SAP Document Change Rules

Welcome to our tutorial on SAP document change rules. Here, you will learn how to change uneditable data on the posted document without reversing it. We will first describe how to post normal document changes, then we will explain how to post changes to restricted fields using customizing. This tutorial is part of our free SAP FI course.

The structure of a document is common for all financial transactions. As many financial documents are entered for a company code on a daily basis, the below criteria are used to identify an individual document:

• Document number
• Company code
• Fiscal year

A typical document in SAP consists of:

• Header (information which applies to the whole document)
• Line items (individual credit/debit items which must net to zero, at a maximum of 999 lines)

To understand the concept better we have divided this tutorial into two sections:

1. SAP Document Changes
2. SAP Document Change Rules

Please note that SAP document change rules can be used to alter certain uneditable data, but cannot be used to change critical accounting data such as amount, posting key or account number.

SAP Document Changes

Once a document is posted, there are only a few fields which can be changed as a standard. The editable fields are controlled by SAP to maintain the integrity of critical accounting data.

In the initial screen, enter the following information:

• Document number
• Company code
• Fiscal year

Press Enter.

If you don’t know the document number, click the Document List button. Enter known search criteria and a posted document list will be displayed.

To change document header fields, click the document header button . You can change the contents of the following header fields:

• Document Header Text contains explanations or notes that applies to the document as a whole
• Reference usually contains the customer/vendor invoice number, but may contain something else depending on the business requirements

Make necessary changes and hit Enter to return to the change document data entry view screen.

To change line item fields, double click on the line item you want to change, as highlighted below:

Fields that can be changed are displayed in red. You can change the contents of the following line item fields:

• Value Date is used in bank account and bank sub accounts
• Assignment Number is additional information reference
• Text is used to explain the line item

Make necessary changes and hit Enter to return to the change document data entry view screen.

Click on the save icon to save the changes.

SAP Document Change Rules

To change certain uneditable data on a document without reversing it, we can use SAP document change rules in customizing. These can be used to correct wrong values for fields like document type or quantity. Please note the following:

• A field can only be modified when the posting period is open, the line item is not cleared and the document is not a credit memo.
• New G/L fields should be changed. Document changes only update the BSEG table and may lead to inconsistency of data between the entry view and the new G/L view.
• Special ledger fields should not be modified as this may lead to inconsistency between the financial tables and the special ledger.
• Document change rules can be predefined or user created.

To illustrate the concept, suppose a vendor invoice is posted with payment term 0001, but the correct value is 0002. The document is reflected in the BSEG table as below:

First, attempt to use the standard SAP document change functionality. You can see that the field is not editable, as shown below:

Thus, you must leverage SAP document change rules to make the change.

To apply SAP document change rules at the line item level, use the customizing path below in transaction code SPRO:

Financial Accounting – Financial Accounting Global Settings – Document – Document Header – Document Change Rules, Document Header

To apply SAP document change rules at the line item level, use transaction code OB32 or use the customizing path below in transaction code SPRO:

Financial Accounting – Financial Accounting Global Settings – Document – Line Item – Document Change Rules, Line item

In our example, payment terms is a line item attribute. Therefore, in the overview screen of transaction code OB32, click on the New Entries button.

Define a rule for the field. Enter the following details:

• Field name (in our case, BSEG-ZTERM for Terms of Payment)
• Select account type to define a rule for assets, vendors, customers, materials or G/L accounts, or leave blank to define the rule for all account types
• Enter a transaction type to define the rule for special G/L transactions or leave blank to apply to normal G/L transactions
• Enter company code to define the rule for a particular company code or leave blank to apply to all company codes
• Select the Fields Can Be Changed tickbox
• Tick the following boxes under Stipulations for changing if they should apply:
• Posting period not closed tickbox if the field may only be changed if the posting period of the document is not yet closed
• Line item not cleared tickbox if the field may only be changed if the line item is still open
• Customer Debit or Vendor Credit tickbox if the field is only modifiable for debit item in a customer account or credit item in a vendor account
• No invoice-related credit memo tickbox to indicate that the field cannot be changed for credit memos
• No credit memo from down payment tickbox if the field should not be changed for credit memos created through the transfer posting of down payments

Click on the save icon to save the rule.

Now, return to transaction code FB02 to change the document line item. You can see that the field is now open for change as highlighted below:

Now you can modify your payment terms to 0002. Click on the save icon to save the change. You may see a warning message as shown below:

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Did you like this tutorial? Have any questions or comments? We would love to hear your feedback in the comments section below. It’d be a big help for us, and hopefully it’s something we can address for you in improvement of our free SAP FI tutorials.