Introduction to SAP

Intro to SAP (V1201) Page 1 Introduction to SAP Customer Order Inventory Sourcing Delivery Invoicing Customer Payment Sales Order Planning MPS MRP Planned Order Production Order Purchase Request Vendor Selection Purchase Order Goods Issue Invoice Verification Vendor Payment Initial Contact Production Control Procurement Production Sales Financials Human Resources Intro to SAP (V1201) Page 2 Introduction to SAP ERP SAP’s ERP is an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system designed to assist an organization with the integration and management of business processes. The system deals with the problems of organising and executing the millions of transactions that are fundamental to many large businesses. SAP is the leader in the ERP market. SAP ERP is a very large system which incorporates over 30,000 tables, 50,000 transactions and 15,000 reports. This tutorial is an introduction designed to assist you with familiarising yourself with the SAP ERP basics. Getting Started SAP ERP can operate on a variety of personal computers using different operating systems. But no matter which equipment or operating system which is used, there are some necessary requirements: SAPGUI This is the graphic user interface to SAP ERP that must be installed on any PC that wishes to access the ERP solution. The SAPGUI is available for the various versions of Microsoft, Apple and Linux operating systems. The SAPGUI enables SAP ERP to look identical on any PC no matter what the underlying operating system is. The main purpose of the SAPGUI is to install most of the screens you are going to use locally. This reduces the amount of traffic that travels over the network to the server and has a positive impact on performance. Log On details Due to the value of the information stored in the ERP system it is necessary to control the access to the software. The SAP administrator would need to establish a user account for each user who intends to use the ERP system. Each user account is identified by a user name and requires a password for security. Each user account is also allocated a particular type of security profile which determines the data a user is allowed to view and change. The other log on detail you require is the Client number. A Client is a set of self contained tables required for processing transactions in the SAP system. A user in one client can not change the data in another Client. You will need to know your user name, password and Client before you attempt to access the system.  Identify your log on details Client User Name Password Intro to SAP (V1201) Page 3 Exercise 1: Logging on to the SAP System There are various techniques to open the SAP ERP system. 1 Double Click to open the SAP ERP system. A screen appears which allows you to select which server you want to logon to. Companies often have more than one SAP solution server. 2. Click the Server that has been assigned to this subject. 3. Click to activate the SAP ERP system. After a short time the My SAP ERP log on window appears similar to the one below: Intro to SAP (V1201) Page 4 Input Areas of the Screen Client A Client identifies a business entity in the ERP system. Each Client contains data that is completely separate from data in other clients. Different clients are established for testing and developing different aspects of the system and for training purposes. The system default Client should already appear. User Uniquely identifies you to the ERP system. Your User Id will be allocated by your workshop leader and remain the same throughout the unit Password Uniquely identifies you to the ERP system. Language Identifies the language the ERP will be displayed in. Our ERP system default is English. 4. Type your User Id XXX-NNN 5. Press <TAB> to mover the cursor to the Password text box. 6. Type your Password which will supplied by the lecturer 7. Click or press <ENTER> to accept the input. A new screen will appear which allows you to enter a new password to replace the temporary one you logged on with. You now need to create a new password. You will be the only person who knows this password so it is important to create a password which is easy to remember. However the ERP system has some rules about what it allows to be a password. Intro to SAP (V1201) Page 5 Password Rules Passwords must be at least 3 characters long and less than 8. Passwords are not case-sensitive. Passwords can not start with a blank space, question mark(?). or an exclamation mark (!). Passwords can not start with 3 identical characters i.e Aaahsap. The password can not be pass. The password can not be any of the previous 5 passwords. 8. Type your new password. To hide your new password from other people, it is hidden by asterisks as you type. 9. Press <TAB> to move to the next text box. 10. Click to enter the new password into the system. A Copyright message appears on screen. 