SFIN – Documents Replication in CFIN

SAP AGS document for Replication of AP and AR Open,

Clearing/Payment, Reversal and Reversal Reset Items in
CFIN system SBE

SAP AGS Document

1 INTRODUCTION AND PURPOSE OF THIS DOCUMENT
...................................................2
1.1 Scenario used for Replication POC – Scenario
2.................................................................3
2 TECHNICAL PREREQUISITES FOR REPLICATION POC
.................................................4
2.1 AIF
Content............................................................................................................................4
2.2 Notes to be implemented in Sender and Receiver/CFIN system for Replication of
Clearing Documents
.........................................................................................................................4
3 MONITORING THE REPLICATION OF
DOCUMENTS........................................................4
3.1 Getting messages from the AIF
LOG....................................................................................4
3.2 Correction of Errors available in AIF
................................................................................. .11
3.2.1 Difference between ‚Restart; and ‚Repost with User Changes‘ .......................................13
3.3 Selection of Historical Messages in the
Monitor............................................................... .14
3.4 Summary of AIF Error Messages Report – User Friendly Version
....................................14
3.4.1 Alert Notifications .......................................................................................................... .15
3.4.2 Message Summary ....................................................................................................... .15
4 TRACKING BACK SOURCE DOCUMENT FROM REPLICATED DOCUMENT IN CFIN...
16
5 DOCUMENTS THAT CAN BE REPLICATED IN CFIN ......................................................
20
5.1 FI
Documents...................................................................................................................... .20
5.2 CO Documents
................................................................................................................... .21
6 LESSONS LEARNED ...................................................................................................... .
21
6.1 Second local currency available in CFIN –
Restrictions....................................................21
6.2 AIF Message Log table Grows very quickly
...................................................................... .22
6.3 Special consideration to processes where documents are being posted in different
systems .......................................................................................................................................... .2
2
6.4 Replicating Documents to a company that has the NewGL Document Splitter activated
in
CFIN............................................................................................................................................ .23
6.5 Clearing Documents with no Line Items
........................................................................... .24

1 INTRODUCTION AND PURPOSE OF THIS DOCUMENT

This document is intended to support users who would like to understand how to Monitor the
Replication of Items (Open, Cleared/Payed, Reversed and Reversal Reset Items) in an SFIN2.0
Central Finance System.
Monitoring will be done in the SAP Application Interface Framework (AIF)
Functionality.
The standard SAP AIF functionality, is used to manage the interface communication between SLT and
the core Financials interfaces (Accounting interface, Controlling interface) in the “Central Finance”
Scenario.
The tool AIF provides essential functionality to monitor data transformation from Finance and
controlling documents originating in local systems (like F6X in our PoC).
AIF keeps track of every document transfer and the context of that document. It allows for
reprocessing in case of error or issues with the data transfer.
In order to provide this functionality, AIF leverages XML messages, which in essence contain the
entire posting content and context of the documents transferred from F6X into SBE (the CFIN system
in our PoC). The XML messages are either processed successfully or their appropriate status is
recorded and allows for reprocessing in case of issues or errors.
XML messages are stored in AIF in table /AIF/PERS_XML.

Additional information can be found under

http://help.sap.com/aif .

Benefit and Business Value

Due to the high volume of data that is expected to be replicated in the CFIN system, Document
Replication Monitoring is crucial to achieve an almost real time sucessful data replication in the CFIN
system which will ensure Correctness of Data and Reporting.
1.1 Scenario used for Replication POC – Scenario 2

There are different scenarios for replication in CFIN that currently are available and which can see in
the slide shown below:

Scenario 1: Open items are posted in local systems and replicated in the Central Finance System.
The open items posted in the CFIN system get automatically technically cleared right after they are
posted. Clearing documents are posted in local systems and NOT replicated in the CFIN system.
This is the option that is currently available in standard.
This scenario is however not really useful for because will not be able to know which Open
Items in CFIN have they really paid/cleared.

Scenario 2: Open items from local systems are replicated to CFIN system. Clearing is done in the
local system and replicated in the CFIN system. This is done with a SAP pilot note and some other
SAP Notes that need to be iimplemented in the local system F6X and the CFIN system SBE.
Reporting of Open Items (and their clearings) is done in the CFIN system. However Clearing of open
items is still done in local systems. will use this scenario most probably for Project 1. This is
the scenario that has been used in this PoC.

