SAP organizational structure:

SAP OS is a part of core SAP ( here I mean SAP without activating any specific industry solution), but
due to the fact that it is a very basic configuration, and to its strong ties to all of the business
processes, Core or utilities, and that every SAP consultant should be familiar with the organizational
structure.. I will give a brief here about it, specifying under which module or consultant’s
responsibility usually it is in

The organizational structure in SAP is designed to reflect the actual organization structure in an
enterprise so you will find it similar the structure in most companies.( some parts of this
organizational structure are related to a specific application or module of the entrprize , and some
parts are related to all of the enterprize as a whole and is used by many modules).

In this lesson I will explain the most common parts and the ones you need to know as a DM
consultant,,,

• Client: show on the system

When you log in to SAP system, in addition to the username and password, you have to
specify the client you are logging to . Here when I type for example 100, it means like I am
loging to different system than if I put 200.

So in additional to the different landscapes w spoke of earlier being different SAP systems,
we still have each landscape that can have different clients or can consisit of different sap
systems.

Example we might have quality system 200, and quality system 100 as two separate SAP
systems

So client definition: In commercial, organizational and technical terms, a self-contained unit

in an ERP system with separate master records and its own set of tables. It is the highest
level on the organizational structure and could be thought of as a full and stand alone SAP
system with its own tables ( it is true that some tables are cross clients – but these tables
usually are related to system settings and are not directly related to business transactions or
master data).

so the client represents a full and almost separate sap system). The clients are created by the
Basis team .

you can see the SAP clients in SAP GUI screen.. this is the application you need to install at
your computer so that you can use SAP. It is available in SAP website you can easily obtain it.

Each of these landscapes ( which we spoke about previously) are created by the basis team.
And for training purpose, if you don’t have SAP system to practice,, you can reach out to any
company that provides SAP ISU IDEs system for practice ( if you need help in that just email
me and I will recommend you someone who provides IDDES access).. by IDES I mean Sap
 system for practice and training ( because as a beginner,, it is not recommended to use any
of the landscapes we discussed earlier for practice.

• Company code: The smallest organizational unit of Financial Accounting for

which a complete self-contained set of accounts can be drawn up for purposes

of external reporting.

basically a governmental requirnment specifys the company.

It is the central organizational element of financial accounting.

Basically it represents the organization level for which we assign a chart of accounts. In real
life, it could be the highest level that exists in the enterprise.

Usually the FI consultant creates the company code with coordination with finance people of
the enterprise .

To see a company code you have to be logged in.

• Plant: lant: In Logistics, a plant is an organizational unit for dividing an enterprise according
to production, procurement, maintenance, and materials planning.

The plant usually belongs to a company

So for example, a production facility is usually represented in SAP as a plant. It is not always
about production. For example A main warehouse in a company – which could be located in
relatively far area could be represented as a plant , a main distribution center can be
represented as a plant. Important information about a plant is that A material can be
valuated on the plant level, means the same material or item can have different prices on
different plants, one reason for this for example is to reflect the transportation costs which
could be higher for further plants.

Usually the MM or material management consultant creates the plants

• A storage location is a spatial unit. Within a plant, material stocks can be managed by storage
location (inventory management). It could be a specific area or room within the plant the is
used to store certain type of materials

The storage location belongs to a plant

Usually the MM or material management consultant creates the plants

There are many other org structure items , but I focused on the most basic ones and the
ones that might ne in touch with the DM module and process

For example
• Sales organization:

An organizational unit in Logistics that structures the company according to its sales
requirements. It is responsible for selling items or services ( it could be orgaized based on the
sales nature of the items / services, or based on the hierarchy or responsibilities of the sales
departments

One way to decide the sales orgnizations is based on the structure of the sales department
( sometimes you have sales department for domestic and another for international) so we
create one SO for local and one for internationals

Sometimes we have sales people responsible for chemical sales and some for tools,, and so
on

This is an example of the organization structure item that belongs to one application or
module of the enterprise.

Usually the SD consultant creates them

SAP ISU Master Data:

In this section, I will talk about the master data in ISU, and I will explain if this master data is
related to the master data in core modules.

