Hello, SAP users!  

We’re excited to share the latest updates to the SAP Profitability and Performance Management Cloud – Universal Model (SAP PaPM Cloud UM). These new features are designed to make processes smoother, improve decision-making, and boost performance.  

Whether you're a long-time user or just getting started, these updates bring valuable enhancements to help you achieve better results. 

If you want to catch up on previous updates, check out our past blog posts here - https://community.sap.com/t5/tag/PaPMCloudUMWhatsNew/tg-p. 

 Let’s take a look at what’s new this month!  

Model

Manage Environment

User can now choose how to deactivate environment:  

• Option #1 (Current deactivation process): All flags are set to “Yes”;
• Option #2 (New): All flags are set to “No”;
• Option #3 (New): Only the “Delete all dependent data” flag is set to “Yes”, while all other flags remain “No”. 

Users can now deactivate environments with All flags set to No. This is a new behavior of Deactivation process. After doing so, environment’s state is set to ‘Inactive’. However, this deactivated environment using All options set to “No” cannot be removed. Not until all dependencies are removed. To remove all dependencies, user needs to reactivate the environment, then deactivate it with All flags set to ‘Yes! 

In addition, one more scenario is also possible: to deactivate environment with the delete data only set to “Yes” and all other flags are set to “No”. In this case, environment state is set to ‘Not Current’. Also, this deactivated environment cannot be removed! However, to set the environment to inactive, user can set all flags to ‘Yes’ and then user can already remove the environment. 

This change provides more flexibility to modeling —especially during planning cycles, testing scenarios, or model shifts.

Manage Environment - Model Screen

Navigation to the Show Screen is now possible through the hierarchy list, so you no longer need to access it only from the Network tab. This link can be found in the Hierarchy table and will only be visible if the environment is activated.

Additionally, a context menu is available in the Hierarchy. Simply right-click to execute actions such as Run, Show Details or Attributes of a function, Show Data, Copy, and Delete. This provides an alternative way to streamline your workflow.

Manage Model View

A new validation has been implemented for Model View field configuration if there’s a relation/deep nested field is used or defined as an Input Field in the Fields section.  

The Input Field is being defined in the Fields section of Model View as this field is coming from the input that can be processed further. It means that the user can further perform aggregation, exclude it from the result, map it to another field or perform a value selection.  

If a relation/deep nested field is added but no selection is defined/maintained, it cannot be excluded (Exclude checkbox) as it doesn’t make any data enrichment. This field does not originate from the Model View's Input Function at first, and thus not required to be added in the Field configuration if no additional data enrichment is needed.  

With this, if this scenario is being performed during configuration, upon saving the function, a validation message will prompt stating “Excluding Nested field is redundant. Please remove the entry”.  

This was introduced to avoid system failures, for example case when activation of Environment that contains Model View Type: Projection which uses field from Inherited Relation that has configuration Exclude = Yes (checked) results to failed.

Manage Model Calculation

From previous enhancements of Manage Calculations Functions the Edit button was introduced on the Assignment section of Rules. This button aids the user to easily maintain a formula in the editor as it provides suggestions of keywords. During the initial release of the functionality, the user waits for some time before the suggested words appear. 

A major aspect of the enhancement is the increased response time of the system and after this, words now appear immediately while the user types a string in the formula editor. 

Report

Manage Reports - Tile Element

Inspired by the role-based experience of SAP Fiori Launchpad, this update brings to reports a familiar tile-based element. Whether you're surfacing critical data, linking to important content, or simply organizing information visually—Tile Elements help you do it with elegance and precision. 

Creating and Editing the Tile 

• New button labeled “Insert Tile Element” is available in Page Edit Mode;
• Clicking the “Insert Tile Element” button opens  “Create Tile Element” dialog. The dialog allows the user to configure the tile with: title, description and icon (all optional). 

Upon creation, user can: 

• edit the tile by adding/changing name & description, that is will be displayed in the tile;
• add text and/or any report element (show element, data element, rule element, reference) inside the tile;
• add reference;
• re-size the tile;
• delete the tile.

Tile Display Logic when reference is assigned: 

• If a semantic link reference is assigned, the tile is displayed on Report only if the referenced page is visible to the user. (if tile is referenced to the page user does not have access to, the tile will not be visible for the user),
• Clicking the tile navigates the user to the assigned reference target. 

User 1 Accessing Reports (tile is visible)

User 2 Accessing Reports (tile is not visible)

That’s it for now!

I hope this new feature and enhancement makes your work with SAP PaPM UM better. Stay tuned for more “What’s New” post. Share this blogpost with your colleagues and friends. Thank you!

