OPTIONS OF GENERAL

SETTINGS

1
Set countries

In this chapter you configure the country keys.

Define countries in R/3 Systems

You must include all countries with which your company has business
relationships. You need the following information for each country:

• General data

• Foreign trade characteristics

• Further test data

This data is then checked during master data maintenance.

Standard settings

In the SAP standard delivery system, all countries are defined according to the
international ISO standard.

SAP recommendation

2
SAP recommends that you use the ISO standard for your additional entries.

If your entries do not correspond to the ISO standard, you cannot implement data
exchange in international communication (e.g. payment transactions with banks).

Activities

1. Check that the country entries are complete.

2. Add the missing countries, if necessary.
3. Use the ISO standard for your entries.
4. For each country, maintain the associated detail screen . In the detail
screen you must, for
example, create test data.

Define Countries in mySAP.com Systems (CRM, EBP, APO, BW,

SE

This system contains the country definition (general data) and postal check
settings activity.

Standard settings

All countries are defined according to the international ISO standard in the
standard SAP delivery.

Recommendation

SAP recommends you to use the ISO standard for your additional entries.

Activities

1. Check the country entries for completeness.

2. Add any missing countries.
3. Add check rules for the countries added.
4. Use the ISO standard for your entries.
5. Maintain the detail screen for each country. Define, e.g. the check rules.

Set country-specific checks

For all countries with which your company maintains business relationships, you
must include rules for checking the following data:

• Bank data

• Postal data

• Control data

This data is then checked during master data maintenance.

3
Standard settings

In the SAP standard delivery system, all countries are defined according to the
international ISO standard.

SAP recommendation

SAP recommends that you use the ISO standard for your additional entries.

If your entries do not correspond to the ISO standard, you cannot implement data
exchange in international communication (e.g. payment transactions with banks).

Activities

1. Complete the check rules for the new countries.

2. Use the ISO standard for your entries.
3. For each country, maintain the associated detail screen . In the detail
screen you should, for example, store the check rules.

Insert regions

You enter the required regions in this step.

The region is used for the following functions:

• Part of address

• Tax reporting in FI

• Pricing in SD (only for tax)

The usage can vary from country to country.

The relevant functions can be taken from the following table

Ctry Part of Relevant for Relevant for Address Tax Reporting (FI) Pricing (SD)
=============================================================
=========== AU yes no no BE no no no CA yes yes yes CH no no no DE no
no no ES no yes no FR no no no IT can yes no JP yes no no NL no no no PT no
no no SG no no no US yes yes yes

Note

The region is not used for evaluations carried out according to regional aspects
of the business (e.g. market segments, sales areas).

Additional information

The "region" has a different name in the following countries:

4
 • BE: province

• CA: province

• CH: canton

• DE: federal state

• FR: departement

• JP: administrative district

• NL: province

• US: state

Actions

1. Define new regions according to your requirements.

2. Enter a key and description for the regions.

Country Codes - Telephone: Define Exceptions

Exceptions to the dialing procedure (explained under "Define Country Codes")

are maintained in table T005J.

These entries are used when creating fax messages (SAPcomm or SAPLPD and
WinFax) and computer-supported telephoning (TAPI).

Field description

• From: Here you enter a country for which there is an exception.

• To: Here you enter a target country for which there is an exception.

• Telephone: Here you enter the full string of digits required to telephone
from a country under From to a country under To.

If no dialing code is necessary, then the field is left blank.

• Delete digits: For this, see the F1 field documentation.

Examples:

From To Telephone FR France MO Monaco 16 US

USA CA Canada 1

To telephone from the United States to Canada, you do not dial the standard
setting in "Define Country Code" - 011 1. Instead you dial 1.

5
To telephone from France to Monaco, you do not dial the standard setting in
"Define Country Code" - 19 33. Instead you dial 16.

Standard settings

There are some known exceptions delivered in the SAP standard system.

Activities

1. Check that the entries are complete.

2. Add the missing exceptions if necessary.
Use the ISO standard for your entries.

Notes:

• In the "from" fields, you only need to maintain the countries from which
your SAP System can be reached.

• In the "to" fields, you only need to maintain the countries in which you
have communication partners.

Country codes - telex: define exceptions

The exceptions to the dialing process (explained in "Define Country Codes") are
maintained in table T005I.

