity-based costing.

SOP contains two application components; namely, Standard SOP (PP-SOP) and Flexible Planning (LO-LIS-PLN). The Standard SOP comes pre-configured with the system. Flexible planning can be configured in a variety of ways.

What is known as ‘Demand Management’?

‘Demand Management’ (PP-MP-DEM) helps in determining the requirement quantities and delivery dates for finished goods assemblies. It uses the planned independent requirements and customer requirements (customer requirements come from sales orders). Planning strategies help in deciding the kind of demand program. If production is triggered by sales orders, then it is known as ‘Make-toOrder’ production; if is not then it is known as ‘Make-to-Stock’ production.

What is ‘Capacity Planning’?

‘Capacity Planning’ aims at economic use of resources. It is integrated with SD, PM, PS, and CS. There are two components within capacity planning: Capacity evaluation and Capacity levelling. Capacity planning supports short-term detailed planning, medium-term planning, and long-term rough-cut planning.

Explain ‘MRP’ (Material Requirements Planning).

‘MRP’ aims to guarantee material availability; it is used to procure/produce the required quantities on time (both for internal purposes and for sales and distribution). This involves monitoring of stocks and, in particular, the automatic creation of ‘procurement proposals’ for purchasing and production. PP-MRP assists and relieves MRP Controllers (who are responsible for all the activities from specifying when, what, type, etc., of material requirements) in their area of responsibility. With the automatic planning run in MRP, it is possible to determine any shortages so as to create procurement elements. With the system generating messages for critical parts and unusual situations, you can rework the planning results in the specific area with problems.

The material requirements can be planned at plant level or for different MRP areas. With MRP at the plant level, the system adds together stocks from all of the individual storage locations, with the exception of individual customer stocks, to determine total plant stock. In the case of material requirements planning on an MRP area level, only the stocks from the storage locations or subcontractor assigned to the respective MRP areas are taken into account.

What are the Three ‘MRP Procedures’?

Materials Requirements Planning (MRP)
Master Production Scheduling (MPS)
Consumption-based Planning

What is ‘MPS’ (Master Production Scheduling)?

Executed as that of an MRP, ‘MPS’ is nothing but a special form of MRP, which aims to reduce storage costs and to increase planning stability. With MPS you can flag materials that greatly influence company profits or take up critical resources as master schedule items and check and plan them separately with a series of special tools.

What is ‘Consumption-based Planning’?

Using past consumption data, ‘Consumption-based Planning’ aims at determining future requirements. In the process, it makes use of material forecasts or any other ‘static’ planning procedures. The ‘net requirements’ calculation is triggered when the stock level falls below a reorder point. The net requirements can also be calculated by forecast requirements from a historical consumption pattern.

Click below links for more SAP Logistics Interview Questions and Answers
SAP SD Interview
SAP MM Interview

SAP Logistics (MM) Interview

2012-08-08T20:29:00.000-07:00

What Functions are Supported in the SAP ‘Material Management’ (MM)?

The MM module of SAP supports the following functions:

MRP (Material Requirements Planning)
Procurement
Inventory Management
Inventory Valuation
Invoice Verification

What is ‘MRP’?

‘MRP (Material Requirements Planning)’ is nothing but the determination of which materials are required, when and in what quantities, based on current information and forecasts.

Explain the Basic ‘Organizational Structure’ in MM.

The major Organizational Elements of MM include:

Purchasing Organization
Plant
Storage Location

The Purchasing Organization is typically attached to one Company Code. But a single Company Code can have one or more purchasing organizations. One or more Plants are attached to a purchasing organization. One or more Storage Locations are attached to a plant. One or more plants are assigned to a Company Code, but one plant is attached to only one Company Code.

Depending on how the purchasing organization has been structured, you may come across three types of structures as detailed below:

Cross-Plant Purchasing Organization - The purchasing organization caters to more than one plant of the same Company Code.
Plant-Specific Purchasing Organization - Each Plant has it is own purchasing organization.
Cross-Company Code Purchasing Organization - A single purchasing organization is responsible for the procurement activities of more than one Company Code. The plants attached to this purchasing organization are also cross-Company Code. In this case, the purchasing organization is not attached to any of the Company Codes; instead, the various plants are attached to the purchasing organization. This kind of purchasing organization is known as a central purchasing organization. This kind of organizational structure is essential in the case of centralized procurement in an enterprise.

Define ‘Plant’ in SAP.

‘Plant’ in SAP can denote a manufacturing location, distribution center, or a warehouse. With unique numbers identifying each of the plants, though these are all not all necessarily financial entities, they can still be linked to a Business Area. The Plant is the place where you normally valuate the inventory in SAP. The system, however, checks for the inventory either at the Plant or Plant/Storage Location during an Order entry.

Explain the ‘Storage Location’ in SAP.

A sub-division of a plant, the ‘Storage Location,’ defines a location for materials that can be a warehouse, bin, or a storage area of raw materials/WIP/finished product. You will manage the physical inventory, material movement, picking, cycle counting, etc., at the storage-location level. In Warehouse Management, the storage location is further subdivided.

Explain the ‘Purchasing Organization’ in SAP.

This refers to the organizational structure in SAP that is responsible for procurement of materials. The ‘Purchasing Organization’ is the top-most organizational element in MM, and this can take any one of three forms such as (1) Cross-plant purchasing organizations (catering to more than one plant but within the same Company Code), (2) Plant-specific purchasing organizations (with a 1:1 relationship with the plant), and (3) Cross-company code purchasing organizations (catering to more than one Company Code). Entrusted with the activity of negotiating the price, delivery conditions, etc., of materials from vendors, the Purchasing Organization can further be subdivided into purchasing groups.

Explain the ‘Purchasing Group’ Concept in MM.

The ‘Purchasing Group’ carries out the actual activities of purchasing, and is assigned to a material in the material master. The activities of several purchasing organizations can be done by one purchasing group.

Explain the ‘Valuation Area’ Concept in MM.

The valuation of a material is done at the ‘Valuation Area,’ which can either be at the Company Code level or the Plant level. The level at which the valuation needs to happen is defined in the customizing. Note that once it is defined, you will not be able to change it later!

When the valuation is at the Company Code level, then the valuation of a material is uniform across the plants attached to that Company Code. On the other hand, if the valuation is at the plant level, then the value of the material is plantspecific and will vary from one plant to another. If you are using PP (Production Planning)/MRP in your company, then the valuation has to be at the plant level.

What is a ‘Factory Calendar’?

A ‘Factory Calendar’ is a calendar that is country-specific with a list of public holidays (maintained via the Holiday Calendar) and working days, which are Client-independent. The factory calendar helps in controlling goods issues/receipts. Each plant is assigned a factory calendar, and the calendar must be activated (through ‘CTS functionality’) before using it.

Explain How SD and MM are Connected in SAP.

The goods/services from a plant can be sold by one or more sales organizations. It is also possible that single sales organizations sells goods/services for several plants. When the sales organizations sells for more than one plant belonging to one or more Company Codes, then this is called inter-company sales, and will require you to make some special configurations in the system. A sales organization, attached to a Company Code, is further divided into distribution channels and divisions in SD. A division typically represents a product line, and is assigned to a material in the material master.

Outline the Functions Supported by ‘Material Master.’

The ‘Material Master’ is the central master record catering to various business functions in Logistics. The data stored in this master support a variety of business functions and operations such as:

Production Planning
MRP
Procurement
Invoice Verification
Inventory Management
Product Costing
Sales and Distribution
Quality Management

The data is stored, within a material master, at different organizational levels. The general data is valid for all the Company Codes at the Client level. The purchasing information is valid at the plant level. The sales information is valid at the sales organization/distribution channel. Lastly, when Warehouse Management is activated, the data is maintained at the warehouse number/storage type level.

Explain Why a ‘Material Master’ is Divided into ‘Views.’

Since the information in a material master needs to be maintained by a number of users across several modules, SAP has structured the master into a number of Views for facilitating easier access and updating of data. The views include:

Basic Data
Classification
Sales
Purchasing
Purchase Order text
Accounting
Foreign Trade
Work Scheduling
Forecasting
Storage
Costing
Plant/Storage Location stock
MRP

What Information is Available in the ‘Accounting View’ of a ‘Material Master’?

The most important information maintained in the ‘Accounting View’ of a material master is the valuation class, which needs to be assigned to individual materials. The valuation class, in turn, helps in determining the relevant GL accounts for posting valuation-relevant transactions such as GR, GI, etc.

You will maintain the price control indicator in the accounting view, which enables determining how the stock of a material is to be valued (at Standard price (S) or Moving average price (V)).

Why do You Need ‘Material Types’ in MM?

One way to group materials is by ‘Material Type’ (the other being by Industry Sector’). This grouping helps determine what information or data is to be made available at the material master level for a particular material.

The material type (for example, FERT, HAWA, HALB, ROH, and so on) is used to control:

Which Views can be maintained on the master record
Which Fields are mandatory, optional, or for ‘display only’ in the material master
What kind of Procurement is allowed for that material (internal or external or both)
How to Number (Internal/External) and what Number Range is allowed
Whether Quantity and/or Value updating should be done in a particular Valuation Area
Which GL Accounts will be posted to (via the Valuation Class) during goods movement
The default Item Category Group (S&D)
The default Price Control Indicator (S or V) and
Whether the default Price Control Indicator is changeable during material master maintenance

Explain the ‘Price Control Indicator.’

The ‘Price Control Indicator’ is used by SAP to determine how a material will be valuated, by default. The indicator can be set to:

Standard Price (S) or
Moving Average Price (V)

When you set the indicator to ‘S,’ the system carries out all the inventory postings at the standard price. The variances due to a different price of a material in goods movement or invoice receipts if any, are all posted to price difference accounts. As a result, the standard price remains the same, unless it is changed intentionally by manual processing. This will be necessary only when the difference between the standard and moving average prices becomes very large. (While updating the price difference accounts, however, the system also updates the moving average price with these variances, so that you get a chance to adjust the standard price should the difference between the standard and moving average prices becomes very substantial.)

On the other hand, when you set the indicator to ‘V’ then all the goods receipts (GR) will be at the GR value. The system will then adjust the price in the material master by the GR price. However, if there is a difference between the moving average price of the material and the goods movement/invoice receipt, then the price difference is moved to the stock account, and the price of the material in the material master is adjusted accordingly.

Explain ‘Prices Maintenance’ for Materials Transferred from ‘Legacy’ to SAP.

Before you transfer the initial inventory from a legacy system to SAP, you need to create the relevant master data for the materials.

If you are planning to maintain a standard price for the materials, then you will create the material masters with ‘S’ as the price control indictor in SAP. With this control, when you enter the material inventory, the system valuates this stock with the standard price defined. In this case, you enter a new price and the system posts the price difference (between the standard price and the new price you entered) to a price difference account.

Similarly, if you are planning to maintain a moving average price for materials, then you will create the material masters with ‘V’ as the Price Control Indictor in SAP. With this control, when you enter the material inventory, the system valuates this stock with the moving average price defined. In this case, you enter a new price and the system adjusts the moving average price accordingly. If you enter only the quantity, and not any new price, the system continues to valuate the stock at the original moving average price, and the price of the material does not change.

What is the ‘Material Status’?

The ‘Material Status’ is a 2-digit code enabling you to control the usability of material for various MM and PP applications. This status key also controls warehouse management, transfers order instructions, quality inspection instructions, decides how the system behaves when a product cost estimate is created, and so on.

The material status can be maintained as (1) Plant-specific material status, (2) Cross-plant material status, and (3) Distribution material status.

What is the ‘EAN’?

