Text Determination in SAP SD What is Texts ?
Text is a small piece of formatted or unformatted text that is functionally used to describe or note information in master data and Transactional Data. For example, a temperature sensitive material ( say a bio-reagent ) needs to be kept under freezing temperatures always. Although there is another field called Storage Conditions to denote this, we can use a text field with more specific comments so that the folks selling this material can e nsure that they always inform the customer that they need to have storage facilities for the same. Since the information information in this case is used to inform sales agents, it can be a ³Sales Text´ Related Trainings SAP Training SAP Access SAP SD Training
Now, its not just enough that t hat the material master contains this text. We will also have to ensure that the sales agents creating orders for this material has visibility visibility to the t he same text. That means that the sales order should also have t exts that can show the same. And since this text is specific to the specific material, this text needs to be part of the line item not the sales order header.
As you can see from the example above, there are myriad number of texts like item note, packing note, delivery text, purchase order text, production memo etc. All of these texts are either flown in from the corresponding master data ( Customer master , material master etc ) or entered in the transaction itself. In summary, texts are little pieces of information that are useful in communication information about master data o r transaction specific data across the enterprise. Can
Texts be Formatted ?
Yes. These texts ( Or Text Objects as they are normally called in SAP lingo ) need not be constrained to plain text only. You can use the buttons highlighted below to import or export text. You can use the standard ³Clipboard´ (
) button to copy or paste text.
The best part is that on a windows machine, you can just double click on the white space to open your favorite rich text editor ( Like MS Word or TextPad ) to format text as required. Also, these texts can be maintained in multiple languages as can be seen below.
How do Texts Flow ? ( Text Determination )
As can be seen from the example above, the material sales text has flown in from the master data ( Sales Text view of the material master ) to the line item view of the sa les order. This does not happen automatically. We will have to specifically configure the system to ensure t he same. This process of creating new texts and letting them flow across the transactions and determine when and where these texts need to be is called ³Text Determination´. Let us go into the configuration to understand this. Configuration
The transaction code for performing text determination is [VOTXN]. The menu path for the same is [SPRO -> IMG -> Sales & Distribution -> Basic Functions -> Text Control ]
Text Types Each text item ( ³Material Sales Text´ ) in the example above is called a Text Type. It internally contains a Text ID. These are configured in the Text Types section. As you can see from the picture below, there are different Text Types depending on the functionality where it is used.
Select the Text Object ( Customer, Info Record..etc ) and select o ne of the radio button to view the revelant ³Text Types´
The technical name of the Customer Text Object is ± KNA1 and t he different text types associated with KNA1 are displayed below. For example 0001 Sales Note for Customer 0002 Accounting Note «
If you want to create more text types, Click on the ³New Entries´ button. For example, lets think of a scenario where the custo mer always insists that we talk to their purchasing head first before
ordering. Since this is a special ordering instruction, let¶s create a new text type for customer text object KNA1.
Text Determination Procedure
Now that we have defined the text types, we have to ensure that the conditions are met for the required action to take place. This starts with the access sequence first. There is a standard Text Det ermination Procedure for Customer Text Object. You can e ither choose to use it or create new.
Let¶s start by creating a new Text Determination procedure for illustration purposes. Create a new Text Determination Procedure called ³Z1´
Select the new Text Determination procedure just created and click on the ³Text IDs in the Text Procedure´ section as shown below.
Click on new entries to create Access Sequences. For example, we have created a new sequence (10 ) for the Text ID ± Z001 that we have just created.
Now for the final step, we have to assign this text determination procedure to an actual Customer type ( Customer Account Group ) Currently the customer account group for the standard sold-to party ± 0001 is assigned to text determination procedure 01. Let¶s change this to Z1 and see how t he texts in the customer master changes. Demo of Customer Master Text Determination:
To view the existing text t ypes in the Customer master go to Extras -> Texts in the General Tab.