So I will start by defining master data in general:

Master data in an ERP is the data that are created centrally and that is less likely to be
changed. For example when you create a master record of a business partner (customer),
you create it one time and then reuse it whenever you want to create a transaction for the
business partner, You don’t change the details (like his name, or contact information, or type)
of this business partner every day.

and you will use the same record of this business partner regardless you are creating the
transaction from which module. ( if you are selling to him, he is the same person or
organization, if you are buying from him he is the same person too

.
 Unlike transactional data which happens very frequently

First ISU master data

Connection Object:

A connection object is normally a building. However, it can be a plot of land or other structure such
as a fountain or a building site, or a construction

site.

. The connection object corresponds to the functional location in the Plant Maintenance (PM)
component and has the same key ( that means when I create a connection object, I am also creating
a functional location in the plant maintenance automatically and the key of the connection object is
the same as the key of the functional location )

The functional location is master data of the core module PM, and it is simply a location in which an
equipment can be installed ( this is usufull for example if we want to conduct a maintenance based
on the functional location , so all equipment’s in that location are considered)

Since the main definition of the connection object is a building, it usually contains several premises
or apartments, device locations, and connections ( I will explain this soon).

So basically all I want to explain at this stage is the basic idea of the connection object and how it
looks in the SAP system

We access connection object creation screen from the tree or if we know the transaction code,,,
which is a shortcut to reach to the screen without scrolling through this tree

Here you based on the settings, it is either you have to specify the number of the connection object
you are creating if the number range assigned to connection object is external, or just press enter
and the system will assig a number for the new connection object. We will see how to create internal
and external number range later.. so here we simply press enter. You can see here SAP has assigned a
number from a range that is specified in the configurations

This is the create screen of SAP, in SAP you have the ability to show or hide or rename or change the
mandatory indicator for the fields generally.

This sign indicates that this field is mandatory and you cannot save without specifying it. We fill it
either by specifying the country code or searching by description .

Here You can add a description, a search terms that will help you to find this connection object.

These fields are about address to specify the address items to be able to geographically locate the
building, we will have a lesson for the address later. I will maintain some dummy data to see the
effect and value of adding as accurate as possible details to our master data.

This is maintenance plant, the item in the org structure we spoke about earlier. This means that this
plant will be assigned if any maintenance is required for this building

We save and the connection object is created.

If we go to the display screen, you.. here you can see functional location created automatically with
the same key as the connection object number,.

 Premise: A spatially enclosed unit, such as an apartment or shop floor, that is to be supplied by a

utility company.

So it is true that the premise is a part of a connection object, but it is the basis on which we supply
the electricity service as each premise can have different business partner or customer ( this master
data has no equivalent in the core modules, it is only seen or visible to the utilities moduules and
processes, unlike the one we were talking about before the connection object

Here is the premise creation path , or if I type here se60 So same way premise has an internal
number range, means I only need to press enter to create.. and I need to specify the connection
object that this premise belongs to.

If we press on the search, we can see that having details in the address fields in the connection
object will help us specify the required connection object here. That’s why sap has some techniques
to insure the quality of the address data.

So I search by the street description and I choose it, here you have the ability to search by part of the
description if I am not fully sur of the street nae, I can type str ( which is a part of the streetname
then * which means any set of characters can follow the letters I specified .

The system will bring any connection object in a street which is name starts with str. You can also
specify as mu ch details as possible in the premise such as floor, supplement , owner ( which has to
be pre defined as business partner and premise type.

Premise type is some kind of classification for the premise, example I could say one type is a
residential apartment, one type is for hotel suite ( if it is separately supplied by electricity), and one
type is a commercial a store and one type is a teachschool. (or any type of classification required by
business). these types are considered configurations and can only be created in the dev server before
being able to use them in premise master data on production or QAS system

We save the premise

 Device Location: is a Location in a connection object where devices are installed.

in many real case, electricity meters are placed somewhere in the basement, or next to the building
door you find a closet that contains all the meters for that connection object.

The device location has a reference in the PM module, the same way the connection object does.
Once you create a device location, a functional location is created automatically in the PM but under
the functional location of the connection object that this device location belongs to.

