What is Automatic Posting?

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.

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Define a Company in SAP

A company is generally used in the legal consolidation module to roll up financial statements of several Company-Codes. A company can consist of one or more Company-Codes. It is important to make the distinction that a Company is NOT the same as a Company-Code.

Menu Path:

SAP Reference IMG -> Enterprise Structure -> Definition -> Financial Accounting -> Define Company

Click on "New entries"


Enter the details for the fields listed below:

Company (Enter a six-character alphanumeric identifier)

Company Name Name of your fictitious Organization

Street Street Address

Postal Code ZIP

City City

Country US

Language Key EN

Currency USD

Click on SAVE

A notification screen pops up showing that your request was carried out. Click on "Enter" to continue on the pop up screen showing compliance of request

At the bottom of the screen in the "Status Bar" another message is given showing that the Data was saved.

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Why are my invoices not selected in F110 ?

Often times users in SAP are puzzled by why a certain vendor's invoices are not selected by the payment run.

We will discuss one reason that is easy to identify and resolve.

When running a payment proposal SAP blocks the vendors whose invoices have been selected in another proposal. The savvy user will check the payment proposal log where he will be able to see vendors that are blocked by another proposal.

In this case I have run a proposal on the 18th but for some reason vendor 1000's invoices are not showing up. By pressing the proposal log button from within the payment run, Figure 1, the proposal log will be displayed, Figure 2. When examining the log, I will easily see that, that vendor 1000 is contained in a different proposal. At this point I have two options, either complete the other proposal or delete it to release the blocked invoices.

But what if you want to see all the vendors that are blocked by different proposals not just the ones that have been selected for payment in a specific proposal.

In this case you can query table REGUS: Accounts blocked by payment proposal

By querying the different rows in this table you will be able to obtain a listing of all the vendors that have been blocked in a proposal. Figure 3 displays the output of table REGUS.

By reviewing the contents of this table you will be able to see the “Run On” and Identification” fields required for finding the payment proposals that are blocking payment to your vendors.

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Document Splitting in SAP New GL General Ledger

SAP ECC 6.0 New GL has a new functionality to create segment financial statements. With the help of document splitting one can allocate an expense line item between two segments. FI Document split and segment is covered via a 'segment field' which is a standard field in the
totals table in the New General Ledger FAGLFLEXT. So how does one go about document splitting.
Document splitting needs to be enabled first at the client level customizing. Once this is enabled, then document splitting can be activated / deactivated in each company code. Similarly, 'Inheritance' can be activated which provides the level of detail for a document split. To take an example, by activating inheritance one can create a customer invoice from a revenue line item. The business areas or segements are automatically populated in the general ledger view showing the customer and tax line items. Activation of 'Inheritance' is recommended with document splitting as this does not require the business to then create 'rules' for business processes to ensure that account assignments are projected.
Document splitting in New GL can be divided into passive split, active(rule based) split or clearing lines by document. With passive document splitting, during clearing of a document, the account assignments of the items to clear are inherited to the clearing line items. Active splitting works on the principle of defining splitting rules. Splitting rules are configured which are used by SAP to make a document split. Finally, in case of clearing lines, New GL creates clearing lines automatically to achieve a split. Document splitting is
one of the key functionalities enabled by SAP New GL to help deliver segmented financial statements.

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What is credit memo processing in SAP FICO?

Credit memos in SAP are used to correct a vendor invoice. Once the invoice and the credit memo difference is posted in SAP, any open items left in the invoice, credit memo and payment can be cleared. To take an example, suppose you purchase office supplies worth $500. A user posts an invoice received from the vendor. Now suppose the user comes to know that $150 has already been paid on the invoice. A credit memo is used in such cases. In our example, the user will process a credit memo worth $150 in SAP. The difference between the invoice amount and credit memo i.e. $100 would be paid to the vendor via check.

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Special Ledger - OBS2

Special Ledger can be assigned by the transaction OBS2. If a ledger is assigned using OBS2, then it is valid for all company codes. In ECC6.0 and later, the concept of special ledger is not there. The concept of non-lending ledger is there.

