This blog is created with joint team work between Hanuma Rupakula and Mahesh Sardesai.

Please refer SAP Note 3268525 – Jump Start Your SAP S/4HANA 2022 Implementation by Activating SAP Best Practices which will guide you in preparing for implementation of S/4HANA using SAP Best Practices content.

WARNING: This blog provides guidance for activating S/4HANA 2023 FPS0 Best Practices when a client is setup as Best Practice client. If you set up a merged client as per Alternative 2 – Setting up a merged client (all client 000 reference settings), follow the activation guidance as per SAP Note 3346909 – Implementation of SAP S/4HANA SAP Best Practices 2023 (Private Cloud and On-Premise) – Activation in a Merged Client (steps shown in this color)

NOTE: for Best practices activation purpose we recommend to use latest SAPGui, In case you are using SapGui version 7.50, you need to uncheck “Accept Belize theme”. Once the Best practices activation is completed, you can activate the SAP Fiori visual theme back. This is shown later under SAP SAPGUI settings.

The step by step procedure for Best Practices Content Activation on SAP S/4HANA 2023 FPS0 has only two base languages EN & DE and Country= USA. Please refer Admin Guide.

Adding further language translations later is not supported once the solution is activated, therefore, identify and install all the required languages you may need in future (if possible). You can check the following blog post for information on how to import a large number of languages efficiently.

A new Solution Builder profile has been created with ALL scope items but in case you have finalized scope items you can select only the needed scope items. Depending on how many selected scope items, activation procedure will need less time The status of system before starting this procedure is clearly defined before starting.

Tax calculation for US sales and purchases:
The US solution for SAP S/4HANA 2023 (BP_OP_ENTPR_S4HANA2023_USV10.XML) is delivered with internal tax calculation. It includes sample Jurisdiction codes and sample rates so that you can execute the best practices test scripts out of the box. For productive purposes, you must replace the sample jurisdiction codes and rates with the your own user defined jurisdiction codes and actual tax rates. If you prefer to use an external tax provider, you must configure the required settings

STEP 1: SAP S/4HANA 2023 FPS0 is installed and SPAM checked as per previous blog Part 2 link

STEP 2: All Notes should be applied after complete installation of SAP S/4HANA 2023 FPS0 as per SAP Note 3351047 – SAP S/4HANA 2023 Feature Package Stack 00: Additional Release Information  Apply all the SAP Notes mentioned in the above Note.

In addition please review SAP Note 3330286 – SAP Best Practices for SAP S/4HANA 2023 Cloud, private edition FP-Stack 00 (10/2023) content activation note

TIP on Note 2987015 for VCH AFL installation: In this note it is mentioned that you have to download and install VCH AFL. This is S/4HANA release specific (for example 2023) as well as database specific (for example HANA 2  rel 73. Use the link to select your release 2023 and then download the specific file for the combination of S4H and DB for example VCH202300_2073_0-70007416.SAR

After you download install and follow SAP Note 1650957 – SAP HANA Database: Starting the Script Server. Excute SQL statement with SYSTEMDB@HDB – ALTER DATABASE HDB ADD ‘scriptserver’
(If you have multiple tenant databases please use SID of db that contains S/4HANA schema) and
then on tenant db HDB – GRANT AFL__SYS_AFL_VCH_2022_EXECUTE to SAPHANADB

After you have installed VCH AFL please login to S/4HANA system and run in SA38 report VCH_HL_AFL_CHECK and it should show green status.

also review SAP Note 3330258 – SAP S/4HANA 2023 collective note for content activation and SAP Note 3346909 – Implementation of SAP S/4HANA SAP Best Practices 2023 (Private Cloud and On-Premise) – Activation in a Merged Client.

STEP 3: Using SFW5, Enterprise Business Functions are activated as per Required Enterprise Business Functions in Admin Guide except FINS_PARALLEL_ACCOUNTING_BF which is only for pilot customers.

Please note that activation of some of the business functions requires additional licenses and you have to activate the business functions as per your requirements of scope list. For the purpose of the blog we have activated all business functions and scope items.

TIP: As compared to previous releases the Business Functions activation takes long time, therefore it is required to confirm that the activation job has finished successfully before proceeding.

STEP 4: Register client in table /FTI/T_NOCLN000 (for merged client do not register client in this table) so that Client Copy is done with tables defined in whitelist table /FTI/TWHITEL01.

If you want to perform client copy using new tCode SCCLN, use profile SAP_U000 for Best Practices client copy. For Merged client copy you can use you can use the copy profiles SAP_UCUS, SAP_CUST, SAP_CUSV, or SAP_UCSV. if you get any error message please create ticket using component SV-CLD-ACT.