The functional location in PM follows a predefined structure , ( similar to parent and children idea).
For example, you could have a functional location as whole building, and under that functional
location each floor is ta child functional location, and then each room is a child functional location of
the floor, and so on. So that’s the idea of the functional location hirarachy. Device location is under
connection object,, because simply it is located inside it.
Note that the device location can be created manually or automatically during one type of the
device installations we will see this during the installation lesson.

so entering the device location creation screen, the number range is internal so I only need to press
enter. you can add a description for the device location,, like under the stairs.. note that the
connection object field is mandatory. So we specify it and we could save and this means that is
device location is for the whole connection object. Or we could specify the premise, and that would
mean that this device location in this connection object is specific for this premise ( like for example
having the meter next to the apartment door in a dedicated closet.

I will specify the premise we created and save.

Her if we display the device location, and press this functional location button. We go to the device
location functional location.. you could see here in this field the superior or parent functional
location we created earlier for the connection object.

 Installation: or so cold utility installation is A division-specific collection of devices, registers and

flat-rate billing values that

are allocated to the same premise and billed together. A premise can have several installations

belonging to one or more divisions.

The installation is the most important technical utilities master data ( all the ones we talked about so
far, the connection object and the premise and the device location are called technical master data)

It is the master data where you can see the relations between the utility master data not only for DM
but for of the utility modules.

The utility installation has no reference in the core modules, and it it has a one to one relation with
the premise in every division.

The division here represents the type of utilities business ( for example you have a division 01 for
electricity , 02 for water, and so on )

So one installation is created for each division for one premise , if the utility company you are
implementing SAP for ,only provides electricity service, you will define one division in the
configurations, and you will create one utility installation master data for each premise. But if it
provides electricity and water services, then you will create two divisions in the configurations and
create two installations for each premise.

This is the create installation screen,, same way we leave the installation number for the system to
assign as it is internal number range.. we specify the key date which represents the earlies date this
installation can be used, or the valid from date ( so if you try to install a meter for this installation
with date earlier than the key date, the system will issue an error and will not allow the installation
process.

You also specify the division here you see we only have electricity, you can create more divisions in
the configurations screen in dev server.

Press enter to go the details.

You specify the premise. You can search the same way we did when creating the premise. Billing class
and rate category are billing master data and have to be created by the billing consultant before we
proceed creating the installation, they are a classification of the type of this customer and they are
important to be able to calculate a correct bill. I will choose .

Franchise contract is an agreement between the utility company and municipality for a franchise
fees ( for example, utility company may be in charged to collect garbage fees on behalf of the
municipality, so we define franchise contracts for each municipality and the amount the customer
should pay for it will be added to the electricity bill, and the value could be directed to dedicated
finance GL account to be paid to the municipality.

MR unit is a very important master data ( it has to be created before creating the installation, and it
specifies the dates and schedules this installation will be regularly read and billed, we will talk about
it later but now I will fill any MRU.

These fields here also for example installation type is some kind of classification for the installation,
we could create any types in the configurations and use them here.

Supply guarantee means this installation cannot be disconnected, for a certain reason ( there could
be a patent who is using medical equipment’s that need a continuous supply of electricity and
regardless of him paying the bills or not we will not disconnect the service ( we could define any
reasons in the configurations.

Voltage levele is another type of classification based on the voltage level

All these classification fields might be useful in the reporting

Base period category is also an important information, in sap we have the ability to outsort or
prevent some meter readings to proceed for billing until they are verified to prevent wrong billing.

The basisi on which we allow or out sort readings is based on forcasting what is the expected
consumption, and if the recorded consumption is far away from the expected, it is a good idea not to
proceed and to double check the reading.

So here we are specifying the basis period of the forecast, is it last month consumption or same
month from previous year, I will leave it as it is and save

All the previous master master data are called technical master, basically connection object
represents a building, so if many customers are living in apartments in same building I create one
connection object for them, I can create one device location for all of them and might be more,
depending on if all meters are placed in one location.

We create one premise for each customer of them. And we create one installation for them per
division so if we are a company providing electricity it will be one installation for each premise, if we
are providing water and electricity I create two installations for each premise, one with division
electricity, and one with division water.

Continuing on master data

 Business Partner: Person or organization doing business with a utility company. The business
partner represents mainly the customer.

Recently in the S4hana version of SAP, which is the last version. Sap has optimized the idea of
business partner and the different roles for it.

