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Author's profile photo Tanmay Verma

SAP S/4 HANA: Simplifications in Sales & Distribution Data Models

SAP S/4 HANA is the new offering from SAP built on the high performance In-memory platform HANA with an enriching user experience using FIORI apps.This new system includes major changes and massive simplifications ranging form changes in underlying data models to new user interface through FIORI apps.

Objective:

The objective of this blog is to understand the data model simplifications in SD area through a comparative study with a non S/4 system.

Below are the major simplification points:

  • Status tables VBUK and VBUP have been eliminated and the new status fields have been added to:
    • VBAK and VBAP for sales order header and item
    • LIKP and LIPS for delivery document header and item
    • VBRK for billing document header
    • No status fields are present for billing items.
  • Simplification of document flow table VBFA
  • Document index tables like VAKPA , VAPMA etc. have been done away with.

Picture1.png

Comparison:

Let us understand the differences by looking at the table structures:

  • VBUK and VBUP are still present in S/4 HANA but they are not filled when an order is created.
  • The status fields have been added through append structure.
Table Name Description Append Name
VBAK Sales Order Header VBAK_STATUS
VBAP Sales Order Item VBAP_STATUS
LIKP Delivery Header LIKP_STATUS
LIPS Delivery Item LIPS_STATUS
VBRK Billing Document Header VBRK_STATUS
  • If any custom fields have been added to VBUP or VBUP tables in source system, they will have to be added to respective document tables in S/4 HANA system.
  • An append field to the document header status table VBUK must be added to one or several of the document header tables VBAK, LIKP, or VBRK. This decision depends on which of the document types the respective field is relevant for.
  • An append field to document item status table VBUP must be added to one or more of the document item tables VBAP or LIPS.

VBAK:

/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/1_988304.png

VBAP:

/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/2_988305.png

When a sales order is created in  a non S/4 HANA system:

Sales Order: 7137:

/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/3_988306.png

VBAK table holds the order header details

/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/4_988307.png

Order status information is present in VBUK table

/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/5_988308.png

Sales Order in S/4 HANA system:

/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/9_988309.png

VBAK table contains both the header details as well as the header status

/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/6_988310.png

Header status fields are now added to VBAK table

/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/7_988311.png

Table VBUK is present but is not filled.

/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/8_988312.png

Reason VBUK / VBUP are still present in S/4 HANA:

Since the status tables are not being filled it can be questioned why the tables are still present and not removed from system altogether. The reason for this is to enable smooth transition for those opting for migration to S/4 HANA system.

New function modules have been written which read the document status fields from VBAK , LIKP aur VBRK tables and populate in output whose structure is similar to that of VBUK.

For example FM SD_VBUK_READ_FROM_DOC is a new FM that fills VBUK structure for one SD document out of document header tables. The data is fetched depending upon the document type.

/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/10_988313.png

  • The output structure ES_VBUK still refers to VBUK table.
  • Any custom fields added to appends like VBAK_STATUS will be read by this FM.

Advantages:

  • Reduced memory footprint : Since fewer tables are involved this means reduction of redundant data and simplified document flow.
  • Now if we need to query the order table on the basis of document status we can simply do so by 1 single query on VBAK table instead of join on VBAK and VBUK.

NOTES:

  • OSS Note 2198647 can be referred for further information.

Acknowledgment:

  • Reference taken from Simplification List for S/4 HANA 1511 0302.

Suggestions and Comments Welcomed !!

~Tanmay

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      22 Comments
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      Author's profile photo Ankit Mehrotra
      Ankit Mehrotra

      Nice. Thanks for sharing 🙂

      Author's profile photo Sachin Ghogale
      Sachin Ghogale

      Hi Tanmay,

      Thanks for sharing valuable piece of info.

      But can you tell us how is going to be availability check of sales orders in S/4 HANA as opposed to gATP or ECC ?

      Is it going to be gATP way since underlying database is in-memory?

      Thanks,

      Sachin

      Author's profile photo Tanmay Verma
      Tanmay Verma
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Sachin,

      Currently i do not have much information about ATP check process by i guess it is going to be gATP way.

      I would post if i get some relevant information.

      ~Tanmay

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hello Sachin,

      Probably you would have already found an answer to your question on gATP after 1610 introduced. It is called AATP - Advanced ATP.

      You can find more information Advanced ATP nicely explained by Sven Denecken.

      Thanks & Regards,
      Jaydip

      Author's profile photo Colin Moloney
      Colin Moloney

      Thanks for this blog. This also applies to the BW Datasources that extract data from the old tables VBUK etc....  2LIS_11_VASTH

       

      https://help.sap.com/viewer/45e4eda3753c458ead20c81f77c55921/7.07.24/en-US/8e497053bbe77c1ee10000000a174cb4.html

       

       

       

      Author's profile photo Dilli Babu Radhakrishnan
      Dilli Babu Radhakrishnan

      Hi Tanmay,

      Thanks for the details !!! Much appreciated for your effort.