TIP: Use the new tCode SCCLN to perform Client copy which is 10 times faster and you can do it form Client 000 or any other client than the target client and don’t need user SAP*/pass to perform client copy. If you use the new Client copy procedure you have to define logical system for Client 000 like S4HCLNT000 also besides the logical system for client 100. Otherwise you will get error –  “Dedicated logical system is not defined”.

Please see the screenshot below:

Copied client to have no currency in tCode SCC4.

CLIENT COPY VALIDATION: Please check table entries using tCode SE16, table (1) T001, click on (2) Number of entries to check number of entries. If there are (3) zero entries as below it is a Best Practices client.For Merged Client you should have some records in this table.

STEP 5: You may like to add Solution Builder to your Favorites in SAP Menu.as this is the transaction you will use until the activation is complete. Also add transaction SECATT. You can remove them from favorites  after activation if not needed.

Review SAP Note 3330286 – SAP Best Practices for SAP S/4HANA 2023 Cloud, private edition FP-Stack 00 (10/2023) content activation note

Upload zip file from URLs in the above note to server.

Add transport request to buffer EERK033517 and EERK049970 with steps below tCode STMS, Import Overview,

After the transport is in buffer, select the  transport and import, In the Options tab checkmark Ignore Invalid component version

STEP 6: Create users for content activation as per admin guide with details. Ensure Logon Language and Timezone (should not be empty, any timezone is ok).

STEP 7:  Change SAP Profile parameters as below and restart SAP:

abap/heap_area_dia = 6442450944
sapgui/user_scripting = TRUE
rdisp/scheduler/prio_high/max_runtime = 18000

USER SETTINGS:

1. Start transaction SU01.
2. On the User Maintenance: Initial Screen, enter the activation user name and choose Change.
3. On the Maintain Users screen, choose the Parameters tab, and enter the following parameter ID and parameter values:

   

4. Choose Save.  Note – Do not delete any other existing parameters.
5. Log off and log back in before you start the SAP Best Practices activation.

STEP 8: Import solutions from SAP Best Practices content. Enter tCode /N/SMB/BBI. Choose menu Solution -> Import -> Solution (XML) -> From reference content

Select Solution Builder Content ID BP_OP_ENTPR_S4HANA2023_USV10.XML from below
After import is complete log will be displayed. Click on icon Back

STEP 9: Defining the scope of your solution. (1) Copy Solution BP_OP_ENTPR_S4HANA2023_USV10 to (2)  Z_MY_SOLUTION_US

Please click OK to exit.

Click on Favorite to make the solution Z_MY_SOLUTION_US as your favorite.

From the menu, choose 

STEP 10: If only you need to remove scope items, double Click (or click on Change Icon) on Z_MY_SOLUTION_US to unselect the scope items from the list.

Descope the Decentralized EWM scope items:4RO, 4RP, 4RQ, 4RR, 4RS and 4UA as they are required only in a decentral EWM system. Also descope the UPA (Universal Parallel Accounting) scope items 3F0, 3F7, 5W2, 6DF, 6DR, 6DS, 6DT, 6DU, 6EB, 6EC, 6ED, 6EE, 6EF, 6EG and 6VQ.

STEP 11: Enter tCode /n/SMB/SCOPE, Click button (1) New Entries, (2) Customer Solution and (3) select the Country and Solution as below:

Choose Save.

Now you can see that for Z_MY_SOLUTION_US the last icon shows with mouseover shows “Fully Uploaded Central Data Unchecked“.

STEP 12: enter tCode SCC4 and ensure below values – Logical System – S4HCLNT100 (needed for EWM steps as per 3.5.1.4 of Admin Guide AdminGuideS4HANAImpl_HELP_EN.pdf in link), Currency – blank, Client role – Test  or Customizing depending on the client role

STEP 13(OPTIONAL): Best Practices content activation for any solution will populate the client currency as USD by default. In case you want to have a different client currency, you should change the currency before activation starts.You should not change client currency once the first solution in the client is activated. The procedure is as follows:
Enter tCode /N/SMB/CD_MAINT

In the All Central Data Entities section, use (1) search to find (2) DSC in the table and double-click it, Click (3) Change and change the (4) ID field.

When activating several SAP Best Practices country solutions please follow the procedure provided in 2022 OP Admin guide.

STEP 14: Please do all the steps needed for Pre-activation settings for EWM scope items as per Admin Guide as per the admin guide in the link as below. Please replace S4HCLNT100 with your <SID>CLNT<CLIENT> and S4HEWM100 with <SID>EWM<CLIENT>

TIP: The steps are rearranged for convenience so that you don’t have to go back and forth between IMG and tCode and IMG’s in same place are grouped together in one place and you can follow this order.

