Register your product to gain access to bonus material or receive a coupon.
This eBook includes the following formats, accessible from your Account page after purchase:
EPUB The open industry format known for its reflowable content and usability on supported mobile devices.
PDF The popular standard, used most often with the free Acrobat® Reader® software.
This eBook requires no passwords or activation to read. We customize your eBook by discreetly watermarking it with your name, making it uniquely yours.
The first book to provide practical instruction on working with SAP for the non-technical end-user
° SAP has more than 10 million end users, yet there is not a single book on the market for them
° Uses real-life examples, plain non-technical language, and lots of illustrations
° Based upon the authors' years of experience training end-users in SAP
SAP R/3 for Everyone is the nontechnical user's guide to working with SAP R/3, the leading business enterprise software product in the world. Written and road-tested by experienced SAP R/3 users and trainers, this book saves typical SAP R/3 users time and trouble by providing them with the universal skills needed to work with any module of this complex software.
SAP R/3 can be used effectively by anyone who can perform a handful of simple procedures that are employed in nearly every SAP R/3 transaction. The authors explain these procedures in plain English, using illustrations and real-world examples.
After a brief explanation of the architecture and operation of SAP R/3, readers get step-by-step instruction in
Practical and jargon-free, SAP R/3 for Everyone provides readers with the skills and confidence they need to efficiently conduct any business activity with SAP R/3.
SAP R/3 for Everyone: Navigating to Initial Screens With the Favorites Folders
Acknowledgments
About the Authors
Preface
Introduction: Design and Operation of the SAP.
Application Window
Menu Bar
Standard Toolbar
Title Bar
Application Toolbar
Status Bar
Central Work Area
Popup Screens
SAP on the Web
PART I. GETTING STARTED.
Lesson 1: Logging On and Logging Off.
Logging On
Procedure: Logging On With the SAP Logon Pad
Procedure: Logging On With a Desktop Shortcut
Logging Off
Procedure: Logging Off
Lesson 2: Working With SAP Sessions.
Controlling the Application Window Geometry and Location
Creating Multiple Application Windows
Procedure: Creating Multiple Application Windows
Killing a Session
Procedure: Cancelling a Transaction
Customizing the Layout of Application Windows and Screens
Procedure: Customizing With the Options Command
Procedure: Customizing With the New Visual Design Command
Customizing the SAP Easy Access Screen
Procedure: Customizing the SAP Easy Access Screen
Creating Desktop Shortcuts
Procedure: Creating Desktop Shortcuts
Lesson 3: Entering User Profile Data.
Procedure: Entering User Profile Data
Lesson 4: Changing Your Password.
Changing Your Password
Procedure: Changing Your Password When You Log On
Procedure: Changing Your Password After You Log On
PART II. NAVIGATING BETWEEN SCREENS.
Lesson 5: Navigating to Initial Screens With the Menu Folders.
Navigating With the Menu Folders
SAP and User Menu Folders
Searching for Transactions
Procedure: Searching for a Transaction With Keywords
Lesson 6: Navigating to Initial Screens With the Favorites Folders.
Working With the Favorites Folders
Adding Favorites Folders
Procedure: Creating a Favorites Folder
Adding Transaction Links to the Favorites Folders
Procedure: Adding a Transaction Link With Its Code to the Favorites Folder
Procedure: Adding a Transaction Link Without Its Code to the Favorites Folder
Adding Web, Intranet, and E-mail Links to the Favorites Folders
Procedure: Adding a Web or an Intranet Link to the Favorites Folders
Procedure: Adding a Link to Your External E-mail Application in the Favorites Folders
Changing the Names of Favorites Folders and Links
Procedure: Changing the Name of a Folder or Link in the Favorites Folders
Deleting Favorites Folders and Links
Sharing Your Favorites Folders
Procedure: Downloading Your Favorites Folders
Procedure: Uploading Favorites Folders
Lesson 7: Navigating to Initial Screens With Transaction Codes.
Navigating With Transaction Codes
Procedure: Selecting Transaction Codes From the Command Field List Menu
Identifying Transaction Codes
Procedure: Displaying Transaction Codes on the SAP Easy Access Screen
Procedure: Identifying Transaction Codes With the Menu Bar
Procedure: Identifying Transaction Codes With the Status Bar
Searching for Transactions by Transaction Codes
Procedure: Searching for Transactions With Keywords
Lesson 8: Navigating Between Screens With Menu Bars.
Navigating from the Initial Screen of a Transaction
Navigating from the Output Screen of a Transaction
Exploring SAP
PART III. SETTING UP INITIAL SCREENS.
Lesson 9: Entering Codes and Text.
Tips for Entering Codes and Text
Lesson 10: Searching for Codes.