The entries are used when creating telex messages.

Field description

• From: Here you enter a country for which there is an exception.

• To: Here you enter a target country for which there is an exception.

• Telephone: Here you enter the full string of digits required to send a telex
from a country under From to a country under To.

If a dialing code is not necessary, the field is left blank.

Standard settings

The table is currently delivered empty.

Activities

1. Check that the entries are complete.

2. Complete the missing exceptions if necessary.
Use the ISO standard for your entries.

6
Notes:

• In the "Fom" fields, you only need to maintain the countries in which you
operate a communications server that supports telex (SAPcomm).

• In the "To" fields, you only need to maintain the countries in which you
have telex partners.

Currencies

In this section, you

• check the preset currencies

• add new currencies according to your requirements

Check currency codes

The currency table must have entries for all currencies which occur in your
business transactions.

Standard settings

7
In the SAP standard recipient system, all currencies are defined according to the
international ISO standard.

SAP recommendation

SAP recommends that you use the ISO standard for your additional entries.

If your entries do not correspond to the ISO standard, you will not be able to use
data exchange in international communication (e.g. bank clearing transactions).

Actions

1. Check the currency entries for completeness.

2. Add the missing currency entries as required.
3. Use the ISO standard for your additional entries.

Set decimal places for currencies

Each currency has a different number of decimal places.

If you are adding new currencies, which do not have two decimal places, you
have to enter these currencies in the menu option 'Decimal places'.

Example

Currencies with different decimal places

Standard Settings

In the settings delivered with the system, the most important currencies which do
not have two decimal places are pre-set according to the ISO standard.

Activities

1. Check whether in your company currencies are in use which do not

have two decimal places, in addition to those delivered.
2. Set the appropriate number of decimal places for these currencies.

Define standard quotation for exchange rates

For each currency pair you can define either the indirect quotation or the direct
quotation as the standard quotation for the exchange rate.

This setting is used for the following activities:

1. When you process the exchange rates table you can enter the
exchange rate either as a direct or an indirect quotation. If the exchange
rate you enter does not have the same quotation as the standard
quotation set up here, the exchange rate is highlighted to show this.

8
 Check in this case that you have entered the exchange rate in the correct
field.
2. An exchange rate is only taken from the exchange rates table if it has
already been given by the user or another function. If this is a type of
exchange rate that demands translation using a reference currency, the
standard quotation is used if the direct exchange rate (cross rate) is to be
determined for further processing. The direct exchange rate is provided as
standard quotation.
3. In the majority of the transactions there is an input help (F4) for the
exchange rate fields. This allows you, amongst other things, to calculate
the exchange rate from two currency amounts entered. The result is given
with the quotation set up for that currency pair.

Further notes

You can reduce the number of entries to be maintained by using generic

currency keys.

If one or both currency keys are left blank, this means that this can be used for all
currencies. The standard quotation for a currency pair is determined internally as
follows:

1. A search is made for entries that match the 'from' and 'to' currencies of
the currency pair to be checked.
2. If no entries can be found, a search is made for entries that match just
the 'to' currency and where the 'from' currency is initial.
3. If no entries can be found, a search is made for entries that match just
the 'from' currency and where the 'to' currency is initial.
4. If no entries are found, a search is made for entries where both the
'from' and the 'to' currency are initial.
5. If no entries can be found, the direct quotation is taken as the standard
quotation.

The entries are sorted according to this access method and then by validity date:
The system checks the entries in the given sequence (points 1 to 5) and then, on
the highest level on which entries have been found, selects according to validity
date. Entries with a validity date that is earlier than the translation date are
ignored. From the remaining entries, the entry is taken that has the most current
validity date but that is still earlier than the translation date to be checked. The
date used to fetch the exchange rate from the exchange rates table, such as the
posting date in the accounting document, is used as the translation date.

Enter prefixes for direct/indirect quotation exchange rates

Exchange rates can be entered as a direct or indirect quotation. Here you can
maintain two prefixes that can be used to differentiate between direct and indirect
quotation exchange rates during input and output.

Example

9
Your local currency is EUR. You enter a business transaction in the transaction
currency USD. '/' has been defined as the prefix for indirect quotation and ' ' for
direct quotation (' ' = no prefix necessary). You can then either enter the
exchange rate as a direct quotation without a prefix, e.g. '0.97234' or as an
indirect quotation with prefix '/', e.g. '/1.08456'.