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Difference between FS10N and FB3LN

FBL3N – Display Change Line Items (gives the open item list)
FS10N – Display Acct Balances (gives the balance of transaction figure)

To say it very plain - Transaction FS10N displays balances, this balance could include many different asset numbers, drill down required for individual asset numbers. FBL3N displays detail, drill down not required.

In case you find that balances in the 2 transactions dont match:
1. Line item display was switched on after there had already been postings to the account (Check your master record for changes in FSS4 and see if the line item display was changed at any point. )
2. Archiving has been done (archiving line items but obviously keeping the account balance correct). It can be very time consuming, but you can always use SE16 on table BSEG (with your company code and account number as selection fields) to check the actual line items. Line item display uses one of the index tables (BSIS) and there can be differences between that and the actual document database, which SE16 will show you.
3. Check search criteria of FBL3N
4. Check the G/L account whether it is enabled to Line Item Display
5. Run the programm SAPF190 to check the gap
6. Check for your user role, if you have the complete authorization objects for T Codes FS10N and FBL3N. Please take the help of your Basis Consultant for that.
7. Execute the report TFC_COMPARE_V2 from SE38 and also see the program documentation (blue information button) on the selection screen of the report.
8. Run transaction SE38 and execute program RFSEPA01

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GL Account Balance Display - FS10N

FS10N - is the the transaction code used for GL Account Balance Display.
Difference in Last year Closing balance and Current year Opening Balance

• This will be corrected after running carry forward programme FAGLGVTR (for ECC 6.0)
• Rerun the f.16 in test mode, this might generate the posting which would fix the disbalance

Note 402917 - If the opening balance does not correspond to the closing balance of the previous year on an account even after a repeated balance carryforward, you must always check whether you are dealing with a retained earnings account. If so, then you should check for inconsistencies in your system. And then you can activate the parameter for individualbalances retained earnings account during the start process of the balance carryforward program SAPFGVTR. You then receive a list of all P+L accounts with single values, which are balanced for the value of the retained earnings account. This means that you can reproduce and check the balance on the retained earnings account.

Asset number not displaying in report
SE16 for table BSEG will display asset number with the account balance.

Special fields on FS10N:
FS10N > Settings>Special Fields
This would promt a warning message stating that this would change a cross client table.
For example, if you make a change at client 800, it will change the setting on other table ( client 000 up to client 999). So, always discuss with ABAP folks before these configurations are changed.

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Automating the Data Recovery in SAP Basis

You can control whether you want to perform a manual (autorecovery off) or an automatic recovery (autorecovery on).

Procedure

Enter the appropriate SQLPLUS command before you enter the recover command.

• set autorecovery on
  The required offline redo log files are automatically applied without requiring any user entry. The names and paths of the offline redo log files are derived from the init.ora parameters log_archive_dest and log_archive_format, which means that required offline redo log files must first be restored under the appropriate names. For more information, see Setting Up Archiving.
  If the files cannot be imported under log_archive_dest, you can override the source specified in archive_log_dest by entering the following command:
  set logsource =
  This means the files are now expected in the directory identified under logsource.
• set autorecovery off
  The applying of the individual redo log files must be initiated by the user (default value).
  In the process, Oracle automatically suggests a file derived from log_archive_dest (or logsource) and log_archive_format.
  Choose RETURN to accept this value.
  You can also explicitly enter the name of the redo log files by entering:
  • cancel to interrupt or cancel the recovery
  • auto to continue the recovery in automatic mode from this point
  • from to change the log source

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Repository Buffers (Nametab Buffers) in SAP Basis

Definition

The name table (nametab) contains the table and field definitions that are activated in the SAP System. An entry is made in the Repository buffer when a mass activator or a user (using the ABAP Dictionary, Transaction SE11) requests to activate a table. The corresponding name table is then generated from the information that is managed in the Repository.