The ‘EAN (International Article Number),’ equivalent to the UPC (Universal Product Code) of the United States, is an international standard number for identifying a material, which SAP allows you to assign (done in the ‘Eng./Design or Units of Measure’ screen) to the materials. The EAN is normally assigned to the manufacturer of a material. Made up of a prefix (to identify the country or company from where the material originates), article number, and a check digit (ensures correctness of an EAN number so that no incorrect entries are scanned or entered into the system).

What are Some of the ‘Partner Functions’ of a ‘Vendor’?

Through the definition of ‘Partner Functions’ in the Vendor Master, SAP helps to designate vendors for different roles. The partner role is designated by a 2-digit code.

VN Vendor
PI Invoice Presented by
OA Ordering Address
GS Goods Supplier
AZ Payment Recipient

A partner schema (also known as a partner procedure) is assigned to a vendor account group. The procedure specifies which partner roles are ‘allowed’/‘mandatory’/‘can be changed’ for a vendor master with that account group. You may assign three different partner schemas to an account group, one for each level of purchasing data, i.e., one at the purchase organization level, one at the VSR level, and one at the plant level. This enables maintaining different partners at different organizational levels.

What is a ‘Batch’ in the Context of ‘Batch Management’?

Representing a quantity of material with a homogenous set of properties/characteristics produced during a particular cycle of manufacturing, a ‘Batch’ is a subset of inventory quantity, which cannot be reproduced again with the same properties. A batch is linked to the classification system, and you can use it only when the classification system has been set up properly for batch management.

A batch is unique for a single material, and is unique at the Client level as well. That is, you will be able to use a batch number only once in the Client regardless of the plant and material. The batch will be known only in the plant where it was created. The batch numbers can either be manually assigned or system generated.

What are the Possible Values for ‘Procurement Types’?

The possible values for ‘Procurement Types’ are:

No procurement
External procurement
In-house production
Both procurement types

What are the ‘prerequisites’ for an ‘MRP Run’?

The following are the ‘prerequisites’ for an MRP Run:

MRP activated
Valid MRP data for the material
Valid MRP type
Valid material status

What is an ‘MRP Area’?

An ‘MRP Area’ is not an organizational structure, but a unit for which you can carry out Consumption-based MRP. The MRP area is used to carry out MRP for the components provided to a sub-contractor. There are three types of MRP areas that you will come across:

MRP Area for Storage Locations
MRP Area for Subcontracting Vendor Stock
MRP Area for the Plant

What is an ‘MRP List’?

An ‘MRP List’ displays the results of the last ‘planning run.’ Using a ‘collective display’ format, you will be able to display planning details for a number of materials for a given set of ‘selection parameters.’

Explain the ‘Re-Order Point’ Procedure.

The ‘Re-Order Point’ is the level of inventory that triggers material procurement. Once the inventory falls below this level, you need to create the order proposal either manually or automatically by the system.

In the case of the manual re-order point procedure, you will define the reorder point and the safety stock in the material master. On the other hand, in the automatic re-order point procedure, the system will calculate the re-order point and the safety stock based on the next period’s consumption pattern.

Explain the ‘Inventory Management’ Submodule.

The ‘Inventory Management’ submodule deals with the GR/GI of materials from/into the inventory. It also manages the transfer of materials from one storage location to another. As an important element of MM, this module is integrated with SD, PP, QM, and PM modules.

What is ‘Goods Movement’?

‘Goods Movement’ represents an event causing a change in the stock, with the change being value or status, stock type, or quantity. It also represents the physical movement of stock from one location to another. Goods movement is classified into:

Receipt of goods/services
Issue of materials
Stock transfers

What Happens During a ‘Goods Issue’?

The ‘Goods Issue (GI)’ results in a reduction in the stock quantity/value. The GI can be Planned (via sales order, production order, return delivery, delivery for internal, use etc.) or Unplanned (drawing a stock for a sample, scrapping, etc.).

The GI results in:

Creation of a Material/Accounting document
Update of Reservation for the issue (if any)
Update of GL accounts
Update of ‘points of consumption’ if applicable (cost center, project, etc.)
Update of Stock quantity

Explain ‘Stock Transfers.’

The physical movement of stock between locations is called a ‘Stock Transfer,’ which can be within a plant or between plants. Stock transfers can be carried out either in a single step or in two steps. The stock transfer may be from:

Company to Company
Plant to Plant
Storage Location to Storage Location

If there is a logical change in the stock type/status, then this kind of ‘transfer’ is called a ‘transfer posting.’ The transfer posting may be from:

Product to Product
Quality Inspection to Unrestricted Use
Consignment Store to Storage Location

What is a ‘Stock Type’?

Used in the determination of available stock of a material, the ‘Stock Type’ is the sub-division of inventory at a storage location based on the use of that inventory. In SAP, there are many kinds of stock types:

Unrestricted (use) stock (the physical stock that is always available at a plant/storage location)
Restricted (use) stock
Quality inspection stock (not counted for unrestricted use and may be made available for MRP)
Stock-in transfer
Blocked stock (not to be counted as unrestricted stock and is not available for MRP)

Besides all of the above, which are all known as valuated stocks, you will also come across one more type called ‘GR blocked stock,’ which is a non-valuated stock.

The GR-blocked stock denotes all the stock accepted ‘conditionally’ from the vendors. This stock is not considered available for ‘unrestricted use.’ You will use the Movement Type 103 for the GR-blocked stock and Movement Type 101 is used for a normal GR.

Explain ‘Return Delivery.’

You will use ‘Return Delivery’ when you return goods to the supplier (vendor) for reasons such as damaged packaging, etc. Note that the ‘reason for return’ is mandatory as this will help you, later on, to analyze problems with a vendor. The system uses the Movement Type 122, and will create a return delivery slip, which will accompany the goods being returned.

If the ‘return’ is from a ‘GR-blocked stock,’ you need to use a different Movement Type: 104.

What are All the Various Types of ‘Physical Inventory’?

The following are the different types of ‘Physical Inventory’ in SAP MM:

Periodic inventory (All the stocks are physically counted on a ‘key date’ (balance sheet date), and all the stock movements are blocked during physical counting)
Cycle counting (Physical counting is done at periodical intervals)
Sampling (Randomly selected stocks are counted physically, and the system uses this information to ‘estimate’ stock value on a given date)
Continuous (Stocks are tracked continuously throughout the fiscal year, with physical stock taking once a year, at least!)

What is a ‘Material Ledger’?

A ‘Material Ledger’ is nothing but a tool for inventory accounting that provides new methods for ‘price control’ for ‘material valuation’ (you can store the material inventory values in more than one currency). It makes it possible to keep the ‘material price’ constant over a period of time (say, over the life of a production order). The moving average price field is used to store a ‘periodic price.’ This periodic price stays constant and is the price used for valuation until you close the material ledger. At closing, the periodic price is updated based on the actual value of invoice receipts received for that material during the period.

Explain ‘Split Valuation.’ Why is it Necessary?

‘Split Valuation’ allows substocks of the same material to be managed in different stock accounts. This allows substocks to be valuated separately, and every transaction is carried out at the substock level. So, when processing a transaction, it is necessary to mention the substock.

The ‘split valuation’ is necessary if the material has:

Different Origins
Various Levels of Quality
Various Statuses

It is also required in situations where you need to make a distinction between ‘in-house produced materials’ and ‘materials procured externally,’ or if there is a distinction between ‘different deliveries.’

Explain the Basic Steps in ‘Configuring Split Valuation.’

The five basic steps for ‘Configuring Split Valuation’ are:

Activate ‘Split Valuation’
Define ‘Global Valuation Types’. For each Valuation type’ you need to specify: (a) whether ‘external’ purchase orders are allowed, (b) whether production orders are allowed, and (c) the account category reference.
Define ‘Global Valuation Categories’. For each valuation category specify: (a) default ‘valuation type’ to be used when purchase orders are created and whether this default can be changed, (b) default valuation type to be used when production orders are created and whether this default can be changed, and (c) whether a ‘valuation record’ should be created automatically when a GR is posted for a valuation type for which no record yet exists.
Allocate ‘Valuation Types’ to the ‘Valuation Categories’
Define which of the ‘Global Categories/Types’ apply to which ‘Valuation Areas’

Outline ‘Stock Valuation Methods’ for Material Revaluation.

There are three methods with which you can revaluate your stock for Balance Sheet purposes. Irrespective of the method you select, you will be able to valuate your stock either at the Company Code level or at the Valuation Area level:

LIFO (Last-In-First-Out): This method is based on the assumption that the materials received last were the ones issued/consumed first. The valuation is based on the initial receipt.
FIFO (First-In-First-Out): Here the assumption is that the materials received first are the ones consumed/issued first. So, the valuation is based on the most recent receipt. The FIFO method can also be used in conjunction with the lowest value method. By this you can determine whether the system should make a comparison between the FIFO determined price and the lowest value price. You can also determine whether the FIFO price should be updated in the material master record.
Lowest Value Method: Here, the stocks are valued at their original price or the current market price whichever is lower. This method is suitable when the inventory needs to be valued to take into account material obsolescence, physical deterioration, or changes in price levels.

How Does ‘Automatic Account Assignment’ Work in MM?

‘GL accounts’ are assigned to ‘Transaction Keys’ (BSX, WRX, PRD, UMG, GBB, etc.).
Transaction Keys identify which GL Accounts are to be debited or credited.
Transaction Keys are assigned to ‘Value Strings’ (for example, WA01).
‘Movement Types’ (for example, 901) are associated with a ‘Value String.’

Explain ‘Automatic Account Assignment’ Configuration in MM.

There are four steps required to complete the ‘Automatic Account Assignment’ configuration settings for MM:

Finalize the ‘valuation level.’
Activate the ‘valuation grouping code’ option. (For this you need to group valuation areas using valuation grouping codes.)
Maintain ‘valuation classes’ and ‘account category references’ and their linkage to ‘material types.’
Maintain the ‘GL accounts’ for each combination of Chart of accounts, valuation grouping code, valuation class, and transaction key.

You may use the ‘automatic account determination wizard’ to complete the configuration settings, as the wizard guides you step-by-step.

Explain the ‘Transaction Keys’ in MM.

Also known as ‘process keys,’ the ‘Transaction Keys’ are pre-defined in the system to enable transaction postings in Inventory Management and Accounting (Invoice Verification). For each of the movement types in MM, there is a value string that stores these possible transactions.

The pre-defined transaction keys are:

BSX (used in Inventory Postings)
WRX (used in GR/IR Clearing Postings)
PRD (used to post Cost/Price differences)
UMB (used to post Revenue/Expenses from revaluation)
GBB (used in offsetting entries in Stock postings)

BSX, WRX, and PRD are examples of transaction keys that are relevant for a GR with reference to a purchase order for a material with standard price control. The transaction key UMB is used when the standard price has changed and the movement is posted to a previous period. Likewise, GBB is used to identify the GL account to post to as the offsetting entry to the stock account (when not referencing a purchase order) such as miscellaneous goods receipts, goods issues for sales orders with no account assignment, and scrapping.

How Does the System Determine the Correct ‘GL a/c’ for a Posting?

Imagine that you are posting a goods movement.

Since the goods movement is from a plant, and the plant is assigned to a Company Code, the goods movement identifies the relevant Company Code.
As the Company Code has already been assigned to the Chart of Accounts, the system is able to identify the GL accounts.
The plant also determines the valuation area (and the optional ‘valuation grouping code’).
Since each movement type is assigned to a ‘value string’ which in turn is identified with a transaction key, the goods movement determines the correct transaction key.
Since each of the transaction keys is associated with the relevant GL accounts, through the value string, the movement type now identifies the relevant GL Account, and the transaction is posted.