Standard settings

If you do not set up a prefix here, the standard setting is valid:

• ' ' for direct quotation exchange rates

• '/' for indirect quotation exchange rates

The prefix ' ' means that you can enter the exchange rate without a prefix.

Recommendation

If you use mainly direct quotation exchange rates, you should set the prefix for

• direct quotation as ' '

• indirect quotation as a different symbol, e.g. '/'

In this way you can continue to enter direct quotation exchange rates without a
prefix in transactions where the exchange rate has to be entered manually.

If, in addition to direct quotation exchange rates, you increasingly use indirect
quotation exchange rates, you should define a prefix that is not ' ' for both
quotation types, e.g:

• '*' for direct quotation

• '/' for indirect quotation

This configuration does not allow exchange rates to be entered without a prefix
and is therefore suitable for the transition phase. Users who previously only used
direct quotation exchange rates, i.e. entering rates without a prefix, can no longer
enter the rates in the usual manner. Entries made without a prefix are rejected.
The user is thus forced to consider which the correct quotation is and enter the
rate with a valid prefix. This reduces the risk of incorrect entries being made.

If you use mainly indirect quotation exchange rates at your company, you can
change the settings again and set the prefix for

• direct quotation, e.g. to '*'

• indirect quotation to ' '

10
This configuration allows indirect quotation exchange rates to be entered without
a prefix whereas the less used direct quotation exchange rates must be entered
with a prefix.

Further notes

The exchange rate prefixes determine the display of the exchange rates on the
user interface. For input this affects the transactions executed manually and the
use of batch input. For output this affects the display and change transactions
and also lists and reports. The internal presentation of exchange rate fields
depends on the configuration of the prefixes for the user interface. Changing the
prefixes in a running production system is risky. If such a change seems
meaningful, you should coordinate and plan this in your company with care and
be sure to inform all the affected areas.

Check exchange rate types

Exchange rates for different purposes for the same date are defined in the
system as exchange rate types (you cannot delete existing entries).

If you need to carry out currency translations between a number of different

currencies, you can simplify exchange rate maintenance by entering a base
currency for the exchange rate type. Instead of entering translation rates
between every single currency, you then only need specify the translation rate
between each currency and the base currency. All currency translations then
take place in two steps - into the base currency and from the base currency into
the target currency.

Example

The base currency is DEM. You want to translate FRF to CHF. To do this, the
following entries must be made in the table for maintaining currency translation
rates:

• Ratio for FRF -> DEM

• Ratio for CHF -> DEM

Translation from FRF to CHF is then carried out automatically. The translation is
done as though this exchange rate (FRF -> CHF) was actually entered in the
conversion table.

In this example, the base currency (DEM) is the To-currency and FRF or CHF
the From-currency.

For exchange rate relations within the EU, it is a legal requirement that the base
currency (EUR) is the From-currency. You set the indicator for this in the
BCurr=from field.

11
Hinweis

When posting and clearing documents, the system uses the exchange rate type
"M" for foreign currency translation. This exchange rate type must be contained
in the system.

Standard settings

The standard system includes the exchange rate types for the bank buying rate
(G), bank selling rate (B), and average rate (M).

You can have the system calculate the bank buying or selling rates from the
average rate and the spread. The term spread refers to the difference between
the average rate and the bank buying rate, or between the average rate and
selling rate. You can find more information on this in the documentation on the
activity Maintain spreads.

Activities

1. Find out which exchange rate types are needed in your company.
2. Check the standard exchange rate types. Create additional exchange
rate types if necessary.
3. If you want to specify that all currency translations for a rate type must
be carried out using a base currency, enter a currency (such as the group
currency) in the Base cur field.
4. If you want to use the base currency specified as the From-currency,
select the BCurr=from field.
5. If you want to have the system calculate the buying and selling rates
from the average rate and the spread, enter the rate type for the average
rate in the Buy.rt.to or Sell.rt.to field. Then maintain the spreads under the
activity Maintain spreads.
6. If you want to use the inverted rate for translating two currencies, select
the Inv field.
Note: The reversed rate is used only if you have not made an entry for the
corresponding exchange rate in the activity Enter exchange rates.
7. If you want to calculate the amounts according to the European
Monetary Union's legal directives, select the EMU field.
8. If you want the system to check whether the application uses an
exchange rate other than the fixed exchange rate, select the indicator in
the Fixed field.
This indicator must be set for the exchange rate type that is used for
currency translation within the EMU.

