Archiving 

Use

Archiving serves to remove the affected data from the current system and store it in archive files.

Reasons for archiving include the constantly growing volume of data on the database and the subsequent decrease of available disk space resulting in poorer system performance. On the other hand, business and legal requirements such as internal auditing, warranty responsibility and reusability of the information demand that the data be retained for a certain period.

To ensure that sufficient data is still available for smooth process flows in the current account system after archiving, you must define a period for the individual applications. This period is calculated from the current posting date and protects the data for this period from being archived. Data not within this period is released for archiving. Checks are made to prevent the data from being changed or to prevent changed data for reuse from being archived.

You wish to archive all data that is older than six months. In your system, August 15 is set as current posting date. When you have entered the archiving period, the product and the bank area, you can archive all data prior to February 15. Archiving of data after February 15 is not yet provided for. The remaining February data cannot be archived until the current posting date has moved forward to September 15.

You can archive the following data:

§         Payment items

§         Payment orders

§         Standing orders (only applies for banks)

§         Account balancing

§         Account balancing detail data

§         Balance carryforwards

§         Value date transaction figures

§         Bank statements

You cannot archive the following data:

§         Whole accounts

§         Business partner data

Prerequisites

In the Implementation Guide (IMG), set the period in which archiving can be performed. The archiving period details apply per bank area, product and archiving object. You cannot further process data flagged for archiving. This means it is blocked, for example, for prior period posting and items with value dates in the past. The archiving period is dependent on the posting date and is calculated in relation to this.

Scope of Functions

During the archiving process, per bank area, product and archiving object the system automatically updates the date up until which the data was transferred to the external archiving system during the last archiving. When reloading archived data, the date must be adjusted accordingly.

During the archiving process, the system checks if the data is still required for an application. If, during the check, no entry for archiving release is found, the system automatically queries the archiving date.

Activities that would lead to recalculation of periods flagged for archiving are not allowed.

·        Value dates in the past (check with payment transactions/with value date determination)

·        Postings to prior periods (check with payment transactions)

·        Periods for recalculation (check of the period entry).

Included in account balancing, balance determination and cash concentration is a check of the archiving date and also the oldest value date and the posting date. Any attempt to access data that is already archived is terminated with an error message. There is also a check to see if periods already archived have to be recalculated. Prerequisite for the reloading of detail data is the existence of the account balancing runs for the period.

In payment transactions, postings with a posting or value date outside the period are rejected.

Activities

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       1.      You decide what products are to be archived. Products worth archiving are mainly those whose data volume can become very large because they have frequent balancing data and very large turnovers.

       2.      You define the period for archiving in Customizing. Ensure when you define the period that you do not choose too short a period, because data flagged for archiving is no longer available for all functions. This applies particularly to recalculation of the periods and to postings to prior periods and value dates in the past.