Contract: An agreement between a utility company and one of its business partner that relates to

a specific division. The contract contains control data for billing, budget billing plans and

contract accounts receivable and payable accounting. Contracts for services (such as maintenance

contracts) are managed by the Sales and Distribution (SD) component.

The budget billing is a special kind of billing in which a customer is billed a previously agreed amount
regardless of his consumption and a settlement is later done for differences between actual and
billed amounts.

When creating contract partner , which is the role important for creating billing, system creates

Sd customer, we will see the spro for this, screen layout and number range.

 Contract Account: Structure used to bill the posting data for contracts or contract items for

which the same collection/disbursement agreements apply. Contract accounts are managed on an

open item basis within Contract Accounts Receivable and Payable.

The contract account represents the parent for the contract ( we specify the contract account while
creating the contract) eventhough some types of contract accounts don’t have contracts, they are
created so be parents of othe contract account and they are called collective contract accounts.

Device Management Master Data:

Device Category: Grouping of devices that have the same technical properties (data), such as

single-rate or double-rate meters. The material in the Materials Management component (MM)

corresponds to the device category.

In general the device category is a grouping of devices with similar charactarestics ( for example we
create a device category for one phase electronic meters that has 60 amperes.

Regardless of their manufacturer,

This master data has a reference in the material management module which is material ( we create a
material manually ) then we use it for referencing the device category unlike equipments ( if it is not
created a pop up will appear asking us to create

Show the configurations of material creation

Show the configurations of function class and construction class example one can indicate the phase
and one can indicate the ampeers

Price class can (rental price) can be fixed based on the device category and can be changed on the
installation stage, if you fill it here then it will be proposed in the installation, this item is used by the
billing to add to the bill a certain value for renting the price. In many companies there is an additional
item in the bill for the meter rental as it is considered a property of the utility company and they
charge the customer a rental amount based on the specifications of the meter ( example 3 phase
rental value is shigher than the one phase rental value)

This field is for prepayment meters (pp meter)

Certification requirement:

Inspection will be explained later during the inspection, this processes is integrated with QM

The device category is a prerequisite for creating a device such as meter which is one type type of
devices.

Create:

We specify a material and put the division, and select the basic device category ( this is
unchangeable and based on the basic device catgory sap will know the type of the device we are
creating and thus populate the required fields in the create screen

The d

Create register group:

Simply the specifications of the registers of the meter, the meter main goal is to capture the
consumption of electricity for example. Here we are specifying the types of consumptions .we specify
how many readings are to be captured and the specifications of each one.

These specifications are specified based on customers need and real situation, example we sae that
register number one has 10 places for predicimal and 2 places for decimal ( if the meters in real life
are like this)

Some meters have a factor that each time the consumption is taken we have to multiply the
consumption with this factor to obtain the actual consumption ( some old meters have little number
of predecimal places in their display or screen( so using this factor may help overcoming this issue),
so the reader can take the reading as is and the SAP will do the rest obtaining the correct
consumption.
So the register group is assigned to a specific meter ( we can assign the same group to as many
meters as we want)

Division,,,

we put a code and the division for which the meter is. We can add a search term ( which helps
searching for this register group)

register category specifying the the register is cumulative or offsetting ( like whether it continues
adding to the reading after we take it (so if last month reading was 100 and this monthis reading is
300 it mmeans the consumption is 200 cumulating)or does start from zero each time we take the
reading so in this case the consumption is 300 balancing,) resetting is not billed and is used to
calculate power factor ( it resets after we take the reading )

reactive or active based on the nature of the eclctricity .. normal is active

register type whether normal off peak on peak… some companies apply time of use where they have
a peak hour for example where elctricty proce is higher ( so we are here specifying this)

the maxmum numbe of predecimal places it takes

ration is for special type of meters called semi direct or indirect meters ( as the name applies they are
connected in a non stratight forward way due to technical requirements. These meters have voltage
and current , and cannot be installed in customers premises alone, they have to be assigned to
something called transformer or group of transformers ( which also has a voltage and current) the
ratio of the transformer and the ratio of the meter are usd to calculate the billing factor which also
has to be multiplied by the consumption to obtain the correct amount the customer actually
consumed ( we will discuss this in detail during the installation lesson)

propose register: during processes like installation or replacement we want the system to propose
this register in the processes

mru, the unit of measure for this register ( this register reads kwh for exxamle or kvar)

so these specifications are discussed with the customer ( for electricity division usually it will an
electrical engineer who knows all these details)

register codes are a description for the code, and it is used for communication with external systems
( like AMI)

winding groups for transformer.

