In this blog post I’d like to outline the innovations for SAP S/4HANA Cloud, Public Edition 2302 in the of Professional Services. These are the topics that are covered:
Watch my video to get a glimpse of the new features:
Enhanced Search Help for WBS Elements in Concur
This is actually an innovation in the integration with the Concur solution. For adding a WBS element to an expense report in Concur, the traveler had to pick the WBS element from a list of WBS elements which had been replicated to Concur. By utilizing the new feature “Enhanced Search Help for WBS Elements” travelers are offered a search help that allows for searching WBS elements directly in the S/4HANA Cloud system. This search utilizes the most recent data for picking a WBS element.
Also, the search results are limited to those WBS elements, that specific traveler is allowed to see and use. It also considers staffing information and only allows the traveler to pick those WBS elements which can be used for posting travel expenses.
This functionality will make creating the expense report that much easier and link it directly to the required project.
OData API for Project Billing Requests
The release of this OData API for the Project Billing Request enables external applications and the resource related billing processes.
This will be a great tool for our customers to increase flexibility in billing preparation, especially when integrating external systems with SAP S/4HANA Cloud, public edition.
Users will be able to trigger the creation of temporary project billing requests for specific billing elements, post partial or full costs (i.e. expenses) or quantities (such as times and usages) to be postponed or written off, and trigger the creation of permanent project billing request and billing document requests for specific project billing requests, which includes open on-account and down payment billing plan items.
Enablement of a note field in the periodic-service scenario (4E9)
Another highlight in the project billing functionality with this release is in the periodic-service scenario, where a new note field has been enabled.
The entry point for this note field is of course the billing plan item, as you are already familiar from the fix-price scenario. This will then be forwarded to all subsequent processes in the end-to-end billing process. This means it will be visible in the project billing app as well as afterwards in the invoice printout, so also available in the XML file. It is a display-only field on the Prepare Billing screen in the Periodic Service tab.
Billing document (invoice) preview in the Manage Project Billing app (4E9)
After preparing the billing data in the Manage Project Billing application, the billing specialist or billing team member can preview the invoice and look at the actual invoice printout that would be sent to the customer at this point in time. Additionally, the invoice can be previewed in the Manage Project Billing Requests application.
For this item we need to clarify that with this release the preview will not be available in all places yet. It is available after submitting and without approval process, meaning the BDR is already created. The technical reason behind this is that we need to simulate the invoice, which gets more difficult if there are two objects that need to be simulated.
As usual Andreas Hammerschmidt updated his blog post on the project billing funtionality, so you can read more details there.
Staffing proposal for a Resource Request
In the “Staff Resource Requests” app, resource managers can now propose resources that can be assigned to a resource request. A new assignment status “Proposed” is available when assigning a resource. Proposed assignments are not taken into account when calculating a resource’s availability or utilization and they are not updated in SAP S/4HANA Cloud, public edition. They can be turned into soft-booked or hard-booked assignments later on.
Enabling Migration to the Cloud for Projects, Resource Management (BTP)
There is one more item regarding the Resource Management functionality in the SAP S/4HANA Cloud – Cloud for Projects on the Business Technology Platform (BTP).
This is especially interesting for the customers who have been working with the 1KC scope item, for the enhanced resource management functionality in the core.
These customers can now switch to an external system for staffing resources in professional services projects, even if you have activated Advanced Resource Management - Project-Based Services (scope item 1KC) in your system. Until SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2302, this was not allowed. In the change from 1KC to the resource management functionality in the Could for Projects (BTP) the existing staffing information will be taken over.
List of customer and internal projects with direct navigation to related apps (J11)
Now let’s move on to our “Plan Customer Projects” app and the J11 scope item.
In this release customers will find a new application with the name “Project Control – Professional Services Projects”.
This provides a single list for internal and customer projects with basic attributes on which the project managers also can search on. You can also enhance the screen in this app with extensibility fields.