Scenario 3 - NOT AVAILABLE YET: Open items are posted In local systems and replicated to the
CFIN system. The open items created in the local system are technically cleared right away in this
system even if they haven’t been payed yet.
The items will be paid/cleared by the users in the CFIN system.
Users will also post directly open items and their clearings in the CFIN system.
In the future, all open items and their clearings will be posted directly in the CFIN system and not in the
local systems. Some of the local systems will go away in the future (G4P, GBP, GMP) as their
processes will be moved to the CFIN system.
Reporting and management of Open items will be done in the CFIN system.

Please note that none of the companies used for replicating documents, had the NewGL
Splitter functionality activated in the CFIN system.
2 TECHNICAL PREREQUISITES FOR REPLICATION POC

2.1 AIF Content

The Central Finance AIF specific Content is delivered with BC-Sets available in the SAP notes:
2196783, 2202650 und 2202691. To install AIF some general content is also necessary (available in
SAP note 1530212).
In SAP note 2148893 there are some additional correction notes that are relevant for Central Finance.

2.2 Notes to be implemented in Sender and Receiver/CFIN system for Replication of Clearing
Documents

In Sender System F6X the following note has been implemented: pilot note 2203608.

In Receiver system SBE the following notes have been implemented: 2193255, 2221046 and
2219063.

Implementation of prerequisite notes mentioned in the long text of each note is also necessary.
This was done in both, SBE and F6X.

Required Post Implementation steps are included in the long text of note 2203608, and were also
done in Receiver System SBE.
These steps were needed in order to reopen the Open Items that had been automatically cleared in
standard, prior the implementation of the four notes mentioned previously:
- After implementing this note, start transaction FINS_MIG_CJ3 in the target system to reopen
the items which have been technically cleared in the target system and which are still open in
the source system.
- By using transaction FINS_MIG_MONITOR_CJ3 in the target system you can check whether
all relevant documents have been successfully processed.

After these steps were done, Clearing Replication could be sucessfully done between F6X and SBE.

During this PoC, all (Open) Items could be sucessfully Reopened prior getting Cleared.

3 MONITORING THE REPLICATION OF DOCUMENTS

It is important to perform monitoring of documents that are replicated to the Central Finance System.
Specially in the beginning of a Project to find out the nature of the problems (e.g. missing or incorrect
configuration).

In the AIF functionality that is executed in the CFIN system SBE, you can find a log for all documents,
documents that have been replicated sucessfully and also documents which for some reason (e.g.:
missing configuration in CFIN system), have not been able to get replicated. The reason of failed
replication will also be available in the Monitor via an error message.

3.1 Getting messages from the AIF LOG

Call transaction /N/AIF/ERR:

Enter the relevant selection criteria data. Among other, which you can see in the screen shown below,
this is the most relevant:
Name space: Defines a namespace in SAP AIF. Namespaces are used for logical structuring of
objects and configurations. All interfaces, value mappings, fixed values, checks, and actions have to
be assigned to a namespace in SAP AIF.
Interface Name: Defines the name of an interface in the SAP Application Interface Framework. An
interface is the technical representation of a system interface. It is the connection point between the
application data ( SAP data structure) and the data in the external format ( raw data structure).
Currently there are four possible Interface Names that can be selected.

Inteface AC_DOC is relevant when you want to see all FI documents that should have been replicated
in a period of time.
Inteface AC_DOC_CHG is relevant when you want to see all ‚Changes‘ that have been done to FI
documents in the sender system (via FB02 for example) and which should be replicated. For example,
after posting a document in F6X (which has been sucessfully replicated in SBE, and which can be
seen under Interface AC_DOC) you change the LongText in the original document in F6X. This
change should be replicated (if the relevant configuration has been set up for it) in SBE.
Interface CO_DOC is relevant when you want to see all CO documents that should have
been replicated in a period of time.

