QnA 1

What is a Functional Spec?

Functional Spec is mainly prepared for the purpose of developing the new reports (this happens only when SAP standard report not achieve the client purpose) using the ABAP Program. for ABAPers you need to give the details of the Tables , Fields and the logic how to pick the value and get the report.

The information contains in the functional specs are:

a)Document segment (BSEG): which contains the company code,posting keys, vendors,etc.

b)the line items(BKPF) consists of document type, etc.

for example: from BSEG table you have to go to the field of BUKRS for company code, BSCHL for Posting Keys.
From BKPF table you have to go to the field of BELNR for document Number, etc.

Based on your functional specification the Abaper will design the report using his technical specifications.

The above are examples only to understand. There are plenty of tables & fields for FI, CO and Assets separately.

Please assign points, if the above are useful.

Functional spec are based on the business requirment and contains details of end user expectations of the product Functionality

·                     document describes requested properties of inputs and outputs

·                     the blueprint for how you want a particular application to look and work

·                     it details what the finished product will do 

·                     who a user will interact with it and

·                     what it will look like

the key benefit of writing up a funtional spec is streamlining the development process. time and productivity are saved during development stage because the programmers can program instead of also working out the logic of the user experience

S/W or program will be developed based on the functional specs
it consist of

1.                   business requirments- brief detail about the business process and the need of your cutomized program/report

2.                   security consideration- who all can have access to this program and level of security whether it is at co.code level or country level

3.                   business dependences- whether is there any other process / program should have been completed before the execution of this program

4.                   Data requirement

5.                   priority- whether the failure lead to production stoppage or any work around

6.                   error management

7.                   how the program retrive the data if it is a report program

Eg:-

The requirement was to add the vendor name to the fbl3n screen, we couldnt add this so we we went for a new report with all the fbl3n fields + vendor name. This is a spec for the program.

DEV ID Sales tax report
Functional Team Zaid Azam
(phone)
SAP Dev. Team (lead) Zaid Azam (phone #)
(member) (phone #)
Phase / Priority Phase 1
Medium

The above part is just a header, which system the report is in what report is it i.e sales report, material reprot etc, then the consultants name, lead name etc.

how important it is medium , low, high

Revisions

Rev. Id Rev. date Author Description
00 Initial release

1 Report definition
Basic Information

Report type 1                  A/P
Report type 2                  Printed
Language requirem.
Printer requirement       Local printer / system printer
Paper requirement        Landscape
Source environment:     R/3
Module:                            FI
Suggested technique   ALV / other
Triggered:                       Manually
Frequency:                      On-demand
Volume:                           Daily

Then in the report definition

you specify what module it is in i.e FI, MM etc

what subledger AP/AR etc

how often it will be printed etc etc ( nothing really usefull here, just giving a business touch)

2.Functional Requirements

Functional Requirements

Selection        Posting Date, G/l account

Narrative flow The report should list the all the transactions of the G/l account( all items i.e open and cleared) selected on the initial screen. It should list the vendor name and number when a G/l transaction is of a vendor
Assumptions / issues
Should have the capability of being exported to excel

This is the important part

here you tell what are the fields on the selection screen.

Then in the narrative flow you should tell the abapper what the report should do like it’s mentioned above, eg apart from above get the sales for customers who reside in California between the date range specified on the selection screen

3.Processing logic

Processing logic
Step 1 Enter g/l account (HKONT) on the selection screen and run with or without a date range Or run by a date range  only without specifying a G/L

Step 2 Get the G/L number from BSIS that was selected on the initial screen Or get all the G/ls that had postings in the posting date ( BUDAT) specified on the initial screen.

Step 3 Get the amount ( WRBTR) from BSIS ( Open and cleared both are in BSIS)

Step 4 Take the Document Number (BELNR) from BSIS and get the vendor number for that doc number from BSIK ( open item), from BSAK ( cleared) if item is paid.