Define translation ratios for currency translation

In this activity, you enter the translation ratios for currency translation. You enter
these ratios for each exchange rate type and currency pair. You also specify
whether you want to use an alternative exchange rate type for specific currency
pairs.

12
Example

As of 01/01/1999 the exchange rate for DEM to FRF will be calculated via EUR.
To translate amounts enter:

• 01/01/1999 in the Valid from field:

• The exchange rate type under which the exchange rates of the European
national currencies are stored in the Alt. ERT field:

Requirements

• You must have defined the exchange rate types under which you want to
define your translation ratios. You do this in the activity Check Exchange
Rate Types

• You must have defined the required currency keys. You do this in the
activity Check Currency Codes

Activities

1. Specify existing currency translation ratios for each exchange rate type
for the currency pairs you need in your company.
2. Enter the exchange rate type to which you want to switch with specific
currency pairs in the Alt. ERT field.

Further notes

The ratios you enter here for currency translation are displayed again when
maintaining the exchange rates. For information on how to maintain exchange
rates, see Enter Exchange Rates.

Enter exchange rates

Exchange rates are required to:

• Translate foreign currency amounts when posting or clearing or to check

an exchange rate entered manually

• Determine the gain and loss from exchange rate differences

• Evaluate open items in foreign currency and the foreign currency balance
sheet accounts

The exchange rates are defined by period ("valid from").

Note

13
The function has been improved. Choose the activity Define Exchange Rate
Input Worklist or Assign Exchange Rate to Worklist.

The system uses the type M exchange rates for foreign currency translation
when posting and clearing documents in the activity Enter Exchange Rate . An
entry must exist in the system for this exchange rate type. The exchange rates
apply to all company codes.

The exchange rate relations for currency conversion are only displayed here.
Read the chapter Define Translation Ratios for information about exchange
rate relations maintenance.

Requirements

You define:

• the rate types under which you want to store your exchange rates in the
step "Check Exchange Rate Type"

• the required currency keys in the step "Check Currency Codes"

• the conversion factors for

o the currency pair

o the exchange rate type

o the date

in the step "Define the Conversion Factors for Currency Conversion"

Standard settings

Sample exchange rates are already stored in the standard system.

Recommendation

You should delete the exchange rates you do not need.

Activities

1. Check whether the exchange rates you need are in the system.
2. Delete the entries you do not need.

Maintain exchange rate spreads

In this activity you can derive the bank buying rate and/or bank selling rate using
the average rate and the spread. By spread, we mean the difference between the
average and buying rates or between average and selling rates.

14
You convert to the buying or selling rate by first determining the average rate,
then adding or substracting the spread from that average rate.

Example

If the average rate between USD -> DEM is 1.46000 and the spread is 0.00400,
the bank buying rate derived is 1.45600.

To make that calculation you must make the following entries in this step:

M (rate type) USD (From) DEM (To) 0.00400 (spread)

Requirements

In the "Check rate types" activity, you have to designate the "bank buying rate"
and "bank selling rate" contained in the standard R/3 System as follows:

Specify that the buying and/or selling rates will be derived from the average rate.

Activities

Enter the spreads for the average rates of all relevant currency pairs.

Define rounding rules for currencies

For the company code/currency combination for which payments are to be made
not in the smallest denomination, but in a multiple of it, enter the currency unit
(rounding unit) to which amounts are to be rounded.

This ensures that the amounts in this currency are always rounded to this unit
(providing the amounts you enter manually are also rounded in line with your
entry). The payment program evaluates your entries to determine the cash
discount and rounds off the amount accordingly.

Example

For Switzerland, you decide that five centimes is to be the smallest denomination
for payment transactions. For Swiss company codes and the Swiss franc, you
therefore enter 5 in the "Rounding unit" column. Cash discount amounts are then
rounded off to this currency unit. In the case of Swiss franc amounts entered
manually, that part of the amount after the decimal point must be divisible by five.

