How Business Transaction Process

becomes easy with SAP CRM

What is a Business Transaction?

Business Processes in SAP CRM:

For various processes of a company, business transaction provides

business structure and the functions that can be used. Thus a business
transaction in SAP CRM represents business interaction of your organization
with various business partners
It enables to use the same interface and processing concepts across the
business processes
It is possible to use various components of the business transactions
repeatedly
Within one transaction items can be entered from different business
contexts
Independent of the Business transaction type, the look and feel of
different business transactions in SAP CRM is always similar

Structure of Transactions

Any company specific business processes can be flexibly controlled and

managed with the Business Transactions in SAP CRM.

SPRO path -> Customer Relationship Management -> Transactions ->

Basic Settings

SPRO path for Business Transaction configuration

A business transaction in SAP CRM consists of a leading business

transaction category.

Structure of CRM business transaction depends up on leading business

transaction category.

CRM business transaction consists of the header level and the item level
(Fig. 2 & Fig. 3).

Header (General) and Item Data representation in a Business Transaction

Header (General) and Item Data representation in a Business Transaction

Transaction Types Item Categories and

Category Description

Transaction Type structure:

A transaction type defines:

o
attributes
o
characteristics
o
controlling attributes
In SAP CRM business transaction processing is controlled by a transaction
type
The leading business transaction category in an transaction type controls:
o
specific settings that can be applied on a lower level
o
other business transactions categories to which it could be
assigned
o
detailed control of the transaction
The properties and attributes of a business transaction item are specified
by an item category.
Item category controls how the item is processed.

First an item category needs to be assigned to an item object type that

defines the business context in which an item category is used.

Similar to transaction types, an item category can be assigned to one

or more business transaction categories.

Specific settings applied to item categories on a lower level depend upon

the leading item category (object type).

In SAP CRM, for processing business transactions, default item categories

need to be defined per business transaction category, and item category
group.

Also, it is possible to define alternative item categories which can be

entered manually for system default.


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Item Category determination depends upon:

Transaction Type
Item Category Group
Item Category Usage
Main Item Category
Item Category Group is a field in the product master.
Item Category Usage comes from the programming logic.

Copy Transaction or Follow up

transaction

A follow-up transaction represents the next business transaction in the

current business process
o
For example, from a released Sales Contract, Sales Orders can be
created.
o
Thus in this case, Sales Order is viewed as a follow-up document for
the Sales Contract

Also, a business transaction can be copied to create another transaction

of same business transaction type
o
For example, a sales order can be copied to create another sales
order

From an existing business transaction it is possible to create a copy or to

create a follow up transaction.


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In case, a business transaction is copied:

transaction type is same
header and item data is copied
transaction history is not updated
no relation to the source transaction is maintained
In case, a follow up transaction is created from a business transaction:
it is possible to configure the transaction type for the follow-up
transaction
header data is copied
you can select items
transaction history is updated
for this copy control setting should be maintained
this flow can be seen in the Transaction History assignment block

Transaction History assignment block of a business transaction[

Following are the required settings in the copy control settings:

o
Copy control for transaction types
o
Copy control for item categories
o
Settings for target transaction type are maintained
o
Determination of the item category during the copy (optional)
o
Implementation of CRM_COPY_BADI (optional)

In SAP CRM BAdI definition CRM_COPY_BADI is provided for

implementation to write your own data transfer routines.

You can access the interlink-age between business transactions at header

and item level through the transaction history data.

SAP CRM also provides option Subsequent Referencing, where you can
link an activity while it is being created to an existing activity.

This will make the new transaction a follow up to the existing one (Fig. 4).

Basic Functions in Business Transactions

Basic functions in Business Transactions:

o
Text Determination
o
Date Management
o
Status Management
o
Incompleteness Check
o
Partner Processing
o
Action Processing
o
Pricing

For each business transaction in SAP CRM it is possible to maintain

different notes.

As per the requirement, it is possible to combine a number of text types

in the text determination procedure.

Text determination procedures are used in the business transactions for

different relevant texts in the transaction.

CRM Web UI provides assignment blocks to

o
Create a new text with a particular text type.
o
Display the text in the business transaction
o
Modify the particular text

With date management it is possible to process the dates that are

relevant for the business transaction.

It consists of:
o
Date type
o
Date rule
o
Duration
o
Date Profile

This date management system also supports conversion of saved dates to

user time zones and considering the factory calendar in business transaction.

Dates in a business transaction can be entered manually or can be

calculated by the system using the date rules.

Status management Allows maintaining user statuses in a status profile

for business transactions.

It consists of status profile which is assigned to a business transaction.

If status profile is not assigned to business transactions type/item

categories, system statuses are displayed in the application.

Following can be defined in a status profile:

o
Activation sequence of user statuses
o
An initial status/start status
o
Set transaction status connected with user status

Activity Management

Activity management is an example of the business transactions in the

SAP CRM.
An activity represents an activity performed by an employee in the
organization
It also covers the scenario where there is an interaction of the employee
with a particular business partner involved in the business transaction
Activities can be linked as follow-up documents to various business
transactions like Sales Order, Service Order, etc., provided as part of
difference CRM modules like Sales, Marketing and Services
Technically o
Information about interaction with the business partner on a
particular date is contained by a Business Activity
o
Information about activities that one or more employee has to
complete by a particular date is contained by a Task

SAP CRM provides different type of activities to cover different channels

of communication with the business partners involved in the business
transactions

Types of activity:

Similar to the other business transaction types, activities contains data

related to the processing of the involved business process for example the
interaction with a business partner involved in the business transaction

Structure of activities: