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Requirements for an IT Solution Serving a Global Company
The solution must support global business practicesGlobal reporting, consolidationGlobal process definition
The solution must allow for local requirementsTax calculation, accounting rules, financial reporting standardsPayroll (taking into account local tax and social insurance)
The solution must be usable across regionsLocal calendars and time zones must be handledUse of multiple currencies
The data must be usable around the worldText descriptions of data must be language dependentTranslation process must be supportedAll types of character sets/languages must be supportedDate and time should be correct for end users
More and more customers are implementing a global solution
Several topics are always visible Language support: (e.g., “How to handle these fancy scripts for Asia?”)Unicode support Localization: (e.g., “How to support local requirements like chart of account?”)And:– How to handle systems running on multiple time zones?
Topics to discuss regarding time zonesSystem availability/maintenanceApplication-related topics– Correct date and time for end user– Posting period – Detailed scheduling and tracking, ...
Time zones are important attributes of Application objects (customers, vendors, plants, companies, … )Events (scheduling, tracking, period determination, ... )
Time zone related functionality of Basis system– Unification and serialization of system events
Logistics– Scheduling and tracking of business events– Shipping and transport, stock movements, service calls
Financials– Determination of posting dates (resulting in posting periods)
Organizational Issue: – End-user support around the world
Operating System TimeTime zone is defined within the user settings – Environment variable TZ under Unix– This time zone setting also defines daylight saving time
- Time does not need to be adjusted
Database and <sid>adm must use the same time zone
System Time ZoneNeed to be identical with operating system time– The system time zone is set within the IMG
User Time ZoneDefines the time zone, where the user is located– The user time zone is set within the user defaults (address)
Business Object Time ZoneBusiness objects do have time zone as attribute
Default Time ZoneIs used for business objects if no time zone is defined
The SAP Basis/Web Application Server (WAS)/SAP NetWeaver® system is always using system time
All Basis services such as– Batch processing– Update requests– Syslog message– Change document
Example: The end user needs to calculate system time to schedule a batch job
Exception: Transaction SP01 (display spool requests) is using user time instead of system time (and as of SAP R/3 Enterprise some more system transactions are exceptions)
All system processes that are active in the SAP system (all application servers database [DB], DB listener, etc.), must have the same time zones
Also relevant to the system time are discussions about system availability, downtime, maintenance
Interfaces to systems in other time zones handled individually
Date and time in wall-clock formatProblem: (e.g., The posting day should be in the right period)– No time zone information by default
Proposed and default date/time calculated in user date/timeShould no longer refer to the system date/time (location of database server) Have to refer to the local date/time at location of the userUser can change the date/time information in user profile
Constraints for date/timeHave to refer to the local date and time instead of system date and time Should be handled uniquely (i.e., no “mix” of user-related and system time approach)
Time zone settings defined within the IMGSystem time zone will be set – This time must match
operating system Default time zone is used for users/objects without time zone settingsTime zone for user is defined in the user address– Will be maintained by end
userFunctionality used for proposalsRecommended to run a unique approach (i.e., if user time zone is applied, maintain it for all users)
PurposeThis scenario describes the contents of date fields on the FI document when the time zone function is enabled in the system (DST = Daylight Saving Time)
Scenario System Time Zone = EST (New York) (no DST = UTC-5) User Time Zone = UTC+10 (e.g., Australia)User Company Code = 4100Date and Time of Document Posting:
– User date/time = 13.11.05/09:47:06 (system time+15 h)– System date/time = 12.11.05/18:47:06
Result When the time zone function is enabled in the system, default dates at the time of data entry are based on the user’s time zone, not the system dateThe Entry date and Time of entry fields in the accounting document header receive the system date and time (table BKPF)
PurposeThis topic discusses the implications of the fiscal period end for a corporation or companies with plants located in multiple time zones
Scenario You may have one or both of the following situations:
1. Companies located in multiple time zones2. Separate entities within a corporation (for example, with plants that are
located in separate time zones)
Result FI close period
– The FI posting periods are determined by the fiscal year variantassociated with the company code. You can open/close posting periods based on a company code’s local time if you have a unique fiscal year variant defined for each company code. Authorizations can be used to prevent unwanted postings into open periods other than the current period.