Interface CO_OBJ is relevant when you want to see all CO Objects (Internal order, Production Order,
Product Cost Collector, Maintenance Order, QM Order.) that should have been replicated in a period
of time. Please note that currently only these CO Objects can be replicated in standard.
To find available workarounds available for other objects please review SAP Note 2103482 (Features
of Function Module FINS_CFIN_CO_CENTRAL_POSTING).
Please also note, that currently changes to CO documents are not replicated.
Reference Document Number: Document number of the source document.
If you are looking for a specific document or documents from the sender system (F6X), you can enter
the document numbers in the relevant fields to display only those documents in the AIF Monitor.

Creation Date: Specifies the creation date of the document from the Source/Sender system (F6X).
If you are looking for documents created only on a certain day(s) you should enter the day(s) in here.

Document Status Selection: The documents coming from the sender system may have or may have
not been replicated in the Receiver CFIN system for different reasons.
Each status will have a different icon in the monitor.
Status In Process: Specifies if data messages (documents) with status In Process should be
loaded.

Status Processed Successfully: Specifies if data messages (documents) with status

Success should be loaded. Remember that all documents that are coming from the Sender System
(even if they have been sucessfully replicated) will have a log in this transaction.

Status Processed with Warning: Specifies if data messages (documents) with status
Processed with Warnings should be loaded.
 Status Application Error: Specifies if data messages (documents) with status Application Error
should be loaded.

Status Technical Error: Specifies if data messages (documents) with status Technical Error
should be loaded.
Status Canceled: Specifies if data messages (documents) with status Canceled should be
loaded.

Maximum Number on Selection Screen: Defines the maximum number of messages (for the
date interval selected) to be loaded. By default, 200 will be loaded.
You can change this setting once you are in the Message Log if you see that there could be
more messages available for those days. We will see later how to change this in the Log.
In this case (see screenshot shown above), all FI documents posted during the time frame
selected will be shown in the Monitor.

Please note that we can see only 200 hits. But probably there are more documents in the log for those
days. To increase the number of hits go to button ‚Restrict‘ and adjust your selection there:
From the list we will choose one document that we can analyze and correct:

If you would have entered only the document number you are interested in the selection criteria (e.g.:
Document, 4101786571) you will get exclusively that document number in AIF. Make sure you select
all flags under Status Selection (as the document status could have changed in the meantime) to
make sure the document is displayed:
SAP AGS Document for
Additional information about the document that is trying to get replicated will be displayed in the
bottom right side by double clicking on the Data Structure lines in the bottom left:

Under the ‚Icon Help‘ button you will find an explanation of the Icon assigned to the document you are
interested in:

SAP AGS Document for P&G

3.2 Correction of Errors available in AIF

To correct the errors, click on the Long text of the first error:
First error: No postings can be made to profit center BE0123 in company code 800

Message No. KM183. Diagnosis: Profit center BE0123 cannot receive postings in company code 800.

System Response: The posting was canceled.

Procedure: If you want to post to profit center BE0123 in company code 800, this company code must
be activated for profit center BE0123 in master data maintenance, on the tab page Company code.
You should also carry out the transaction Change Profit Center.

Assign the company and activate the Profit Center:

Go back to AIF and Click on the ‚Restart‘ button:

Click on Refresh:
The first error message is not there anymore.

Now follow the same steps for the second error.

Once there are no more errors found, the document will be posted and it will show in AIF with the icon
‚Success‘:

Please note that even if you correct all the errors that you see in the AIF screen, after ‚Restarting‘ the
document, it could happen that a new error which was not previously shown gets displayed now in
AIF.
This is correct. Once the posting logic is triggered, the AIF tool will show the error(s) found in the logic
that was checked. But there could be more that will only show up once further logic is processed. This
works exactly as in FB01 and any other posting transaction.
3.2.1 Difference between ‚Restart; and ‚Repost with User Changes‘

In /N/AIF/ERR, when you click on ‚Repost with User changes‘ the mapping step is skipped (because
otherwise possible manual correction might be overwritten) and no error occurs as long as that manual
correction has been done in the system.
By Mapping Step it’s meant that there is a Mapping functionality available in CFIN that can be
configured to define what happens if a field (e.g.: cost center) is mandatory but it’s blank, like if it
should take the same value as the one entered in the original document (from local system) or if
in CFIN the original value should be replaced by a different one.

