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Author's profile photo Vikas Yadav

How to manage commodity codes and ECCN in new International trade solution

Foreign trade solution within SAP ERP (to handle the foreign trade requirements) which is integrated with Materials Management for handling imports and with Sales and Distribution for exports, has been replaced by “SAP S/4HANA for International Trade” in S/4HANA to meet the business requirement.

What are the innovations which S/4HANA has brought in for International Trade Management functionality?

  • Rebuilt international trade functionality with optimized data models for better use of the SAP HANA database
  • Synchronization of master data, such as commodity codes, between SAP GTS and SAP S/4HANA for international trade to eliminate the need for manual interaction
  • SAP Fiori–based user experience across all process steps
  • Roles with dedicated SAP Fiori apps: Intrastat Specialist, Trade Classification Specialist, Trade Compliance Specialist

Current International Trade supports in the following areas:

  • Intrastat
  • Classification for International Trade
  • International Trade Compliance
  • Embargo
  • Integration with SAP Watch List Screening

I will focus on area of ‘Classification for International Trade’ in this Blog, which includes Classification of the products with Commodity codes, Control Classes (ECCN) & control groups for legal control

The following important foreign trade fields, which are maintained in ERP are no longer be available in S/4 HANA (1610 or any higher release):

  • MAEX – GEGRU: Legal Regulation for Legal Control
  • MAEX – ALNUM: Export control class according the legal reg. for legal ctrl
  • MAEX – EMBGR: Grouping for Legal Control

However following fields will still be available in S/4

  • Commodity Code (in display mode only)
  • Export/Import Group
  • Control Code
  • Country and Region of origin

Legal Control fields which have been deprecated from Material master in S/4 HANA

How to maintain Commodity Codes in S/4:

It is no longer possible to maintain commodity codes in customizing (IMG/SPRO) and classification of a product via product master i.e. assignment of commodity code via transaction MM01/MM02 is also not possible anymore in S/4HANA.

SAP has provided the Fiori apps in order to perform above functions which are no longer available in classical mode. Following apps are available within S/4H Launchpad:

  • App “Manage Commodity Codes’ to maintain the commodity codes
  • App “Classify Products – Commodity Codes” to assign a commodity code time-dependently to products that have not yet been classified
  • App “Reclassify Products – Commodity Codes” to assign another commodity code time-dependently to products that have already been classified before

 

Benefits of this new concept with Fiori apps:

  • Maintenance of time dependent commodity codes ensures compliance with custom tariff
  • Time dependency allows future classification
  • Classify products across countries in one step (Commodity code for a material no longer sits in MARC table which is maintained at plant level)
  • Mass Classification and mass reclassification

Technical Information:

  • The fields STAWN, BEMEH and IMPMA in table T604 are no longer used to store commodity codes.
  • The fields STAWN and EXPME in table MARC are no longer used to store the classification information.
  • These data are now stored in tables
    • /SAPSLL/MARITC (classification data),
    • /SAPSLL/CLSNR (commodity codes) and
    • /SAPSLL/CLSNRT (description of commodity codes).

Roles & Authorizations:

Classification apps can be added by assigning the below roles:

  • SAP_BR_TRD_CLS_SPECIALIST (front-end)
  • /SAPSLL/TRD_CLAS_SPECIALIST (back-end)

Corresponding GUI transactions:

If you don’t want to use these Fiori Apps to assign the commodity codes to a product, you can use the following APIs to create your own solution for an initial load of commodity codes (please note that those APIs shouldn´t be used for a classification on a daily basis):

  • /SAPSLL/API_COMCO_CLS_DISTR for assignment in /SAPSLL/MARITC and
  • /SAPSLL/API_COMCO_MD_DISTR for the maintenance of table /SAPSLL/CLSNR (former T604

You can check SAP note ‘2458080 – Commodity codes and (Re-)Classification without Fiori Apps’ for more information

Configuration:

The configuration for Commodity codes includes the following steps:

  • Define Numbering Scheme

   SPRO path: Governance, Risk and Compliance -> International Trade -> Classification -> Define Numbering Scheme

  • Define Numbering Scheme Content

SPRO path: Governance, Risk and Compliance -> International Trade -> Classification -> Define Numbering Scheme Content

  • Activate Numbering Scheme Content

SPRO path: Governance, Risk and Compliance -> International Trade -> Classification -> Activate Numbering Scheme Content

  • Assign Numbering scheme for Commodity codes to Country

SPRO path: Governance, Risk and Compliance -> International Trade -> Classification -> Assign Numbering Scheme for Commodity Codes to Country