As you can see the following texts are available for the standard customer master for customer account group 0001 ( Sold-to Party ) Now that we have changed the text determination procedure of the customer master to µZ1¶, we can see the new texts types that we have created for the customer text object KNA1 below.
This concludes the configuration for the text determination in Customer Master. The text determination for other master data ( Material Master , Info Records etc ) is very similar. However, the text determination for transaction data is a little different. Let¶s see how it is. Text Determination for Sales Documents
The text type definition is very similar to t he way we have created for the customer master. Select the Sales Document Header and click on Change. ( Since there are texts both at the Header ( Text Object ± VBBK ) as well as the line item level ( T ext Object ± VBBP ) , let¶s choose header for now.
As usual, we can have multiple text determination procedures and assign each to one or more transaction types. Instead of creating a new o ne, let¶s examine an existing text determination procedure ± 01 Sales Header. After selecting the sales procedure, double-click on t he Text IDs to know the different text IDs created under it.
As you can observe, there are a couple of differences from the way text IDs are created between Sales Order and Customer master.
You can freely define text IDs , just like you have created them in Customer master. However, since the customer master is ± Master Data ± which is a source data, there is no Access associated with that text ID. However, since transaction data like sales orders derive part of their data from the master data ( customer master, material master, vendor master, pricing records, customer material info records ) , we have to define the corresponding source. The Access column defines the source of the text ID. Also, there are 2 more additional columns.
- This means that the text is referenced , not copied over. What this means is that if there is a previous document that the text has flowed in from, if you choose the reference field, then the text ID in the Quotation is referenced. Otherwise its copied over. R eferenced
Quotation Form Header Header Note 1
-> Order Form Header Header Note 1
In the picture above, the text ID Header Note 1 is referenced whereas the rest are not. What this means is that if the quotation¶s text ID Header Note 1 is changed, the same will be reflected in the downstream document, Order. But any changes to the text ID , Form Header in the quotation will not carry over to the order. Text is Obligatory ± As the name implies, this flag ensures that some text is filled up in the text ID ± either by copying over from the previous document or by filling up in the current document.
Let¶s now move on to the Access Sequences in transactional text determination. This determines the source and the sequence of the sources. Select an Access Sequence (say 01 ) and click on Access Sequences for Text IDs underneath.
If you remember well, this is the Access seque nce that was used for the ³Form Header´ text ID.
This picture determines the sequence and sources of the texts. What this means is that the text ID , Form Header with access sequence 1 can be based on the following in that order. That means that if a text is found in the Sales order header of the previous document, it is taken in the Form Header Text ID of the current document and the rest are ignored.
For Header Text ID
<-
Sales Note from Customer Sales Note from Customer
<-
Sales Order Header ( Of the Previous Document ) Customer Master Sales Texts
<-
Customer Master General Texts
Now that we have determined the source of a text ID and the sequence in which they appear, all that needs to be done now is to assign the text determination procedure to an order type. As you can see, the text determination procedure µ01¶ is assigned to the t ransaction type OR. Demo of Sales Order Text Determination:
Create a new Customer and enter a Sales Note in the General Texts
Create a sales order for this customer and see w hat comes as the ³Form Header´ t ext ID. In this example, text created as the ³Sales Note for Customer´ from the General Text o f the Customer master seems to flow down to the ³Form Header´ text in the sales order header text.
Let¶s take this one step further and create a sales area text ± Sales Note for Customer and see if it supercedes the General text ± Sales Note for Customer as defined in the Access sequence. Enter a new sales note for the customer for the sales area text .
Now, create a new order of the same order type ( OR ) . You should now be able to see that the newly entered sales text in the Sa les Area tab supercedes the text entered in the General Text
This is because, the customer sales texts ( KNVV ) supersedes the Customer General Texts ( KNA1 ) in the Access sequence associated to the text ID Form Header in text determination procedure associated with the sales order o f type OR.
