SAP Sales Information System Tutorial

SAP Sales Information System (SIS) is part of the Logistics Information System (LIS). Like its brothers, SAP Sales Information System consists of standard and variable analyses, planning information, early warning system, and the info library.

SAP Sales Information System uses the data of transactions in sales and distribution. It also uses various master data across the modules like customer, vendor, employee, and so on. We can utilize SAP Sales Information System as a decision-making tool in regard to sales trends and market development. To build a robust SIS, you will use info structures. Info structure will consume performance of SAP server, means it will affect the overall performance of your SAP ERP system, hence you need extra awareness by constantly monitoring the info structures; especially the ones that will burden the system.

In this tutorial, we are going to learn how to activate standard analysis report and move to flexible analysis while reviewing different tools we can use to optimize these analyses. We are going to see how to check the consistency of info structures, the soul of SIS. SAP Sales Information System is the next level of reporting when reporting requirements cannot be met by the standard SAP SD reports.

Before we go into details, let’s get familiar with common terminologies that you will find.

Info structure

A short from Information Structure. It is a table of fields containing data from operative transactions that are exclusively used for analytics. SAP has its standard info structures ranging from S001 to S500.

Characteristics

Characteristics are fields used to specify or limit the aggregated data by certain range that will be read during execution. Common characteristics which are often used include Sales Organization, Distribution Channel, or Sales Office.

Key Figures

Key figures are fields that store specific values related to the characteristics like sales volume or sales order quantity.

Period Unit

A reference that will determine in which time basis the data should be updated (daily, weekly, monthly, or any period.

Standard Analysis

There are several standard analyses we can use; these analyses are based on individual info structures. Info structures are constantly updated in real time.

Customer Analysis

Customer analysis use info structure S001 for analyzing sales orders, deliveries, invoices, credit/debit memo, and returns. The selection criteria consists of sales area, material code range, and date range.

The table below lists some of the customer analysis that you can try.

Transaction	Description
MC+I	SIS: Customer Credit Memos – selection
MC+A	SIS: Customer Return
MC+E	SIS: Customer, Sales – selection
MC(A	SIS: Incoming Orders – selection
MCTA	SIS: Customer Analysis – selection

For this example, let’s call the transaction MCTA. Enter the selection parameter and click button.

Sales Organization Analysis

These analyses based on the info structure S003, with sales district, customer, and material as the key fields added to the sales area elements. Here is a list of sales organization analyses available in the standard system.

Transaction	Description
MC+Y	SIS: Sales Org. Returns, Selection
MC(I	SIS: Sales Org. Incoming Orders, Selection
MC+6	SIS: Sales Org. Credit Memos, Selection
MC+2	SIS: Sales Org. Invoiced Sales, Selection

For this example, let’s call the transaction MC(I. Enter the selection parameters and click button.

Material Analysis

Material analysis use info structures S004. The table below lists all the material analysis

Transaction	Description
MC+U	SIS: Material Credit Memos, Selection
MC+M	SIS: Material Returns, Selection
MC+Q	SIS: Material, Sales – Selection
MC(E	SIS: Material, Incoming Orders – Selection
MCTC	SIS: Sales Org. Analysis – selection

For example, let’s call the transaction MCTC. Enter the selection parameters and click button.

Shipping Point Analysis

The shipping point analyses as listed in the table below use the info structure S005. The key fields for these analyses are Shipping Point / Receiving Point, Route, Forwarding Agent, and Destination Country.

Transaction	Description
MC(U	SIS: Shipping Point Deliveries Selection
MC-0	SIS: Shipping Point Returns, Selection
MCTK	SIS: Shipping Point Analysis Selection

For this example, let’s call the transaction MCTK. Enter the selection criteria and click button.

Sales Employee Analysis

Sales employee analysis use info structure S006. Beside the sales area elements, the additional key fields are sold-to party, material, and sales employee.