In our PoC we are not using the Mapping functionality in CFIN, mainly because of the maintenance
effort and because the rules can only be maintained in a 1:1 relationship. Example: if cost center A
is used in the original document, then use cost center B in the CFIN system. But if the rule would be
a more complex, example: if cost center A and profit center A in the original system, then use cost
center B in the CFIN system, we wouldn’t be able to do this mapping in CFIN, at least currently with
the available standard functionality.
To set up these rules, we are using AIF and BRF+ in our PoCs.
When clicking on ‚Restart‘ the whole posting processing is repeated including mapping (if it has been
set up).

3.3 Selection of Historical Messages in the Monitor

You may also be interested in getting a list of errors that includes a longer period, for which some
errors have already been solved. This could be the case for example for creating a Lessons Learned
document in preparation of the real implementation where you want to see all the errors that
happened during the PoC even if they were resolved.
This will help in order to know what master data and configuration is mandatory and needs to be set in
the CFIN system considering the specific business transactions that will be replicated from local
systems to the CFIN system.
To get this list of Historial Error Messages, select the Log icon:

Double click on the item so you can see all messages below:

Unfortunately it is not possible to download all messages to an Excel file as this functionality is not
available for the whole list (upper part).

3.4 Summary of AIF Error Messages Report – User Friendly Version

Here is how to get a Summary Report of the AIF error messages that is easier to consume than the list
from the Log.
Please note that some configuration is required for your user id to have access to this functionality.
As this configuration was not available in SBE, the screenshots have been taken from an
internal SAP Test System.

Call transaction /N/AIF/IFMON – Interface Monitor

In the /N/AIF/IFMON transaction, the system checks the username of the person logged in that has
executed the t-code and checks if they are an assigned Recipient of any interfaces or namespaces. If
that user is assigned to N number of interfaces, those N interfaces will all be shown here, nicely
broken up by their respective Namespace for easy management. Double clicking on any interface line
will take you directly to the /N/AIF/ERR t-code filtered for that Interface

Key things that this transaction is used for are Alert Notifications, and Message Breakdown.

3.4.1 Alert Notifications

When AIF creates an alert, if a user is configured as a Recipient and the Alert system itself is
configured fully, an e-mail will be generated and passed to the system for batch processing and
mailing out. An entry is added in table /AIF/ALERTS, and while an entry exists in this table, the
Lightbulb under the Alert column is lit, notifying the user that there is an alert in that interface. This
also prohibits subsequent e- mails from being sent out, as the /AIF/ALERTS table does not add an
entry for every single alert, thus no e-mail is created and nothing is passed to the batch job for
mailing. When the user clicks on the lit lightbulb, he is confirming the alert, and the entry is cleared
from /AIF/ALERTS, allowing the next alert to send another e-mail.

3.4.2 Message Summary

When an interface is highlighted, and the user hits Message Summary, they are taken to the below
summary view of all the messages in that interface:

As you can see, this is essentially Error excel sheet is available here and messages can be easily
downloaded.

Double clicking on any error message will take you directly to the /N/AIF/ERR transaction code, filtered
for only those GUIDS that contain the clicked on error message.

Also please note the ‚Mass Restart function‘ provided here by error message type.

4 TRACKING BACK SOURCE DOCUMENT FROM REPLICATED DOCUMENT IN CFIN

You can find if a document was replicated and from which original document number and system by
calling transaction FB03 in the CFIN system and displaying the replicated document number.
Click on the header icon:
By clicking on the ‚Sender Doc No‘ shown in the header you can go directly to system F6X transaction
FB03 and this document will be diplayed:
Depending on your settings, you may have to enter the password every time you want to display the
original document in this way.

If once you click on the document number, you get a warning message saying that the object is
unknown and you are not sent to system F6X, that means that some configuration is missing.
You will have to Change the RFC destination to “_DIALOG” in the following configuration place to
access the original document from the CFIN system:
You can also see all related documents to this transaction, by going to Environment > Document
Environment > Relationship Browser.
From here you can also navigate to the original documents posted in F6X.