Set of rules that dictates the offset of the user’s local time from UTC
Time zone includesOffset to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) orUniversal Time Coordinate (UTC)Daylight saving time definition
Internal and external representationString of six characters to identify the time zone (e.g., two time zones for Central Europe: One using daylight saving time, the second not using it)
Field for Timestamp: TSTMP (DEC 15 – Internal P (8: Short/11 Long))
Field for Time zone: TZONE ((CHAR 6) – Internal C (6))
Customizing tablesTTZCU: Customizing Time ZonesTTZD: DST rulesTTZDF: DST (fixed annual rules) TTZDV: DST (variable rules) TTZR: Time Zone rulesTTZZ: Time Zones
System fieldsSYST-TSTUT– Time Stamp
SYST-DATUM/SYST-UZEIT– System date and time
SYST-DATLO/SYST-TIMLO– System time converted into user’s time zone
Run tests with client and server within different time zonesRun tests with different parties involved in the scenario (plant, customer, processor, …) and locate these parties in different time zones Run tests (entering/processing time dependent data) and set the local time of the server within duplicate hour at end of DST(switching date from/to DST)Run tests entering time dependent data. Choose legal and illegaltimepoints as well as time durations that touch.– The duplicate hour at the end of DST– The missing hour at the beginning of DST
25 October 1981, 2:01 local time 31 October 1993, 2:03 local time29 October 2006, 2:05 local time 28 October 2007, 2:07 local time26 October 2008, 2:09 local time
1 March 1981, 2:11 local time 7 March 1993, 2:13 local time2 April 2006, 2:15 local time25 March 2007, 2:17 local time 30 March 2008, 2:19 local time
in Australia
NSW – Sydney(New South Wales)
29 March 1981, 2:01 local time28 March 1993, 2:03 local time 26 March 2006, 2:05 local time 25 March 2007, 2:07 local time 30 March 2008, 2:09 local time
27 September 1981, 2:11 local time26 September 1993, 2:13 local time29 October 2006, 2:15 local time28 October 2007, 2:17 local time26 October 2008, 2:19 local time
In a global system use time zone of the majority of usersSwitch from winter to summer time (DST) – Generally no problem for duplicate timestamps, etc.– Possibly batch jobs and background jobs must be rescheduled
Switch from summer (DST) to winter time: – 2 hours downtime to be planned during switch from summer to
winter time (double hour problem, could lead to duplicate timestamps)
– Up from Basis ≥ 6.40 a “slowdown” of SAP kernel possible so that only “one hour consumed for two real hours”
– Check is needed if application supports this mechanism – More information in SAP Notes 102088 and 7417 and references
If no downtime acceptable: – Operate a global system in UTC without DST!
User-related time zone approachMostly being used for financial applicationsBeing used for Basis system transaction spool display (SP01) and up from SAP R/3 Enterprise in a few more system transactions
Object-related time zone approachBeing used for logistics applicationsSome functionality still missing in SAP ERP componentsImplemented in SAP SCM and in CRM (date formats)
Time zone functionality needs to be implemented by application development – or by customer development
It is not just a Basis service, which is active by default
Time Zone Online Documentation on http://help.sap.com
http://help.sap.com > SAP ERP >ERP Central Component Release 6.0 SR1 SP08 > English > SAP Library > SAP ERP Central Component > Cross-Application Components > General Application Functions (CA-GTF) > Time Zones (CA-GTF-TIM) Access to time
The user-related time zone approach assigns every SAP user a local time zone. It is mostly used in financial applications.
The business object-related time zone approach assigns everybusiness object with a configured address a time zone. It is used for logistics applications mostly.
SAP CRM and SCM provide extended time zone functionality
If time zones are actively used, the user and object-related settings should be used for all user and all business objects
You can customize and configure time zones
An ABAP function library allows you to develop specific customized programs for your own time zone requirements
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