When you archive a document, it is deleted from the SAP System database. You therefore have to record all postings to an account before archiving the documents, so that you can substantiate the balance of that account at a later date on the basis of the corresponding line items from the archived documents. In the SAP System, this report is called the balance audit trail.

There are several programs available in the system to help you create this report. These programs evaluate the documents and the master data, and list the postings made to each account, the balance carried forward, and the account balance based on each period. The line items are sorted automatically during this process. In addition, the system adds together all the line items from a particular account and compares these to the total account balance. If the totals are not the same, the system issues an appropriate message.

The tables below list the programs used in producing the balance audit trail.

The programs can be differentiated in two ways:

• Sorting method

• Chronological: The line items are sorted chronologically according to posting date and document number.
• Open item basis: This is used for accounts that are managed on an open item basis. The line items are sorted as follows: First the cleared items, sorted by clearing date; then all the open items, sorted by posting date.

• Data origin:

• Online: You can produce the balance audit trail solely from the online system. The system prints a list of the current state of data. You can create a data set that you can then use for microfilming. The disadvantage of this procedure is that the system can only ever document the current data available. It can, however, be useful for producing interim (for example, monthly) balance audit trails during the fiscal year.
• Extract: You can transfer the extract to a file and then update this file whenever new data becomes available online. This method enables you to keep an up-to-date record of all the online data. This can be useful when you want to save all the data for the fiscal year at the year end.

The programs for producing the balance audit trail always evaluate all accounts. You can, however, only create an online chronological balance audit trail for G/L accounts; you then use it to create the general ledger.

When producing the accumulated balance audit trail, you first create a file that contains all the accounts with current items. In each subsequent balance audit trail, the system adds the items available online to those recorded on the file. This ensures that the cleared items on the file and all the items in the online system are included in the report. The system sorts the items automatically when merging the data.

The data is saved in compressed form and you convert the existing balance audit trail data using the program RFKXETUM. Before doing this, you must define the accumulated workfiles in the G/L Accounting Implementation Guide.