Most important is of course the this can be used as a single-entry point. You can navigation from this app to several others for further steps, this is managed via the authorizations and assigned business catalogs to the user in question.
As an example, the project is always the context and from there you can navigate to the project billing, the WIP Details and more. The app you are jumping to will always be pre-filtered to the project you are clicking on.
One additional information for this app is that it will not be pinned as a default to the project manager business catalog, if you want to use this application and enable it there is a nice blog from my colleague Sven Nachtigall, where he explains how to do it in detail.
OData API project demand enabled for demands of professional services projects (J11)
There is another API we want to take a look at with this release, this OData API Project Demand, which is assigned to communication scenario SAP_COM_0783, now supports the following project demand categories and types for professional services projects:
Release of the “project demand” business object for developer extensibility (J11)
The RAP business object Project Demand has been released for developer extensibility. With this business object, you can create, read, update, and delete project demands of enterprise projects and professional services projects.
This will help customers to enhance the SAP processes and build custom applications based on project demand data. This means a development of tightly coupled ABAP extensions running directly on the SAP S/4HANA Cloud technology stack.
Help Portal Product Page Here
- Enhanced Search Help for WBS Elements in Concur (1M1)
- OData API: Project Billing Request (4E9)
- Enablement of a note field in the periodic-service scenario (4E9)
- Billing document (invoice) preview in the Manage Project Billing app (4E9)
- Staffing Proposal for a Resource Request (BTP)
- Enabling migration to the Cloud for projects, Resource Management (BTP)
- List of customer and internal projects with direct navigation to related apps (J11)
- OData API project demand enabled for demands of professional services projects (J11)
- Release of the “project demand” business object for developer extensibility (J11)
Watch my video to get a glimpse of the new features:
Enhanced Search Help for WBS Elements in Concur
This is actually an innovation in the integration with the Concur solution. For adding a WBS element to an expense report in Concur, the traveler had to pick the WBS element from a list of WBS elements which had been replicated to Concur. By utilizing the new feature “Enhanced Search Help for WBS Elements” travelers are offered a search help that allows for searching WBS elements directly in the S/4HANA Cloud system. This search utilizes the most recent data for picking a WBS element.
Also, the search results are limited to those WBS elements, that specific traveler is allowed to see and use. It also considers staffing information and only allows the traveler to pick those WBS elements which can be used for posting travel expenses.
This functionality will make creating the expense report that much easier and link it directly to the required project.
OData API for Project Billing Requests
The release of this OData API for the Project Billing Request enables external applications and the resource related billing processes.
This will be a great tool for our customers to increase flexibility in billing preparation, especially when integrating external systems with SAP S/4HANA Cloud, public edition.
Users will be able to trigger the creation of temporary project billing requests for specific billing elements, post partial or full costs (i.e. expenses) or quantities (such as times and usages) to be postponed or written off, and trigger the creation of permanent project billing request and billing document requests for specific project billing requests, which includes open on-account and down payment billing plan items.
Enablement of a note field in the periodic-service scenario (4E9)
Another highlight in the project billing functionality with this release is in the periodic-service scenario, where a new note field has been enabled.
The entry point for this note field is of course the billing plan item, as you are already familiar from the fix-price scenario. This will then be forwarded to all subsequent processes in the end-to-end billing process. This means it will be visible in the project billing app as well as afterwards in the invoice printout, so also available in the XML file. It is a display-only field on the Prepare Billing screen in the Periodic Service tab.
Billing document (invoice) preview in the Manage Project Billing app (4E9)
After preparing the billing data in the Manage Project Billing application, the billing specialist or billing team member can preview the invoice and look at the actual invoice printout that would be sent to the customer at this point in time. Additionally, the invoice can be previewed in the Manage Project Billing Requests application.
For this item we need to clarify that with this release the preview will not be available in all places yet. It is available after submitting and without approval process, meaning the BDR is already created. The technical reason behind this is that we need to simulate the invoice, which gets more difficult if there are two objects that need to be simulated.