The Repository buffer is mainly known as the nametab buffer (NTAB), but it is also known as the ABAP Dictionary buffer. The description of a table in the Repository is distributed among several tables (for field definition, data element definition and domain definition). This information is summarized in the name table. The name table is saved in the following database tables:

• DDNTT (table definitions)

• DDNTF (field descriptions)

The Repository buffer consists of four buffers in shared memory, one for each of the following:

Table definitions	TTAB buffer	Table DDNTT
Field descriptions	FTAB buffer	Table DDNTF
Initial record layouts	IREC buffer	Contains the record layout initialized depending on the field type
Short Nametab	SNTAB buffer	A short summary of TTAB and FTAB buffers

The Short nametab and Initial record layouts are not saved in the database. Instead, they are derived from the contents of tables DDNTT and DDNTF.
When access to a table is requested, the database access agent embedded in each work process first reads the Short nametab buffer for information about the table. If the information is insufficient (for example, the SELECT statement uses a non-primary key) it accesses the Table definitions buffer and then the Field descriptions buffer. By reading the Repository buffers, the database access agent knows whether the table is buffered or not. Using this information, it accesses the table buffers (partial buffer or generic buffer) or the database.
The IREC buffer is read:

• When a
REFRESH command is executed in an ABAP program

• At an
INSERT command, when a record is created in the buffers before the data is inserted and the fields are initialized with the values found in IREC buffer

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Procedure documentationRecovering from Index Tablespace Missing in SAP Basis

Generally, Oracle treats an index tablespace just like a user tablespace. Therefore, you can use the recovery procedure for a user tablespace. The procedure below describes an additional recovery option for SAP databases.

Procedure

1. Shut down the database with this SQLPLUS command:
   shutdown immediate
   If this fails, use:
   shutdown abort
2. Find out which data file is affected by the media error, using the information in the ALERT and trace files.
3. Mount the database with these SQLPLUS commands:
   connect / as sysdba
   startup mount
4. Set the data files to OFFLINE:
   alter database datafile '' offline;
5. Open the database:
   alter database open;
6. Make sure that the index tablespaces do not contain any tables. You can check this using the Oracle tables DBA_SEGMENTS and DBA_TABLES.
7. Use the corresponding BRSPACE function to create the DDL statements for the affected indexes:
   brspace -f tbreorg -s -d only_ind
8. Drop the affected tablespace, including contents:
   brspace -f tsdrop -t -f
9. Recreate the affected tablespace:
   brspace -f tscreate -t -d index
10. Recreate the indexes with script ddl.sql from subdirectory of sapreorg with this SQLPLUS command:
    SQL> @ddl

The recovery of the index tablespace is complete.

Note:

In most cases, you can use BRRECOVER to correct media errors affecting the data files of a user tablespace. For more information, see Complete Database Recovery with BR*Tools.

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Complete Database Recovery with BR*Tools in SAP Basis

You can use BR*Tools for Oracle to perform a complete database recovery. BRRECOVER performs the recovery.

Note

This section discusses how to perform a complete database recovery.

For more information about how to approach a complete database recovery, see Complete Database Recovery.

End of the note.

Prerequisites

• Make sure you have set the necessary BRRECOVER parameters in the initialization profile init.sap, because BRTOOLS uses these when it calls BRRECOVER.
• BRRECOVER calls BRRESTORE as necessary to perform restore functions.
• BRRECOVER calls SQLPLUS as necessary to apply offline redo log files.

Process

1. You start BRGUI or BRTOOLS.
2. You choose Restore and recovery Complete database recovery .
   You can do one of the following:
   • Set the required entries now and run the recovery in unattended mode
   • Wait for BRRECOVER to prompt you during the recovery, that is, run the recovery in attended mode
   Recommendation

   We recommend you to run the recovery in attended mode.

   End of the recommendation.
3. If you want to run the recovery in unattended mode, you select force in Confirmation mode (confirm).
4. To start the recovery, you choose Continue.
   BRRECOVER starts the recovery. You perform the following steps with BRRECOVER.
   Note

   If you are using attended mode, BRRECOVER guides you through the recovery, prompting you as necessary.

   End of the note.
5. You check the status of the database files.
6. You select database backups.
7. You restore data files.
8. If required, you restore and apply an incremental backup.
9. You restore and apply the online redo log – that is, archivelog – files.
10. You open the database.
11. You check the results in the BRRECOVER and BRRESTORE logs:
    • BRRECOVER logs:
      • The summary log recov.log displays the return code.
      • The detail log v.crv displays the progress.
    • BRRESTORE logs for the restore functions:
      • The summary log rest.log displays the return code
      • The detail log r. displays the progress.
    For more information about how to view the logs, see Showing Logs with BR*Tools.

