Purpose

The products are stored in product management in accordance with the following criteria:

Product name: This name is the external product ID. You assign this name when you create a product. It clearly and unmistakably identifies the product. The description, that contrary to the product name is language dependent, is part of the product name.

Version: There can be several different versions of a product. When you create a product, the first version of this product is created. When you change a product, you have the option of creating a new version when you save. Versions with the status "active" may not overlap the validity period of one another. If you create an account for a product, this relates to the version that is active on the account opening date.

Status: A version of a certain product can be either active or inactive. You can only create accounts for a version of the product if it has the status "active". For all other status types it is inactive, meaning you cannot create any accounts.

You can change the status by selecting a pushbutton. This pushbutton is to take into consideration whether you have just created a product or if it is already active. The system proposes the status changes accordingly.

SAP makes provision for the following statuses:

As long as accounts exist for a version, this version must keep the status "active". If accounts still exist for a version in your productive system, this version may also not be deactivated in the previous/feeder system (‘flagged for archiving’).

Validity period: : The term of a version ("valid from" and "valid to") indicates the time period in which accounts can be created for an active version. At any certain point in time there can only be one active version of a product, meaning that the validity periods of the active versions may not overlap .

Cross-version data: Some of the administrative data is cross-version, other is version-dependent. The cross-version data includes the description, authorization group, old and internal product ID, administrative data on the creation of the product.

Version concept

You can hold versions in parallel, if, for example, you are planning a new version for a later point in time. Note that in this case you can create active versions and also create accounts for these versions, but that their opening date must be in the future.

During any one validity period always only one version can be active, meaning that active versions may not overlap each other in their validity area.

Versions can also have accounts when they are not valid but only active. However, you cannot create accounts for invalid versions.

 Example:

In your currently valid version 1 the default setting for currency is DEM. From July 1 you wish to define the default currency Euro for a version 2.

All accounts created in the validity area of version 1 have DEM as default currency and those created for version 2 have Euro. Already as of 01/01 you can 'park' accounts for version 2, even though the opening date may not be before 07/01.