Cross-Application Mass Maintenance (CA-GTF-MS) 

Purpose

Mass maintenance is a generic (i.e. cross-application) tool that can be used for the following purposes:

·        Changing large volumes of data

Here there are the following differences between mass maintenance and the individual maintenance of objects in a certain application:

–         The user chooses the fields to be changed from a list.

–         The consistency checks are carried out collectively when the change is saved, not at the time a value is actually entered or changed.

–         Changes can be made to several objects simultaneously.

Mass-maintenance makes particular sense if you have to adapt existing datasets to a changed situation.
Example: One purchasing group is superseded by another. You have to reassign all the materials in a certain plant that are assigned to the old group to the new one.

·        Creation of new data

Some situations involve not the changing of existing values but the creation of new data (for example, if you want to define a further unit of measure for a material). For more information, refer to Creating New Records.

Implementation Considerations

Mass maintenance enables you to change many objects simultaneously. This tool should therefore only be used by persons with the necessary experience. These persons must also be familiar with the field names and tables used.

Features

You can perform mass maintenance in the following modes:

·        Dialog

You should only change small volumes of data in this mode.

·        Background

If you wish to change a large number of objects simultaneously, you should choose this mode in order to reduce the load on the system. For more information, see Background Processing.

·        Mixed mode

Here you start in dialog mode and then switch to background processing to actually make the changes. For more information, see Making Mass Changes.

If you frequently have to carry out similar changes to data, you can create a variant. A variant is always required if you carry out mass maintenance in the background. For more information, see Variants.

The system records all changes made (as well as any errors that occurred) in a log.

Constraints

You can only use the mass maintenance tool in applications that support it. The tool is currently supported by the following applications:

Application	Additional information in the SAP library
Appropriation request	IM – Investment Management under Mass Maintenance
Article master (Retail)	LO SAP Retail under Article Master Data
Business partners	LO Business Partner Master Data
Customer master	LO Business Partner Master Data
G/L accounts	FI General Ledger Accounting under G/L Account Master Data
Material master (Industry)	LO Material Master
Profit center	EC Profit Center Accounting under Display/Change Profit Center (Collective Processing)
Purchase orders	MM – Purchasing under Mass Maintenance of Purchase Orders
Purchase requisitions	MM – Purchasing under Mass Maintenance of Purchase Requisitions
Contracts	MM Purchasing under Mass Maintenance of Contracts
Scheduling agreements	MM Purchasing under Mass Maintenance of Scheduling Agreements
Purchasing info records	MM – Purchasing under Mass Maintenance of Info Records
Rental units	RE – Real Estate Management under Mass Maintenance of Rental Units
Sales orders	SD Sales and Distribution under Sales Order
Vendor master	LO Business Partner Master Data
Master data of SAP Advanced Planning and Optimization (SAP APO): External procurement relationships, locations, production process models (PPMs), products, quota arrangements, resources, transportation lanes.	See Mass Maintenance with the New Interactive Design.