In today's fast-paced business environment, efficiency and accuracy are paramount. One area where companies often struggle is in your sales order processes. Traditionally, many organizations have relied on directly creating sales orders using VA01 in SAP ERP or S4 HANA. While this method is straightforward, it can lead to inefficiencies and errors. Instead, leveraging a hybrid solution via SAP CPQ (Configure, Price, Quote) can significantly streamline the Quote to Cash or Lead to Cash processes and available with SAP Standard Integrations offerings.

The Limitations of Directly Creating VA01 Sales Orders in ERP, S/4 HANA

Creating sales orders directly using VA01 involves manually entering data, which can be time-consuming and prone to errors. This method often lacks integration with other systems, leading to discrepancies in pricing, product configurations, and customer information, profitability calculations, guardrails, negotiations & output document acceptance from customer.

Additionally, it does not provide a guided sales process, which can result in inconsistent handling of sales opportunities .

The Advantages of Using SAP CPQ

SAP CPQ offers a robust solution to these challenges by providing a centralized platform for managing the entire sales process, from quoting to order fulfillment.

Here are some key benefits:

1. Increased Efficiency and Productivity: SAP CPQ streamlines the sales process by eliminating manual data entry, saving time and increasing productivity .
2. Improved Quote Accuracy: Integration with product master data ensures that all quotes are accurate and up-to-date, reducing errors and improving customer satisfaction .
3. Shorter Sales Cycles: The guided sales process helps sales representatives close deals more quickly, shortening sales cycles and boosting revenue generation .
4. Enhanced Customer Experience: SAP CPQ provides a self-service portal for configuring products, requesting quotes, and tracking orders, improving the overall customer experience.

SAP CPQ - Business Process flow for Back-end Integ... - SAP Community

Comprehensive Integration Capabilities

SAP CPQ enables seamless integration with various systems, enhancing the overall sales process:

• CRM Integration: SAP CPQ integrates with your CRM systems, allowing opportunities to be converted into quotes effortlessly.
• SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing: Integration with SAP Variant Configuration and Pricing simplifies complex product configurations and ensures accurate pricing for the cart in real-time .
• Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM): SAP CPQ integrates with CLM systems, streamlining the contract creation and approval process .
• Output Documents and Approvals: Automated generation of output documents and streamlined approval workflows ensure consistency and compliance .
• Standard Integration Packages via CPI: SAP CPQ offers standard integration packages via SAP Cloud Platform Integration (CPI) for sales orders, solution quotations, and solution orders

SAP CPQ - Business Process flow for Back-end Integ... - SAP Community

How SAP CPQ Integrates with SAP S/4HANA

SAP CPQ seamlessly integrates with SAP S/4HANA, enabling the transfer of pricing and product configuration data, and master data replication

This integration ensures that all sales information is accurate and up-to-date, providing a consistent and efficient sales process.

Business Process Flow Diagram

Architecture Views | Solution Business for Hybrid Deployment | SAP Business Accelerator Hub

Architecture Views | Lead to Cash for Hybrid Deployment | SAP Business Accelerator Hub

Architecture Views | Network-Based Sales Processing for Hybrid Deployment | SAP Business Accelerator Hub

SAP CPQ - SAP S4 HANA Public Cloud Integration

Conclusion

By avoiding the direct creation of VA01 sales orders and adopting a hybrid solution via SAP CPQ, organizations can significantly enhance their sales efficiency, accuracy, and customer satisfaction. Embracing this modern approach not only streamlines the sales process but also positions businesses for greater success in today's competitive landscape. Also it ensures you have clear auditing track of the entire Quote to Cash process been automated end to end.

Are you ready to transform your sales process with SAP CPQ? Let's start the journey towards a more efficient and productive sales operation!

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Upon accessing the Teams screen, you will see the new column “Child Teams” in Teams panel. In Child Teams column, it will simply display all the child teams of the parent team.

A few weeks ago, SAP and our long-time conference producer partner TAC Insights hosted our yearly Governance, Risk, and Compliance event: SAP for Internal Controls, Compliance and Risk Management Conference.

This blog summarizes thoughts from the other co-hosts, Vincent Doux and Bo Baade-Pedersen – from the SAP EMEA GRC Center of Excellence, and Axel Vetter – Head of Product Marketing for GRC & Quote-to-Cash at SAP. 

This blog post explains the key features of the Fiori app Stock-Single Fiori app. The knowledge in this post will help readers in client-facing roles. All logistics departments can use this Fiori application for reporting purposes. It shows the stock of one material at a time with all relevant details such as plant, storage location, unrestricted stock, quality inspection stock, blocked stock, returns, etc. Users can see the stock information in the table and chart views.

In this blog we will discuss about pricing concept in SAP, Evolution from ECC to S/4HANA with key benefits.

