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Title: Migrating Fixed Assets into SAP

Author: Ben McGrail, Harlex Consulting Services Ltd

Keywords: Fixed Assets SAP Data Migration LSMW RAALTD01 AS01

AS91 IDOC BAPI Standard Load Program BDC
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Table of contents
1 Overview .............................................................................. 3
1.1 Introduction.............................................................................................................................. 3
1.2 Load methods.......................................................................................................................... 3
1.2.1 BDC recording of transaction AS91.................................................................................... 3
1.2.2 Business object BUS1022 .................................................................................................. 3
1.2.3 Standard load program RAALTD01.................................................................................... 3
1.3 Assumptions ............................................................................................................................ 4
2 The Basics ........................................................................... 5
2.1 Data structures ........................................................................................................................ 5
2.1.1 BALTB ................................................................................................................................ 5
2.1.2 BALTD ................................................................................................................................ 5
2.2 Important fields ........................................................................................................................ 5
2.3 Modifying the standard asset structure ................................................................................... 6
3 Common Problems .............................................................. 7
3.1 Alpha conversion ..................................................................................................................... 7
3.2 Legacy asset number .............................................................................................................. 7
3.3 Missing customising ................................................................................................................ 7
3.4 NBV - Net book value .............................................................................................................. 8
3.5 Time-dependent data .............................................................................................................. 8
3.6 Mid-year asset migration ......................................................................................................... 8
3.7 Assets created in this year ...................................................................................................... 8
3.8 Asset disposals ....................................................................................................................... 8
3.9 Depreciation areas .................................................................................................................. 9
3.10 Other quirks ............................................................................................................................. 9
4 Footnote ............................................................................. 10
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1 Overview

1.1 Introduction
This document is intended as a user guide in how overcome the common problems in migrating fixed
assets into SAP.

For a one-time conversion into SAP, we favour using the LSMW tool. It allows you to leverage the full
power of ABAP while using standard SAP processing functions, yet it does a lot of the file
management and processing work automatically. However, even within LSMW there are a number of
possible methods for migrating fixed assets.

This document will discuss loading fixed assets using the standard load program RAALTD01,
although two alternatives are briefly discussed below.

1.2 Load methods

1.2.1 BDC recording of transaction AS91
This is the simplest solution and so it might be suitable for a very basic upload. If for example you are
not creating fixed assets in SAP, but rather updating one field in fixed assets which already exist in the
system, then this might be the right approach. But it is not flexible enough to be used for the creation
of fixed asset data.

1.2.2 Business object BUS1022

This would create IDOCs of type FIXEDASSET_CREATEINCLVALUES01 and process them through
the SAP BAPI function BAPI_FIXEDASSET_OVRTAKE_CREATE.

This is possibly the solution that SAP would recommend. SAP is keen on BAPIs as they are powerful,
flexible and can be easily called from an external system via an RFC. But that does not necessarily
make them the right choice for data migration. The structure of BAPIs is not always particularly
intuitive and the upfront development work can be complicated.

Also this method involves the processing of IDOCs. While the standard error handling and
reprocessing functionality for IDOCs in SAP is impressive, it is not always transparent. Migrating fixed
assets using this method would be suitable for someone who is particularly strong in the area of
BAPIs and IDOCs..

1.2.3 Standard load program RAALTD01

This is generally the approach I would favour for the migration of fixed assets into SAP.

The standard load program is not perfect. As discussed later, there are one or two areas which it does
not cover and like many SAP standard programs, it has its quirks: for example, when you come to
load the assets, you do not have the option to create a BDC session yet if any of the transaction calls
fail, then the program will create a BDC session for those records.

Nevertheless, it is a powerful and flexible program, and it is relatively simple to use. The fact that you
can run the asset load in test mode before creating any data is also a major advantage, even though
the test run does not always pick up 100% of the errors.
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1.3 Assumptions
This document assumes a working knowledge of LSMW, and at least some basic understanding of
the structure of fixed assets data in SAP.
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2 The Basics

2.1 Data structures

There are two data structures in the asset load program RAALTD01 – BALTD and BALTB.

2.1.1 BALTD
This structure is mandatory and contains all the basic fixed asset master data.

2.1.2 BALTB
This structure is for what are known as asset transactions. The two common scenarios in which this
structure needs to be populated are:

a) An asset was capitalised after the start of the current financial year (the current financial year being
the year in which you are going to migrate these assets into SAP), or

