Understanding the Main Concepts of Incompleteness

This case applies if your SAP S/4HANA Cloud tenant uses SAP Central Business Configuration (CBC).

In SAP S/4HANA Cloud, incompleteness checking can be configured in Central Business Configuration, working with the Incompleteness Procedures.

Using your web browser, open your SAP Central Business Configuration system URL and log on.

Make sure your instance has reached Product-Specific Configuration phase. This is a requirement to access configuration in SAP S/4HANA Cloud.

Go to Business Processes Configuration to access the configuration activities.

Open your desired configuration activity by choosing its title to access the configuration in SAP S/4HANA Cloud.

Default Incompleteness Procedures are already in use in the standard solution process of the SAP Best Practices.

For example, if you run process BD9 Sell from Stock, a default set of mandatory fields is already defined. This is why, for example, you get an error message if you do not enter a sold-to party in the sales order.

In most cases, the default procedures will support the business processes of your organization without the need for additional configuration.

Nevertheless, SAP S/4HANA Cloud allows the flexibility to tailor the incompleteness procedures and support specific customer needs. You can configure additional required fields or you can modify the system's response when a field is left blank.

This case applies if your SAP S/4HANA Cloud tenant uses the Implementation Activities app to access system configuration.

You can use the Implementation Activities app in an SAP S/4HANA Cloud 3-system landscape to make configuration settings in test and production tenants.

Access SAP S/4HANA Cloud and open the Implementation Activities app in the SAP Fiori Launchpad (for which the user requires business role SAP_BR_BPC_EXPERT).

You reach the Configuration User Interface.

By navigating through the menu, you can select the configuration option that enables you to work with incompleteness procedures. The menu path to choose is Sales → Basic Functions. The options Define Incompleteness Procedures and Assign Incompleteness Procedures are then visible.

Open your desired configuration activity by choosing its title to access the configuration in SAP S/4HANA Cloud.

Default Incompleteness Procedures are already in use in the standard solution process of the SAP Best Practices.

For example, if you run process BD9 Sell from Stock, a default set of mandatory fields is already defined. This is why, for example, you get an error message if you do not enter a sold-to party in the sales order.

In most cases, the default procedures will support the business processes of your organization without the need for additional configuration.

Nevertheless, SAP S/4HANA Cloud allows the flexibility to tailor the incompleteness procedures and support specific customer needs. You can configure additional required fields or you can modify the system's response when a field is left blank.

Imagine that a sales order contains all the information required for shipping, but it is missing a key field that is only required for billing, for example the payment terms. Is the order complete or incomplete?

Up to now, we defined Incompleteness as a general concept related to the sales document.

Nevertheless, to go a little further, incompleteness is always related to the process step too. The document can contain the information to execute the next process step, but not enough information for the following one.

In the example: the sales order is complete for delivery and at the same time it is incomplete for billing.

To support this idea, SAP S/4HANA Cloud allows several types of incompleteness, based on the existence of different document fields.

For example, the missing payment terms will cause the order to be incomplete for billing, but complete for shipping. So the goods can be shipped, but the invoice can't be produced.

The system manages the following incompleteness types:

Understanding incompleteness types, will help you to identify where specific data gaps might hinder different operational processes.

Configuring Incompleteness Procedures for these different types will ensure that the necessary data is complete before proceeding with various business functions, contributing to smoother operations and data accuracy.