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SIMG_CFMENUORKEKEA5 - Maintain Characteristics

PERFORM Short Reference   RFUMSV00 - Advance Return for Tax on Sales/Purchases  
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In this activity, you define characteristics. A number of frequently used characteristics are already predefined in the standard system.

You define these characteristics independently of any operating concern and as available in all clients.

Before defining a characteristic, look at the list of existing characteristics. You may find one there that already meets your requirements. This list contains all predefined characteristics and those you have already defined in your system. To see a list of those characteristics that are automatically contained in all operating concerns, choose Extras -> Fixed fields.

To define characteristics, switch to the "change" mode and then choose the Create icon:

You can use characteristics that originally come from other applications as characteristics in Profitability Analysis by copying these fields from existing tables or structures. For example, you can choose any characteristics from the standard SAP tables for customers, materials, or sales documents. The table from which you copy a characteristic is referred to as that characteristic's "table of origin". The values for these characteristics are automatically derived from other characteristics (derivation steps are generated automatically) or supplied with values directly via the interfaces from other applications (such as Sales and Distribution (SD)).

The system only offers you those characteristics that can still be copied from the table. This excludes fixed characteristics and characteristics that cannot be used in CO-PA for technical reasons. Equally, you cannot copy a field if a characteristic already exists with the same data element and the same table of origin. This rule does not apply if the characteristic that already exists is used in an SAP operating concern template.

To avoid naming conflicts, you must rename any reference table fields to be copied as characteristics if their original name is not four or five characters long. The new name must begin with "WW" and must be only four or five characters long.

The reference tables contain fields whose characteristic values can only be interpreted in conjunction with other fields. An example of this is the field Region (State, Federal State, Province, County) (REGIO) in customer master table KNA1. It can only be interpreted with the field Country/Region Key (LAND1), meaning that LAND1 is superior to REGIO. If such a field is copied as a characteristic, you also need to assign the higher-level characteristic during characteristics maintenance (see also the section "Characteristics" in the documentation for Profitability Analysis). Fixed characteristics (such as the controlling area) can also be used as higher-level characteristics.

From a technical point of view, a characteristic's dependency on other characteristics is determined via the key fields of the particular check table that is defined by the foreign key relationship for the field in the reference table. You can only assign a characteristic as superior if it shares the same domain as the key field in the check table for the subordinate characteristic. The client field is not taken into account. If such characteristics already exist in the system, the system proposes them as possible superior characteristics. If no characteristics meet this criteria, you need to define a characteristic.

Example: The field REGIO has the check table T005S with the key fields Client (has domain MANDT), Country/Region Key (domain LAND1), and Region (State, Federal State, Province, County) (domain REGIO). Since, like the key field Country/Region Key, the characteristic LAND1 has the domain LAND1, it can be assigned to the characteristic Region (State, Federal State, Province, County) as a higher-level characteristic.

If the field that you wish to copy is semantically dependent on another field, the Dependencies (characteristic compound) area is automatically displayed in the details screen for characteristic maintenance. Moreover, a higher-level characteristic is also proposed, if applicable.

When you copy characteristics from reference tables, the technical attributes (such as length and data type) and the texts from the reference table are also copied along with the data element. The value range is specified either by the check table entered in the domain or by the fixed values in the domain.

If you want other texts (description, short text, title) to appear on screens or lists for the characteristic, you need to delete the reference to the original data element by choosing Edit → Data element → Delete assignment. Then you can enter new texts on the detail screen. You can only delete the assignment to the data element if you have not yet saved the characteristic.

The system automatically proposes entries for the text table, text field, and long text field. You should only change these in exceptional cases. If you do so, note that the key of the text table contains the same fields as the key of the check table.

You can also manually define new characteristics that you only want to use in Profitability Analysis. Since these characteristics have no table of origin, their values are not automatically derived from other characteristics. You therefore need to define derivation steps for them. The name of new characteristics must begin with "WW" and consist of 4 or 5 characters. Depending on the desired attributes, you must choose one of the following variants:

• With own value maintenance
  In most cases, you will define new characteristics with their own value maintenance. In this case, the system creates a check table and text table for the characteristic. In the Customizing activity Maintain characteristic values, you can then enter the permissible values and texts. Only those values maintained in the check table are permitted values for that characteristic.
  If the values for a characteristic are only semantically unique when in conjunction with other characteristics, you can display this fact by defining a dependency (characteristic compound).

