Defining the Coding Block

In the first step, you have to include the customer field in the coding block. You do this in the following IMG activity:  Financial Accounting (New) Financial Accounting Global Settings (New) Ledgers Fields Customer Fields Edit Coding Block .

No posting transactions may be performed while you are including the customer field. We recommend using the “light” mode. For this, you only need to make the following entries so that all necessary changes to the dictionary and to the tables are performed automatically in the background:

Depending on system performance, this may take some time. The system outputs the result in a log.

For detailed information, see the documentation on the IMG activity Edit Coding Block.

Changing the Field Status of a Customer Field

To be able to change and display a customer field in documents, you need to open it in the field status groups.

To change the field status groups for the G/L account, perform the IMG activity under the following path:  Financial Accounting (New) Financial Accounting Global Settings (New) Ledgers Fields Define Field Status Variants . Customer fields are located in the subgroup Additional Account Assignments. Depending on the G/L accounts that you want to use, you can open the customer field in all field status groups or just in the relevant ones.

Besides the field status groups for G/L accounts, you also have to open the field in the field status for the posting key. You do this in the following IMG activity:

 Financial Accounting (New) Financial Accounting Global Settings (New) Document Define Posting Keys .

Since only G/L account items can have additional account assignments in the form of a customer field, only the posting keys for G/L accounts can be used here. We recommend including the customer field in the posting keys for G/L accounts as an optional field and using the field status groups for further control. It may be possible to define the customer field as a required entry field for some of the G/L accounts selected, and as an optional field for other G/L accounts. This option is particularly relevant if the customer field is substituted partially. As an alternative to specifying required entry fields in the field status, you can also use validation.

Setting Up Check on Customer Fields (Optional)

When you have included a customer field in the coding block, you can enter any information in this field - but this data is not checked. Since a customer field is generally applied for specific structured data or a limited number of characteristic values need to be entered, we recommend that you always run a check. This is possible in the following ways:

Check Using a Validation

You can use a validation in Financial Accounting to check the entries or the substituted field contents. This is useful if the validation rules are kept relatively simple and in a manageable number. You set up the validation by performing the following IMG activity:

 Financial Accounting (New) Financial Accounting Global Settings (New) Tools Validation/Substitution Validation in Accounting Documents .

Here, you could choose between event 2 (document item) and event 3 (complete document).

Check Using a Check Table

Instead of performing a check using a validation, you can use a customer-specific, transparent table as a check table containing all possible characteristic values. You can define the customer-specific table using a table maintenance dialog. In this case, proceed as follows:

Search Help for Customer Fields

You can create a search help so that not only a check is performed on the customer field but a search help also appears.

Defining the Master Data Check

To perform the allocation in new General Ledger Accounting, you need to define a master data check for customer fields. If you use a customer-specific check table, you can use it for this purpose. You can base your entry on the existing entries delivered by SAP and copy a suitable entry to your customer field. Specify your own table as the value table and text table. You define the master data check in the following IMG activity:

 Financial Accounting (New) Financial Accounting Global Settings (New) Ledgers Fields Customer Fields Define Master Data Check

Including Customer Fields in Enjoy Transactions

In the entry variants of the Enjoy transactions, you can choose up to five generic fields under the technical name ACGL_ITEM_GEN-GEN_CH and occupy these fields with your customer fields.

For more information, see the documentation on the transaction SHD0. You call up the documentation by choosing the (Online Handbook) pushbutton in the transaction.

Including Customer Fields in Document Splitting

Document splitting is used to split posting data according to specific document splitting criteria defined in General Ledger Accounting. Typically, document splitting is used to create balance sheets at the profit center level or used for segment reporting. Nevertheless, document splitting can also be applied to customer fields. It can be used even to create balance sheets with customer fields.

If you decide to perform document splitting using customer fields, we recommend examining your processes with regard to document splitting and drawing up a corresponding concept for those processes. In some circumstances, incorrect or incomplete document splitting settings can negatively effect General Ledger Accounting. See also SAP Note 891144.

As with the standard fields, you can use the Required Entry Field and Zero Balance options for customer fields. You should use no more than two or three fields - standard fields and customer fields alike - for document splitting. If you intend to use more fields for document splitting, you should seriously consider whether you really need to create a complete balance sheet for all dimensions.

You make the document splitting settings under  Financial Accounting (New) General Ledger Accounting (New) Business Transactions Document Splitting .

For more information on document splitting, see Document Splitting.