Step 8 Should get the vendor name from LFA1 for the vendor number from BSIK or BSAK
Step 9
Step 10 

Processing Logic tells him in detail about which fields should come and from which table( not necessary to give technical names and tables, he could find that out, depends on the abbapper)

4.Output

Output

4.1 Layout

FORMAT 

G/L             Posting date           Amount         Doc type      Text                   Doc number      Pk           Vendor #       Name
650100      12/03/2006               500                 SA          Test for report      19000042342    40            10229               GMC

In the format i put an excel view of how the final report should look like

4.2 Header elements

SAP Field Report Field Comment

BSAK _LIFNR,BSIK_LIFNR Vendor number

LFA1_NAME1 Vendor Name

BSIS_BUDAT Posting Date

BSIS_HKONT G/l account 

4.3 Line item

SAP Field Report Field Comment

BSIS_WRBTR amount

BSIS_BLART Document type

BSIS_SGTXT Item text

BSIS_BSCHL Posting Key 

Then i enter the fields that should be there in the report first the table name is liste then the technical name and then the english name. Both header and line items are sprecified.

Additional topics
Unit Test Suggestions: Same as the standard SAP report FBL3N. Only addition is the vendor name and number
Security/ Authorizations:
Error handling
Dependencies
References
Out of scope requirements NA

2.Eg 

 I need one new report like in the output i need only company code, Vendor number and recon.account assigned. like as below:

Company Code                                          Vendor Recon                                                account
1000                                                                90000001                                                     156001
1000                                                                90000002                                                     156001
2000                                                                90000001                                                     156002

for the above requirement with the input selection criteria like as below

Company Code ( ) ( )
Vendor ( ) ( )

if you give input selection as above as required you will get the output as given above

Logic should be as below:

for input selection
Company Code - BUKRS is the ABAP field for the company code
Vendor - LIFNR

for the output

Company Code - LFB1-BUKRS
Vendor - LFB1-LIFNR
Recon account - LFB1-HKONT

You will get the recon account details in the LFB1 table , if you give the logic as above , ABAPer will write the program for the same.

GL account post automatically only check Box?

When you post documents in SAP, there are instances where the system also adds some more line items (such as tax, cash discount, gain/loss from foreign exchange transactions, etc.) besides the ones you have entered in the document. This helps to reduce your work as the system calculates these automatically. However, you need to define accounts you want the system to automatically post to; this will ensure that no manual posting is allowed to any of these accounts.

Post automatically check box is valid for only actual postings.
You can choose post automatically for withholding tax accounts, GR/IR clearing accounts, all sales tax accounts, discount accounts, consumption accounts. etc

for all these accounts you are only posting automatically, means you are not giving the posting key and GL account while posting any transactions.

In the GL master record a check box exists where in the automatic posting option is selected called " Post automatically only".

Stock and consumption accounts of GL accounts that should be automatically posted.
Stock and Consumption accounts (Inventary Raw Materials) you can select post automatically.
If you set this indicator this account can only be posted to by the system using account determination tables.

What is a Sort key? What r the different tpes of Sort Keys u have in SAP(FICO)

Sort Key: When u post the line item in GL account, the field called Assignment is populated, and when u run the report of the GL Account ( GL account line item report), the system by default sort the value specified assignment field.

   `001  Posting Date

   `012  vendor no

  

  `014  Purchase order

   `018  Asset number

   `031  Customer number

Why we are using sort keys.

Straight answer to this is sort key offers great help in Automatic Clearing.

First we understand how does it function. If you have created Bank GL and there you have used 001 (posting date)

as sort key then whenever you make entry for that bank Gl your sort key "Posting date" is automatically updated

in "Assignment" field unless you manually insert anything in assignment field.

Let's take a simple example for why sort keys are helpful.

Suppose, there is GR/IR account created with sort key 014 (Purchase Order) so at the time of

1. Goods receipt Purchase order with item no will automatically filled in assignment field.

Inventory dr. 15000

GR/IR cr 15000.

In GR/IR account item Assignment would be 150000 10.

2. Invoice through MIRO will also feed Purchase Order with item no in assignment field.

GR/IR dr . 15000

Tax dr. 5000

Vendot cr. 20000

In GR/IR account item Assignment would be 150000 10.

Now your entry is over. There are large number of such entries posted in the period for the GR/IR account.

So, manual clearing becomes very tedious for GR/IR clearing account. In order to avoid that Automatic Clearing program is configured in OB74, where you give field ZUONR i.e. assignment in first criterion. So, line items with same assignment and amount will be cleared automatically upon F.13 transaction.