Transaction	Description
MC-U	SIS: Employee – Credit Memos, Selection
MC-M	SIS: Employee – Returns, Selection
MC-Q	SIS: Employee – Sales, Selection
MC(Q	SIS: Employee, Incoming Orders Selection
MCTI	SIS: Sales Employee Analysis Selection

Sales Employee Analysis

For this example, let’s call the transaction MCTI. Enter the selection criteria and click button.

Flexible Analysis

In order to meet your business requirements, you may need to customize the analysis. This approach called flexible analysis in SAP. There are two activities you need to create the flexible analysis: (1) create customized info structures and (2) create customized analysis which access the structure itself.

Create Customized Info Structures

If you decided to create customized analysis because the standard analysis doesn’t meet business requirements, then you first need to create the info structures.

Here are the steps you should follow:

1. Call the transaction MCS7.

Create a new evaluation structure and give it a description.
Click on the “DD table ref…” button.

2. Enter the reference table. It’s always a good practice to use the standard SAP table beforehand.

3. Click on the button and select the characteristic(s). When you finish, click on the button. The system will ask you for the confirmation of selection you made, agree and click “Copy”.

Select and Copy the Characteristics Given

4. Now, do the same process for adding the key figures.

Click on the Key Figures button
Perform the selection
Click the copy + close button
Finish the process by click copy button

5. Once you finish with all the selections, proceed to performing generation of the evaluation structure as shown by the figure below.

Characteristics and Key Figures that Should be Generated

6. The system will ask you whether you want to create a transport request for this modification or not. If you want to use this structure in the QA or Production systems, click yes; otherwise you could skip it.

A dialog Screen for Transport Request Confirmation

7. Once saved, you can update and display the structure by calling transactions MCS8 and MCS9 respectively.

Evaluation Structure was Generated and Saved

Create Customized Analysis

Using our custom info structure, we will create the customized analysis built around it.

1. Call transaction MCSA.

Enter the evaluation structure
Enter the evaluation key and its description
Press Enter

Enter Evaluation Structure, Name the Evaluation Key and Description

2. Now we are going to define the characteristics.

Click on the “Characteristics” button
Select the necessary selection list
Click the “Copy + Close” button
Confirm the selection list again by clicking the “Copy” button

3. Repeat the same steps for the key figures. After you click the “Copy” button, your screen will be similar to the one shown on the figure below.

4. To control behavior of each characteristic on the analysis screen, do the following:

Click on one of the characteristics and then click on the button
A new dialog box will pop out and you can make selection based on your requirements
Customize the screen based on your business requirement

5. You can go further in customization here by adding simple math operation(s).

Click on the key figures and click
Give the formula a new name and enter the math operation
For this example, we use gross value calculation

Insert Your Formula Here and Click Copy Afterwards

6. If you’ve done it correctly, the final result will be as shown below. Click on the button.

Execute Flexible Analysis

1. Call the transaction MCSG. Enter your evaluation structure along with the evaluation code. Press button.

2. The analysis selection list will be displayed. You can filter your selection here. Click on the to execute the evaluation.

3. The result will be similar as shown on the figure below. The characteristics and the key figures you designed prior will be reflected on this screen.

The Final Product of Your Customized SIS Analysis

SAP Sales Information System Checks

Sometimes, you will find cases where SAP Sales Information System is not properly updated. You can run the standard transaction MCVCHECK01 which checks consistency of assignment of update group(s).

SIS Check - Initial Screen — SIS Check – Initial Screen

The Program will Check Assignments at Header and Item Levels

You have to select whether you want to run the check at the header or item levels. The reason is that the system will perform different checks as shown in the table below.

Header Level	Item Level
All document types without an update group assigned to them	All document types without an update group assigned to them
All customers with customer statistics group field empty	All customers with customer statistics group field empty
Combinations of document type and customer for which the system is unable to determine an update group	All item categories without an update group assigned
	All materials with material statistic group field blank
	The combination of above for which the system is unable to determine update group

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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 SD tutorials.