Short Hit List Screens
Multiple-Tab Search Screens
Procedure: Searching for a Code With a Single Search Criterion
Procedure: Searching for a Code With Multiple Search Criteria
Tips for Using Multiple-Tab Search Screens
Structure Search Tree
List-Display Search Screens
Lesson 11: Entering Codes on Multiple Selection Screens.
Design and Operation of a Multiple Selection Screen
Procedure: Copying Multiple Codes Onto the Multiple Selection Screen
Using the Multiple Selection Screen: An Example
Using the Multiple Selection Button
Procedure: Searching for Multiple Codes for the Multiple Selection Screen
Lesson 12: Using Selection Options on Data Entry Fields.
Attaching Selection Options to Data Entry Fields
Procedure: Attaching a Selection Option to a Data Entry Field
Procedure: Removing a Selection Option From a Data Entry Field
What Do the Green Selection Options Do?
What Do the Red Selection Options Do?
Lesson 13: Working With Screen Variants.
Adding Data Entry Fields With the Dynamic Selections Button
Procedure: Adding More Selection Criteria to an Initial Screen
Creating Screen Variants
Procedure: Creating a Variant of an Initial Screen
Changing a Screen Variant
Procedure: Changing a Screen Variant
Procedure: Changing a Screen Variant 2
Calling Up a Screen Variant
Procedure: Calling Up a Temporary Variant
Deleting a Screen Variant
Procedure: Deleting a Screen Variant
Procedure: Creating a Single Default Data Entry on an Initial Screen
PART IV. WORKING WITH OUTPUT REPORTS.
Lesson 14: Sorting, Filtering, and Summing Up Line-item Reports.
Sorting and Grouping Line-item Reports
Example 1: Single-Column Sort of a Line-item Report
Procedure: Single-Column Sort of a Line-item Report
Example 2: Multiple-Column Sort of a Line-item Report
Procedure: Multiple-Column Sort of a Line-item Report
Example 3: Single-Column Sort of a Hit List
Filtering Line-item Reports
Example 1: Filtering the Line-item Report of the IH08 Transaction
Procedure: Filtering a Line-item Report
Example 2: Filtering the Line-item Report of the Cost Center A/P/V Transaction
Procedure: Filtering Positive and Negative Values in a Line-item Report 1
Example 3: Filtering Positive and Negative Values on the Usual Filter Screen
Summing Up Data Columns in Line-item Reports
Procedure: Summing Up Data in a Column of a Line-item Report
Procedure: Grouping and Subtotaling Data in a Line-item Report
Lesson 15. Display Variants for Line-item Reports.
Accessing the Display Variant Functions
The Change Layout Screen
Creating a Display Variant
Procedure: Creating a Display Variant for a Line-item Report
Saving a Display Variant
Procedure: Saving a Display Variant
Applying a Display Variant
Procedure: Applying a Display Variant After the Fact
Deleting a Display Variant
Procedure: Deleting a Display Variant
Working With Display Variants on Other Screens
Lesson 16. Exporting Line-item Reports to Microsoft Excel and Word.
Front-Door Exports
Procedure: Exporting to MS Excel With the Option/Office Integration Button
Procedure: Exporting to MS Excel With the List Menu
Back-Door Exports
Procedure: Back-Door Export of a Line-item Report to MS Excel
Lesson 17. Sending Line-item Reports via SAP E-mail.
The Create Document and Send Screen
The Upper Subscreen
The Lower Subscreen
Entering and Searching for the Names of Recipients
Procedure: Searching for Recipients
Working With Distribution Lists
Procedure: Creating Distribution Lists
Procedure: Searching for Distribution Lists
Reading SAP E-mail Messages
Procedure: Reading E-mail in the Business Workplace
Procedure: Storing or Deleting an E-mail Message
Sending E-mail From the Business Workplace Screen
Procedure: Creating and Sending New E-mail
Procedure: Replying to E-mail
Procedure: Forwarding E-mail
Coda: The Basic Transaction Types
Transaction Type 1: Displaying an Object
Transaction Type 2: Displaying a List of Related Objects
Transaction Type 3 : Creating an Object
Transaction Type 4: Changing an Object
Appendix: Create a Plant Maintenance Order (IW31).
Index.
Welcome to the world of SAP! You are now embarking on a journey into the workings and use of SAP R/3, the leading business enterprise software in the world.
This book is written for the non-technical user of SAP R/3: that is, an average person in a company who has perhaps had some experience with desktop applications like MS Word and Excel but little or no experience with more complex enterprise software. Its purpose is to provide these users with detailed instructions for working with this outstanding and versatile software product.
These instructions do not address any specific purpose, such as working with budget and cost data or managing the inventory of a warehouse. Rather, they describe general or universal procedures for working with any part of the software for any purpose. We firmly believe that a solid grasp of these general procedures and the development of the skills for executing them are the real secret for learning and managing SAP R/3 and using it effectively at your job.
