SAP. What is it?

Definition & History

SAP, started in 1972 by five former IBM employees in Mannheim, Germany, states that it is the world’s largest inter-enterprise software company and the world’s fourth-largest independent software supplier, overall.

The original name for SAP was German: Systeme, Anwendungen, Produkte, German for “Systems Applications and Products.” The original SAP idea was to provide customers with the ability to interact with a common corporate database for a comprehensive range of applications. Gradually, the applications have been assembled and today many corporations, including IBM and Microsoft, are using SAP products to run their own businesses.

SAP applications, built around their latest R/3 system, provide the capability to manage financial, asset, and cost accounting, production operations and materials, personnel, plants, and archived documents. The R/3 system runs on a number of platforms including Windows 2000 and uses the client/server model. The latest version of R/3 includes a comprehensive Internet-enabled package.

SAP has recently recast its product offerings under a comprehensive Web interface, called mySAP.com, and added new e-business applications, including customer relationship management (CRM) and supply chain management (SCM).

As of January 2007, SAP, a publicly traded company, had over 38,4000 employees in over 50 countries, and more than 36,200 customers around the world. SAP is turning its attention to small- and-medium sized businesses (SMB). A recent R/3 version was provided for IBM’s AS/400 platform.

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MM - Control the Output Format of your Material Numbers

In OMSL, you can define the following:

1. Input and output length of material numbers
(A material number can have a maximum of 18 characters).

2. Template for displaying or printing material numbers.
You indicate with an underscore any position in the material number that you do not want
to contain a template character.

3. Form in which material numbers are stored

4. Output with or without leading zeros

The settings are client independent.

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Changes in Material Valuation

Major Editors: Vinay Kumar Malik

Introduction

Most of the goods movements transactions in Inventory Management and every invoice receipt in Logistic Invoice Verification lead to changes in stock value. In case of goods receipts, the stock value is increased and in the case of goods issues, the stock value is reduced. Following are some the important transaction in the Standard SAP R/3 which always leads to changes in Material Valuation:

• Delivery Free of Charge
• Transfer Posting
• Goods Receipt
• Initial Entry of Inventory Data
• Goods Issue
• Goods Receipt Reversal
• Logistic Invoice Verification
• Subsequent Debits/Credits
• Credit Memos
• GR/IR Clearing Account Maintenance
• Unplanned Delivery Cost
• Cash discount
• Material Price Changes
• Posting of physical inventory differences
• Revaluation/Devaluation of a material

Categorization

In the Standard SAP these changes are categorized as follows:

• Automatic changes
• Manual changes

Automatic Changes

Based on the configuration setting and type of price control assigned to material, changes in Material Valuation due to goods receipts and invoice receipts are carried out automatically when the relevant transaction is posted. Before carrying out these changes system always checks for availability of quantity. Increase/Decrease in Valuation depends on the availability of quantity. For all these adjustment quantity remains unchanged and system adjusts the valuation automatically.

Manual Changes

These changes are carried out manually by the end users during the following business transactions on as and when required basis:

• Price change in material price
• Material debit or credit
• Physical inventory differences

Source - Sap Ittoolbox

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BOM explosion

can anybody tell me which function i should use for explosion of BOM and which parameters I have
to pass ??? Mostly i want to pass only material No and Plant or BOM no.

(I had already tried CS_BOM_EXPL_MAT_V2 by passing Material No & Plant No but it gives invalid
call)



Answer:

As per my knowledge some more parameters are needed to be passed
below is that call function that I had used...that might help you

CALL FUNCTION 'CS_BOM_EXPL_MAT_V2'
EXPORTING
aumng = 0
capid = 'PP01'
datuv = sy-datum
emeng = 1
mktls = 'X'
mehrs = 'X'
mtnrv = itab1-assly " i.e. as per my code

stlal = '01'
stlan = '1'
stpst = 0
svwvo = 'X'
werks = itab1-werks " i.e. Plant
TABLES
stb = tstb
.
IF sy-subrc <> 0.
MESSAGE ID SY-MSGID TYPE SY-MSGTY NUMBER SY-MSGNO WITH SY-MSGV1
SY-MSGV2 SY-MSGV3 SY-MSGV4.
ENDIF.