Relevant Notes:

  • 2432527 – KBA: S/4HANA – Define Commodity Codes and (re-) classify products
  • 2376556 – S/4HANA – Material classification with commodity codes in SAP S/4HANA 1610
  • 2332472 – Pre-Transition Checks for software component SD-FT-PRO (Foreign Trade Basic Functions)
  • 2378796 – Material classification: Change in data model in SAP S/4HANA 1610
  • 2458080 – Commodity codes and (Re-)Classification without Fiori Apps
  • 2356375 – Commodity Code support in Read Fms

Best Practice Available:

Classification for Customs Tariff Number and Commodity Code (‏2U3‏)

 

How to maintain Control Classes (ECCN) in S/4:

As highlighted above fields required for legal control (Legal Regulation, Export Control Class and Control grouping) have been removed from Material master screen, i.e. it is no longer possible to classify the material for legal control via transaction MM01/MM02, the only way to maintain the data is to use the corresponding Fiori apps, as listed below

  • App “Manage Control Classes” – To maintain the Control Classes/ECCN, you can add a description to a control class and specify its validity.
  • App “Manage Control Groupings” – To maintain the Control Groupings
  • App “Classify Products – Legal Control” – To assign control classes and control groupings time-dependently to products that have not yet been classified for legal control.
  • App “Reclassify Products – Legal Control” – To re-assign another control class or control grouping time-dependently to products that have already been classified for legal control.

2432527 – KBA: S/4HANA – Define Commodity Codes and (re-)classify products 2432527 – KBA: S/4HANA – Define Commodity Codes and (re-)classify products 2432527

Benefits of this new concept with Fiori apps:

  • Maintenance of time dependent Control classes to ensures compliance
  • Time dependency allows future classification
  • Mass Classification and mass reclassification

 Technical Information:

  • The fields GEGRU, ALNUM and EMBGR in table MAEX are no longer used to store legal control data.
  • These data are now stored in tables
    • /SAPSLL/MARLRG (Classification data),
    • /SAPSLL/CLSNR (Control Class) and
    • /SAPSLL/CCGR (Control Grouping).

Roles & Authorizations:

Classification apps can be added by assigning the below roles:

  • SAP_BR_TRD_CLS_SPECIALIST (front-end)
  • /SAPSLL/TRD_CLAS_SPECIALIST (back-end)

Ensure that your user id has full access to authorization objects ITM_CLS_NC & ITM_CLS_LR, otherwise you will not have ‘Create’ and ‘Edit’ rights in legal control apps, the ‘+’ icon will not be active in apps.

Corresponding GUI transactions:

None

Configuration:

The configuration for Control Classes includes the following steps:

  • Define Numbering Scheme

SPRO path: Governance, Risk and Compliance -> International Trade -> Classification -> Define Numbering Scheme

  • Define Numbering Scheme Content

SPRO path: Governance, Risk and Compliance -> International Trade -> Classification -> Define Numbering Scheme Content

  • Activate Numbering Scheme Content

SPRO path: Governance, Risk and Compliance -> International Trade -> Classification -> Activate Numbering Scheme Content

  • Activate Legal Regulations

SPRO path: Governance, Risk and Compliance -> International Trade -> Legal Control -> Activate Legal Regulations

Relevant Notes:

  • 2673371 – KBA: Manage Legal control data for International Trade in S4HANA

Best Practice available: Legal Control (1W8)

 

This blog-post gives an insight on how the classification of products is managed with commodity codes and control classes in International trade. It also tells about relevant Fiori apps and requisite information to make them ready for consumption.

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      23 Comments
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      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Just a heads up, attached images are not shown properly.

      Author's profile photo Ramanujam Duraisamy
      Ramanujam Duraisamy

      Great experience and knowledge share. Images part is not visible. Would be helpful if you can kindly look into.

      Author's profile photo Vikas Yadav
      Vikas Yadav
      Blog Post Author

      Thanks Rama, Alejandro for your feedback. There was some technical issue, images were appearing for me but not for others. Re-uploaded the images and now they are appearing for all.

      Author's profile photo Anurag Garg
      Anurag Garg

      good content and very helpful...One of the best available on the topic...

      Author's profile photo Harikumar Bethanaboiena
      Harikumar Bethanaboiena

      Hi Vikas,

       

      Very good content and useful one , thanks for sharing  this content.