If you have activated business functions FICAC_CI and FICAC_CORE, do the steps as per Pre-Activation Settings for Contract Accounting and Convergent Invoicing in Admin Guide.

• Creating Billable Item Class
• Creating Consumption Item Class
• Transferring Application Form from Client 000

STEP15: Depending on scope items you have selected, you may get less errors than shown in steps below. The timings are based on Cloud based Virtual Machine with  256GB RAM x 32 Cores. In the SECATT transaction there are certain number of log entries which are sown against each stop.

REMINDER: If you are activating in merged client please perform the pre-requisite steps as provided in the note follow the activation guidance as per SAP Note 3346909 – Implementation of SAP S/4HANA SAP Best Practices 2023 (Private Cloud and On-Premise) – Activation in a Merged Client (steps shown in this color)

STEP16: Enter tCode /n/SMB/BBI and go to Solution Builder. Select the Solution and click on Implementation Assistant and Click on button Activate.

After 3 minutes you will be prompted with screen below.
You can select Skip this screen if you don’t want this screen from popping up everytime.

TIP: In case you would like to migrate data to the new system then please uncheck “With Demo Data“. You can use blog – New Installation of S/4HANA 2020 FPS0 – Part 5 – Direct Data Transfer using Migration Cockpit (to be created for S/4HANA 2022) for rapid data migration using direct data transfer.

If a message pops up “To activate the project, the client settings need to be changed to eCATT and CATT allowed” please choose Yes. This would come up if you didn’t follow the earlier step in SCC4.

FIRST STOP:

This is a warning to confirm that you have configured the Group Currency. Please follow the steps given in the Admin Guide if you need to change the group currency from standard delivered USD.
From this point forward it is not possible to change it. (1) Close the dialog and (2) Click on Confirm Manual Step to continue activation.

SECOND STOP:

During the activation if a warning appears then choose OK to continue.

THIRD STOP:

You will get Notification Dialog as shown below:
No steps to be done here, just click on on OK to continue.

FOURTH STOP:

Click on OK.

Click OK to continue

FIFTH STOP:

Click OK to continue

SIXTH STOP:

Click OK to continue

SEVENTH STOP:

You may get error on scope item 3AS as below:

Please do not confirm the step. Click on Activate.

You may get this error a couple of more times during the activation even after next 2 stops. please activate again to process the error.

EIGHTH STOP:

Click Yes to continue

NINTH STOP:

Navigate to solution builder /n/smb/bbi. On the Interruption popup, choose Yes to continue.
Start the activation in Implementation Assistant again.

LAST STOP:

STEP17: COMPLETION OF ACTIVATION At the end of activation you should get message “Solution Z_MY_SOLUTION_US is activated”. CONGRATULATIONS !!!!
Please revert the parameter for rdisp/scheduler/prio_high/max_runtime, abap/heap_area_dia and adjust SAPGUI scripting as well as remove SAP_ALL authorization from functional users if granted separately.

LANDSCAPE CONSIDERATIONS:

STEP18: POST ACTIVATION – EXECUTING MANUAL REWORK ACTIVITIES:

This step should be done in DEV to create a solution for manual rework activities to general xml file for manual rework activities. This is simply a list of steps to be performed in Q just like a word document.

Please follow procedure as described in Admin Guide section 3.6 Executing manual rework activities.
Access tCode /n/SMB/BBI, select the solution you activated and set it to favorite. In the menu bar choose Solution -> Procedure -> Start a procedure. In the Execute a Solution Processing Procedure dialog box choose procedure Manual Rework Required and choose OK.

STEP19: SYSTEM LANDSCAPE MANAGEMENT FOR QAS AND PROD:
Recommendation is not to do Content Activation of best practices in QAS and PROD. You have to move the transports as below in graphic.

1. SAP Best Practices client is set-up with specific client copy profile
2. SAP Best Practices customizing after initial activation
3. Manual extension of business configuration using IMG
4. Additional client 000 customizing for customer adaptation (Note 2838358)
   (not needed for merged client)

In The QAS system, move transports to QAS first n above sequence.

CONFIGURATION GUIDES: 

Please note that as of release 1909, configuration guides will be deprecated in the SAP Best Practices for SAP S/4HANA package.

COMPONENT FOR INCIDENTS:

As per the error message in the activation.

OTHER REFERENCES:

Administration Guide for Implementation

This blog has been created with joint team work between Hanuma Rupakula and Mahesh Sardesai.

Hanuma Rupakula
Delivery Manager (LOB Finance Content)
[email protected]

and

Mahesh Sardesai
Product Expert – SAP S4HANA Solutions

Brought to you by the SAP S/4HANA Regional Implementation Group