Regards
Parin Gada

Source - sapmaterial

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ASAP Methodolgy

The ASAP methodology adheres to a specific road map that addresses the following five general phases:

1. Project Preparation, in which the project team is identified and mobilized, the project standards are defined, and the project work environment is set up;

2. Blueprint, in which the business processes are defined and the business blueprint document is designed;

3. Realization, in which the system is configured, knowledge transfer occurs, extensive unit testing is completed, and data mappings and data requirements for migration are defined;

4. Final Preparation, in which final integration testing, stress testing, and conversion testing are conducted, and all end users are trained; and

5. Go-Live and Support, in which the data is migrated from the legacy systems, the new system is activated, and post-implementation support is provided.

ASAP incorporates standard design templates and accelerators covering every functional area within the system, as well as supporting all implementation processes. Complementing the ASAP accelerators, the project manager can create a comprehensive project plan, covering the overall project, project staffing plan, and each sub-process such as system testing, communication and data migration. Milestones are set for every work path, and progress is carefully tracked by the project management team.

Effective Communication

Weekly update meetings ensure full communication between the project team, the client project team, and project management. These meeting are used not only to update on project status, but also to identify any issues or risk areas that may threaten the project. By identifying these problems early, they are more easily mitigated and resolved, reducing their impact on the project timeline.

Ensuring Quality and Mitigating Risk

Project quality is verified near the completion of each project phase. Using existing ASAP checklists, these quality checks ensure that all tasks for the phase have been completed properly, that all relevant documentation has been kept, and that all tasks required to commence the next phase of the project have been completed.

In addition to the specific project team, companies may use Quality Assurance reviews on all of its projects to ensure that experience gained on other projects has been taken into account and that the optimum system design has been utilized.

Source - SAP MM

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Interview Questions

The following are some sample interview questions I have taken from the internet, sample certification questions, and from my own experience.

1. What is the difference between the stock transfer between two plants belonging to same company code and those belonging to different company code?
2. What are the fields in Purchasing view?
3. What are the steps in automatic account assignment config.
4. How do you create movement types? What are the steps involved? When will you recommend a new movement type?
5. What is meant by access sequence? When it is used?
6. How does the PO pick up the pricing schema?
7. What are the steps involved in creating a pricing procedure?
8. What are the types of special stocks available?
9. What are the types of inforecords?
10. What is meant by consignment stock?
11. What are the steps involved in consignment cycle?
12. Tell me about the subcontracting cycle.
13. How is scrap accounted in subcontracting?
14. How are the byproducts taken care of in subcontracting?
15. Tell me about the various movement types and usage.
16. What is meant by scales? Can scales be used in standard purchase order?
17. What is the difference between a contract and a scheduling agreement?
18. How does the system calculate taxes?
19. How does the system calculate nondeductible taxes?
20. What is meant by batches? How can the batches be searched?
21. How is a shelf-life item managed in SAP? What is the full cycle?
22. What are the settings required for quota arrangement?
23. What is meant by MRP Type and lot sizing?
24. Can it be configured in such a way that the external requisitions can also be taken into account while MRP runs in consumption-based planning if VB is selected as MRP type?
25. What is a reference purchase organization? When can it be used?
26. Explain the concept of split valuation and when can it be used? What are the settings required?
27. What are valuation area, valuation category and valuation class?
28. What is meant by a credit memo?
29. How are free items managed in a PO?
30. What is meant by a release strategy?
31. What are release groups and release codes?
32. What are the differences between release procedure with classification and release procedure without classification? When are they used?
32. Is it possible to have a release procedure without classification for a PO?
33. What is the maximum number of levels available in SAP?
35. Is it possible to have scales in a quotation?
36. What is GR blocked stock? When it can be used?
37. What is the movement type for return to vendor? How to reverse it?
38. How are the variations in subcontracting taken care of in SAP?
39. What are the tools available for data migration in SAP?
40. What is LSMW?
41. What is the difference between LSMW and CATT?
42. How to give specifications for developments?
43. How do you plan for a vendor rating system and move about?
44. What is RTP?
45. What is the movement type used in receipt of RTP?
46. How is an item with serial no. managed?
47. How do you make variants?
48. What are the types of tables in SAP?
49. How to inventory excise duty in SAP?
50. What are the documents generated in the MIGO 101 movement type? What are the accounts hit?

