Defining Product-Specific Configuration Values and Transporting Business Configuration

In the Configuration phase, all partner line of business (LoB) configuration experts can now log into SAP Central Business Configuration and enter the configuration values gathered during their respective Fit-to-Standard workshops. The available configuration activities are based on the active scope (business processes) and country/region selections. Configuration activities may vary by country, because not all business processes are available in all countries.

When viewing the list of configuration activities, the Status column is set to Open by default. As an LoB configuration expert, you manually select the drop-down menu and set it to Completed once you have finished entering all configuration values for that activity. This is a method of communicating to the rest of your team members that configuration values for that specific activity have been entered and are finalized.

The Go-Live relevance column differentiates between three configuration activity types:

• Mandatory: must be configured. For example, organizational structure.
• Recommended: default content exists that a customer can use, but many will need to change the standard content or add their own content. For example, Chart of Accounts or Pricing.
• Optional: default content exists and most customers don't need to change the standard information. For example, Delivery Block Reasons.

Here's how to match configuration values from the Business Driven Configuration Questionnaire to the right configuration activity where the data needs to be entered in SAP Central Business Configuration:

• Topic column of the Business Driven Configuration Questionnaire (BDCQ) matches with the Title column in SAP Central Business Configuration (CBC).
• SAP ID column in the BDCQ matches the ID column in CBC.

Select the link in the Title column to open the configuration activity, enter the values necessary, and select Save. If you've added new data or removed/edited existing data, you'll be prompted to assign the change to a transport after you click the Save button. This ensures all values added, removed, or changed are captured in a transport, which is automatically released to the connected deployment target (customizing tenant or development tenant of the development system).

If you've had experience with any SAP ERP on premise software, you've probably heard of the IMG (Implementation Guide). This is where you enter configuration values to make the business processes work correctly for SAP S/4HANA on premise and SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition. For SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, we have many of the same or similar IMG activities. For example, Add Blocking Reasons for Billing, Change Approval Thresholds, and Add New Sales Organization. You can see this by looking at the URL when a new browser tab opens after selecting a configuration activity. You will see IMGActivity-execute in the URL, along with a reference to the specific activity.

When prompted to assign configuration activity changes to a customizing request, either search for an existing request you've already created with the Own Requests button, or select the "document" icon to create a new request. Enter the details of the new request, and save the change to the customizing request.

Business content from SAP Central Business Configuration is automatically pushed to the connected deployment target, but also needs to be released in the target system. For example, after making changes to configuration activities, we need to log into the customizing tenant of the development system, and open the Export Customizing Transports app. There, you should see any transport request(s) you've created in SAP Central Business Configuration. Select a transport request to view the individual customizing requests. If you select an individual customizing request, you can view the details of exactly which configuration activity was changed.

After you've released the transport tasks in the development system, you can execute the transport request to move the business content changes from the customizing tenant of the development system to the test system. First, make sure the transport request is assigned to you. If not, select the request and choose Assign to Me. You should then see the Release drop-down menu become available with the option to Execute. In the test system, transports need to be imported with the Import Collection app.

Learn how to enter product-specific configuration values and transport in this tutorial:

Some configuration activities in SAP Central Business Configuration are not able to be transported to the SAP S/4HANA Cloud test or production systems. It could be because the configuration activity is system-specific, must be changed regularly in your other systems, or simply cannot be transported from the source system.

We call these "current settings", and since SAP Central Business Configuration is only connected to the development system tenants, not the test or production system, we have to use a dedicated app to configure these settings directly in each system.

To maintain current settings, log into the test and production systems individually and open the Implementation Activities app. You will be able to see all configuration activities and the data entered for them, however only the current settings will be editable. Other values that have been transported from the development system (and by extension, SAP Central Business Configuration), will be read-only. There are a few LoB-specific apps that grant access to additional activities.

Here are some examples of current settings that need to be maintained separately in the test and production systems:

• Maintain Default Profit Center
• Maintain Profit Center Standard Hierarchy
• Create Bank Master Data for House Banks
• Define House Banks
• Create Bank Accounts in Cash Management
• Maintain Check Lots
• Maintain Business Partner Representing Supplier Company Code for Intercompany
• Maintain Consolidation FS Items
• Maintain Stock Transfer Supplier BP
• Maintain PSM Master Data for Material Stock Postings
• Maintain PSM Sponsored Class Master Data for G/L Account Classification