Exploring Contract Snapshots in SAP Agricultural Contract Management

In the agricultural origination business, the ability to amend contracts easily and track changes compared to prior versions is crucial. Flexibility is paramount, and the requirement for a counterparty's signature on contract changes can vary across different agricultural companies.

To address these needs, SAP Agricultural Contract Management offers contract snapshots, which capture specific data when saving a contract. These snapshots are created when the contract is in the appropriate status and serve as a reference for generating outputs. Each snapshot is timestamped, allowing for easy identification of changes over time. Additionally, it enables tracking of changes that have been used in previous outputs and highlights which changes require a counterparty's signature.

Contract snapshots provides several benefits:

• Allows for the management and assignment of contract attributes that govern the creation of new snapshot versions
• Different snapshot versions can be directly monitored in the contract maintenance transactions, providing a clear overview of contract history
• Facilitates the management of contract attributes that determine the relevancy of a counterparty's signature and tracks the signature status, such as "Signature sent to counterparty" or "Signature received"
• Functionality can be leveraged to support custom form creations, such as contract amendments

During the contract creation process, contract snapshots are triggered upon saving the contract. The initial save generates the first snapshot, marking it as the starting point for evaluation. Contract information, including snapshots, is stored in dedicated tables, alongside additional tables specifically designed for storing snapshot details. The snapshot data is organized into header and item detail tables.

Subsequently, whenever changes are made to the contract fields and saved, the evaluation process is initiated. This evaluation refers to configuration tables that define the fields to capture in the snapshots. If any of the designated fields have been modified, a new snapshot is created, clearly indicating the change that was made. Consequently, each amendment generates a new snapshot, allowing for a comprehensive historical record of contract revisions.

For forms or output determination, standard GTM (Global Trade Management) output determination configuration is used, similar to other SAP documents. Customization of form selection and configuration for output determination can be done through customer project work, tailoring it to specific business requirements. Furthermore, APIs are available that can assist in facilitating and supporting this process.

There are certain administrative fields associated with snapshots that provide additional functionality. These fields can be updated through various means, including using the GTM transaction code WB22, utilizing the Snapshot Work Center integrated with output determination, and leveraging the API capabilities. Notably, we have also introduced the Snapshots SAP Fiori app, which offers a user-friendly interface for managing and updating these administrative fields.

Examples of the administrative fields include tracking the status of signatures, indicating whether they have been received or sent for signatures, and other related information. These fields serve to enhance the contract management process by providing visibility and control over the signature workflow.

In the figure of the GTM WB22 transaction, you can observe the presence of snapshot fields at both the header and item levels. These fields enable users to input and modify relevant information associated with the contract snapshots, facilitating efficient management and tracking of contract changes.

A snapshot can have the administration fields updated using the following:

• WB22 (Change mode of the contract)
• Transaction code /ACCGO/CAK_SNAPSHOTS
• From an API that is called from a custom program
• SAP Agricultural Contract Management Fiori Apps

The configuration for managing snapshots can be found under the SAP Agricultural Contract Management path (Logistics General → Global Trade Management → Agricultural Contract Management → Basic Settings → Contract Snapshots), specifically under the basic settings category. Within this configuration, you can identify the fields that are available for snapshots and specify which ones should be included in the snapshot data. Additionally, you can determine the relevance of these fields for signatures and other purposes.

To enhance the functionality of snapshots, there are function modules and BADI implementations available. These provide additional flexibility and customization options to tailor the snapshot data according to specific business requirements.

An authorization object is also in place to ensure appropriate access control and security measures when working with snapshot data.

In terms of standard text determination for output, there is an option to utilize BRFplus, a rules-based framework, to determine the appropriate standard text to be included in the output documents.