To define this type of dependency, proceed as follows:

1. When creating a characteristic, use the Display compound icon to switch to dependency display. At the top of the display, you find the characteristic that has just been defined.
2. Use the Insert row icon to insert the same number of empty rows as the number of higher-level characteristics that you would like to assign. Then enter the higher-level characteristics into those rows.

Once you have saved the characteristic, you cannot make any changes to the dependencies.
If you would like to display a multi-level dependency, you need once more to assign a higher-level characteristic to another higher-level characteristic in the latter's characteristic value maintenance. However, when defining dependencies, you should avoid ending up with complicated, multi-leveled chains of dependencies.
When you save, the system displays a dialog box in which you can specify how the check table should be created. Normally you will want to choose "Automatic", which means that the names of the check tables are numbered sequentially with the name "T25xx" (where xx = sequential number). You can also enter these numbers manually in order to avoid naming conflicts when you transport the operating concern to another system. In that case, you need to make sure that the numbers issued in these systems are not synchronous. For more information on transporting these tables, see the section Transport objects.

• Without value maintenance
  This option lets you define characteristics with no check table; this means that there is no set of allowed characteristic values and texts. Consequently, no validity check takes place for values of these characteristics.
  These characteristics cannot be used as receiver characteristics for period-based allocations.
  

• With reference to existing values
  This type of characteristic is only required in special cases. Here, you assign the characteristic a data element that already exists in the system. The characteristic takes on the attributes of that data element (texts, length, check table, text table).

• It is possible to change the texts of new characteristics specific to CO-PA at any time.

• However, the technical attributes, the assigned data element, the dependency, and the check table can only be changed if you have not yet saved the characteristic.

• You can delete any characteristic that is not used in any operating concern.

• It is possible to define more than one characteristic using the same data element or texts (description, short text, title). However, you should not include both in the same operating concern. The following example shows how you can use characteristics with the same data elements from different tables (of origin):
  

The characteristic MATKL (Product range) is predefined. Its table of origin is MARA (material master). However, you want to derive the product range from the sales document; therefore, you need to define a characteristic from the table VBAP.
Choose "Copy table fields" and select the field MATKL from table VBAP. Since a characteristic with the same name already exists, rename the field to "WWMKL". Then choose "Edit -> Data element -> Delete assignment" to delete the assignment to the existing data element. On the detail screen, enter new texts so that you can distinguish this one from the predefined characteristic MATKL. When you activate the new characteristic, the system automatically creates a new data element (with the same technical attributes and same table of origin).

• On the initial screen, note the repair functions: 'Extras' ->

• Field catalog → Reorganize and

• Master data → Text read modules

The function "Reorganize" synchronizes the CO-PA field catalog and the ABAP Dictionary. "Text read modules" generates the routines for checking characteristic values and reformats the texts for display. Both functions are unnecessary in the course of normal operations. They are merely designed to help you correct inconsistencies following modifications or transport errors.

• Using special characteristics from SAP tables

• In SD, you can organize your customers in a hierarchical structure according to various criteria. To use this customer hierarchy from SD in Profitability Analysis, you can copy the fields HIEZU01 through HIEZU10 from the structure PAPARTNER to CO-PA as characteristics using the function 'Copy from SAP table'.
  You assign the SD hierarchy nodes to the evaluation levels in CO-PA when you maintain the customer master data in the customer hierarchy.
  To derive values for the customer hierarchy characteristics in CO-PA, you need to define the derivation step "Customer hierarchy access" in Characteristic derivation.

• If you want to copy individual levels of the product hierarchy in MM to your operating concern, you can choose the fields PAPH1, PAPH2, and so on using the function "Copy from SAP table". (The field "Product hierarchy" is not suitable for drilldown reporting through the different hierarchy levels.)
  The values of these fields are:
  PAPH1 - Values of level 1 of the hierarchy
  PAPH2 - Compound values of levels 1 and 2 of the hierarchy
  PAPH3 - Compound values of levels 1 to 3 of the hierarchy
  and so on.
  By using these fields in your operating concern, you avoid having to maintain characteristic values and derivation rules for the product hierarchy.
  If you have already set up your operating concern in an earlier release and defined characteristics and derivation rules for the product hierarchy, those settings remain unchanged and continue to function as before.
  Note
  Once you have added these characteristics to an operating concern, you can no longer change the structure of the product hierarchy (ABAP Dictionary structure PRODHS).

1. Define the desired characteristics and then activate your entries.
2. Add these characteristics to your operating concerns using the function Maintain operating concern -> Change data structures.

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