Standard settings

The currency unit 5 has been specified for the standard Swiss company code
and for the Swiss franc currency key.

Activities

15
For the required company code/currency key combinations, specify the currency
unit to which the cash discount is to be rounded.

Define Worklist for Exchange Rate Entry

Use

In this process step, you create a worklist and/or define the worklists for entry
and editing of exchange rates.

Users receive authorization to enter exchange rates at the worklist level.

It is possible for two or more users to edit two or more worklists in parallel, as the
lock applies at the worklist level during editing.

You can assign each combination of exchange rate type, from and to currencies
to one worklist only.

Activities

1. To create a new worklist, go into change mode and choose New

entries.
2. Enter a worklist and a short description. You can assign a maintenance
interval to the worklist (for example, every five days) and a tolerance limit.
If you do not enter a tolerance limit, the system does not perform a
tolerance check.
3. Save your entries.

If you need to undo your changes, choose Edit -> Undo Change.

Assign Exchange Rate to the Worklist

Use

In this process step, you assign exchange rates to a worklist.

You can assign all exchange rates to a worklist that are to be entered at the
same intervals and linked to the same authorizations.

Requirements

You must have created at least one worklist. For further information about
creating worklists, see Define Worklist for Entering Exchange Rates

Activities

1. To assign an exchange rate to a worklist, go into change mode and

choose new entries.

16
 2. Enter the exchange rate type, the from and to currency and the required
worklist.
3. In the rate field, specify whether the rate is to be entered as a price or
as a quantity.
4. Save your entries.

You can enter the rates either directly in the productive system using transaction
TCURMNT or in the Customizing system with transport recording.

Expiring Currencies

You can use these IMG activities to discontinue currencies.

You can make settings so that the system outputs warning and/or error
messages when a user attempts to create or change objects in these currencies.

For example, you can use the function for currencies involved in European
Monetary Union as these currencies lose their validity at the end of the dual
currency phase.

For longer running objects (such as sales orders) you can enter a date for a
warning or error message.

In this way, you can ensure that on/after the end of the dual currency phase;
these objects can no longer be created/changed in the currency that is being
discontinued.

This function can also be used to discontinue currencies of countries where there
is high inflation.

Check units of measurement

In applications you often have to make calculations with quantities and physical
units. Units of measurement are needed for their screen display and for internal
conversions (such as kilogram <-> gram, but also centimeter <-> inch). The
international system of units (SI) is used for this.

The international system of units is based on seven basic units of measurement.

All other units are derived from these basic units. Units of measurement that
measure the same quantity (and can therefore be converted into each other) are
included in a dimension.

Units of measurement are held centrally in the SAP System for all applications.
The conversion factors are stored in the system with a unique internal key. The
external display specifications are maintained for each unit of measurement
language-dependently. A business key (3 characters) and a technical key (6
characters) should be maintained for each language.

Standard settings

17
In the standard delivery system, units of measurement are defined according to
the international system of units (SI).

For a new installation, units of measurement are delivered in all clients. For
upgrades, new units of measuremente are delivered only in Client 000. They
then still have to be transported to the production clients.

Recommendation

If you intend to perform cross-company data exchange, note that units of

measurement with company-specific characteristics may have an adverse effect.

Activities

Check that the dimensions delivered and the associated units of measurements
are complete.

If you are using EDI, you should also check the ISO codes.

Dimensions
1. Call the maintenance transaction by double-clicking with the mouse on
the Execute symbol.
2. On the initial screen of the maintenance transaction, call the function
Dimensions
To get a definition of a dimension, place the cursor on the dimension
and choose the function Details.
3. If required, create new dimensions with the function New entries.

Units of measurement
1. Call the maintenance transaction by double-clicking with the mouse on
"Execute", or press F3 to leave dimension maintenance and return to
the initial screen of the maintenance transaction.
2. Select - from F4 Help for the field next to the Units of Measurement
function - the individiual dimensions, and choose the Units of
Measurement function.
To get a definition of a unit of measurement, position the cursor on the
unit of measurement and choose the function Details.
3. If required, define new units of measurement according to the
international system of units (SI) with the menu function Unit of
meaurement -> Create.
Here you have to make make specifications for:

o Display (including a descriptive Units of measurement text)

o Conversion (not applicable to units of measurement without

dimensions)

o Data exchange (EDI) (optional)

18
 o Application parameters

ISO codes
1. Call the maintenance transaction by double-clicking with the mouse on
"Execute", or press F3 to leave maintenance of units of measurement
or dimensions and return to the initial screen of the transaction.
2. Choose the function ISO codes.
3. If required, maintain new ISO codes with the function New entries.

