The new development area in IDES Inc's service territory has not been entered yet in the postal regional structure. In the exercises for this chapter, you will extend the postal regional structure accordingly.
The regional structure is integrated with the standard SAP component Central Address Management. This ensures that the syntax and structure of the addresses are always correct.
The regional structure (city file) is integrated in central address management. However, it can be called separately. SAP supplies an empty regional structure. See OSS note 132948 for more information on importing postal codes, cities, city districts, streets, and PO boxes.
Once the postal regional structure is maintained completely, the addresses of SAP S/4HANA Utilities objects can be allocated to the different elements of the structure (city, street, street section, P.O. box).
The address elements are stored centrally in the system and appear only once in the system as a data record. This guarantees that the spelling and layout of addresses is always correct, and that the address is identical in every transaction that uses it: for example, if the street "Main Street" is maintained in the system, it must always be entered this way (this means that if you enter the street using the slightly differently spelled "Maine Street", the system would not find the address during a search).
To be able to employ the address check tool, you must maintain the country-specific table V_005_B. By double-clicking the appropriate country, you branch to the Country Field Checks view. There you activate the address check by setting the City file active and Street-specific postal code indicators. These settings must be active for central address management to check the address of newly created data objects and for it to react with an appropriate warning if incorrect entries are made or if addresses have not been entered yet.
If one city has several postal codes, we recommend that you maintain the city districts. You must structure the city districts in such a way that each one contains only one postal code. This guarantees that the system automatically proposes the correct postal code with the corresponding city when the street (and if necessary, the house number) is entered.
- Regional structure grouping integrates elements of the regional structure (cities, streets, and street sections). The agent determination function of SAP S/4HANA Utilities, for example, utilizes this integration of the regional structures.
- Franchise contract:
- This is a contract between a utility company and the municipality regarding franchise tax. It refers to one single division and is managed according to the company code.
- All franchise contracts between the utility company and the municipality are assigned to the city in the postal regional structure.
- Calorific value district:
- Part of the supply grid for gas. The calorific value for gas is the same throughout a calorific value district.
- Water hardness/pressure area:
- Parts of a service territory with approximately the same degree of water hardness/water pressure.
- Temperature area:
- Parts of a service territory with approximately the same air temperatures. You use this to weight degree days and for thermal gas billing.
- Air pressure area:
- Parts of a service territory with approximately the same air pressure. Used in thermal gas billing.
- In the customer enhancements for city and street you can store your own check logic.
Use enhancement SZRS0001 for your own checks at city level and enhancement SZRS0002 for your check logic at street level. The SAP enhancement for checking for duplicate city or street entries can be found in the IMG for SAP Utilities.
- As S/4HANA, central address management has open interfaces that you can use for the products of external (third-party) service providers. The interfaces are implemented using the Business Add-Ins (BAdIs) listed following.
- ADDRESS_CHECK – enables you to integrate additional postal address checks using external tools. These checks then operate automatically in all applications using central address management.
- ADDRESS_SEARCH – enables you to perform an error-tolerant search for addresses, as well as a duplication check.
- ADDRESS_UPDATE – used for updating search indices. You must use this interface if you intend to use the search functionality of the ADDRESS_SEARCH BAdI. You can also use ADDRESS_UPDATE in a different context, namely to have the system react to your saving address data.
- In addition to these BAdIs, the interfaces also provide additional tools used to postal checks and error-tolerant duplicate searches. These include programs that compare data when changes are regularly made to the postal reference data, or module for building external search indices.
You can define your own check routine in enhancement SZRS0003. This enables you to have the system carry out additional checks when you maintain addresses (for the business partner or connection object, for example).
Enhancement EE0200001 (SAP S/4HANA Utilities data determination from address) enables you to determine your own data for storage in the regional structure at the city and street level.
The SAP enhancement for determining data from the regional structure can be found in the SAP Fiori app. On Home page→User Profile→App Finder→SAP Menu→Search in SAP Menu→Customizing – Execute Project (enter)→SAP Reference IMG→SAP Utilities→Tools→System Modifications→User-Defined Fields→Define Customer-Specific Fields in City and Street
Tax jurisdiction codes are defined in Financial Accounting as global settings and can be found in the SAP Fiori app. On Home page→User Profile icon→App Finder→SAP Menu→Search in SAP Menu→Customizing – Execute Project (enter)→SAP Reference IMG→Financial Accounting→Financial Accounting Global Settings→Tax on Sales/ Purchases→Basic Settings→Define Tax Jurisdictions.
- The regional structure group groups together elements of the regional structure (such as cities, streets, and street sections). The system can determine the appropriate regional structure group from an address and use it, for example, in agent determination via the regional structure area.
- Water pressure area and water hardness area define regional areas with different values for these attributes and which will be used in billing.
- The SAP Fiori app. On Home page→User Profile icon→App Finder→SAP Menu→Search in SAP Menu→Customizing – Execute Project (enter)→SAP Reference IMG path for all of those settings is SAP Utilities→Basic Functions→Regional Structure→Postal Regional Structure.
- Temperature areas define areas with similar or different air temperatures and can be found in the SAP Fiori app. On Home page→User Profile icon→App Finder→SAP Menu→Search in SAP Menu→Customizing – Execute Project (enter)→SAP Reference IMG→SAP Utilities→Device Management→Meter Reading→Weighting Procedures→Degree Day Weighting
- Gas pressure areas are used to correct the volume as recorded in the meter reading and are defined in the SAP Fiori app. On Home page→User Profile icon→App Finder→SAP Menu→Search in SAP Menu→Customizing – Execute Project (enter)→SAP Reference IMG→SAP Utilities→Contract Billing→Special Functions→Gas Billing→Volume Correction Factor→Measured Pressure
- Air pressure areas are used to correct the volume as recorded in the meter reading and are defined in the SAP Fiori app. On Home page→User Profile icon→App Finder→SAP Menu→Search in SAP Menu→Customizing – Execute Project (enter)→SAP Reference IMG→SAP Utilities→Contract Billing→Special Functions→Gas Billing→Volume Correction Factor→Air Pressure
- Calorific value districts are used to correct the volume as recorded in the meter reading and are defined in the SAP Fiori app. On Home page→User Profile icon→App Finder→SAP Menu→Search in SAP Menu→Customizing – Execute Project (enter)→SAP Reference IMG→SAP Utilities→Contract Billing→Special Functions→Gas Billing→Calorific Value
Hint
The city and street objects can be further defined so that any object created with those address values will have certain attributes defaulted, thus reducing the number of fields a user has to maintain, and also ensuring that errors are eliminated. The user can still override these defaults in the transactions.