b) An asset was disposed of in the current financial year

2.2 Important fields

Structure Field Field Name Details

Key Fields
BALTD ANLN1 Asset number Normally internally assigned
BALTD ANLN2 Asset subnumber Normally internally assigned
BALTD BUKRS Company code
BALTD ANLKL Asset class
BALTD OLDN1 Legacy asset main number Mandatory if there are transactions
BALTD OLDN2 Legacy asset sub number Mandatory if there are transactions
BALTD TCODE SAP transaction AS91 for asset creation, AS92, AS94
BALTD RCTYP Record type Always 'A'
Master Data
BALTD AKTIV Capitalisation date
BALTD TXT50 Description
BALTD TXA50 Additional description
BALTD STORT Location
BALTD WERKS Plant
BALTD KOSTL Cost centre
BALTD LIFNR Vendor
BALTD INVNR Inventory number
BALTD LIEFE Vendor name
BALTD AIBN1 Original Vendor Number
Depreciation Data (multiple records per asset)
BALTD AFABEnn Depreciation area
BALTD NDJARnn Planned useful life (years)
BALTD NDPERnn Planned useful life (months)
BALTD AFASLnn Depreciation key
BALTD AFABGnn Depreciation start date
BALTD KANSWnn Gross book value
BALTD KNAFAnn Accumulated depreciation Total dep to end of previous fiscal year
BALTD NAFAGnn Ord dep posted Depr posted in current fiscal year
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Transactions
BALTD BWCNT Number of transactions Should equal the number of BALTB
records for this asset
BALTB BUKRS Company code
BALTB ANLKL Asset class
BALTB OLDN1 Legacy asset main number Mandatory
BALTB OLDN2 Legacy asset sub number Mandatory
BALTB TCODE SAP transaction ‘AS91’ for asset creation, etc
BALTB BZDAT Transaction date
BALTB RCTYP Record type Always 'B'
BALTB BWASL Transaction type ‘100’ for acquisition, ‘200’ for disposal
BALTB ANBTRnn Amount Enter acquisition or disposal amount

2.3 Modifying the standard asset structure

It is possible (and sanctioned by SAP) to modify SAP structures BALTD and BALTB. You only need to
modify BALTB if you have added extra depreciation areas to BALTD.

You will of course need an object key to do so, but as long as the fields you are adding are active in
transactions AS91, AS92, etc, then this is the only change you will need to make. RAALTD01 will do
the rest.

Common reasons for modifying BALTD might be to remove to increase the number of investment
keys (default setting is 2) or the number of depreciation areas (default setting is 8). See more on the
depreciation areas below.

There is more information in SAP OSS note 23716.

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3 Common Problems
3.1 Alpha conversion
As RAALTD01 is very closely linked with the direct upload program RAALTD11, it retains some of the
features of a direct upload program. One of these is that it checks during upload whether key data
referenced in the asset exists in SAP. It does this without making any alpha conversion.

So, if you are creating an asset with asset class (field ANLKL) ‘100’, you must specify this in the
LSMW mapping in its internal SAP format, ie. ‘00000100’. The same goes for cost centres, vendors,
etc.

3.2 Legacy asset number

It is crucial when migrating data into SAP to store a reference to the legacy data key.

It is important for business reasons – so that a user can easily see the link between their old data and
the new – but it is also important for technical reasons. This is obvious for certain objects like vendors
and customers where you need to store the link in order to be able to migrate follow-on transactional
data like AR and AP. But it is also useful for assets.

It is very helpful in the test stages of a data migration to be able to run and rerun your load program
without fear of loading duplicate information. By storing the legacy asset number somewhere in the
asset master, you can easily check with some ABAP code in your LSMW whether this legacy asset
has already been created in table ANLA.

The most common field for storing the legacy number is AIBN1 (Original Asset Number) but do not put
your legacy number here without checking. This field was intended to be used for the original asset
number in SAP after an it has been transferred to a new number.

If using AIBN1 is going to be a problem, another option is ANLH-ANLHTXT. This is a text field which is
often unused.

One red herring in the load program is OLDN1 (Old asset number). This field exists in the load
structures but not in the database tables. It is only used in the processing of the load program. See
further information on this field below in ‘Other quirks’.

If you find that AIBN1 and ANLHTXT are not appearing in the AS91 screens, you can change the
screen layouts in customising:

Financial Accounting > Asset Accounting > Master Data > Screen Layout > Define Screen Layout for
Asset Master Data

3.3 Missing customising

Before running your test and live asset migrations, please check that the following customising is in
place. For some reason, these steps are often overlooked by the FI-CO functional consultants:

Transfer date – this should be set to close to the date you migrate the assets. As AS91 is specifically
for data migration, it expects that the capitalisation date for all the assets you migrate will be before
the transfer date. Check this in table T093C.

Current fiscal year – also in T093C, check that this has been correctly set.

Number ranges – transaction SNUM.

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3.4 NBV - Net book value

It is not possible to directly migrate the net book value of an asset. You must migrate the gross book
value (acquisition cost) and the accumulated depreciation. SAP will then calculate the NBV.