In addition, this book is not intended to be comprehensive. SAP R/3 is very complex in its design and operation, and a comprehensive description of this software would require a much larger -- not to mention more expensive -- bible of a book that most people could not lift. Rather, this book describes the techniques and procedures that are most frequently employed by non-technical users when they work with SAP R/3. We decided on its contents after years of using this software, after consulting with other experienced users (the so-called super users) like ourselves, and after many hours in the classroom teaching it to people like you.
Finally, this book is not intended to be a technical treatise about SAP R/3. If you were looking for instructions about programming, developing or implementing the software at your workplace, you bought the wrong book. We will not describe the inner workings and architecture of the software (except very briefly in the following pages), because we have found that such information does not help the typical user work with the software any more effectively. We will also avoid the use of technical jargon throughout this book, and instead will say our peace in plain simple English. We will not use a 25-cent word when a 5-cent word will do.
But before we describe the contents of this book, we must devote some words to the origin, design and operation of SAP R/3.
SAP R/3 is a package of integrated applications called modules that are used to record and track the activities and costs of doing business. Its roots extend back to 1972, when five system analysts, all former employees of IBM in Germany, created the software for collecting large volumes of business data in a single computer, and then processing this data in real time, when the user needs it. Real-time processing was a particularly novel development at the time, because the computers of the 1970s were slow, lumbering machines that required minutes and sometimes even hours, to process large volumes of data.
Since that time, SAP has grown from a small regional company to the leading provider of business enterprise software in the world. At last count, SAP R/3 is now installed at 84,000 locations in 120 countries around the world, and it is used by more than 10 million people every day. SAP is now the world's third-largest independent software vendor, and it is still growing strong.
The great strength and utility of SAP R/3 are due to a large degree to its architecture or structure, which consists of functional Modules, the SAP database and the graphical user interface. We use the term system throughout this book to describe this tri-part assemblage of software.
The functional modules are discrete software packages which are dedicated to specific tasks, such as accounting, payroll management and inventory control. They are typically installed in Application servers, which are computers that are capable of rapidly processing or crunching large volumes of data and then assembling the output of their work in a format that can be read by the user.
The database is the actual collection of business data. This data is stored inside database servers, which are computers with huge amounts of storage memory and the capacity to rapidly exchange data with the application servers.
The graphic user interface or GUI appears on the desktops of the computers or clients that you use to access the software. The centerpiece of the GUI is the application window (called a session by SAP), where you enter commands and data on scenes or screens with your mouse and keyboard.
There are many modules in the complete version of SAP R/3, but most business enterprises do not use all of them. Rather, they purchase and install only those modules that they need to do their business. The selected modules are then integrated or tied together to one another and the database servers and clients by programmers, and the screens are customized or configured to fit the enterprise s needs. Once they are integrated, the boundaries between modules vanish, and they work with one another as a single, seamless software package. This aggregation of modules is also very flexible: the enterprise can often add more modules whenever they want, so that the software grows as their business needs grow.
The word transaction describes a single business activity that is conducted with SAP R/3. Some examples of end-user transactions are:
Every transaction progresses through a four-step workflow of actions, commands and events. The typical workflow begins when the user logs on the SAP system (Step 1). This action calls up the SAP Easy Access screen, which is the default home page for the software. The user works with the elements on this screen to call up or navigate to the initial screen of a transaction (Step 2), where they instruct the software on its specific objectives and then execute it (Step 3). A few seconds later, the output of the transaction appears (Step 4) in one of two forms:
A confirmation that some business process, such as the creation of a requisition or the entry of an employee s work hours into the database, was accomplished. This message usually appears at the bottom of the initial screen.A display of data from the database. This usually appears on its own output screen.
A good bit of the communication between the SAP R/3 software and the end-user is accomplished during Steps 3 and 4 of this SAP workflow via technical object codes.
A technical object is any thing which is monitored and tracked by SAP R/3. This includes tangible objects, such as employees, consumable materials, equipment, and physical plants, and intangible ones, such as work orders, purchase requisitions and shipping orders.
Every technical object has a unique object code, which is assigned to it when its specifications are entered in the SAP database and which is the primary shorthand means of identifying it. There are literally thousands of such codes in every SAP database, but fortunately, the software provides a way to search for them, so you do not have to memorize or record them.
The body of this book consists of 17 lessons on the general use of SAP R/3. They are grouped into four parts, which correspond to the SAP workflow:
These lessons are preceded by the Introduction, which describes the design and operation of the SAP application window and its screens, and followed by a Coda, which presents a simple model of the four basic transaction types that are commonly executed by end users.
The instructions in the lessons of this book were written around and illustrated with screens from version 4.7 of the SAP R/3 software. However, they can also be applied to SAP 4.5 and 4.6, which are very similar in their design and operation to SAP 4.7. And with a little effort, they can also be applied to SAP 4.0, which differs slightly in its screen design but not its operation.