Click below links for more SAP Logistics Interview Questions and Answers

SAP SD Interview

SAP PP Interview

SAP Logistics (SD) Interview

2012-08-08T19:55:00.002-07:00

What are the components of the SAP SD Module?

The important components in SAP Sales & Distribution module include:

Master data
Basic functions
Sales (including foreign sales and sales support)
Shipping and transportation
Billing
Sales support
Information systems

What are the important Organizational Elements of SAP SD?

The important Organizational Elements in SAP Sales & Distribution include:

Sales organization
Distribution channel
Division
Sales area
Sales group
Sales person

Explain the ‘Sales Organization.’ How it is assigned to a ‘Plant’?

The ‘Sales Organization’ is the top-most organizational element in SD. It represents and takes care of all the transactions relating to the selling and distribution of products or services. A distribution channel is assigned to one or more sales organization. The customer master can be maintained with different sales organization views.

The sales organization, identified by a 4-character code, is assigned to one or more plants. These plants are, in turn, assigned to a Company Code. So, it follows that any number of sales areas can be brought under a single Company Code.

Even though it is possible that you may have any number of sales organizations, it is recommended that you have a minimum number of these units in your setup. Ideal recommendation is for a single sales organization per Company Code. If you are selling the same product or service from more than one sales organization, then there is a clear indication that you have more sales organizations defined than what would ideally be required.

What is a ‘Distribution Channel’?

A ‘Distribution Channel’ depicts the channel through which the products or services reach the customers after they are sold (for example, wholesale, retail, direct sales, etc.). Represented by a 2-digit identifier, the distribution channel is assigned to one or more sales areas. As a result, one customer may be serviced through more than one distribution channel. Such as in a sales organization, the customer master data may have different distribution channel views.

What is a ‘Distribution Chain’?

A ‘Distribution Chain’ represents the possible combinations of sales organization(s) and distribution channel(s).

What is a ‘Division’?

A ‘Division’ depicts the product or service group for a range of products/services. For each division, you may define and maintain customer-specific parameters such as terms of payment, pricing, etc. The division may come under one or more distribution channels.

What is a ‘Sales Area’?

A ‘Sales Area’ is a combination of the sales organization, distribution channel, and division.

Explain how ‘Human Elements’ are organized in SD.

There are three distinct organizational units in SD from the human angle:

Sales Office
Sales Group
Sales Person

The Sales Office represents the geographical dimension in sales and distribution. A sales office is assigned to a sales area. The staff of a sales office may be grouped into Sales Groups. This corresponds to sales divisions. A Sales Person is assigned to a sales group. This assignment is done at the personnel master record level.

Where and how is a ‘Business Area Assignment’ done?

Business area assignment is done at two levels:

Plant level
Valuation area level

The ‘business area’ is assigned to the combination of ‘plant’/‘valuation area’ and the ‘division.’

A ‘Plant’ is Assigned to Which of the Entities in the SD Organization?

A Plant is assigned to:

Company Code
Combination of Sales Organization & Distribution Channel
Purchasing Organization

How is the ‘Shipping Point’ determined by the system?

The ‘Shipping Point’ is determined by the combination of shipping condition, loading group, and plant assigned to a shipping point.

What are the important ‘Customer Master Records’?

Some of the important customer records are:

Sold-to-Party record
Ship-to-Party record
Bill-to-Party record
Payer record

What are the various sections of the ‘Customer Master Record’?

The different sections in a master record are:

General Data - You will be able to create general data such as addresses, telephones, contact persons, unloading points, etc., either from the accounting side or from the sales side.
Company Code Data - You will be able to create data in account management (credit management, payment details, taxations, insurance, etc.) that pertains to the Company Code in which the customer is created. You do this from the accounting side.
Sales & Distribution Data - The data for pricing, shipping, etc., comes under this category of information. You will create this from the SD area. You can have data for different sales areas for a single customer.

What is a ‘Customer-Material Information Record’?

The information relating to a material that applies only to a specific customer is known as ‘Customer-Material Information.’ This is nothing but the description of your ‘material by the customer,’ and you record this customer-specific information in the customer-material information record.

What is a ‘Sales Order’?

A ‘Sales Order’ is a contract between your Sales Organization and a Customer for supply of specified goods and/services over a specified timeframe and in an agreed upon quantity or unit. All the relevant information from the customer master record and the material master record, for a specific sales area, are copied to the sales order. The sales order may be created with reference to a ‘preceding document’ such as a quotation, then all the initial data from the preceding document is copied to the sales order.

The ‘sales order’ contains:

Organizational Data (sales organization, distribution channel, division, sales document type, pricing procedure, etc.).
Header Data (sold-to-party, sales office, sales group, pricing date, document date, order reason, document currency, price group, sales district, customer group, shipping condition, incoterms, payment terms, billing schedule, PO number, etc.).
Item Data (item category, order quantity, material, batch number, product hierarchy, plant, material group, shipping point, route, delivery priority, customer material, item number, etc.).
Schedule Line Data (schedule line, schedule line number, delivery date, order quantity, confirmed quantity, material availability date, loading date, proposed goods issue date, transportation date, movement type, shipping point, etc.).

What are the ‘Special Sales Document Types’?

SO Rush Order
G2 Credit
RE Return Order
KN FoC (Free-of-Charge) Subsequent Delivery Order
RK Invoice Correction Request

What is the ‘Consignment Stock Process’?

In the ‘Consignment Stock Process,’ you allow your stock or material to be at the customer’s site. You may also allow your stock or material to be made available at your site, but reserved for a particular customer. And you will allow the customer to sell or consume as much stock as he wants from this. You will then bill the customer only for the quantities that he has consumed or sold.

You will monitor the consignment stock—also known as special stock—in your system customer-wise and material-wise. You will use the standard sales order document type KB and standard delivery type LF for processing a consignment sales order.

Explain ‘Sales Document Blocking.’

You may be required to block a specific sales document type from further processing, when you want to block undesirable customers. You can achieve this for a specific customer or for a specific document type. You may also block it, in the customer master record, for a single sales area or for all the sales areas attached to the customer.

The blocking is done in customizing by assigning blocking reasons to the sales document types. Then in the customer master record do the necessary document block.

Can you ‘Block’ a transaction for a material that is ‘Flagged for Deletion’?

When you set the ‘deletion flag’ for a material at the plant level, you will still be able to enter an order even though the system will ‘warn’ you that the material has been flagged for deletion. If you need to block any transaction for a material, then you need to use the ‘Sales Status’ field in the ‘Sales Organization View’ of the material master.

Can Items in a ‘Sales Order’ belong to different ‘Distribution Channels’?

No. The various items in a ‘Sales Order’ should belong to a single distribution channel only. However, the various items in a delivery can belong to different distribution channels.

Can the Items in a ‘Billing Document’ belong to different ‘Distribution Channels’?

No. The various items in a ‘Billing Document’ should belong to a single distribution channel only.

Differentiate between a ‘Sales Area’ and a ‘Sales Line.’

A ‘Sales Area’ is comprised of sales organization, distribution channel, and division whereas a Sales Line is the combination of the sales organization and the distribution channel.

Can a ‘Sales Area’ belong to different Company Codes?

No. A ‘Sales Area’ can belong to only one Company Code.

What is the ‘Storage Location Rule’?

The ‘Storage Location Rule’ assigned in the Delivery Document type determines the Storage Location, even when the storage location is entered during delivery creation. This is based on the following rules:

MALA: Shipping Point/Plant/Storage condition
RETA: Plant/Situation/Storage condition
MARE: MALA then RETA

How do you configure the ‘Partner Determination Procedure’ in SD?

The ‘Partner Determination Procedure’ is configured as outlined in the following steps:

Create an account group
Create and assign a number range to that account group
Create and assign the partner functions to the account group
Create a partner determination procedure
Assign the partner functions to the partner determination procedure
Finally, assign the partner determination procedure to the account group

Where do you define ‘Unloading Points’ and ‘Goods Receiving Hours’?

The ‘Unloading Points’ and ‘Goods Receiving Hours’ are defined in the Customer Master>General Data>Unloading Points tab.

Where do you define the ‘Terms of Payment’ for a Customer?

The ‘Terms of Payment’ for a specific customer is defined in the Customer Master>Company Code Data>Payment Transactions Tab, and also in the Billing Document Tab in the Sales Area Data of the Customer Master.

Click below links for more SAP Logistics Interview Questions and Answers
SAP MM Interview
SAP PP Interview

SAP CO Interview 3

2012-08-08T19:27:00.002-07:00

Explain ‘Segments’ and ‘Cycles.’

A ‘Segment’ is one processing unit required to complete an automated allocation of distribution or assessment or reposting of planned/actual costs in controlling in SAP. A segment is made up of (a) allocation characteristics—to identify the sender/receiver, (b) values of the sender—plan/actual, type of costs to be allocated, and (c) values of the receiver—the basis for allocation, for example, the tracing factor such as SKF, percentages, etc.

When you combine multiple segments into a single process, then you call that the ‘Cycle.’ A Cycle helps you to process various segments in a chain-like fashion one after another. A Cycle consists of header data (valid for all Segments in a Cycle) and one or more Segments, with summarized rules and settings enabling allocation. The Segments within a ‘cycle’ can be processed iteratively (one segment waits for the results of another) or non-iteratively (all the segments are processed independently) or cumulatively (to take care of variations in receiver Tracing Factors or sender amounts).

Typically, when you start the cycles you will start them in a ‘test’ mode to see the allocations before actual postings. Technically, you can run the cycles in ‘production’ mode at any point of time, but the system will carry out the allocation postings only on the first day of a period. The utility of the cycle lies in the fact that you can run these period after period.

What is ‘Iterative Processing’ of Cycles?

‘Iterative Processing’ is nothing but the repetitive processing of sender/receiver relationships until the sender’s entire cost is transferred to the receiver(s). During iterative processing, you will not be able to use ‘fixed amounts’ as the ‘sender rules’; you will also not be able to define a percentage to remain on the sender. You will be able to use both plan and actual data while using the iteration.

What is ‘Splitting’? Explain the ‘Splitting Structure.’

‘Splitting’ is a process used to assign ‘activity-independent’ plans/actual costs, both primary and secondary, of a cost center to the individual activity types within that cost center. But the important requirement is that you will use this when there is no account assignment to the activity types.

You may either use the Splitting rules or the Equivalence number to achieve this. When you split the costs from a cost center, the cost center temporarily becomes more than one cost center for the purpose of allocation but again becomes a single cost center when posting happens in the subsequent period.

If you need to assign different cost elements or cost element groups to activities in more than one way, then you need to define a ‘Splitting Structure’ containing ‘splitting rules’ to determine the criteria of splitting ‘activity-independent’ costs to an activity type. If you have created the splitting structure in customizing and assigned the same to a cost center, then the system uses the splitting structure for cost apportioning; otherwise, it will use the equivalence number.

The ‘splitting rules’ determine the amount or the proportion of costs to be allocated to various activity types of a cost center and is based on the consumption of these activity types. The costs thus allocated may be a fixed sum, or a percentage, or it can even be based on the tracing factors or SKFs.

The ‘equivalence number’ is a basic method for splitting the costs when you manually plan for each of the activity types. By this, you will plan all activity-independent costs according to the equivalence numbers (the default is 1).

What is an ‘Activity Price Calculation’?

You will be completing the planning process only when you perform the ‘Activity Price Calculation,’ which is based on planned activities and costs. By doing this you are valuating the planned secondary costs at receiving cost centers. If you do not want to use activity price thus calculated, you are free to use the political price for the activity type.