Here are some SAP MM Certification sample questions you should know the answer to:

Question:
You wish to procure a material using a purchase order. You wish to take delivery of the material at different times. A graduated discount scale exists for the material. How do you proceed if you wish to take advantage of the discount arrangement?

Answers:
A) Enter several order items with the same material number and different delivery dates.
B) Enter one order item with the material number and assign the material to different accounts.
C) Enter an order item with the material number and create a number of schedule lines.
D) Enter a number of purchase orders for the material and specify different delivery dates.

Question:
In the purchase order on which the goods receipt is based, you defined a purchase order unit that differs from the purchase order unit. What is the significance of the purchase order price unit and what should you take note of in the case of a goods receipts?

Answers:
A) The purchase order price unit is stored in the material master record or purchasing info record and defines the unit of measure in which the material is ordered.
B) The system establishes the relationship between the purchase order price unit and the purchase order unit conversion in the purchase order.
C) At the time of goods receipt, both the quantity in the purchase order unit and the quantity in the purchase order price unit have to be entered, however, the quantity in purchase order piece unit is calculated by the system. You have to change it when the calculated quantity differs from reality.
D) Both at the time of goods receipt and invoice verification, the material is valuated on the basis of the purchase order unit.

Question:
You enter a goods issue and receive the following message: "W: On , only 0.000 pieces are available". What do you conclude from this?

Answers:
A) No stocks of the material exist anywhere in the entire plant. Therefore, nothing can be withdrawn.
B) Only the specified storage location does not contain any stocks of the material. Therefore, nothing can be withdrawn.
C) The material exist in the specified storage location on the current day, however, it is unavailable, because of other reservations.
D) The message represents a warning which you can ignore by pressing the
ENTER key.

Question:
Which of the following statements on procuring a material of the material type NLAG are correct?

Answers:
A) The purchase order must be account assigned.
B) The goods receipt must always be unvaluated.
C) When you enter an invoice, you can change the account assignment as long as the goods receipt was unvaluated.
D) When the material is for consumption, no document is ever created in Financial Accounting.

Question:
Which of the following stock transfer are relevant to valuation?

Answers:
A) Stock transfer from storage location to storage location in the same plant or company code.
B) Stock transfer from consignment stores of vendor XY to our unrestricted-use stock in storage location 0001.
C) Stock transfer from stock in quality inspection in storage location 001 to stock in quality inspection in storage location 0002 in the same plant.
D) Stock transfer of a material from storage location 0001 from plant 0001
to plant 0002. The plants belong to the same company, however the valuation areas are different (valuation level is plant).

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How to Change Valuation Class in Material Master

How to change valuation class, even if all the stocks are zero and there is no pending orders as well?

Option 1:
Goto tcode MMAM - This tcode is for changing the material type and not valuation class.

If you change the material type in MMAM transaction automatically the valuation class will be changed in material master. The system will take the changed material type valuation class which was created for that material type.

Option 2:
Goto tcode MM02 - Accounting View 1 - This tcode is to change the valuation class directly.

Whether you can or cannot change the valuation class directly without changing the material type depends on your own company img settings.

If you want to change the valuation class, there may be because of one or more of the following already exist for the material:

1) Valuated stocks in the current period or in the previous period.

2) Open purchase orders may be there.

3) Production orders which a goods movement has already taken place.

For this first you have to do the following:

If valuated stocks already exist, you can change the valuation class only:

a) Post the stocks of the material to an interim account.

b) Change the valuation class in the material master record.

c) Post the stocks of the material back to their original account.

If open purchase orders already exist, you can only change the valuation class if you first flag the corresponding purchase order items for deletion.

If production orders exist for which a goods movement has already taken place, you can only change the valuation class if you first set the status of the production orders to deleted

By this you can keep the same material type as FG and can assign the proper valuation class.

Tips by : Chidanand

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