      I have few questions, what will happen to my current reports & exits which reads status from VBUK/VBUP. During migration for historical data, the contents from VBUK/VBUP are moved to VBAK and VBAP ?

      Regards,

      Dilli

      Author's profile photo Tanmay Verma
      Tanmay Verma
      Blog Post Author

      Hi,

      The current report and exits will have to be adjusted to be referred to VBAP and VBAK for the status fields. You can refer to Cookbook_VBUK_VBUP_Adaption for the changes required. This cookbook can be found in OSS Note 2198647.

      Also , during migration phase the contents will be moved to correct tables.

      ~Tanmay

      Author's profile photo Dilli Babu Radhakrishnan
      Dilli Babu Radhakrishnan

      Thanks Tanmay !

      Author's profile photo Ankur Gokhale
      Ankur Gokhale

      Tammy, thanks for sharing, I am looking for new tables that have been introduced in S4 HANA for PP, MM & SD. Any idea where to find the list ?

      Author's profile photo Afrizal Samsul Hidayat
      Afrizal Samsul Hidayat

      thank you mr tammy,

      its very help me on implementation sd hana

      Author's profile photo Arumita Sengupta
      Arumita Sengupta

      Hi Tanmay,

      Thanks for the update  in the s/4 Hana the contracts  wk1/wk2 are missing including the item categories

      any suggestions ?

       

      regards

       

      Arumita

       

      Author's profile photo Tanmay Verma
      Tanmay Verma
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Arumita,

       

      Apologies for late reply.  I am not aware of the changes to the contracts in S4 HANA system. Would update if i get any clue on this.

       

      ~Tanmay

      Author's profile photo Soumyadipta Das
      Soumyadipta Das

      Dear Tanmoy Ji,

       

      Thanks for the great information.

       

      Could you please tell me how shall we access the tables in Fiori app? Is it the same old SE16/ SE16N ?? or any other transaction??

       

      I have previously heard that there is only one inble in HANA - SEDOCA which stores all data from SD PP MM side. Is it true??

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi,

      just a question: Is there a specifc reason why the vbuk and vbup  are not mapped to a cds view with the help of a proxy oject, like it was done with all the tables in MM?

      It would help a lot of maintaining compatibilty with existing customer code. Many SAP customers have a lot of custom programs  for the logistics processes (e.g. in warehouses), which likely accesses these tables.

       

      Thomas

      Author's profile photo Tanmay Verma
      Tanmay Verma
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Thomas,

       

      VBUK and VBUP tables will not be used any further as the status fields have been added to VBAK and VBAP respectively.Hence we do not have proxy objects for these tables.

       

      The MM tables will still be used  and thus we have proxy objects which does the data fetch part.

       

      Regards,

      ~Tanmay

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Ok. This means that the decision is done solely on the question if SAP code is using the tables, not if e.g. customer code is using it.

      This sounds a bit contradictory to all the statements I heard on S/4HANA presentations that migration of customer code should not be much more effort than for a regular SAP update.

       

      Thomas

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi Tanmay,

      Thank you for sharing valuable information, we are looking more basic knowledge on S4 HANA could you plz help on this. we need some material, is  this possible.

       

      Regards,

      Rakesh Mamidala.

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hello Tanmay,

       

      Thanks a lot for sharing this blog , really helpful.

      I have a question regarding the fields which were earlier in VBUK , VBUP tables but not added to VBAK , VBAP tables respectively.

      How can we plan to manage these in S4 HANA ?

       

      Thanks !

      Harish Bhatt

       

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

       

      Blog shows Good presentation. Great. Thanks Tanmay.

       

      Regards,

      G.V.Shivakkumar

      Author's profile photo Norbert Bürger
      Norbert Bürger

       

      The problem is that in S/4HANA 1709 e.g. inside SAPMV45A there are still (active) coding sequences which are checking VBUK and VBUP fields.

      Author's profile photo Atul Keshav
      Atul Keshav

      Hello Tanmay,

      Thanks for sharing a very informative article, I had a query with regards to the VBFA table has this table also got merged with the main vbak and vbap tables like the status tables in S4 Hana? Can you please advice.

       

      Kind Regards

      Atul

      Author's profile photo Leonardo D
      Leonardo D

      Hi Tanmay, thanks for your great article.

       

      could i ask you if you have information about S4 Simplifications in FI and PO Models?

       

      thanks in advance