As you are aware, the activity price is used for planned/actual allocation and is determined by using either the political price or the system-calculated activity price.

What is known as the ‘Political Price’ for an Activity Type?

The ‘Political Price’ is the price determined outside the SAP system, which is used in manual input using the required planning layout in planning.

What is ‘Allocation Price Variance?

‘Allocation Price Variance’ is the difference between the ‘political price’ of an activity type and the ‘system calculated activity price’ of the same activity type.

What is ‘Budgeting’?

‘Budgeting’ is used to augment the planning process at the cost-center level. While planning is considered the ‘bottom-up’ approach, budgeting is regarded as the ‘top-down’ method to control costs.

Budgeting usually comes ‘down’ from the ‘top (management)’ and is used to guide the planning process at the cost-center level. Note that budgeting is not integrated with postings; you will get an error when the system comes across a posting that will result in the actual values exceeding the budget for that cost center.

What are the ‘Direct Allocation’ Methods of Posting in CO?

The ‘Direct Allocation’ of posting in CO may be an actual cost entry or a transaction-based posting.

The actual cost entry is the transfer of primary costs from FI to CO, on a real-time basis, through the primary cost elements. You may also transfer transaction data by making the cost accounting assignment to cost objects from other modules such as FI-AA, SD, and MM:

FI-AA: Assign assets to a cost center (to post depreciation, etc.)
MM: Assign GR to a cost center/internal order
SD: Assign or settle a sales order to a cost center or internal order

Note that during actual cost entry, the system creates two documents. When you post the primary costs from FI to CO, the system will create a document in FI and a parallel document in CO, which is summarized from the point of the cost object/element.

Transaction-based postings are executed within the CO, again on a real-time basis, enabling you to have updated cost information on the cost centers at any point in time. You will be able to carry out the following transaction-based postings in CO:

Reposting

Line items
Transactions

Manual cost allocation
Direct activity allocation
Posting of Statistical Key Figures
Posting of sender activities

What is the ‘Indirect Allocation’ Method of Postings in CO?

The ‘Indirect Allocation’ of postings in CO may be used at the end of a period as a periodic allocation. This is done after you have completed all the primary postings. You may post the following periodic allocations using indirect allocation:

Periodic Reposting
Distribution
Assessment
Accrual Cost Calculation (Inputted Cost Calculation)
Indirect Activity Allocation

Explain ‘CO Automatic Account Assignment.’

For transferring primary costs to CO, on a real-time basis, you need to have ‘Automatic Account Assignments’ defined in the system. By doing this, you will always be able to post a particular cost to a specified cost center. You can also use this assignment for automatically posting the exchange rate differences (gain or loss), discount, etc., to CO.

You may also have additional account assignment at different levels such as:

Controlling area/account/Company Code in the customizing
Controlling area/account/cost element in the master record
Controlling area/account/Company Code/business area/valuation area in customizing

The system always goes through the route of customizing first, then to the cost element master record while accessing the account assignment rules.

How does ‘Validation’ differ from ‘Substitution’?

SAP uses validations and substitutions to check the integrity of data entered before posting a document. When you have both substitutions and validations defined, the system first completes the substitution then goes on to validate the entries. Note that only one validation and one substitution can be activated at a time for a controlling area per ‘call-up point.’

A ‘Validation’ uses Boolean logic for checking any type of combination of specified criteria (such as account type/cost center combination) for ensuring the validity before allowing you to post a document.

Example:

Validation Rule: If the cost element is ‘120000,’ then the cost center is ‘1200.’
Document: You try posting a document containing the cost element as ‘120000’ and the cost center is ‘1400.’
System Response: The system will throw an ‘error message’ after checking that the cost center value does not match the cost center value of the criteria for that given cost element value.

In contrast to validation which just checks for validity, substitution ensures that the system replaces a value assigned to one or more fields based on predetermined criteria, using, again, ‘Boolean logic.’

Example:

Substitution Rule: If the cost element is ‘120000,’ then the cost center is ‘1200.’
Document: You try posting a document containing the cost element as ‘120000’ and the cost center as ‘1400.’
System Response: The system will replace the entered cost center value of ‘1400’ with that of the correct value ‘1200.’

What is a ‘Call-up Point’?

A ‘Call-up Point’ is a particular point in transaction processing that triggers an action such as substitution or validation.

What is ‘Boolean Logic’?

‘Boolean Logic’ is based on simple logic to determine if a given statement is true or false. The logic works on the basic principle that a statement can either be true or false. In a complex statement (created using operators ‘and’/‘or’/‘nor,’ etc.) with many parts, the logic goes by assigning true or false from part to part, and then determines at the end whether the combination is true or false.

Explain ‘Reposting’ in Cost Center Accounting.

‘Reposting’ is one of the ‘transaction-based postings’ in Cost Center Accounting used to reallocate costs that were incorrectly posted to another cost center earlier. Also called internal reposting, there are two types:

Line Item Reposting
Transaction Reposting

Use Line Item Reposting only when a certain line item, from the original posting, needs to be reposted. Under this reposting, at the end of the transaction, the system creates a new CO document, but keeps the original FI document unchanged. In the new CO document created, the original FI number is referenced.

You will resort to the entire Transaction Reposting when the original posting was incorrect. Here, the original FI documents are not referenced to in the new CO document created, though the original FI document remains unchanged.

Is ‘Periodic Reposting’ Different from ‘Reposting’?

‘Periodic Reposting,’ a method under ‘indirect allocation,’ is used to correct multiple postings made to cost centers during a particular period. As such, this is similar to multiple reposting under ‘transaction-based postings.’

Periodic reposting is also similar to distribution, when you use this, at the period end, to transfer all costs from a ‘pooled cost center’ to other receivers. (Note that the ‘distribution’ is meant primarily for cost allocation, but periodic reposting is meant for correcting the posting errors.)

Explain ‘Manual Cost Allocation.’

‘Manual Cost Allocation’—one of the ‘transaction-based postings’—is used to post both primary and secondary actual costs (not the planned costs), and also to transfer external data. You may also use this to correct secondary costs that were incorrectly posted earlier. In the process of manual cost allocation, remember that you can use any type of cost element except 43, as this is meant exclusively for activity allocation.

You may use this among cost centers, internal orders, networks, network activities, sales orders, sales order items, WBS elements, etc., identifying these cost objects as senders/receivers.

What is ‘Direct Activity Allocation’?

‘Direct Activity Allocation’—one of the ‘transaction-based postings’—is used to record activities performed by a cost center and to allocate simultaneously to ‘receiving cost centers.’ You will use this ‘direct activity allocation’ only when you know the activity volumes of both the sender and the receiver. If not known, then use the indirect activity allocation at the period end.

You need to input the activity quantity, sender/receiver cost center and date to enable the system to allocate the costs; the system will automatically determine the allocation cost element and the activity price (either the planned price or the actual price). The system multiplies the activity consumed with that of the activity price to arrive at the allocated cost.

How do You Calculate ‘Accrued Costs’?

SAP provides two methods for calculating the Inputted or Accrued Costs in CO:

Target=Actual method
Cost Element Percent method

Describe the ‘Reconciliation Ledger.’

The ‘Reconciliation Ledger’ is used to keep track of all cross-Company Code transactions between FI and CO, as there is every chance that there may be some imbalance between the CO totals and FI totals when more than one Company Code is attached to a controlling area. This is because you may try to allocate costs from one cost center to another assigned to a different Company Code.

The reconciliation ledger records the Company Code, business area, functional area, amount, cost objects, cost element, currency (Company Code and controlling area), etc. You can make reconciliation postings at the end of a period to synchronize FI and CO with the configuration settings to automatically post the differences to FI.

While configuring the reconciliation ledger, you may use extended account assignments besides the normal account assignment for automatic transfer of reconciled postings. The extended account assignment helps make more comprehensive assignments to the relevant reconciliation accounts, with the option and flexibility of specifying any field in the reconciliation ledger (Company Code, cost element, functional area, etc.) for checking the ‘substitution rules.’

To aid in determining possible reconciliation postings, you can opt for selecting individual cost flows from all the relevant cost flows. This is accomplished by running the relevant report and looking for the relevant ‘data block’ (such as total cost flows, basic overview list, and detailed list).

What is ‘Variance Analysis’ in CO-OM-CCA?

‘Variance Analysis’ is the determination and interpretation of the difference(s) between the actual and planned (target) costs (within a cost center/cost center group) in cost center accounting. The analysis is intended to provide important clues to top management to plan better later.

What are the ‘Categories of Variances’ in CO-OM-CCA?

SAP helps to classify all variances into two categories:

Input Variance
Output Variance

Explain the ‘Input Variance.’

The ‘Input Variance’ is the result of the mismatch of amounts/quantities of inputs planned and actually used. You will be able to identify the following input side variances in the system:

Quantity Variance—when there is a difference between planned and actual quantity of activity consumption. The inference is that there is some production inefficiency leading to more consumption or there is some loss/shrinkage in the quantities.
Price Variance—when there is a difference between the planned and actual price of an activity. The inference will be that you may need to change the suppliers looking for lower prices or it is just a market condition.
Resource (use) Variance—when there is use of an unplanned cost element or there has not been a posting of a planned cost element. The inference is that there are some unidentified costs that may be planned in the next planning cycle, or just plain errors in postings.
Remaining (input) Variance—these are all miscellaneous variances where the system is not able to categorize a variance.

What is an ‘Output Variance’?

An ‘Output Variance’ is the result when the actual costs allocated from a cost center differ from the planned (or target) cost allocation from the cost center. The variances on the ‘output side’ may be any one of the following:

Volume Variance - This variance occurs with actual and planned activities (in terms of activity quantity and/or the activity itself).
Output Price Variance - This variance occurs when the activity price used in the actual allocation is a political activity price (manually entered or plan price) differing from the system calculated activity price (target price).
Output Quantity Variance - This kind of variance occurs only on the actual side, when there is a difference between the actual activity quantity (manually) entered in the sender cost center, and the actual activity quantity allocated from that sender cost center.
Remaining Variance - This reflects the miscellaneous variance, at the cost center level, identified by the system on the output side but remains not categorized into any of the above three types. The possible reason can be that you have deactivated the output variances in the variance variant configuration or the output variance is less than the ‘minor difference’ you have defined in the ‘variance variant.’

How do You Deal with ‘Variances’?

Though the system identifies and calculates variances, they are not automatically dealt with by the system. Hence, these variances will remain at the cost center as a period-end balance and you need to act on that in one of the following ways:

You may do actual activity price calculation to revalue all internal allocations with a newly calculated price (as against the initial planned activity price), and post the difference to all the cost centers which initially received the allocations. This will help you in clearing all or a portion of output price variances.
You may ‘transfer’ the variance balance to other modules (such as CO-PA) for further analysis.
You may make additional automated allocations within CO-OM-CCA to one or more cost center.

What are All the ‘Standard Reports’ in CO?

SAP comes delivered with a number of ‘Standard Reports’ in the CO module. The reports are grouped under:

Planning reports
Comparison reports
Line item reports
Report for activity prices
Reports for variance analysis
Master data reports
Document display

All the reports are arranged in a ‘report tree’ with a hierarchical arrangement of reports under various nodes. Note that you will not be able to change the standard report tree supplied by SAP; if you need to you can copy it, define your own reports, and then attach these newly defined ones to the new report tree you just defined.

What is ‘Summarization’ in CO?