11. Click to close this dialogue message. Intro to SAP (V1201) Page 6 SAP ERP Main Screen After logging on to the SAP ECC system the main screen appears: The SAP ERP main screen has a number of screen elements you need to become familiar with: Status Bar The Status Bar displays warning or error messages. It also displays: Session Number You can have more than one SAP ERP session (similar to a window) opened at one time. This area identifies which session is the active window. (1) Client A SAP system can contain more than one Client. The Status Bar indicates which Client (800) you are logged onto. Server Name This indicates the name of the computer server SAP is installed on. This is different to a Client, which was required when you logged on. Insert/overtype This indicates which typing mode you are in. INS Standard Toolbar Application Toolbar Navigation Area Status Bar Menu Bar Intro to SAP (V1201) Page 7 Standard Toolbar This allows you to use icons to perform common navigation tasks. Notice that some icons are dimmed to indicate that they are not available on this screen. Application Toolbar This allows you to use icons to perform common tasks for particular applications. Navigation Area This lists the options available within each application. It provides a hierarchical menu structure Menu Bar This lists the options available to customize the SAP environment SAP Hierarchical Menus The menu structure within the SAP ERP system can appear to be complex and confusing. As you move between different applications within the ERP system the menus change accordingly. However navigation via the menus uses the same techniques no matter which application you are in. After a bit of practice the menu structure will become much easier. You will soon realise that transactions related to the movement of materials will appear under the Logistics menu, while most financial transactions appear under the Accounting menu. There are 2 different techniques you can use to view the contents of each top level menu. You can either click next the desired application area or double click of the application area. To view the options in Logistics: 12. Click next to Logistics to display the options. next to Materials Management to display the options. next to Purchasing. next to Master Data. next to Vendor. next to Purchasing. You will notice that the symbol appears next to some of the options. This means you can perform an action at this level.  Experiment and see what menu options are available in Human Resources. You will notice that is does not take long before you have an extensive menu tree appearing on the screen. You can use the symbol to close a subordinate menu level or by clicking on the Standard Toolbar 13. Click next to Human Resources and Logistics to hide the lower menu options. 14. Close all other menus until you have returned to the top level menu. Intro to SAP (V1201) Page 8 Using Help SAP has an extensive Help documentation. It is essential that you understand how to use the Help documentation if you want to gain a better understanding of this system. SAP ERP provides different kinds of on line Help. You can access the Help documentation a number of different ways. There is web based Help at http://help.sap.com/ : The Help menu contains the following options: Application help: Displays comprehensive help on the current application. SAP Library: This is where all online documentation can be found. Glossary: Enables you to search for definitions of terms. Release notes: Displays notes which describe functional changes that occur between ERP releases. SAP Service Marketplace: Enables you to log on to SAP’s web based repository of SAP resources. Create Support Message: Enables you to send a message to the SAP for support. However you need appropriate level of access to do this. Settings: Enables you to select settings for help 15. Choose Help  SAP Library to display the Help screen. The Help screen is divided into two sections. On the left is the Contents or main headings while on the right side the Help documentation appears. 16. Click Getting Started – Using SAP Software in the left pane. A new window appears Intro to SAP (V1201) Page 9 17. Click next to First Steps to display the available topics. 18. Click next to SAP GUI for Windows to display the available topics. 19. Click next to Navigating in the SAP Window 20. Click Element of an SAP GUI Window to display the contents. 21. Click The Menu Bar to display the Help documentation.  Explore some of the other topics. Once you have explored some of the Help options: 22. Click SAP Library on the Help menu bar to return to the main Help screen. 23. Click of the Help window to close the last Help screen and return to the SAP main menu. Another form of Help documentation is Application Help which can be accessed via a number of techniques. You can access it by choosing the SAP Library command from the Help menu or from particular task screen you can access it via the Application Help command from the Help menu. The major difference between these two techniques is that Application Help command is Context Sensitive Help. This means that Help screen displayed gives help relevant to the SAP screen it was accessed from. To demonstrate this: Intro to SAP (V1201) Page 10 24. Choose Human Resources -> Personnel Management -> Recruitment -> Appl. Master Data on the SAP Main Menu. 25. Double click to start this action The Initial Entry of Basic Data screen appears. To find out about how this screen is used: 26. Choose Help -> Application Help from the menu bar The Help documentation for Initial Entry of Applicant Data appears on screen, as this was the task screen that was active. This is an example of context sensitive help. From here, you can select relevant topics. Glossary The Help documentation also includes an online glossary which can help you to understand some of the terminology used in the SAP system. 27. Click Glossary on the Help menu bar to move to this screen. The Glossary screen appears: SAP Help system enables you to search for particular topics.  Find the term client. What data is stored at the Client level? 28. Close of the Help window to close the last Help screen. 29. Click to return to SAP ERP main screen.