Introducing Copy Control

Business processes of sales and distribution are reflected by a flow of documents in the SAP system. For example, when a customer orders a product the relative information is stored in sales order document, then, when the product needs to be shipped, a subsequent delivery document is created in the system. Such documents chain is captured in the document flow.

You can also create a sales document with reference to a preceding document, for example using the Create with Reference function. You can choose Copy to copy the reference document completely or you can choose Item Selection to copy only certain items and change the quantities before they are copied.

You can use copying control to activate options such as to update the document flow. The document flow is updated at the document header level by default. If the Update Document Flow check box is selected in copying control at item level, the document flow is updated for individual items too. You can navigate from the document flow to the relevant documents display screen. You can also display additional data about the status of a document listed in the document flow.

Copying control tables define which document types can be copied to another document type.

The same they do for items: they define which item category can be copied to another item category.

In SAP S/4HANA Cloud, public edition you cannot modify table entries in the way you would in the private edition, for example you cannot include a new couple of documents in the list, or remove an existing one.

As a result, for example, it is pre-defined that a Quotation can be copied into a Standard Order, but it cannot be copied into a Credit Memo Request.

Nevertheless, you can execute some configurations on the existing document types and item categories.

For example:

• You configure some details of the copying procedure, such as the copying logic for the item number.
• You can define conditions to prevent copying using copying requirements.
• You can personalize the way data is copied from one document to another using data transfer routines.

Using data transfer routines, you can control which data (such as header data, partner data, or conditions) is copied when referencing.

The Create with Reference function is available on the initial entry screen of creating a document with reference as well as on the Create Sales Document Overview screen during document entry.

Before data is copied from the source document to the target document, certain requirements must be met. ABAP routines contain these requirements, which are assigned in the copying control tables using their identification (ID) numbers. You can also create customer-specific routines. The specified data transfer routines are not executed until the copying requirements are fulfilled.