‘Summarization’ helps to condense and store the transaction data at the ‘cost center group’ level. You may do the summarization for the highest node of the standard hierarchy or any of the ‘alternate hierarchies.’ Once summarized, you will be able to create a vast number of reports with report run-time vastly reduced as all the data of the nodes are readily available from the summarized table.

Click below links for more SAP CO Interview Questions and Answers
SAP CO Interview 1
SAP CO Interview 2

SAP CO Interview 2

2012-08-08T02:21:00.000-07:00

Define ‘Cost Center Accounting (CO-OM-CCA).’

‘Cost Center Accounting (CO-OM-CCA)’ helps you to track where costs are incurred in your enterprise. All the costs, such as salary and wages, rent, water charges, etc., incurred are either assigned or posted to a cost center.

What is a ‘Cost Center’?

A ‘Cost Center’ is an organizational element within a controlling area.

You may define cost centers according to your specific needs; the most common approach is to define a cost center for each of the bottom-most organizational units that are supposed to manage their costs. So, typical cost centers could be canteen, telephone, power, human resources, production, etc.

There are other ways of designing cost centers; you may create cost centers representing geographical requirements or responsibility areas or activities/services produced, etc.

After defining individual cost centers, you will assign each one of the cost centers to one of the cost center categories. All cost centers of a controlling area are assigned to a standard hierarchy.

What is a ‘Cost Center Category’?

A ‘Cost Center Category’ is an indicator in the cost center master record that identifies what kind of activities a particular cost center performs. SAP comes delivered with default categories such as administration, production, logistics, marketing, development, management, etc. If necessary, as in other cases, you may create your own categories. The categorization is useful for assigning certain standard characteristics to a group of cost centers performing similar activities.

SAP also allows you to store special indicators (such as lock indicators) for each of the cost center categories. These special indicators serve as defaults when you create a new cost center.

What is a ‘Standard Hierarchy?

A tree-like hierarchy structure grouping all the cost centers (of all the Company Codes belonging to a single controlling area) so defined is known as the ‘Standard Hierarchy’ in CO. This is the SAP method of grouping all the cost centers in a controlling area, which helps in analyzing the cost summary at the end of the nodes of the hierarchy (cost center or cost center groups or at the top level). A cost center can be attached to any number of cost center groups, but you cannot assign the same cost center more than once within a cost center group.

The standard hierarchy helps in easy maintenance of the cost centers/cost center groups for creation of new ones or changing existing ones. It supports drag-drop functionality.

You may use alternate hierarchies to group cost centers according to your internal reporting requirements. You can have any number of alternate hierarchies but it is mandatory that you have one standard hierarchy. The alternate hierarchy is also known as the master data group.

Explain Posting of Costs to ‘Cost Centers.’

When you create accounting transitions in FI/FI-AA/MM, you typically post to one or more GL accounts. While doing so, provided you have already configured in such a way, you also require the user to input the cost center for that transaction, so that when the transaction is posted the values (costs) flow not only to the GL but also to CO to the appropriate cost center. The system will create two posting documents: one for FI and another for CO.

Additionally, you will also be able to post non-financial information such as direct labor hours from HR or PP modules to cost centers in CO.

What is an ‘Activity Type’?

‘Activity Type’ helps you do define the service/action (for example, human labor, machine labor, repair hours, etc.) performed or provided by a cost center. It forms the ‘basis’ for allocating costs to other cost centers or internal orders, etc. You may assign an activity type to an operation so that they are reflected in PP; a CO document is created with the costs of the operation allocated from the cost center that produced the operation to a production order, when the operation is completed in PP.

You may group activity types into activity type groups for easy maintenance.

You need to arrive at the activity price, which needs to be attached to that particular activity type for planning or recording the actual. The activity price is calculated by dividing the total costs by the total planned/actual activity quantity (hours, units, etc.).

It is not necessary that all the cost centers have activity types associated with them. If there is no output from a cost center, then there will be no activity type for that cost center.

Where do You Assign Activity Type in Cost Centers?

There is no direct assignment. You plan the output for a cost center first by using Transaction KP26. Then, plan the value of that cost center with the budget for a period in Transaction KP06. ‘Planned Activity expenditure’/‘Planned Activity Quantity’ gives the ‘planned activity rate,’ which you can use to valuate your activity confirmations in manufacturing orders. You can also define your activity prices on your own, but you have to run the ‘price revaluation’ if you want to revaluate your actual activity prices.

What is a ‘Resource’ in CO?

‘Resources’ are goods/services, consumed by CO objects such as cost center/internal order/WBS element, which are supplied (internally or externally) to an organization in order to produce business activities. The resources are used only in planning and not for tracking the actual.

There are three types of resources:

Type B (used in base planning object)
Type M (refers to a material)
Type R (exists only in CO-OM)

What is a ‘Statistical Key Figure’ (SKF)?

The ‘Statistical Key Figure (SKF)’ is used as the basis (tracing factor) for making allocations (assessments/distributions). They are the statistical data such as number of employees, area in square meters, etc. You will make use of a SKF when you are faced with a situation where it is not possible to use any other conventional method or measure to arrive at the share of costs to be allocated to cost centers.

Suppose that you are incurring a monthly expense of USD 5,000 in the cost center cafeteria, the cost of which needs to be allocated to other cost centers. You can achieve this by the SKF. Imagine that you want this to be allocated based on the ‘number of employees’ working in each of the other cost centers such as administrative office (50 employees) and the factory (200 employees). You will now use the number of employees as the SKF for allocating the costs.

In SKF allocation, you have the flexibility of using two different SKF Categories; namely, Total value or Fixed value. You will use fixed values in situations where the SKF does not change very often, as in the case of the number of employees, area, etc. You will use total values in situations where the value is expected to change every now and then, as in the case of power use or water consumption and the like.

Explain the ‘Planning’ steps in CO-OM-CCA.

The three steps involved in planning in cost center accounting include:

Configuration required for planning

Configure a Plan Version
Create or Copy Plan Layouts
Create Plan Profile
Insert Plan Layouts into Plan Profile

Inputting the planned data

Completing the planning activity

What is a ‘Plan Version’?

A ‘Plan Version’ is a collection of planning data. The version controls whether the user will maintain plan data or actual data or both. You may create as many versions as you need, though SAP provides you with the necessary versions in the standard system.

Each version has information stored in the system per fiscal year period. The version ‘000’ is automatically created for a period horizon of five years, and is normally the final version as this allows for storing actual information as well. You will be using the data in version ‘000' for all the planned activity price calculation. Once planning is completed, you need to ‘lock’ that version so that no one will be able to modify the plan data.

What is ‘Integrated Planning’ in CO-OM-CCA?

‘Integrated Planning’ helps you to transfer data from other SAP modules such as PP, HR, FI-AA, etc. If you have planned data in these modules and just transfer these into CO, without making any changes, then you do not need plan again in cost center accounting. Before using integrated planning, you need to activate the integration in the planning menu.

Note that integrated planning is possible only when there has been no data planned on that version before activating the integrated planning.

Explain ‘Plan Layout.’

A ‘Plan Layout’ is nothing but a data entry screen or template that you use to input plan data.

In most situations, it would be more than sufficient to use SAP supplied planning layouts; however, you may create your own by copying one of the existing layouts and altering it with the help of report painter. While creating a custom layout, note that you have the flexibility to create up to nine lead columns (giving the details the nature of the data associated with the value columns), and any number of value columns (plan data such as amount, unit, etc., corresponding to the lead column).

You also have the option of using MS-Excel spreadsheets as the data input screen in lieu of the SAP plan layouts; but to achieve this you need to activate the ‘integrating with Excel option’ while assigning the layout(s) to a planner profile in IMG.

You need to define a plan layout for each of the three planning areas in CO, namely:

Primary Cost and Activity Inputs
Activity Output/Prices
Statistical Key Figures

Explain a ‘Plan Profile.’

A ‘Plan Profile’ (or Planning Profile) helps in controlling the whole process of planning by logically grouping the various plan layouts together. It determines the timeline for planning. You can have more than one planning layout per plan profile.

Before you actually start inputting the data, you need to set the plan profile so that the system knows what layout needs to be used for the planning exercise.

How do You Copy ‘Plan Data’ from one period to another?

SAP allows you to copy planning data, created manually earlier, from one fiscal year to the other or from one period to a different period within the same fiscal year. You have the option of copying existing plan data to a future period as new plan data or copying actual data from one period to another as plan data.

What is the recommended Planning Sequence, in CO?

SAP recommends three steps in the planning. In all three steps, the planning can be carried out manually or automatically. You may use assessment, distribution, and indirect activity allocation or inputted costs for planning. You can also have centralized planning (cost element planning for all the cost centers) and decentralized planning (planning for individual cost centers) in your organization.

What are the two options for entering Plan Data?

SAP provides you with a choice of two options to enter your plan data. You may use Form-based entry or Free entry.

In form-based entry, all you need to do is fill in the plan data in the rows corresponding to the characteristic values (cost centers, cost element, etc.) displayed on the screen. But, in free entry, you have the freedom of inputting even the characteristic values.

What are ‘Distribution Keys’?

The SAP system uses ‘Distribution Keys’ to distribute planned values across various periods. With the standard distribution keys supplied by SAP, you will be able to achieve the type of distribution you need:

DK1 (equal distribution)
DK2 (distribution as done earlier)
DK5 (copy values to period where there is no value)

For example, if you have a planned annual value of 12,000, by using DK1 you will be able to distribute 1,000 each as the monthly values. If you had plan values for last year which were something like 1,000 for January to June, 500 for July, 1,500 for August, and 1,000 each for September to December, then by using DK2, you will be able to copy the same amounts to the next fiscal year. DK5 will copy values to future periods only if there are no values already available for those periods.

Differentiate ‘Activity-Dependent ‘and ‘Activity-Independent’ Costs.

As you might be aware of already, there are two types of costs; namely, variable costs and fixed costs.

Variable Costs, such as material costs, factory labor, etc., are always dependent on an activity, and will vary depending on the activity. The higher the activity the more will be the expenditure towards variable costs. In short, these costs are directly proportional to the level of activity. In SAP CO, these costs are known as ‘Activity-Dependent Costs.’

In contrast to the variable costs, ‘Activity-Independent Costs’ or fixed costs do not usually vary with the level of activity. And you may need to incur these costs irrespective of whether there is an activity. Costs such as costs towards security, insurance premiums, etc., fall under the category of fixed costs.

What is a ‘Mixed Cost’?

There are instances where you will come across a costing situation where the costs cannot be strictly segregated into either fixed or variable costs. These costs are known as semi-fixed costs or semi-variable costs or mixed costs, because a portion of the total costs is fixed and the remaining portion is a variable cost.

The classic example is the charges for electricity in a production environment, where there is a basic minimum charge payable to the electricity provider (or towards heating requirements of the buildings) which remains fixed whether there is some production activity or not. When there is production, you will use more electricity, which varies with the level of production.

Explain ‘Manual Primary Cost Planning.’

‘Manual Primary Cost Planning’ is used to plan for costs associated with the external procurement of goods and services. You will plan both fixed and variable costs, and also mixed costs, if necessary. You will plan costs such as salaries, wages, etc., as activity-dependent costs; the costs towards security, etc., will be planned as activity-independent costs.

You need to note that planning fixed primary costs is not vastly different from that of planning for variable primary costs. When you plan for the variable primary costs you need to mention the activity type associated with that. You may further break down this cost into fixed and variable proportions. The ‘fixed primary costs’ or ‘activity-independent primary costs’ are planned using the primary cost elements on various cost centers, based on the activity performed on a particular cost center.