ECC 16 pricing fields in detail are as follow:

• Steps: Place the condition in sequence.
• Counter: If there is no space between two steps to add one more condition type.
• Condition type:  Specifies the type of the pricing element.
• Description: To describe the condition types in sales document pricing.
• From: Help to determine the base value for calculating the condition type value in sales document pricing.
• To: Used to cumulate the value of multiple steps that are in a sequence.
• Manual: If we check manual, then the system will not determine the condition type automatically into the sales document.
• Requirement: If we check required, then system will not allow to save the sales document if the condition type is missing
• Statistical: If we check statistical then it will have two effects, value doesn’t have any effect on net value & not be posted into accounting.
• Print: Controls whether to print the condition type into output printout or not.
• Subtotal: Used to store the value of condition type in some temporary tables and fields for the purpose of further calculations.
• Requirements: The system will check while determining condition type into sales document, if condition fulfilling then condition type determine into sales document.
• Alternate calculation type (Formula): Use alternate calculation type, if the calculation part of condition type is not standard.
• Alternate Base type (Formula): Use alternate base type when the base value of the condition type is not standard.
• Account Key: It is a parameter to determine revenue G/L account while posting invoice values into accounting.
• Accrual Key: Keeping some amount aside from each transaction into provisional account to meet the further requirements of rebate settlement.

Now SAP S/4HANA pricing procedure has expanded from 16 pricing field to 18 pricing field are follow:

1. Statistical and Relevant for Account Determination:

Statistical: It does not impact the net price but is recorded for reporting purposes.

Relevant for Account Determination: It still flows into financial accounting, even though it’s statistical. We can use this field indicator to define that the statistical price condition is posted to account-based Profitability Analysis (CO-PA) as journal entry to an extension ledger of Financial Accounting.   

Example: Imagine you are delivering the free delivery above 200 rupees, previously this delivery cost maybe be ignored in financial posting because it has marked as Statistic.

Now, you can post it to an extension ledger in CO-PA, giving you a clear picture of how much free delivery impacts your bottom line.

Scenario: In this scenario Tax will display and post, but no impact on Net price:

This shows the Tax ZXYX on invoice, it will be posted to a special liability GL account and will not impact the product net price (i.e., customer doesn’t pay directly).

In system:

✅ Visible on sales order and invoice as a separate line

✅ Posted to G/L account (e.g., Environmental Provisions) using Account Key ZEV

❌ Does not affect the net selling price (because it’s statistical)

2. Access level (New in 2023): Access levels is used to control the access of your business users to price elements in business documents.

Access levels consist of a four-digit number and a description, you can use all numbers from 0001 to 9999.

Default value 0000 grants full access to all users.

For example, the profit margin in a sales order can be displayed only by a sales manager.

Business Need: Can we hide certain price details (like Profit Margin or Internal Cost) from some users in sales documents or invoices?

Solution: In SAP S/4HANA, introduced Role-Based Access level to Price Elements. This controls who can view or edit specific price conditions (e.g., profit margin) in sales orders, returns, or invoices — either at header or item level. You can set access as no access, display only, or editable, based on the user’s role.

Recommendation by SAP: The higher the sensitivity, the higher is the number of the access level.

Benefit of S/4HANA Pricing:

• Improved performance as pricing is stored in the single table PRCD_ELEMENTS, it leads to execution of sales order creation and billing creation.
• Reduces errors by replacing multiple condition tables into one condition table.
• Enhanced user experience with Fiori apps.
• Supports Real-time profitability analysis.
• Enhanced customization, increased range of digits, can create more Access sequences, Condition tables, Formula/Routine and Condition type counter.

Key Components of Pricing Procedure:

• Condition Records: It stores the pricing information, taxes, and discounts. (e.g., prices, surcharge, taxes, discounts)
• Condition Types: Define types of pricing components, such as- PR00 Basic price, K004 material discount. Each pricing type represents a particular pricing element.
• Pricing Procedures: A pricing procedure is a collection of condition types arranged in a specific sequence, it defines the rules and logic for pricing that how to calculate conditions where conditions are mandatory, optional, or statistical.
• Access Sequences: It searches the strategy for finding valid condition records.
• Condition Tables: It specifies the combination of fields used to maintain condition records (e.g., customer and material, sales organization).
• Master Data Integration: Pricing leverages data from Customer master and material master.

Difference between ECC pricing & S/4HANA pricing:

Conclusion: The evolution from ECC to S/4HANA in pricing procedure is not just as technical upgrade but it is transformation that brings greater flexibility, transparency, improved performance, time saving and error free. with the expansion from 16 to 18 pricing fields, the system now supports more accurate financial reporting and role-based access control through features like statistical posting to CO-PA and Access Levels.

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In the fast-paced world of supply chain management, unexpected events can disrupt operations and impact service levels. SAP Extended Warehouse Management (EWM) offers robust exception handling capabilities that enable businesses to respond effectively to discrepancies, ensuring seamless operations and enhanced customer satisfaction. This article delves into the critical configurations and best practices for managing exceptions within SAP EWM.