5 DOCUMENTS THAT CAN BE REPLICATED IN CFIN

5.1 FI Documents

The following FI documents shall not be replicated from a local to the CFIN system:
x Postings from the reconciliation ledger or COFI-realtime integration shall not be replicated.
When the CO document is replicated into the target system the reconciliation posting is
performed there automatically.
x Year End postings shall not be replicated (see separate requirement).
x Postings with the following document status (BKPF-BSTAT) shall not be replicated
o D Recurring entry document
o M Sample document
o S Noted items
o V Parked document
o W Parked document with change of document ID
o Z Parked document which was deleted
o C Balance Carryforward Line Items
o J Closing Operations (postings are not made to record type 0)

Regarding the documents related to carryforward and closing (BKPF-BSTAT = C & J), SAP‘s
assumption is that these processes will be performed in the central system based on the replicated
“normal” postings, so it is not necessary to replicate those postings from the source system (this would
even lead to double counting).
Maybe there could even be differences if the central system is configured differently.

The year end posting / carry forward postings can be identified via field BSEG-AWTYP = GLYEC.
COFI-real time integration postings can be identified via field BSEG-AWTYP = COFI.
But in classic GL they only exist in the reconciliation ledger (which is not replicated either).
However, as CO and FI are reconciled by definition in Central Finance, it would be even wrong to
replicate these postings.

Please note that the current logic still excludes the (statistical) documents listed above.

There are plans to allow some of them (especially once we support central payments), but it is not
in the short term planning.
5.2 CO Documents

In SAP note 2103482 (Features of Function Module FINS_CFIN_CO_CENTRAL_POSTING), you can

find information about the CO business transactions that currently can be replicated in CFIN.
SAP Development will try to support others in further release. When this is done, the note will be
updated.

6 LESSONS LEARNED

6.1 Second local currency available in CFIN – Restrictions

As mentioned in SAP note 2203608 ( prerequisite note implemented in F6X) there are some
restrictions to keep in mind when replicating certain open items: ‚Be aware that the following restriction
applies to the processing of clearing data in Central Finance: If the company code in the target system
has different or more local currencies than the mapped company code in the sender system, any
exchange rate differences are not taken into account.
For example:
Open items and clearings are transferred from company code A in the sender system to company
code B in the target system.
Company code A in the sender system has only one local currency.
Company code B in the target system has the same local currency as company code A and an
additional second local currency.
If the exchange rate of the second local currency is changed between when the invoice is posted and
when the corresponding clearing document is posted, the line item containing the resulting exchange
rate difference for the second local currency will be missing in the clearing document in the
target system.‘

In addition, some error messages are connected to additional local currencies not being supported in
CFIN, like error Reversal in component Financial Accounting not possible’:

So certain clearing and reversal documents will not be able to get replicated in the CFIN
system due to this problem.

The document that currently shows this problem in SBE is 2000137057, 140, 2016.
The problem has been reported in message 45607 2016.
There is a check in FBRA that looks for inconsistent clearings. It was intensified by SAP note
1436894. This check with regards to zero balance for 2nd and 3th local currency cannot be removed
in standard.

So, documents that run into this error will not be able to be posted in the CFIN system unless the
development for the additional currencies is done in CFIN.
This problem is happening because in the source system F6X there are no additional currencies but in
the CFIN system SBE there are.

The development that is needed to support additional currencies in the CFIN system is tightly
connected to how taxes will be handled by in the future.
If the exchange rate difference items would be supported in CFIN the side (created in the document
for additional currencies), a condition would be to keep the tax configuration identical.
We are not talking about having the same names of tax codes in source and target system. It would
be more about tax rates.
For instance: V1 (19%) in system A to be mapped to something with 19% in CFIN (e.g. M1 as tax
code).
The tax rate consistency is not needed directly for the calculation of the exchange rate differences for
additional currencies.
The thing behind is, that either all taxes are transferred as they have been calculated in the source
system(without additional currencies of course) or the taxes get recalculated in the target system from
scratch which is of course a bit dangerous because depending on the tax configuration the values may
differ.
Hence: if we recalculate we get the differences in all currencies which are active in the target system
but we need to make sure the tax configuration is in sync with all source systems to prevent
calculating different tax amounts.

is currently expecting that tax rates will be consistent across systems including the CFIN system.

SAP Development is planning to close this gap in the future.