You may use any of the following SAP supplied planning layouts:

1–101— Activity-independent or activity-dependent primary costs
1–103— Activity-independent costs
1–152— Activity-independent costs (on a quarterly basis)
1–153— Cost-element planning (two versions simultaneously)
1–154— Cost-element planning (previous year’s actual displayed in the lead column)
1–156— Central planning (Cost element planning from Cost center perspective)

Explain ‘Automatic Primary Cost Planning.’

SAP provides you with two ways of handling Primary Costs Planning; namely:

Inputted Costs Calculation
Distribution

Inputted Costs Calculation is used to smooth one-time costs (bonus, incentives, etc.) incurred by spreading them over a period of time though it is posted on the FI side at the end of the year. You again have two methods of processing these costs: (i) when there is no corresponding costs equivalent on the FI side such as the inputted family labor or inputted rent, etc., and (ii) when there is a corresponding cost equivalent on the FI side such as festival bonus, etc.

Distribution helps in planning primary costs from one cost center to the other. The cost center from where the costs are distributed is known as the sender (or pooled cost center or clearing cost center) and the other cost centers to which the costs are distributed or where the costs are received are known as receivers.

Note that you will be able to distribute planned/actual primary costs only. Also note that the pooled cost center does not incur any of these costs but acts only as the ‘clearing center’ for distribution to other cost centers. During the process, you will use the SKF or the regular percentage method as the distribution rule for achieving the distribution. The distribution cycle helps to carry out the whole planning exercise.

Explain ‘Manual Secondary Cost Planning.’

‘Manual Secondary Cost Planning’ is required when you need to plan consumption quantities of a sender cost center’s planned activity from the point of view of the receiving cost center. The activity inputs may be planned either as the activity-dependent costs (variable) or as activity-independent costs (fixed).

The ‘activity-dependent primary cost planning’ is used only when you need the services such as repair hours on a specified activity type. On the other hand, you will use ‘activity-independent primary cost planning’ when you need services such as maintenance hours, which are not restricted to a particular activity.

The system uses the ‘planned calculated activity price’ for posting the secondary cost. It is possible to carry out ‘manual secondary cost planning’ for activity types categorized as Category-1 (manual entry/manual allocation). Note that it is important that you perform reconciliation of planned consumption of an activity at the receiver cost center to the volume planned at the sender’s level; otherwise, you will get a warning message when the system calculates the activity price.

Explain ‘Assessment’ in Secondary Cost Planning.

‘Assessment’ is one of the methods used in ‘automatic planning of secondary costs’ in cost center accounting. You will typically use this method when you need to allocate costs from one cost center to other cost centers. The original costs, even if they are primary, from the cost center are grouped and reclassified as secondary while allocating the same to other cost centers (imagine that you are collecting primary costs such as postage, telephone, courier expenses, fax charges, etc., into a cost center called 1000, now group these costs for assessment using a secondary cost element to receiver cost centers: 2000 and 3000).

You need to define an assessment rule (either ‘percentage’ or ‘SKFs’ or ‘fixed amounts’) for affecting assessment. You would have now noticed that this is similar to the distribution used in ‘primary cost planning.’

So, why do you need an assessment? Assessment is required when you need to allocate secondary costs, and when you do not need the details you would otherwise get from distribution.

What is an ‘Allocation Structure’?

You need to define or use a secondary cost element, called the ‘assessment cost element,’ while you carry out the ‘assessment’ in ‘automatic secondary cost planning.’ Instead of defining individual assessment elements (for a group of primary cost elements) in individual segments, every now and then, you may define various assessment elements in an ‘Allocation Structure,’ and use them repeatedly.

Click below links for more SAP CO Interview Questions and Answers
SAP CO Interview 1
SAP CO Interview 3

SAP CO Interview 1

2012-08-08T01:43:00.003-07:00

Explain ‘Controlling (CO)’ in SAP.

SAP calls managerial accounting ‘Controlling’ and the module is commonly known as ‘CO.’ The CO module is, thus, primarily oriented towards managing and reporting cost/revenue and is mainly used in ‘internal’ decision-making. As with any other module, this module also has configuration set-up and application functionality.

The controlling module focuses on internal users and helps management by providing reports on cost centers, profit centers, contribution margins and profitability, etc.

What are the Important ‘Organizational Elements of CO’?

The important organizational structure of controlling includes:

Operating Concern (the top-most reporting level for profitability analysis and sales and marketing controlling).
Controlling Area (central organization in ‘controlling,’ structuring internal accounting operations).
Cost Centers (lower-most organizational units where costs are incurred and transferred).

What is a ‘Controlling Area’? How is it Related to a Company Code?

A ‘Controlling Area’ is the central organizational structure in ‘controlling’ (CO) and is used in cost accounting. The controlling area, as in the case of a Company Code, is a self-contained cost accounting entity for internal reporting purposes. The controlling area is assigned to one or more Company Codes to ensure that the necessary transactions, posted in FI, are transferred to controlling for cost accounting processing.

One controlling area can be assigned one or more Company Codes.
One chart of accounts can be assigned to one or more controlling areas.
One or more controlling areas can be assigned to an operating concern.
One Client can have one or more controlling areas.

Outline ‘Company Code—Controlling Area’ Assignments.

There are two types of assignments possible between the Company Code and a controlling area:

One-to-one: Here, one Company Code corresponds to one controlling area.
Many-to-one: More than one Company Code is assigned to a single controlling area.

What are the ‘Components of Controlling’?

There are three major submodules in CO and each of these submodules has many components as detailed below:

Cost Element Accounting
Cost Controlling
Cost Center Accounting
Internal Orders
Activity-Based Costing
Product Cost Controlling
Profitability Analysis
Profit Center Accounting

Why do You Need ‘Cost Element Accounting’?

‘Cost Element Accounting’ (CO-OM-CEL) helps you to classify costs/revenues posted to CO. It also provides you the ability to reconcile the costs between FI and CO. CO-OM-CEL provides the structure for assignment of CO data in the form of cost/revenue carriers called cost elements or revenue elements.

Explain ‘Cost Center Accounting.’

‘Cost Center Accounting’ deals with the difficult task of managing ‘overheads’ within your organization. Since overhead costs are something that you cannot directly associate with a product or service, which can be difficult to control, cost center accounting provides you with the necessary tools to achieve this.

What is ‘Activity-Based Costing’?

‘Activity-Based Costing,’ popularly known as ABC, helps you to view overhead costs from the point of business processes. The result is you will be able to optimize costs for the entire business process. As a single business process, activity-based costing will cut across several cost centers and will give you an enhanced view of the costs incurred.

What is ‘Product Cost Controlling’ (CO-PC)?

‘Product Cost Controlling’ (CO-PC) deals with estimating the costs to produce a product/service. CO-PC is divided into two major areas:

Cost of materials
Cost of processing

With CO-PC, you can calculate:

Cost of goods manufactured (COGM)
Cost of goods sold (COGS)

CO-PC is tightly integrated with Production Planning (PP) and Materials Management (MM), in addition to FI. The functionality helps to:

Calculate Standard Costs of manufactured goods
Calculate the Work-in-Progress (WIP)
Calculate the Variances, at period-end
Finalize settlement of product costs

Note that CO-PC deals only with production costs as it deals only with the production.

What is ‘Profitability Analysis’ (CO-PA)?

‘Profitability Analysis’ (CO-PA) helps you determine how profitable (denoted by the ‘contribution margin’) your market segments are. The analysis is on the external side of the market. You will be able to define what segments, such as customer, product, geography, sales organization, etc., of the market are required for analyzing ‘operating results/profits.’ With multi-dimensional ‘drill-down’ capability, you have all the flexibility you need for reporting.

How is ‘Profit Center Accounting’ (EC-PCA) Different from CO-PA?

Unlike CO-PA where the focus is on external market segments’ profitability, ‘Profit Center Accounting’ (EC-PCA) focuses on profitability of internal areas (profit centers) of the enterprise. Profit center accounting is used to draw internal balance sheets and profit & loss statements. You may use EC-PCA in place of business area accounting.

Both CO-PA and EC-PCA serve different purposes, and are not mutually exclusive. You may need them both in your organization.

Explain ‘Integration of CO’ with its Components and Other SAP Modules.

The CO module is integrated with FI, AA, SD, MM, PP, and HR:

FI is the main source of data for CO. All expenses, posted in FI, flow to CO through the ‘primary cost elements’ to the appropriate ‘cost centers.’ Similarly, postings in Asset Accounting (such as depreciations) are also passed on to CO.
Revenue postings in FI would result in postings in CO-PA and also in EC-PCA.
The SD, MM, and PP modules have many integration points in CO. Goods issue (GI) to a controlling object or goods receipt (GR) from a ‘production order’ are some examples of integration. These modules are tightly integrated as consumption activities, cost of goods issued, overhead charges, material costs, etc., which are passed on to production objects such as PP production order or sales order. The WIP (Work-in-Progress) and the variances, at period ends, are settled to CO-PA, CO-PCA, and also to FI. Revenues are directly posted when you generate billing documents in SD, if the sales order is a cost object item.
The HR module generates various types of costs to be posted in CO. Planned HR costs can also be passed on for CO planning.

What is a ‘Cost Object’?

A ‘Cost Object,’ also known as a CO Account Assignment Object, in SAP denotes a unit to which you can assign objects. It is something like a repository in which you collect costs, and, if necessary, move the costs from one object to another. All the components of CO have their own cost objects such as cost centers, internal orders, etc.

The cost objects decide the nature of postings as to whether they are real postings or statistical postings. All the objects that are identified as statistical postings are not considered cost objects (for example, profit centers).

Differentiate Between ‘Real’ and ‘Statistical Postings’ in CO.

The CO account assignment objects decide the type of postings allowed. They can be real or statistical postings.

‘Real Postings’ allow you to further allocate/settle those costs to any other cost object in CO, either as ‘senders’ or as ‘receivers.’ The objects that are allowed to have real postings include:

Cost Centers
Internal Orders (Real)
Projects (Real)
Networks
Profitability Segments
PP—Production Orders (make-to-order)

‘Statistical Postings,’ on the other hand, are only for information purposes. You will not be able to further allocate/settle these statistical costs to other cost objects. Examples of such objects include:

Statistical (Internal) Orders
Statistical Projects
Profit Centers

How do You Define ‘Number Ranges’ in CO?

You will be required to define, for each of the controlling areas, the ‘Number Ranges’ for all transactions that will generate documents in CO. Once done for a controlling area, you may copy from one controlling area to other controlling areas when you have more than one such area.

To avoid too many documents, SAP recommends grouping multiple but similar transactions, and then assigning number ranges to this group. Further, you may create different number ranges for plan and actual data. As in FI, the number ranges can be internal or external. The document number ranges in CO are independent of fiscal years.

How Does ‘Master Data’ Differ from ‘Transaction Data’ in CO?

The ‘Master Data’ remain unchanged over a long period, whereas ‘Transaction Data’ are short-term. The transaction data are assigned to the master data.

Though you normally create the master data from transactions, note that you will be able to create these records from the configuration side as well. When you need to create a large number of master data, you may use the ‘collective processing’ option to create related master records in one step. SAP puts master data in ‘groups’ for easy maintenance.

In the case of master data of cost center/cost elements/activity types, once they are created, you will not be able to change the date. SAP calls this feature the ‘time dependency’ of master data. If necessary, you can extend the ‘time’ by creating a new one and attaching it to the existing objects. In the case of resources, the master data are time-dependent and the system will allow you to delete these objects. Statistical Key Figures (SKF) are not time-dependent; once defined they are available in the system forever.