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Recovering from User Tablespace Missing in SAP Basis

You use this recovery procedure if:

• One or more data files are missing from a tablespace.
• A user tablespace does not contain data from the Oracle Data Dictionary, active rollback segments, or temporary segments.
• Oracle issues error messages when a user attempts to access the involved tablespace. Error information is also written to the database ALERT and trace files.
  Caution

  If only one user tablespace is lost, you can perform a manual tablespace recovery without shutting down the database. However, note that user tablespaces are used intensively in the SAP system, and this procedure is therefore only recommended for experienced database administrators. The loss of a user tablespace often has similar consequences for the SAP system as the loss of the SYSTEM tablespace, because the effects of the loss of this one tablespace are very complex.

  End of the caution.

A complete recovery of the database is possible if you have a backup copy of the corresponding tablespace files and of all redo log files written since the backup.

Prerequisites

• If you use an SAP database, you shut down the SAP system before starting the recovery procedure. Tables are used so intensively in the SAP system that it is generally impossible to set the affected tablespace to OFFLINE without terminating the activities of many users.
• This procedure describes the recovery procedure when the database is closed. For more information on recovery options with an open database, see the Oracle documentation.

Procedure

1. If it is running, shut down the database system with this SQLPLUS command:
   shutdown abort
   You have to shut down the database with ABORT because the missing files cannot be closed.
2. Inspect the ALERT and trace files to determine the cause of the problem.
   The problem is often that an entire disk has crashed, and you need to recover more than one tablespace.
3. Use the log files from the SAP tools BRBACKUP and BRARCHIVE to find the volumes that contain the following files:
   • Last backup of the lost tablespace files
   • Offline redo log files of all instances backed up since the last backup
   It is important to identify the location of the lost files. This information appears at the start of the detail log of the BRBACKUP backup that you are using.
4. Restore only the damaged or lost files. You can minimize the time required for recovery by only restoring the missing or damaged files.
   You also have to restore the backed-up redo logs of all instances that are required for the recovery. To do this, use BRRESTORE.
5. Mount the database with these SQLPLUS commands:
   connect / as sysdba
   startup mount
6. If you were not able to restore backed-up files to their original directories or if you had to change file names, update the control file.
   Use the following command to change a path:
   alter database rename file '' to '';
   See Updating the Control File.
7. If the data files of the database were set to status OFFLINE when the error occurred, change the status of the files in the control file to ONLINE.
   To find the relevant files, search for “offline” in the ALERT file or check the v$datafile view:
   select * from v$datafile
   Change the status of a data file in the control file with this SQLPLUS command:
   alter database datafile '' online;
   See Updating the Control File.
8. Start the recovery with this SQLPLUS command:
   recover database;
   When prompted to do so, enter the paths of the offline redo log files that you need to apply.
   The system processes online redo logs automatically.
   We do not discuss here the alternatives - recover tablespace and recover datafile - since SAP recommends shutting down the database when an error occurs. The recover database command only performs the actions necessary to recover the damaged files. Therefore, it does not take much longer than the recover tablespace and recover datafile commands.
   For information on recover tablespace and recover datafile, see the Oracle documentation.
9. When the message recovery complete is displayed, start up the database system with this SQLPLUS command:
   alter database open;

For more information, see the Oracle documentation.

Note:

In most cases, you can use BRRECOVER to correct media errors affecting the data files of a user tablespace. For more information, see Complete Database Recovery with BR*Tools.

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Finishing an Incomplete Recovery in SAP Basis

This section describes the measures you need to take after an incomplete recovery in the following cases:

• Case 1
  Restore of a complete offline backup and subsequently opening the database, without performing a complete recovery of the database
• Case 2
  Restore of a complete online or offline backup and subsequent point-in-time recovery of the database (with ALTER DATABASE OPEN RESETLOGS)

Prerequisites

There are the following possible problem situations:

• Situation A
  The information about the last backups and volumes used in database tables SDBAH and SDBAD has been lost, because neither item is current in the database. As a result, during the next backup, BRBACKUP prompts you to mount volumes (based on the automatic volume management) that are logically free, but are physically locked.
• Situation B
  The current log sequence number was reset during a incomplete recovery.
  • To a smaller value in case 1
  • To the value 1 in case 2
  BRARCHIVE does not find the newly written offline redo log files after the restore, because offline redo logs with these log sequence numbers have already been saved. The summary BRARCHIVE log arch.log still contains entries for successful backup runs of these offline redo log files and, as a result, BRARCHIVE does not detect the new offline redo log files as files requiring backup.