Maintain calendar

The public holiday and factory calendar is a central module in the SAP System. It
is used in many areas (e.g. in Logistics and in Human Resources) in the
standard version.

You can use calendar maintenance to maintain and display the components of
the calendar system. The public holiday and factory calendar data calculated
from calendar maintenance is directly available to the system.

You can only change the holiday and factory calendar in the clients setup for
them. The client must have the "Customizing" role and the "Repository and
cross-client Customizing changes allowed" attribute. You must have
maintenance authorization for the calendar.

A factory calendar is allocated to your plant via another Customizing function.

The calendar system consists of the following components:

• Public holidays
Definitions for public holidays: Calculation rule for date, religious
denomination etc.

• Public holiday calendar

Any composition of public holiday rules.

• Factory calendar
Definition of workdays including special regulations, under the assignment
of a particular public holiday calendar.

Standard settings

The system delivers definitions of all common public holidays and public holiday
rules, as well as a standard factory calendar.

A main memory area of 400000 Bytes is reserved for calendar data in the
standard version. This is the mimimum buffer size, which you should not go
under.

19
Activities

Check whether all the definitions for public holidays and public holiday rules that
you need are available in the sytem. If necessary, maintain the public holiday
definitions and copy them to new or existing public holiday rules.

Create factory calendars if necessary.

Public holidays

Check that existing public holidays are complete, and create new definitions if
required:

1. Double-click with the mouse on the Execute symbol, select the option
Public holidays and choose the function Display.
2. Check whether the list of public holidays displayed contains all the
public holidays that you need.
If you want to see detailed information on any public holiday, choose
the function Display def.
3. If you need other public holidays, return to the initial screen of the
maintenance transaction, and choose the function Change.
4. Choose the function Insert, and now make the following entries:

o Public holiday type

o Date or calculation rule

o Public holiday text (short and long)

o If required: Sort criterion, religious denomination or public holiday

class (for notes on this, press the F1 Help).

Save the definition.

Public holiday calendar

Combine the public holidays you require in a public holiday rule in the public
holiday calendar:

1. Double-click with the mouse on "Execute function", select the option

Public holiday calendar and choose the function Display.
2. Check whether all the public holiday rules that your require are
available.
To get the definitions for a public holiday calendar, position the cursor
on it and choose the function Display def..
3. If you need other public holiday calendars or would like to change
existing ones, return to the initial screen of the maintenance transaction
and choose the function Change.
4. To create a public holiday calendar, choose the function Insert (to

20
 change a public holiday calendar, position the cursor on it and choose
Change), and make the following entries:

o Calendar ID and a descriptive short text

o Period of validity (From year, To year)

5. Using the function Assign public holidays, generate a complete list of

defined public holidays.
6. Select the public holidays you need, and choose Assign public holidays.
7. Save your entries.

Factory calendar

Define a factory calendar including the relevant public holiday calendar:

1. Double-click with the mouse on "Execute function", select the option Public
holiday calendar and choose the function Display.
2. In calendar maintenance, select the option "Factory calendar", and choose the
function Change.
3. Choose the function Insert and make the following entries:

o Factory calendar ID and a descriptive short text

o Period of validity (From year, To year)

o Public holiday calendar ID

o Start no. factory date

Number from which the factory date is incremented for each workday.
If you do not make an entry, the default value is "0".

4. Decide which days of the week are meant to be workdays.

5. Define special rules if necessary (e.g. plant holidays).

Further notes

• Calendar buffer
If you want to increase the size of the calendar buffer, maintain the parameter
zcsa/calendar_area with the maintenance transaction for system profiles.
Restart the system for the value to take effect.

• Transport
Changes to calendar data are not automatically included in a correction request.
For the calendar data to be utilizable in another system, use the function
Transport in the initial screen of the maintenance transaction.
Note that you cannot transport individual public holidays or calendars. You can
only transport calendar data in its entirety. When you do this, all public holidays,
public holiday and factory calendars existing in the target system are deleted.