What is a ‘Cost Element’?
‘Cost Elements’ represent the origin of costs. There are two types of cost elements:

Primary Cost Elements
Secondary Cost Elements

What is a ‘Primary Cost Element’?
‘Primary Cost Elements’ represent the consumption of production factors such as raw materials, human resources, utilities, etc. Primary cost elements have their corresponding GL accounts in FI. All the expense/revenue accounts in FI correspond to the primary cost elements in CO. Before you can create the primary cost elements in CO, you first need to create them in FI as GL accounts.

Note that SAP treats revenue elements also as primary cost elements in CO processing. The only difference is that all the revenue elements are identified with a negative sign while posting in CO. The revenue elements correspond to the revenue accounts in FI and they fall under the cost element category, category 01/11.

What is a ‘Secondary Cost Element’?
‘Secondary Cost Elements’ represent the consumption of production factors provided internally by the enterprise itself, and are present only in the CO. They are actually like cost carriers, and are used in allocations and settlements in CO. While creating these elements, you need to mention the cost element category, which can be any of the following:

Category 21, used in internal settlements
Category 42, used in assessments
Category 43, used in internal activity allocation

What is a ‘Cost Element Category’?
All the cost elements need to be assigned to a ‘Cost Element Category,’ to determine the transactions for which you can use the cost elements.
Example:

Category 01, known as the ‘general primary cost elements,’ is used in standard primary postings from FI or MM into CO.
Category 22 is used to settle order/project costs, or cost object costs to objects outside of CO (such as assets, materials, GL accounts, etc.).

How do you Automatically Create ‘Cost Elements’?
You will be able to create ‘cost elements’ automatically by specifying the cost element, the cost element interval, and the cost element category for the cost elements. All these are achieved by creating default settings. The creation of cost elements is done in the background.
The primary cost elements can be created only when you have the corresponding GL accounts in the chart of accounts of the Company Code. Even though the GL account names are used as the names of the primary cost elements thus created by the system, you have the option of changing these names in CO. All the secondary cost elements are created in CO; the name of these cost elements comes from the cost element category.

Click below links for more SAP CO Interview Questions and Answers
SAP CO Interview 2
SAP CO Interview 3

SAP FI Interview

2012-08-07T20:42:00.002-07:00

Explain ‘Financial Accounting (FI)’ in SAP.
The ‘FI (Financial Accounting)’ module of SAP is the back-bone, which records, collects, and processes financial transactions or information on a real-time basis to provide the necessary inputs for external (statutory) reporting. The module is integrated with other modules (such as Material Management (MM), Sales & Distribution (SD), Human Resources (HR), Production Planning (PP), Controlling (CO), etc.). The module FI has several submodules that are tightly integrated.

What are the ‘Submodules’ within FI?

FI-AA Asset Accounting: Integrated with FI-GL, FI-AR, FI-AP, CO, MM, PP and PM, this module manages the financial side (depreciation, insurance, etc.) of the assets throughout their entire lifecycle starting with procurement of assets and ending with scrapping or sales.
FI-AP Accounts Payable: Integrated with FI-GL, FI-AA, FI-TR and MM, this submodule manages vendor transactions by linking with material management, asset accounting, travel management, etc. Notable is the ‘payment program’ for making payments to vendors.
FI-AR Accounts Receivable: Integrated with FI-GL, FI-AA, FI-TR, MM and SD, this submodule manages customers and receivables, and integrates with SD. It is well-known for credit management functionalities and the ‘dunning’ program.
FI-BL Bank Accounting
FI-FM Funds Management
FI-GL General Ledger Accounting: This submodule is integrated with all other submodules within FI and outside FI.
FI-SL Special Purpose Ledger: This submodule is used to provide the summary information from multiple applications at a level of detail that the user defines.
FI-LC Legal Consolidations: This submodule helps in the central task of combining the financial operating results of the companies within a group to provide overall results for the group.
FI-TM Travel Management

Name the Submodules Within FI, from Which FI-GL Gets Simultaneous Postings.

Accounts Receivable (FI-AR)
Accounts Payable (FI-AP)
Asset Accounting (FI-AA)

Name Three Distinct Characteristics of FI-GL.

Multi-currency capability
Flexible real-time reporting
Real-time transaction entries

SAP ABAP Interview

2012-08-07T20:26:00.002-07:00

What is an 'Instance'?

An 'Instance' is an administrative unit that groups together components of an SAP R/3 system or simply an Application Server, which has its own set of work processes. A Client can contain many instances. Loosely defined, an instance refers to a server.

Sometimes the database is also referred to as an ‘instance.’ In this case it is called the ‘Central Instance.’

What do You Mean by the ‘SAP R/3 System Landscape’?

The ‘System Landscape,’ in SAP, refers to a number of systems and their deployment within an SAP installation. The various systems may be designated as Development, Test, and Production Clients.

What is an ‘R/3 Data Dictionary’?

The ‘Data Dictionary’ is a collection of logical structures of various objects (Tables, Views, or Structures) used in application development in SAP, which shows how they are mapped to the underlying RDBMS in Tables/Views.

What is an 'SAP Business Object'?

An ‘SAP Business Object’ is similar to real-world business objects such as Sales Order, Invoice, Employee, etc., which consist of various tables/programs that are related to each other in a business context. All the business objects are maintained in the 'BOR (Business Object Repository)'. The various characteristics of an object are called 'Attributes'.

For example, the business object Sales Order is characterized by the following attributes:

Date of the order
Items of the order
Prices of various items of the order
Name of the customer to whom the order belongs to

The application program or programs used by the system to change or manipulate a business object are known as Method(s). For example, a program could be used to (a) check the availability of stock to deliver, (b) trace the shipment route, (c) check the item prices, (d) validate the order date, etc.

So, attributes and methods collectively represent business objects in SAP.

Explain ‘Client-Dependent’ and ‘Client-Independent’ Tables.

There are certain tables, in SAP, which when changed will not affect similar tables in other Clients. These are known as ‘Client-Dependent’ tables. All Client-dependent tables have Mandt as their first field.

On the other hand, if a change made in one Client is reflected in another table across various Clients, then such a table is called ‘Client-Independent’ In this case, the first field of the table will not be ‘Mandt.’ You need to be extra careful when changing the settings or content of these tables as this will affect all the Clients.

What are the Different ‘Types’ of ‘ABAP/4 Programs’?

There are nine types of ABAP/4 programs in SAP:

1 Executable Programs (ABAP Reports)
I INCLUDE Program
M Module Pool/Dialogue programs
S Sub-Routine Pool
J Interface Pool
K Class Pool
T Type Pool
F Function Group
X XSLT Program

What are ‘Internal Tables’?

‘Internal Tables’ are standard data type objects which exist only during the Runtime of an ABAP/4 program. They are used to perform table calculations on subsets of database tables and for re-organizing the contents of database tables according to a user’s need. Internal tables fulfil the need for arrays in ABAP/4.

There are three types of internal tables:

Standard Tables with a ‘linear’ index. The key is always ‘non-unique.’
Sorted Tables with either a ‘unique’ or ‘non-unique’ key.
Hashed Tables (they do not have a linear index) with the key defined always as ‘unique.’

What is a ‘Logical Database’?

A ‘Logical Database’ is a special data-retrieval program delivered by SAP, with its own dynamic Selection Screens. You need to code only the processing logic (GET, CHECK, etc., statements). The logical database consists of a ‘read’ program in which the structure of the local database is reproduced with a selection screen.

Advantages:

Check functions to validate that user input is complete and correct.
Meaningful data selection.
Central authorization checks for database accesses.
Excellent read access performance while retaining the hierarchical data view determined by the application logic.

What are the Two Methods for Modifying SAP ‘Standard Tables’?

You can modify SAP ‘Standard Tables’ using:

Append Structures
Customizing INCLUDES

What is ‘BDC’ Programming in SAP?

‘BDC (Batch Data Conversion)’ is an automated procedure for transferring large volumes of external or legacy data into the SAP system using batch input programming. There are three ways to do this:

Call Transaction Method
Session Method
Direct Input Method

Irrespective of the method, the techniques use the following steps:

Identify the screens of the transaction that the program will process.
Write a program to build the BDC table that will be used to submit the data (i.e., text file) to SAP.
Submit the BDC table to the system in the ‘batch mode’ or as a ‘single transaction’ by the CALL TRANSACTION command.

The ‘Call Transaction’ method cannot be used when you want to process multiple transactions. Instead, use the ‘BDC-insert function’ to achieve this.

What is the ‘BAPI’?

The ‘BAPI (Business Application Programming Interface)’ is SAP’s standardized application interface for integrating third party applications with SAP’s business processes and data thereby providing an entry into the R/3 system. A BAPI may be used to create a ‘business object’ or to change the attributes of a business object. Note that the assignment of a BAPI to a business object is always 1-to-1.

A BAPI Explorer helps you to move around the collection of BAPIs in the system, which is grouped both hierarchically and alphabetically. For each BAPI in the explorer, you are provided with several tabs for details, documentation, tools, and projects (to create new BAPIs).

A BAPI can:

Create a Purchase Order
Change a Purchase Requisition
Create a Customer
Display an Invoice

What is ‘ALE’?

‘ALE (Application Link Enabling)’ is used to support the construction and operation of distributed applications, through the exchange of data messages ensuring data consistency across loosely coupled SAP applications, using both ‘synchronous’ and ‘asynchronous’ communications without the need for a central database.

ALE is comprised of three layers:

Application services
Distribution services
Communication services

ALE helps to:

Distribute applications across several SAP systems, such that centralized/decentralized functions can operate in the same company area.
Maintain and distribute master data elements from a central system.
Maintain and distribute control data objects from a central system with the synchronized configuration data (important to decentralize functions yet keep them integrated).
Link R/2 and R/3 systems.
Link SAP and external systems, via IDocs (Intermediate Documents).

Is ‘SAP XI’ Intended to Replace ‘ALE’?

Most ALE solutions are custom built with very little re-usability and scalability. The introduction of SAP XI along with the NetWeaver technology replaces ALE with out-of-box functionality available in SAP XI.

What is an ‘RFC’?

A ‘Remote Function Call (RFC)’ is a call to a ‘function module’ running in a system different from the ‘calling-system.’ The remote function can also be called from within the same system (as a ‘remote call’), but usually the ‘calling-system’ and the ‘called-system’ will be in different systems.

An RFC helps to take care of the following communication:

Communications between two independent SAP systems.
Client-server communications between an external Client and an SAP system acting as the server.
Client-server communications between an SAP System acting as the Client and an external server.

What is ‘OLE’?

For the Windows front-end, SAP provides interfaces based on Microsoft’s ‘Object Linking and Embedding’ Technology (OLE Automation) for embedding objects such as Microsoft Excel files.

What is a ‘Match Code’ in SAP?

‘Match Codes’ (now known as Search Help with release 4.6) help to search and retrieve data when the key of a record is not known. The technique involves (a) creating a ‘Match Code Object’ (now known as a ‘Search Help Object’) and (b) specifying a ‘Match Code ID.’ The system helps you to access the match codes (search help) in the following ways:

Keeping the cursor in the field, and then pressing ‘F4.’
Keeping the cursor in the field, clicking the ‘right’ button on the mouse, and then selecting ‘possible entries.’
Keeping the cursor in the field, and then clicking on the ‘magnifying glass.’

What is a ‘Drill-down’ Report?

A ‘Drill-Down Report,’ also called an Interactive Report, is a report with more detail. Imagine that you are looking at a Balance Sheet, presented as a ‘drill-down’ report.