       

      Regards,

      Hari

      Author's profile photo Mani Singhal
      Mani Singhal

      Very Insightful

      Author's profile photo venu gopal
      venu gopal

      Very Useful document shared .. 🙂

      Author's profile photo Gabriela Thümmler
      Gabriela Thümmler

      Very helpful, great content ! Thank you

      Author's profile photo sachin kadam
      sachin kadam

      Awesome knowledge sharing buddy. this is really helpful. I have one question Vikas

      How to upload mass Commodity Codes I.e Mass manage commodity code transaction?

      Tcode - /n/SAPSLL/CLSNR_01

       

      Author's profile photo Paul Gendreau
      Paul Gendreau

      The author answered this question:  You can check SAP note ‘2458080 – Commodity codes and (Re-)Classification without Fiori Apps’ for more information

      Author's profile photo Sathiamoorth Kuzhandaivel
      Sathiamoorth Kuzhandaivel

      It's Very useful. Do you know, any standard report available to list-out the product and commodity code combination. Thanks for reply.

       

      Regards,

      Sathya

      Author's profile photo Srinivasa Reddy Vangala
      Srinivasa Reddy Vangala

      Thanks a lot for highly informative information

      Author's profile photo Ashish S. Kale
      Ashish S. Kale

      Good blog Vikas.

      Author's profile photo Pierre Claerhout
      Pierre Claerhout

      Hello Vikas,

       

      Very nice blog where the benefits of the new features are well documented.

      However, there is a small drawback not being able to assign the commodity code in MM01/02 and making it mandatory:  you need to think about going to the "classify product" app to classify them.

      Of course it might be solved by having one person (or group) responsible to check on a regular basis if there are some products to classify.

      But we have some customers complaining and wanting to make sure that the product are classified when created

      Did you come against this same requirement?

      If yes I would be interested to hear how you have solved it? Via workflows? Simple program sending a notification task to the user responsible for classifying the products?

      thanks for your feedback,

      Kr,

      Pierre Claerhout

       

       

      Author's profile photo Suraj 1212
      Suraj 1212

      Hi Vikas

      How do we maintain different commodity codes for International Export and International Import views ?

      Thank you..

      Author's profile photo MAIDUL ISLAM
      MAIDUL ISLAM

      I have faced a problem regarding tax. I maintain condition record in vk11 in the combination of Country/PlntRegion/Region/TaxCl2Cust/TaxCl.2Mat/control code. But when i create sales order tax can't be determine. I maintain control code in material master. When i go price analysis there i found control code missing. Please guide me. I can't understand where i made mistake.

      Author's profile photo Todd Wendorf
      Todd Wendorf

      Hi All!

      is there a means to mass load Commodity Code and Customs Tariff Numbering Schemes and their Country association other than using the Maintenance views available through spro?

       

      Thanks,

      Todd

      Author's profile photo Todd Wendorf
      Todd Wendorf

      ECCN question ---

       

      Control Classes appear to allow the entry of the ECCN Values and descriptions.  How do we associate the ECCN to a country?  Is that the Control Grouping?

      Thanks,

      Todd

      Author's profile photo Daniel Klein
      Daniel Klein

      Hi Todd,

      we face the same question. Did you find a solution, yet?

      Thanks in Advance, Daniel

      Author's profile photo song wu
      song wu

      good content and very helpful...One of the best available on the topic...

      Author's profile photo Alexis Otto
      Alexis Otto

      Hi Vikas, thank you.

      There is no mass creation tool for the commoidty codes. Nor is it a standard object in the 'Migrate your data' app (which replaces the LTMC). Do we have to manually enter all commodiy codes in all the different needed languages? It takes about 1 minutre per commodity codes for 3 languages.

      And once we have done this in development for testing, how can we transport them? Table /SAPSLL/CLSNR where they are stored cannot be transported it seems.

      Thanks and regards,

      Alexis

      Author's profile photo Paul Gendreau
      Paul Gendreau

      Hi Alexis:

      See my blog:  Commodity Code Conundrum.  There are standard API for this purpose, as described in SAP Note 2458080.

      Author's profile photo Alexis Otto
      Alexis Otto

      Hi Paul, thanks for replying quickly. I've read the post already, but I'd like a solution without having to build something that talks to the API. Just a functional solution where I have no dependancy with others. The function module described doesn't let me add entries directly.

      Normally I'd build an LSMW on the backend, but in the onprem 2021 version the possibility of adding the codes on back end have been taken out the (transactions doesn't exist anymore)....

      Thanks again and regards, Alexis