Procedure

Depending on the situation and case, proceed as follows:

• Situation A
  Using the detail BRBACKUP log, you can find out which volume was the last one used. Based on the information on the volume pool in initialization profile init.sap (parameter backup_volumes), you can determine which volume to use for the next backup. Explicitly name this volume when you start the next backup:
  brbackup -v ,,...
• Situation B
  Make sure the old offline redo log files in the backup directory are renamed.
• Case 1
  The current log sequence number can be seen in the detail BRBACKUP log of the backup you used to restore the data. Find the line Current log sequence (message BR0116I). Then change the log sequence number in the last line of the summary BRARCHIVE log arch.log, which starts with #ARCHIVE, to the value: <(determined current log sequence number) - 1>.
  Example

  #ARCHIVE. 86 /oracle/C11/saparch/C11arch_86 1995-04-18 15.55.55

  Current log sequence number: 30

  Change the entry to:

  #ARCHIVE. 29 /oracle/C11/saparch/C11arch_86 1995-04-18 15.55.55

  After the backup, reset the changes in this line. Note that new lines have been added.

  End of the example.
• Case 2
  Change the log sequence number in the last line of the summary BRARCHIVE log arch.log, which starts with #ARCHIVE, to zero (0).
  Example

  #ARCHIVE. 86 /oracle/C11/saparch/C11arch_86 1995-04-18 15.55.55

  Change the entry to:

  #ARCHIVE. 0 /oracle/C11/saparch/C11arch_86 1995-04-18 15.55.55

  After the backup, reset the changes in this line. Note that new lines have been added.

  End of the example.

BRARCHIVE automatically recognizes the resetting of log sequence numbers if the database is opened when BRARCHIVE is started. In this case, the actions described in situation B are not necessary.

Note

In general (as after all recovery operations), delete from the disk offline redo log files that were restored from tape to disk after the recovery. If you used it for recovery, BRRECOVER automatically performs this action .

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Data Recovering from Current Online Redo Log Missing in SAP Basis

A member of the group - or the entire group - of current online redo log files (that is, the redo log files in which the database changes are currently being recorded) is lost.

Use the entries in the ALERT file and in the LGWR trace file to analyze the error situation. You must check all sources of information for possible LGWR errors. Even if an error allows the instance to continue running (for example, at least one member of the current group can be written to, errors only in the other members), the error should be corrected as soon as possible.

If you have not been mirroring the online redo log files, as supported by Oracle (and have also not been using hardware-based mirroring), the risk of losing online redo log entries is significantly higher. To be able to perform a full recovery, only the entries from the current online redo log file are necessary. Use mirroring to guard against complete loss of the online redo log files. If the mirrored online redo log files are available, you can use these later to perform a complete recovery of the database. Otherwise you can only recover the database to the point of the missing redo log entries (that is, an incomplete recovery with loss of data).

For this reason, we strongly recommend once again that you make use of the Oracle options for mirroring the online redo log files.

Prerequisites

You must meet the following requirements:

• You used the Oracle option for mirroring the online redo log files (or have hardware-based mirroring), and therefore have at least one copy of each online redo log file (SAP default: two copies of the online redo log files).
• Apart from the one member of the current online redo log group, no other files have been damaged.
  If further files have been damaged, restore the missing files and the missing active redo log and follow the recovery procedure for the category of the missing file (control file or files of the system, user, or index tablespaces).

Procedure

1. If the database system is still active, use the SQLPLUS command shutdown abort to shut it down.
2. Determine the reason why the current online redo log files were lost by examining the ALERT and trace files.
3. Replace the missing online redo log files with a mirrored copy.
4. Start the database with the SQLPLUS command startup.
   The system automatically performs an instance recovery.
   Note

   If all members of the current redo log group have been lost, you can only perform an incomplete partial recovery. For more information, see the documentation on your Oracle database system or Performing Incomplete Recovery.

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