As usual Andreas Hammerschmidt updated his blog post on the project billing funtionality, so you can read more details there.
Staffing proposal for a Resource Request
In the “Staff Resource Requests” app, resource managers can now propose resources that can be assigned to a resource request. A new assignment status “Proposed” is available when assigning a resource. Proposed assignments are not taken into account when calculating a resource’s availability or utilization and they are not updated in SAP S/4HANA Cloud, public edition. They can be turned into soft-booked or hard-booked assignments later on.
Enabling Migration to the Cloud for Projects, Resource Management (BTP)
There is one more item regarding the Resource Management functionality in the SAP S/4HANA Cloud – Cloud for Projects on the Business Technology Platform (BTP).
This is especially interesting for the customers who have been working with the 1KC scope item, for the enhanced resource management functionality in the core.
These customers can now switch to an external system for staffing resources in professional services projects, even if you have activated Advanced Resource Management - Project-Based Services (scope item 1KC) in your system. Until SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2302, this was not allowed. In the change from 1KC to the resource management functionality in the Could for Projects (BTP) the existing staffing information will be taken over.
List of customer and internal projects with direct navigation to related apps (J11)
Now let’s move on to our “Plan Customer Projects” app and the J11 scope item.
In this release customers will find a new application with the name “Project Control – Professional Services Projects”.
This provides a single list for internal and customer projects with basic attributes on which the project managers also can search on. You can also enhance the screen in this app with extensibility fields.
Most important is of course the this can be used as a single-entry point. You can navigation from this app to several others for further steps, this is managed via the authorizations and assigned business catalogs to the user in question.
As an example, the project is always the context and from there you can navigate to the project billing, the WIP Details and more. The app you are jumping to will always be pre-filtered to the project you are clicking on.
One additional information for this app is that it will not be pinned as a default to the project manager business catalog, if you want to use this application and enable it there is a nice blog from my colleague Sven Nachtigall, where he explains how to do it in detail.
OData API project demand enabled for demands of professional services projects (J11)
There is another API we want to take a look at with this release, this OData API Project Demand, which is assigned to communication scenario SAP_COM_0783, now supports the following project demand categories and types for professional services projects:
- Demand category Resource: demand types Team Resourceand Additional Resource
- Demands category Expense: demand type Expense
Release of the “project demand” business object for developer extensibility (J11)
The RAP business object Project Demand has been released for developer extensibility. With this business object, you can create, read, update, and delete project demands of enterprise projects and professional services projects.
This will help customers to enhance the SAP processes and build custom applications based on project demand data. This means a development of tightly coupled ABAP extensions running directly on the SAP S/4HANA Cloud technology stack.
The following demand categories and types are supported:
Demand Category | Demand Type |
| Material | Non-Stock Material, Non-Stock Material with Limit, Project Stock (Direct Purchasing) |
| Service | Service, Service with Limit |
| Resource | Direct Staffing, Team Resource, Additional Resource |
| Expense | Expense |
For more information on SAP S/4HANA Cloud, check out the following links:
- SAP S/4HANA Cloud, Public Edition Release Info Here
- Bert Schulze’s Release Blog Post
- The Link Collection for Enterprise Portfolio and Project Management Here
- Enterprise Portfolio and Project Management Community
- SAP S/4HANA Cloud, Public Edition 2302 Early Release Series Here
- Latest Release Blog Posts here
- Product Videos on Our SAP S/4HANA Cloud, Public Edition and SAP S/4HANA YouTube playlist
- Demo Playlist of Product Release Highlights here
- Inside SAP S/4HANA Podcast Here
- Best Practices for SAP S/4HANA Cloud Here
- SAP S/4HANA Cloud Community: Here
- Feature Scope Description Here
- What’s New Here
Help Portal Product Page Here
- SAP Managed Tags:
