Consider an IMG wage type customization table with wage types in numbers of few hundreds and with multi country payroll implementation. This string search options would help us in picking and displaying only those IMG entries that need value changes and avoids the necessity of scrolling top to bottom and searching for these entries which could result in missing some changes to entries or incorrect cut and paste of values, thus providing a systematic and structured approach to value changes. Even before saving if you want to reverse the change for one entry or all your selected entries , you could do so at the click of a button without manually reverse changing each and every value. Consider the psa grouping table for absences or a wage type text table and you want to enter or change a common value for selective entries. You do not need write one value and keep using copy and paste for the other entries. You can use this process to enter this common value is one click of a button.
What is shown to you is not restricted only to SAP HR module but could be used for any SAP module with IMG customization tables like Materials Management to name one.
- Using sm3o or using the spro transaction to choose the table V_512W_D
- Selection of table entries by the table menu string search option
- Displaying the data selected and changing the data
- Reversing certain selected entries to before before saving on with manual data changes
- Saving these changes and viewing the changes once more by string search
- Choosing the Wage Type text table V_T512W_T
- Selection of selected table entries as blocks for change
- Displaying the changed data using one data for a common mass change from Bonus to Quarterly Bonus.
- Reviewing the data and if correct saving the data or reversing the change and displaying the data reversal to as before.
(I)Choosing IMG table values using the Selection query options : In this process we will be selecting the IMG table values through simple queries which would help us maintain IMG data restricted to our selection and also reduce room for errors of missing data for maintenance, maintaining the wrong data due to incorrect selection which could be a high risk if it comes to delimitation or deletion of IMG customization data
Step 1: Enter the IMG Table for Maintenance using sm30 ot the IMG node through spro.
To choose all Medical wage types in the wage type table V_512W_D (Change Processing Classes, Cumulations and Evaluation Classes)using a string search, enter the table using sm30 or use the img customizing node as shown .
Step 2 : Use the Selection option to query table using a single selection criterion
One you enter the table ,use the Selection (Alt +S) option and further choose the By Contents option as shown. Here multiple table fields can be chosen with a logical .AND. Or .OR. Combinations and values for selection entered. The method to search is that in the Field Selection you need to choose Wage Type Long Text.
Step 3 : Building the query for selection
The Wage Type Long Text which actually contains the description of the wage type. The string for search i.e. Med is to be entered in the Field Contents which is blank on default and in the Operator or Op field you need to select CS which translates to contains string. Since this is a single selection you do not have to enter any value in the logical operator field (Oper.). Once you build the query and select choose as shown below, you get the selected output restricted to the query search for all wage types with string Med in the table. The query is not case sensitive so you could use string MED or med or even Med to search. The output includes all types of wage types including technical , customer and model wage types. To restrict to customer wage types choose the tab customer wage types.
On executing the query we get the selective output result as desired for maintaining customization values as shown.
Once you have narrowed the table values to your selected data and you can select the customer wage types option at the bottom of the table to further restrict the view to only customer wage types as shown. Go ahead and make changes to your customized Medical wage types without the fear or worry of incorrect maintenance (especially deletion) of incorrect values due to incorrect selection.
Step 5 : Building the query using multiple single selection criterion
We could also query the table using multiple selection options e.g. we would like to change the value of the processing class 6 for all Medical wage types , so we will modify the selection as shown. Here there are two conditions , one where we need to query for all wage types containing a string Med AND the wage type should contain maintainable value for processing class 6. Now we need to join these two conditions with the logical or Boolen operator AND.
Step 6 : Output table using multiple selection criterion
On selection as per the above criterion , what we have as the selection output is as shown. Again we choose the tab Customer wage types only to further restrict the view to customer wage types for display or maintenance.
We could also use the selection options to choose for range of wage types like from say WT 1000 to 2000 etc as shown
In the figure shown what you see is a selection of bonus wage types which have been queried with the character string bonus but with another condition which is not to select any model wage types beginning with M*** since we do not want to maintain these wage types and want to restrict the use of model wage types to copy and create customer wage types as is the best practice.
The selection option works wonders with the IMG table and helps us view maintained data or maintain data in a very structured way for certain tables like V_T512W_T (Wage type text), reducing maintenance time and also preventing maintenance (especially deletion )of the customization values due to incorrect selection.
(II) : Mass maintenance of selected values
If the same data change is across say multiple values then one very easy way of mass maintenance is by using block change option which is possible using the key<F8> where it is possible to maintain a block of values at one go if the change is the same for the entire block .
Let us consider that we have queried the bonus wage types and we want to change the values of a block of wage type Long Text from Bonus to say Quarterly Bonus
Step 1: Enter the IMG Table for Maintenance using sm30 ot the IMG node through spro.
Enter the img table say V_T512W_T using transaction sm30 or use the appropriate IMG node using spro. Here use the key <F8> and do not use the menu options as shown in figure below :-
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Step 1 : Select the block beginning for mass maintenance
To begin place the cursor on the wage type from where you want the block selection to begin and press the <F8> key. The given wage type block beginning is selected and you get a message asking you to select the block end. We have chosen WT 1110 Bonus as the block beginning. You can see this in the figure
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Step 3 : Carry out mass maintenance after block selection
Select the Change Field Contents option as shown in figure <14> and choose Wage type long text as the field for mass change.
Here enter the value for change as Quarterly Bonus to replace the Bonus for the selected block values and press the Replace tab as seen in figure below :-
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Here enter the value for change as Quarterly Bonus to replace the Bonus for the selected block values and press the Replace tab as seen in figure below :-
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Step 4 : Review and save or Undo the changed block values
The changed values can be seen in the figure below:
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Review these changed values and confirm if correct or not . If these values are correct these values can be saved else undo the mass change made by using the Undo Change or keys <CTRL> + <F2> to restore the original values as shown in the figure below:
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Step 5 : Mass maintenance of Validity dates.
On completion of step 3 , where a block of wage types were selected , we could also maintain the validity periods for this block as shown in the figure below. Here we use the keys <SHIFT> + <F8> and then enter the start date of validity for another record you want to create for the wage types and store different values as of the beginning of this date .
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Conclusion : By using the selection and mass maintenance options, the IMG tables in sap can be maintained in a structured way with minimal room for error , making IMG table maintenance much simple and less frightening for the SAP consultants. These options are not restricted to the HR module but can be used by all modules of SAP especially the MM module or any other Logistics or Project Systems modules where the volumes of customization data are extremely high. I will conclude again by saying that a systematic approach to sap is the best approach and the only approach to guarantee success. Thank you.
