SAP CRM Business Transaction Process

What is a Business Transaction?

• Business Processes in SAP CRM:

• A business transaction provides the structure and functions used across a company’s processes. In SAP CRM, it represents your organization’s interaction with various business partners.
• It enables the same interface and processing concepts across business processes.
• Components of business transactions can be reused.
• Within one transaction, items can come from different business contexts.
• Independent of the transaction type, the look and feel of business transactions in SAP CRM is always similar.

Structure of Transactions

• Any company-specific business process can be flexibly controlled and managed with 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.
• The structure of a CRM business transaction depends on the leading business transaction category.
• A 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:
• attributes
• characteristics
• controlling attributes
• In SAP CRM, business transaction processing is controlled by a transaction type.
• The leading business transaction category in a transaction type controls:
• specific settings that can be applied on a lower level
• other business transaction categories to which it could be assigned
• detailed control of the transaction
• The properties and attributes of a business transaction item are specified by an item category.
• An 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 the 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.
• It is also possible to define alternative item categories that can be entered manually instead of the system default.

• Item category determination depends on:
• 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.
• For example, from a released Sales Contract, Sales Orders can be created.
• In this case, the 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 the same business transaction type.
• 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.
• When a business transaction is copied:
• the transaction type is the same
• header and item data is copied
• transaction history is not updated
• no relation to the source transaction is maintained
• When 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
• copy control settings should be maintained for this purpose
• this flow can be seen in the Transaction History assignment block

• The required settings in the copy control are:
• Copy control for transaction types
• Copy control for item categories
• Settings for the target transaction type
• Determination of the item category during the copy (optional)
• Implementation of CRM_COPY_BADI (optional)
• In SAP CRM, the BAdI definition CRM_COPY_BADI is provided for implementation to write your own data transfer routines.
• You can access the interlinkage between business transactions at header and item level through the transaction history data.
• SAP CRM also provides the Subsequent Referencing option, where you can link an activity to an existing activity while it is being created.
• This makes the new transaction a follow-up to the existing one (Fig. 4).

Basic Functions in Business Transactions

• Basic functions in Business Transactions:
• Text Determination
• Date Management
• Status Management
• Incompleteness Check
• Partner Processing
• Action Processing
• 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 business transactions for different relevant texts.
• CRM Web UI provides assignment blocks to:
• Create a new text with a particular text type.
• Display the text in the business transaction.
• Modify the particular text.
• With date management it is possible to process the dates that are relevant for a business transaction.
• It consists of:
• Date type
• Date rule
• Duration
• Date Profile

• This date management system also supports the conversion of saved dates to user time zones and considers the factory calendar in a business transaction.

• Dates in a business transaction can be entered manually or can be calculated by the system using date rules.

• Status management allows maintaining user statuses in a status profile for business transactions.
• It consists of a status profile that is assigned to a business transaction.
• If the status profile is not assigned to a business transaction type or item category, system statuses are displayed in the application.

• The following can be defined in a status profile:
• Activation sequence of user statuses
• An initial status or start status
• A set transaction status connected with a user status

Activity Management

• Activity management is an example of a business transaction in SAP CRM.
• An activity represents an action performed by an employee in the organization.
• It also covers interactions between the employee and a business partner involved in the transaction.
• Activities can be linked as follow-ups to transactions like Sales Order or Service Order, across CRM modules such as Sales, Marketing, and Services.
• Technically –
• Information about an interaction with a business partner on a particular date is stored in a Business Activity.
• Information about activities employees must complete by a particular date is stored in a Task.
• SAP CRM offers different activity types to cover different communication channels with business partners.
• Types of activity:

• Like other transaction types, activities contain data related to the business process, for example the interaction with a business partner.
• Structure of activities:

FAQs