Device: the device is the physical representation of the device category, it is a unique serial number
in the device category.

It could be a

 A counting device (meter)

 A controlling institution (ripple control receiver)

 A data-processing institution (corrector)

 An institution with safety or adjustment functions (pressure regulator)

The device has a corresponding master data in PM which is the equipment, it worths mentioning that
unlike previous master data that has corresponding master data in core modules, thh device in isu
and its related equipment in PM has different numbers

The device is one to one with an equipment in the PM, the serial number of a device is not
equivalent to the equipment number ( it is as per the number range of the isu equipments or is it
not ) show the configurations for serial number profile.. manufacturesrs,, number ranges for
equipment,, and having the system defaults the equipment type isu in screen IQ01

Usually utilities companies when they request meters the ask the manufacturer to put a specific
serial number as per their requirnment, example we request a 1000 meters with serial number from
2023001 to 20231000 so if this is the case the number range for device must be external ( if it is
enternal it will be as the equipment numbe0r

You can change register group that is proposed from dev category

Have the option to enter meter reading at the device cration time or leave it empty ( some customers
request to make the meter rading during the device creation time mandatory, this can be done
through something called screen variant which I will explain in later classes.

If the creation meter reading is entered, SAP creates a meter reading document with reason …

The meter reading reasons are some kind of classification for the readings specifying the nature and
source of reading,,, example when you enter a reading during meter installation the reason is 21,,
the meter reading reasons are fixed and specified from SAP and a consultant cannot change them,,,
we will talk a lot about readings in the coming classes and we will see various meter reading reasons

After creation, status is avlb…. If we install it the status will be installed,,, we will see the different
statues throught out doing the processes

It is important that there is no function in sap to change the valid from date which was assigned
during device creation.. therefore device creation must be created carefully…

There is a workaround to overcome this issue,, by changing the material type of the wrong meter
and recreate the meter correctly under the device category. It has a disadvantage of having rubbish
data on our production system

The device with wrong details can be flagged for deletion ( only flagged and not totally removed, so
its records is still available in the SAP table),, but with this flag we can set up the system to prevent
using this meter in installation or reading or so on
anoth way to handle such issue is to archive the device totally and remove the device details from all
table ( not manually ) using the arhiving processes. The archiving processes is not a simple daily
processes and must be conduct and planned…

It is true a consultant having a certain authorization can delete from SAP tables,, but this practise is
very dangerous and can cause inconsistencies in the system if not done properly.. and if not all
references of that meter in all tables are deleted in the correct way.. for example if a meter is just
create it will have a reference in a group of tables,, if it is installed it will have more details and
references in more tables,,, every process or action involving that meter will build up on SAP tables
( and the tables are so many and it is difficult to find them all..

I will create a meter and try to delete it from the tables,,, but remember to do this only in extreme
cases and only if the device has no further actions at all

Scheduling:

Specifying the dates on which each customer will be read and billed.

• Portion: Grouping of contracts that bill together.

In a portion, you group together contracts of all business partners in a part of your

service territory (for example, the city district "south") for which the same billing

conditions are to apply (for example, annual billing for residential customers on June

30 each year).

Sometimes portions can be created based on the billing date, and also could be created for special
billing customers ( like industrial with big consumption and special rules)…

End of billing period: This is the date on which the portion is to be billed for the

first time. This date, together with the length of the billing period (that is, the

period length), determines the date of the next billing (start of the next billing

period= end of the billing period+ 1 day).

End of billing period: This is the date on which the portion is to be billed for the first time . This date,
together with the length of the billing period (that is, the period length), determines the date of the
next billing (start of the next billing period= end of the billing period+ 1 day).

The scheduled billing date is the date on which the contracts belonging to a

portion are billed. This takes the SAP calendar into account
The end of the meter reading period corresponds to the end of the billing period,

and is used as a basis for defining dates of subsequent meter reading periods.

