Search For An Association Candidate 

Use

An item with a portfolio can be considered an associated item. The system searches for an association candidate and creates a link based on the assigned portfolio. This search is based on the assigned portfolio record and the options you selected in Customizing.

Prerequisites

If you want to monitor a material item during document processing you must customize the business process steps in the Trading Execution Workbench (TEW) area accordingly. Perform association maintenance using the TEW.

Features

The portfolio for a contract item is determined using the condition technique. The system can then determine the corresponding association candidates. You define your search strategy in Customizing and assign it to the association group.

You can choose from the following search strategies:

·        Candidates all belong to the same period

Association candidates must have the same portfolio as the contract item.

·        Candidates can belong to different periods:

Association candidates can have different portfolios, as these relate to different time periods.

Example:

At the change of the year you close one portfolio and at the same time create a new one for the next year. Use this search strategy to determine association candidates for both periods.

·        Hierarchical search

This is an optional function of the search strategy.

The following graphic describes the search strategy:

In the above example, portfolio record 0020 with the key fields (Div/Mat/Prod Hierarchy) can be associated with record 0027 and 0014, because these two records have a common key in the more generic area “Mat”.