6.2 AIF Message Log table Grows very quickly

An Analysis of the estimated volume of documents that will be posted monthly in the CFIN system in
the future is adviced.

Table /AIF/PERS_XML, where the AIF messages are stored, is sufficiently well managed in the in-
memory memory consumption on SAP HANA (1.3 GB), but it appears that the physical disk space
needed to persist the XML messages in AIF will be rapidly growing as high volumes of documents will
get replicated in the CFIN system.
This issue may be related to how this table is managed internally.
SAP is investigating how to solve this issue. If a fix is provided it will be available as an SAP Note.

6.3 Special consideration to processes where documents are being posted in different
systems

Example APP Process:

- Posting of open item in F6* - technically cleared by ALE in F6* but should not be technically
cleared when replicated to the CFIN system.
- Clearing of open item in G4* - clearing should be replicated to CFIN to clear the original open
item created also in G4*.

In order to avoid that open items are being replicated twice in the CFIN system because they are
posted and replicated from two different systems (F6* and G4* in the example above), the skip
rules functionality can be used for filtering documents and not being replicated from certain
systems.
This is done in transaction MWB in the SLT system SBL.
Example of SKIP_CFIN_ACCIT rule:
6.4 Replicating Documents to a company that has the NewGL Document Splitter activated in
CFIN

Document Splitter Scenario: The NewGL Document Splitter is not activated for a company in a
Local/Sender system BUT is activated for the company in the Target/CFIN system;
technically feasible but not officially supported by SAP.

Technically, this scenario works and the split is done correctly in the CFIN system.
At least this was the case for the business transactions that SAP tested out of this PoC in F6X
and SBE to find any possible gap.
After reviewing this with SAP Development, it was confirmed that from the technical side,
splitting works in this scenario. However there are certain prerequisites that need to be
considered and verified at the customer’s side around this topic in case this scenario is
considered in the future:

4.a) Currently, there is no CFIN standard functionality that is able to add the Splitting
entities on the CFIN starting balances if the source system does not have balances on an
entity. would have to create an own custom program to add the desired splitting entities
to the balances.
 4. b) The document split works with configured rules. Most rules are based on the
document type that should reflect a certain business transaction. Some customers post
documents in their source system that mix several business transaction in one posting.
For those cases it is hard to define an appropriate rule in the central finance system.
would have to ensure that the correct splitting rule is assigned to the document type they
are using to post/replicate that specific business transaction.
Please note that when posting directly in the CFIN system, the system would inform via
error or warning message if the user that something is wrong with the splitting rule and
prevent the posting.
However when replicating from source, the source system would allow the document to
be posted while in the CFIN system the document would be sent to AIF where it will be
difficult for the user to correct.

4. c) If would like to create a balance on an entity, for example on segment level, but
segment is not used in the source systems, you will need to ensure that the segment can
be derived from somewhere.
Currently, BRFPLUS rules, BADIS, and substitution rules (among other ways depending
on the entity) can be used for this.
Please note that for entities set in the Document Splitter with field ‚Mandatory‘ and ‚Zero
Balance‘ it will be easier to see if the necessary derivation is not happening as the item
that requires this entity will have an error in AIF.
However, for the splitting criteria where the ‚mandatory‘ and ‚Zero Balance Fields‘ have
not be selected, missing rules will be more difficult to see, as the system (correctly) will let
the replicated items get posted with no entity.
It’s the customer’s responsibility to ensure that all necessary rules are set up so the data
is correctly replicated in the CFIN system.

4.d) Currently the transfer open items in the initial load does not allow document splitting
for this scenario.
would need to create their own custom program for this.

After checking with the SAP SLO department to see if there is a tool that can be used for point 4.a,
there is no out-of-the-box solution available.
First it needs to be specified where the information can be derived from. A substitution (maybe via
BRFPLUS, FI substitution, BADI, etc. like mentioned in point 4.c) can be created in the CFIN system.
The legacy migration tool may work for the technical part to achieve the entity balances, instead of
using the CFIN initial load program.
But please note that this has not been tested and that would need to test this thoroughly.

6.5 Clearing Documents with no Line Items

Clearing documents without lines items (BKPF-BSTAT = A) currently cannot be posted/replicated in the
CFIN system.

SAP Development is planning to close this gap in the future.