Introduction to the Data Retention Tool (DART)
Purpose
The Data Retention Tool (DART) was designed to aid R/3 users in meeting legal data retention and reporting requirements. DART allows you to periodically extract and retain data from active R/3 applications, as well as from data that has been archived previously with the R/3 Archive Development Kit (ADK). DART extracts the data into sequential files and provides tools for viewing the retained data in various ways.
The design of DART is based on the interpretation of Rev. Proc. 98-25 by the ASUG Tax Interest Group and SAP. This team determined what data a typical company may need in an IRS audit. Every taxpayer must decide what additional data may be needed in an audit, and must configure DART accordingly. SAP cannot give any guarantee that DART as is will be sufficient for compliance with Rev. Proc. 98-25.
Implementation Considerations
As the volume of data in your R/3 applications grows, you may need to archive some of the data to make room for new data in the live R/3 database. You can do so with the R/3 Archive Development Kit.
However, you may be required by law, by customers, or by management to retain data you no longer wish to keep in your system. You may need to provide this data to the Internal Revenue Service in response to an information document request (IDR) during an audit. DART helps you comply to these data retention requirements if properly implemented.
There are two aspects to consider when implementing DART:
Integration
DART can be preconfigured to extract data from many R/3 components.
To extract data that has been previously archived with the R/3 Archive Development Kit (ADK), DART uses the ADK interface.
Data Retention and Archive Strategy
If you need to retain data that you archive on a regular basis, it is easier to first retain the necessary data with DART, and then archive the appropriate data with ADK. This way you avoid the need to retrieve data from the archive before extracting data to be retained.
Features
DART provides the following tools and features:
Tool |
Function |
| Data Extraction |
Extract data from a live R/3 database, and store it in an extract in a text format. |
| Archive Retrieval |
Retrieve data that has been archived previously with the R/3 Archive Development Kit into DART specific storage. |
| Data Merge |
Merge the data from two extracts, which have been created by the DART extraction tool. |
| Data Rebuild |
Rebuild the extract with the same data, but with any new configuration parameters that were defined since the data was extracted. |
| Data Extract Browser |
View the data in the extract. |
| View Query |
Define and use views of the data in a DART extract. Views group the data in different ways. You can use customized views, for example, to provide the IRS with just enough data to satisfy the request in a particular information document request (IDR). |
| Checksums |
Verify the integrity of the extract data files. |
| Control totals |
Verify that the data in the extract files is complete, or that it did not change. |
| FI control totals verification |
Compare Financial Accounting (FI) data in an extract with the data in the database to verify that the data had not changed since an extraction. |
| File size worksheet |
Estimate the size of a data extract, and the time it takes to create an extract. Estimate memory and temporary sort space requirements. |
When extracting data, DART combines the following types of data:
This is data from various documents in the business process. For example, you can retain revenue amounts as well as related sales data.
This is data that explains, for example, codes used in the transactions you retain, such as those involving sales organization, region, material sold, and issuing plant.
The following diagram illustrates the interaction between the major utilities of DART.