3.5 Time-dependent data

Some of the asset data is time-dependend, ie. you can see the history of these fields. Example fields
are cost centre, plant, internal order, location and business area. They are all stored in table ANLZ.
The standard SAP load programs can only handle the current values of these fields. You cannot
migrate multiple ANLZ records per asset.

If you need to do this, you should first create your assets using RAALTD01 and load the initial values
of these fields. Then create another LSMW program using an AS92 recording to upload any changes.

3.6 Mid-year asset migration

In their financial statements, companies must disclose the following:

 Depreciation methods used,

 Depreciation methods used and/or the useful economic lives
 Deprecation charged in the current fiscal year
 Gross amount of depreciable assets and the related total accumulated depreciation

As a result, if you are migrating assets midway through a fiscal year you have to split the depreciation
to date into two amounts: depreciation up to the end of the previous fiscal year, and depreciation
during the current fiscal year.

One way of doing this is in your LSMW code: in the Takeover Values screen, enter the depreciation
amount up to the end of the previous year into the field Accumulated Depreciation (BALTD-KNAFAnn)
and the amount of depreciation in the current year into the field Ordinary Depreciation Posted
(BALTD-NAFAGnn). This is generally the most popular method.

The second way is to transfer the assets as at the end of the previous fiscal year and then run
depreciation in SAP for all months in the current year. This involves more work for the functional
consultants.

3.7 Assets created in this year

You also have to distinguish in SAP between assets created in previous years and assets created in
the current year. Your capitalisation in the current year needs to be identified as a transaction.

In this situation you will need to post both a BALTD record and a BALTB record.

Your posting will differ from the standard asset creation in the following ways:

 BALTD-BWCNT needs to be populated with ‘0001’ (assuming you are only posting one
transaction)
 You need to map the acquisition value into BALTB-ANBTRnn with transaction type ‘100’ instead
of mapping it as normal to BALTD-KANSWnn
 BALTD-KNAFAnn does not need to be populated
 BALTD-NAFAGnn should be populated with the depreciation amount
 BALTB-BZDAT should be populated with the capitalisation date

3.8 Asset disposals

Disposals in the current fiscal year must also be identified as transactions.
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In this situation you will need to post both a BALTD record and a BALTB record.

Your posting will differ from the standard asset creation in the following ways:

 BALTD-BWCNT needs to be populated with ‘0001’ (assuming you are only posting one
transaction)
 You need to map the disposal value into BALTB-ANBTRnn with transaction type ‘200’
 BALTB-BZDAT should be populated with the date of disposal

3.9 Depreciation areas

When creating fixed assets in SAP you will often populate multiple depreciation areas. Common
depreciation areas set up in SAP might be Local Depreciation, Group Depreciation (if your company is
international) and Tax. The depreciation rules for each of these might be slightly different, therefore
you will create one depreciation area for each.

Rarely, you might need more than the 8 depreciation areas provided as a default by SAP in structure
BALTD and BALTB. I have only ever experienced this once while loading fixed assets in Italy. It was
necessary due to the multiple currency devaluations that the Italian lira had undergone over the past
thirty years or so.

This can be handled by modifying the standard structures BALTD and BALTB. See information on this
above in the section ‘Modifying the standard asset structure’.

3.10 Other quirks

3.10.1 Invalid characters
You may not put the hash character # in any of the BALTB or BALTD fields.

3.10.2 Long texts

The standard upload program does not handle long texts. These would need to be loaded in a
separate program. But this situation occurs rarely.

3.10.3 'Unexpected record type found'

This error occurs if you enter the wrong record type in the two RCTYP fields. It should be ‘A’ in BALTD
and ‘B’ in BALTB.

However, it you are sure that you do not have this problem and you are still getting the error, check
that all of the master data you have referenced exists. For example, are all of your cost centre
numbers valid. I have had this error in the past when migrating assets with transactions. The ‘real’
error of invalid data in your BALTD record is not given by SAP. It gives this error instead.

The conclusion: always validate your master data fields in LSMW when loading fixed assets. A set of
user routines such as CHECK_KOSTL, CHECK_WERKS, CHECK_LIFNR, etc, can save you a lot of
time.

3.10.4 Audit and Error report

The error reporting is dreadful in RAALTD01 if you do not populate the field BALTD-OLDN1. If you do
not populate this field, the program will list any errors you have with the asset description only, which
is not particularly helpful. So, always populate OLDN1 even if you are not migrating transactions.
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4 Footnote
This guide should be viewed as a starting point for discussions and is not intended as an exhaustive
examination of the various methods available. There will inevitably be circumstances specific to
individual situations that cannot be covered here.
You can read SAP’s guide to fixed asset migration here:
http://help.sap.com/printdocu/core/Print46c/en/data/pdf/FIAA/FIAA_CAGTFADM.pdf

For further information on the migration of fixed assets into SAP or indeed on any data conversion
topic, please contact Harlex Consulting Services Ltd at:
info@harlex-ltd.com