21
Time Zones

Local data and times can only be compared with each other and exchanged if
they are in the same time zone. Many global companies, however, work in
different time zones. The SAP System supports the conversion of local data and
times via the time zone function.

In the following worksteps, you configure the settings for the time zones. Here
you can:

• Set the system and standard time zones (Maintain System Settings )

• Display all the available time zones and create ones that do not yet exist (
Maintain Time Zones)

• Make the geographic assignments to a time zone ( Maintain Geographic

Assignments)

For further information on time zones, refer to the SAP Library under Cross-
Application Components -> General Application Functions -> Time Zones.

Maintain System Settings

In this activity, you configure the following settings for the time zones:

22
 • System time zone

• Standard time zone for users

System time zone

The system time zone is comparable to the time zone of your operating system.
It applies to all clients. If you change the system time zone in one client, the new
value is automatically copied to all other clients.

If you specify the system time zone, the SAP System can calculate the local time
from a UTC time.

Standard time zone for users

Via the standard time zone, you specify the local time zone of a user in a client.
This specification is only used, however, if no personal time zone is maintained in
the user defaults.

The standard time zone is not changed on a cross-client basis. It can vary from
client to client.

Requirements

Befor you configure your settings in the system, you should check in the
workstep Maintain Time Zone whether the time zone you require exists. If the
time zone does not exist, you create this in the workstep Maintain Time Zones ,
and you pass on a customer message to SAP.

Standard settings

If you are logging on to an SAP System for the first time, the system time zone is
determined automatically. You should check this value, howe ver, since a unique
assignment is sometimes not possible.

So that the time zone function becomes active, the system automatically sets the
indicator Time Zone Active.

The fields Change Allowed and Delete Allowed are no longer in use since
Release 4.6D.

Maintain Time Zones

In this activity all the time zones that are available will be displayed . You create
those time zones that do not yet exist.

Standard settings

23
Since the standard time zones are deliverd with the SAP System, you no longer
need to maintain these. All the time zone and daylight saving rules are included
in the delivery package.

However, you should check the time zone tables for your area in order to ensure
that the talbes do not contain errors (e.g. on the basis of changes to regional
laws). If a time zone is missing, send a customer message to SAP.

Activities

If you wish to create a new time zone, you must first determine the time zone
rules and the daylight saving rules, and then define the time zone. Proceed as
follows:

1. Define the variable daylight saving time rules or the respective fixed
daylight saving time date.
2. In the overview screen Daylight saving rules, define the time shifts
caused by the daylight saving time.
3. Then, in the overview screen Zeit zone rules , define the time shifts
caused by the time zones.
4. In the overview screen Time zones define the time zone key.
5. If you have filled the individual tables, save your data.
6. Return to the activity Maintain system settings , and execute the
remaining steps there.

Maintain Geographical Assignments

In this activity, the system displays all the countries that are assigned to a time
zone. Geographical assignments that do not exist can be created.

You can perform geographical assignments at

• Country level

• Regional level

• Postal code level

When assigning a country to a time zone, make sure that the country key
provided by SAP is used.

Requirements

Before you create new geographical assignments, you must first define the time
zone in your system.

Standard settings

24
Since the geographical assignments are supplied with the SAP system, you no
longer need to maintain these assignments.

However, you should check your own geographical areas to make sure that they
do not contain any errors. If a geographical assignment is missing, enter a
customer message and pass it on to SAP.

Field display characteristics

Field display characteristics can be defined globally or for a transaction. This

technique was developed to hide the complexity of the SAP System from the
user when possible.

Using transaction-specific field display characteristics ("transaction variants") you

can preset fields in a transaction, define characteristics of fields, or hide whole
screens in a transaction if they are to be skipped.

Example of the use of a transaction variant:

Your company uses just one order type on the purchase requisition, NP for
normal purchase order. You want to preset the value in transaction ME21 so no
employees use the wrong order type. To do this you create a variant of
transaction ME21 that has the order type preset to NP and the field set to not
ready for input.

Configure Application Transaction Fields

Transaction-specific field display attributes are set by transaction variants which

simplify transactions by:

• setting field values

• hiding fields and specifying whether they are ready for input

• hiding screens

Hiding fields and compressing and hiding screens simplifies a transaction.