The topmost list, also known as the ‘Basic List,’ contains the top-level information such as current assets, fixed assets, etc., under the grouping ‘assets’ on one side of the Balance Sheet. The ‘drill-down’ functionality helps you select a line item from the Basic List (e.g., fixed assets) and ‘drill-down’ further to a detailed list (‘secondary list’) which displays various components of the fixed assets such as land, buildings, machinery, etc. You may ‘drill-down’ even further by doubleclicking the ‘building’ line, which will bring up the next detailed list and so on.

You will be able to create a ‘drill-down’ report with a maximum ‘drill’ level of 20; that is, including the Basic List you will have a total of 21 levels in a single ‘drill-down’ report.

What is ‘ALV’ Programming in ABAP?

SAP provides a set of ‘ABAP List viewer (ALV)’ function modules, which can be used to enhance the readability and functionality of any report output. This is particularly useful in a situation where the output of a report contains columns extending 255 characters in length. In such cases, this set of ALV functions can help the user to choose and arrange columns from a report output and also save different variants for report display. This is very efficient for dynamically sorting and arranging the columns and provides a wide array of display options.

What is ‘DynPro’?

‘DynPro’ in SAP refers to Dynamic Programming relating to the screens and ‘flow logic,’ which controls the processing and display of these screens. On a broader scale, a screen is also referred to as a ‘DynPro.’

What is an ‘ABAP/4 Query’?

‘ABAP/4 Query’ (also known as an SAP Query or Query) is a powerful tool used to generate simple reports without any coding. Typically, an ABAP/4 query is created first by defining a User Group and a Functional Group. The functional group can either be created with reference to a ‘logical’ table or a database table. Once the functional group is defined, the user group is assigned to the functional group. The last step is to create the query on the functional group that is generated.

An ABAP/4 Query can be used to create the following three types of reports:

Basic Lists: Reports with basic formatting without any calculated fields.
Statistics: Reports with statistical functions such as average, percentages, etc.
Ranked Lists: Ranked lists are used for analytical purposes.

What are the Components of ‘SAPscript’?

‘SAPscript’ is the SAP System’s own text-processing system. SAPscript is tightly integrated and used for many text-processing tasks. SAP Standard Styles and Layout Sets are always held in Client 000.

Layout Sets are used for the Page Layout of SAPscript documents. A ‘layout set’ has the following elements:

Header Data: Data related to development (created by, development class, etc.) and the layout set information (which elements are used) are both stored in the header data. A start page must be entered here.
Paragraph Formats: Paragraph formats are required in layout sets. However, they are also used for word processing in layout sets, for example, to format text elements.
Character Formats: You can also use character formats to format texts or paragraphs. Unlike paragraph formats, however, they are used to format text within a paragraph.
Windows: Windows are names and window types, which are not physically positioned until they are allocated to pages and units of measurement are specified.
Pages: Pages are defined to provide the system with a start and end point in text formatting.
Page Windows: Page windows are the combination of windows and pages, where the dimensions of a window and its position on a page are specified.

Why Do We Need ‘Enhancements’?

The standard R/3 application may not offer some of the functionality you need for a particular customer or for a particular situation. The R/3 ‘Enhancement’ functionality allows you to add your own functionality to SAP’s standard business applications or modify the standard one to suit the particular need.

The enhancement may be done through:

Customer exits

Customers’ potential requirements, which do not form a part of the standard software, are incorporated in the standard R/3 as empty modification ‘shells.’ Customers can then fill these with their own coding. SAP guarantees that all such exists will remain valid across all future releases. The customer exits include:

Menu Exits
Screen Exits
Function Module Exits
Keyword Exits

ABAP/4 Dictionary Elements

These are ABAP/4 Dictionary Enhancements (creation of table appends), Text Enhancements (customer-specific keywords and documentation for data elements), and Field Exits (creation of additional coding for data elements).

Differentiate ‘Screen Painter’ from ‘Menu Painter.’

‘Screen Painter’ is an ABAP Workbench tool used to create or modify the screens for your transactions. The screen painter allows you to make modifications to screen attributes, the flow control logic, or the layout.

‘Menu Painter’ is a tool used to design the interface components. Status, Menu Bars, Menu Lists, F-key settings, Functions, and Titles are the components of Menu Painter.

Both the screen painter and menu painter are graphical interfaces of ABAP/4 applications.

What is a ‘Modification Assistant’?

The ‘Modification Assistant’ is the tool that offers you support when making modifications to the standard, by branching to a ‘special modification mode’ whenever you are modifying objects from the standard in an ABAP workbench editor. Originals are initially protected in this mode and can only be changed with the help of the additional ‘pushbuttons’ that are placed at your disposal.

All changes that you make to the system are logged with the help of the Modification Assistant. This provides you with a detailed overview of modifications that is easy to read and that dramatically reduces the amount of effort needed to upgrade your system.

The Modification Assistant offers support in the following areas:

ABAP Editor
Class Builder
Screen Painter
Menu Painter
Text Element maintenance
Function Builder
ABAP Dictionary

If an object can be edited using the Modification Assistant, a dialogue box appears the first time that you attempt to edit that object informing you that editing functions are limited in modification mode. This dialogue box appears exactly once per user for each of the various kinds of transport objects.

What is a ‘Spool Request’?

‘Spool Requests’ are generated during ‘dialogue’ or ‘background’ processing and placed in the spool database with information about the printer and print format. The actual data is placed in the Tem Se (Temporary Sequential objects).

What is the ‘CTS’?

The ‘Change and Transport System (CTS)’ is a tool that helps to organize development projects (in the ABAP workbench) and customize data (in customizing), and then move/transport these changes between the SAP Systems/Clients in your system landscape. An example is moving the configuration settings from ‘development’ to ‘test’ and finally to the ‘production’ Client. The changes (such as the creation of a new Company Code, changing a document type, etc.) are assigned to a ‘transport request’ and transported by the Basis or System Administrator.

What is a ‘Transport’?

A ‘Transport’ in SAP is nothing but the transfer of R/3 System components from one system to another. The components to be transported are specified in the object list of a transport request.

Each ‘transport’ consists of an ‘export process’ and an ‘import process’:

The export process reads objects from the source system and stores them in a data file at the operating system level.
The import process reads objects from the data file and writes them to the database of the target system.

The system maintains a ‘transport log’ of all actions during export and import. The ‘transport organizer’ helps to manage the transports in SAP.

How do You Find Out Who has ‘Transported’ a ‘Transport Request’?

Look at Table TPLOG (go there using the Transaction Code SE16) and input the transport name in the CMDSTRING field with ′*.′ Example: *PZDK980001*

What is an ‘Authorization’ in SAP?

An ‘Authorization’ is the process of giving someone permission to do or have something. In multi-user SAP systems, a SAP Basis Administrator defines for the system which users are allowed access to the system and what privileges of use each user gets (such as access to transactions, etc.).

Explain the ‘Client’ concept of SAP.

A ‘Client’ is the top-most organizational structure, which has its own set of master records. A Client is denoted by a 3-character alphanumeric code in SAP, and is a mandatory element. The settings made at the Client level, data maintained, etc., are available across all the Company Codes. A Client should have at least one Company Code defined.

SAP comes delivered with Clients 001 and 002, which contain all the default settings. Usually, copying from the default Clients creates additional and new Clients.

Typically, in SAP, you will have different ‘types’ of Clients; namely:

Development Client
Test Client
Production Client

In any implementation, you must have at least three types of Clients as mentioned above. There are some companies where you will have more than three. These include:

Development Client
Test Client
Quality Assurance Client
Training Client
Production Client

A ‘Development Client’ is also called a ‘sand box’ Client and is sometimes known as a ‘play’ Client. This is the logical place in the SAP system where you try out new configurations, write new programs, etc. This is the place, as the name suggests, where you can ‘play’ around before finalizing a scenario for customization.

Once you are okay with the configuration or a new program, you will then move it manually (transport) to the ‘Test Client’ where you will carry out all the tests (both modular and integration). The end-users are provided with the training using the ‘training’ Client. Sometimes both the ‘test’ and ‘training’ Client are in a single ‘instance.’ The ‘quality assurance’ Client helps with necessary quality checks before something is ready to be passed on to the ‘production’ Client.

After satisfactory results, it will be transported (automatically) to the ‘Production Client’ (also called the ‘Golden Client’). You will not be able to make any modifications, manually, to the ‘production’ Client and the authorization is very limited because this Client is responsible for day-to-day business transactions and any issues here will jeopardize all business operations, which is why this is also called the ‘live’ Client.

Do not confuse this term with the ‘Client’ that denotes a customer in normal business parlance.

How can You Find the Field/Data Underlying a ‘Transaction’?

A common way to find the technical data underlying a transaction is to place your cursor in the field, press the key ‘F1,’ and then click on the button ‘Technical Data’ to see the details. This works as long as you are looking at the ‘transparent’ Table. If the information is populated from a ‘structure,’ then this will not help you because the ‘structure’ may be populated from a number of sources including some ‘includes,’ and may also contain some calculated fields. If the ‘include’ is in fact a table, then chances are your data comes from that table. Check to see if there is a ‘logical’ database in the business area you are looking at. Looking at the ‘structure’ of the ‘logical’ database often reveals the tables used to drive that business area. Also check to see if the field name you are looking for is in any of the tables. Logical databases can also be useful in determining how tables are linked together.

You may also use other methods (listed below) to zero-in on the field. You can perform any of these, in isolation or in combination, until you find what you are looking for:

Debugging
SQL Trace
Run-time Analysis

Start the ‘transaction’ in Debug mode. Set a ‘watch-point’ for the structure-field you are interested in. When the debugger ‘breaks,’ look at the lines just above the ‘break-point.’ This will show where the field was populated. This may be a ‘structure,’ in which case you will restart the process using that ‘structure’ as a ‘watch-point.’

Turn SQL Trace on, and run your transaction. Switch the ‘trace’ off, and examine the log. This will detail the tables hit, and the order in which they were hit. Not all tables hit will be displayed; for example, configuration tables tend not to show up, as they are buffered.

The Runtime Analysis will show all tables accessed by the transaction.

Explain ‘LSMW.’

The ‘LSMW (Legacy System Migration Workbench)’ is a free SAP-based tool that supports the one-time or periodic transfers of data from non-SAP systems to SAP. The LSMW can be used in conjunction with the Data Transfer Workbench. The LSMW assists in organizing your data migration project and guides you through the process by using a clear sequence of steps. The most common conversion rules are predefined. Reusable conversion rules assure consistent data conversion for different data objects.

The LSMW performs the following steps:

Reads the legacy data from one or several files (such as spreadsheets or sequential files)
Converts the data from source format to target format
Imports the data using standard interfaces (Batch Input, Direct Input, BAPI, IDoc, etc.)

How do You Transport ‘LSMW’ Data from One System to Another?

There are two ways to do this:

Export/Import method. With this method, you have the flexibility of subprojects or objects that need to be transported. Use the Menu Path ‘LSMW>Extras>Export project.’
Transport request. With this method, you will not be able to select the objects, and the project as a whole is transported. Use the Menu Path ‘LSMW>Extras >Create change request.’

Can You Transport ‘Variants’ of Multiple Programs in One Step?

Yes. Use program RSTRANSP using Transaction Code: SE38.

What is ‘SAPNet’?

The ‘SAPNet’ R/3 Front-end provides a remote connection to SAP’s service and support group to provide assistance in the event of an implementation project system or production system problem. Additionally, the SAPNet R/3 Front-end provides information on the latest high-priority SAP system information, including error alarm messages that help you prevent problems before they occur. You can also find release, installation, upgrade, and migration information. This functionality is included in the standard SAP R/3 Basis System. Connection is made using ISDN or a leased line through the project’s telecommunications service provider.