The scheduled meter reading date is the date on which the schedule specifies

the register is to be read. It is also the date for which periodic meter readings

are generated in scheduling. It forms the basis for calculating the expected

consumption during meter reading order creation; it also acts as the final date for

determining the budget billing amount.

• Parameter Record: Record containing control data that is used to create budget

billing schedules when schedule records a

re generated.

• Meter reading unit: Installations grouped together according to region, consisting

of built-in devices and their registers. Installations are grouped this way for

purposes of meter reading and device management, The meter reading unit

forms the basis for the meter reader's worklist.

Meter reading units group together - according to regional criteria -

Installations that are to be read on a certain date.

Several meter reading units can be allocated to one portion

The installations belonging to the MRU, could be the work load for one meter reader in one day.

Meter readers can be created in configurations

• The schedule master records stored in the portion or in the meter reading unit are

used to generate the schedule records for billing or meter reading.

Portions and meter reading units are abstractions of the schedules. Schedule records

represent the instantiation of those abstract concepts. Portions and meter reading

units define the parameters which are sued to create the schedule records. Schedule

records exist for specific dates

Schedule records can be generated for portions and meter reading units

separately, or they can be generated together for all meter reading units of a
portion.

When you generate the schedule records you must specify the time period for

which the dates are required

Schedule records refer to specific dates. They control meter reading and billing

For example, you want all customers living in a certain area to be read and billed around 5th of each
month, for that reason, you will create a portion with this date, and then create group of meter
reading units under this portion ( so basically the portion represents the day of the month, and each
MRU unit represents a reader that will take care of reading part of those customers on that date.

It is a prerequisite for creating meter reading orders and billing orders.

In spro, we can specify the maximum number of years for which we can create schedule records
(control parameters for scheduling)

Regional structure:

It is true that regional structure is not only related to the specific industry solutions, but it is
strongly related to the utilities industry and heavily used in its processes.

The regional structure is integrated with the standard SAP component Central

Address Management, that is to ensure that the syntax of the address is always correct.

We will see during in the master data how the system suggests correction if we typed an
address element wrongly.

Regional structure in SAP consists of two types, the first one is postal regional structure, which is the
primary address structure and almost fixed and it follows the structure as City _ city district street,
and is the official structure for communication and to identify the exact location

The second type is political regional structure which is totally flexible where you can define your own
hierarchy and elements, it provides a link to the postal regional structure via the connection object, is
mainly used for jurisdiction control or for company’s own classification of areas

In the postal regional structure, you can store meter reading units as default

values at the city and street levels; these meter reading units are then proposed

as the default value when you create an installation

In the customer enhancements for city and street you can store your own check logic. Use
enhancement SZRSOOO 1 for your own checks at city level and enhancement SZRS0002 for your
check logic at street level. The SAP enhancement for checking for duplicate city or street entries can
be found in the IMG for SAP Utilities.

ADDRESS_ CHECK - enables you to integrate additional postal address checks using external tools.
These checks then operate automatically in all applications using central address management.

-ADDRESS_SEARCH - enables you to perform an error-tolerant search for addresses, as well as a

duplication check.

- ADDRESS_ UPDATE - used for updating search indices. You must use this interface if you intend to
use the search functionality of the ADDRESS SEARCH BAdI. You can also use ADDRESS UPDATE in a
different context, namely to have the system react to your saving address data.

In addition to these BAdis, the interfaces also provide additional tools used to postal checks and
error-tolerant duplicate searches. These include programs that co111pare data when changes are
regularly made to the postal reference data, or module for building external search indices

You can define your own check routine in enhancement SZRS0003. This enables you to have the
system carry out additional checks when you maintain addresses (for the business partner or
connection object, for example).

Enhancement EE0200001 (IS-U data determination from address) enables you to determine your
own data for storage in the regional structure at the city and street level.

The SAP enhancement for determining data from the regional structure can be found in the IMG. SAP
Utilities ---+

Tools ---+ System Modifications ---+ User-Defined Fields

The regional structure group groups together elernents of the regional structure (such as cities,
streets, and street sections). The system can determine the appropriate regional structure group
from an address and use it, for example, in agent determination via the regional structure area.

Using political regional structure functionality in CRB, a utility company can divide the service
territory according to political or administrative criteria such as counties, districts etc. the political
structure is built within a hierarchy per country.