A transaction variant is assigned to one transaction. A transaction can have

several variants.

Notes:

• You can copy transaction variant input field values and change their
output attributes.

• Initial values are not copied into the variant. You can change the output
attributes of fields with inital values.

25
 • Function entries are not copied into the variant.
Exception: If a screen is not to be displayed, the function entry for this
screen is copied into the variant.

• Checkbox and radio button values cannot be copied. Checkbox output

attributes can be changed.

• Two ABAP programming language mechanisms are used to display and

process table data: Table Controls and Step Loops. For their use with
transaction variants:
A value can be set for each input field in a Step Loop. The output
attributes (hidden, no input) can only be set once per Step Loop (for the
first field in the Step Loop); they apply to all fields in the Step Loop.
All Step Loop fields in which a value was entered are displayed in the field
list. The first field is always displayed to determine the output attributes,
even if no value was entered.
The same applies to Table Control fields as for Step Loop fields.
Table Controls should not be set to "hidden" as the Table Control columns
remain and only the field contents are hidden.

• A new field values dialog box appears for each subscreen. The "Cancel"
function is not active in this dialog box, for technical reasons.

• Transaction variants are only possible for dialog transactions.

• Transaction variants are client-specific.

• Transaction variant values are not taken into account in Batch Input (incl.
Batch Input recording)

Activities

1. Specify the names of the transaction and the variant.

If the changes in your transaction variant apply to all users, create a
standard variant, which is automatically found and run when the
transaction is called (by menu or transaction code). Maintain standard
variants with "Goto -> Standard variant".
2. Create the variant and enter a short text.
3. Variant values can be entered with "Screen entries". The transaction for
which the variant is to be maintained is called and you can enter the field
values. At each screen change, a dialog box appears, in which the fields
of the current screen are listed. You can choose whether the screen is to
be displayed, whether field values are to be copied, and enter field display
attributes.
4. Leave the transaction and save the variant. If you have created a
standard variant, you must activate it.
5. Call the transaction variant with "Test".
If you have created the standard variant, you can simply call the
transaction.

26
Further notes

For additional information about maintaining, running and transporting

transaction variants, see the online handbook (pushbutton "i") when you run the
transaction.

Setting Variants for Help (SAP Library)

This activity defines the setting variants that the user can choose for the help
display.

A setting variant is defined by

• the help type used (HtmlHelpFile, PlainHtmlFile, PlainHtmlHttp,

DynamicHelp)

• the place where the help files are stored: server and/or path

• the language version of the help files.

The setting variants are always valid for a specific frontend platform and a
specific area. You must define a variant as system setting (default value) for
each combination of platform and area.

The area defines the application area of the SAP Knowledge Warehouse where
the contents to be displayed originate. The area IWBHELP (Documentation)
contains the online documentation delivered to all customers (SAP Library). All
customers can define setting variants for this area. Customers using the SAP
Knowledge Warehouse can also define setting variants for the IWBTRAIN
(Training) area if they want to display contents of this area in the online help.

Example

• You want to provide users at Windows 98 frontend PCs with the SAP
Library in HTML Help format in different languages and store the help files
on a file server.

On tabstrip HtmlHelpFile define several setting variants for platform WN32

and area IWBHELP. Mark one of them as the default system value.

• You want to provide users at Motif frontends with the online help created
in a Knowledge Warehouse system in the Training area in English.

On the DynamicHelp tabstrip define a setting variant for platform MF and

area IWBTRAIN and mark it as the default setting. Enter the Web Server
of the Knowledge Warehouse as server.

Requirements

27
The DynamicHelp help type can only be used in connection with the SAP
Knowledge Warehouse.

Activities

1. Perform the activity.

2. Choose the tabstrip of the help type for which you want to specify a
setting variant. (You can find a description of the different help types in the
guidelines "Installation of the SAP Library".)
3. When you upgrade the system, the profile parameters for the online
help (/eu/iwb/*) are read with an XPRA. The profile parameters were used
up to and including Release 4.6B to define help variants. The entries that
are found are automatically entered as setting variants in table
SHLPADM1, which is maintained with this IMG activity. These setting
variants cannot be changed.
4. Create a new setting variant with a meaningful name, if necessary copy
the definitions to the storage location of the help files from the setting
variants that were created automatically, and then delete them.

28