SAP R/3: DART Data Retention Tool. Author Girish Awade

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1 SAP R/3: DART Data Retention Tool Author Girish Awade

2 Agenda Introduction Configuring DART Data Extraction Archive Retrieval Example 2

3 Agenda Introduction 3

4 Introduction I ve archived my data and now the IRS is auditing me! I ve run my regular SAP reports but can t find the data I need! Has my data archiving solution hurt my legal and auditing needs? 4

5 Introduction Is there anything I can do to insure that my data archiving solution doesn t hurt the ability of my company to provide required information during an IRS audit? 5

6 Life Without DART Without DART, data could be spread out between live data, archived data, and even your Business Information Warehouse (BW) 6

7 Multiple Sources for IRS-required Data Live Data BW Live Data Report Business Warehouse Report Temp Tables ABAP Report Archived Data Report Archive file AS Archived Data Report 7

8 Multiple Data Sources = Monumental Effort Forcing you to create different reports from each system and then having to combine the data from the separate reports into one single report! Live Data Report Single Report with all data Archived Data Report Business Warehouse Report Archived Data Report 8

9 Life With DART DART Extract DART Extract Report So, for some, DART (DAta Retention Tool) can be a life saver! Providing a single source of data for IRS audits. 9

10 Data Retention Tool DAta Retention Tool (DART) is a tool that lets you easily extract financial data from your SAP R/3 system to be used later for IRS audit reporting. DART was developed specifically to help SAP customers comply with IRS legal data retention requirements. As such, DART allows clients to extract financial data into separate files in order to preserve data required during an IRS audit. During an IRS audit, DART can be used to create downloadable files that can be sent to the IRS. 10

11 What DART Isn t! Remember: DART is NOT archiving. DART does not delete any data, as data archiving does, but simply copies it to separate files that can then be reported from at a later time. 11

12 Where Do I Get It? Included with SAP R/3; No additional purchase required Standard as of version 4.6a 12

13 Flexibility of DART / Advanced Features User exits are available to allow for inclusion of custom tables and/or fields. SAP provides predefined data views, but custom views can also be created in order to meet specific user s needs. DART files are written in ASCII delimited format (or EBCDIC for AS/400) and can be read by other thirdparty software (I.E. Microsoft Excel). 13

14 Agenda Configuring DART 14

15 Extract Data DART extract programs read through your live data and extract desired data to the DART extract files. You specify what types of data (FI, CO, MM, SD, ) you want to extract, based on your business needs. Customizing is available to allow you to include specific fields or tables in your extracts ( Other data sources ). User-exits are available for more elaborate modifications to the standard DART extract programs. One example is the inclusion of a calculated field in your DART extract file. 15

16 Typical SAP Menu Screen 16

17 Configuring DART 17

18 Configuring DART 18

19 Configuring DART Transaction Data Set the indicator for every transaction data source you wish to make available to the user. For example, if you set the indicator for Material documents (MM), then the Extract data screen displays a Material documents (MM) indicator, allowing the user to include MM transaction data in the extraction. The indicator is displayed to the user as set by default. 19

20 Configuring DART Master Data 20

21 Configuring DART Technical Settings 21

22 Configuring DART Data Segments DART extracts are organized in segments. A data segment stores a collection of fields from R/3 tables. A data segment may hold master data, or data from an application document. A segment is a collection of all the records of the same type. A segment may contain data from a single R/3 database table, or it may combine related data from multiple tables. 22

23 Configuring DART Data Segments The following diagram illustrates the arrangement of segments in the data extract 23

24 Configuring DART Data Segments The set of segments that are defined in DART determines which data can be extracted with DART, meaning that you can only extract and retain data for segments that are defined in DART. DART supplies a large set of predefined segments. These include multiple segments for many of the major R/3 application areas. The technical names of all SAP-provided data segments start with TXW_. For example, one of the segments, namely TXW_MM_POH, contains Purchase Order document header data. Another segment, TXW_MM_POP, contains Purchase Order line item data. If you wish to configure DART to extract data from additional tables or fields, that is, from tables or fields not included in the SAP-provided set of segments, then you need to add segments or expand the existing segments. You may need to create a customer enhancement to handle this data. 24

25 Configuring DART Data Segments Integration 25

26 Configuring DART Data Segments 26

27 Configuring DART File Size Worksheet To plan for system resources required for data extracts on your application server, the File Size Worksheet utility helps you estimate some important key figures: The size of the resulting extract file, both compressed and uncompressed. The size of temporary sort files, that is, work files used by the system for sorting the extracted data. The size of sort memory Runtime of the extraction 27

28 Configuring DART Data Extract Views Not all the information found in your financial records may be relevant for a particular audit. You may need to provide specific data to IRS auditors in response to an Information Document Request (IDR). DART enables you to select and group data from your financial records into views. Views combine selected fields from multiple segments in an extract. Views can be designed to meet particular IDRs. With views you can query multiple extracts at a time. Your results can be saved or appended to a file in either column delimited or fix column width file format. 28

29 Configuring DART Data Extract Views 29

30 Agenda Data Extract 30

31 Creating DART Extracts Live Data Live Data Live Data DART Extract Program DART extract program reads through your live data, formats the data, and then writes it to DART extract files DART Extract DART DART Extract Extract 31

32 Data Extract 32

33 Data Extract 33

34 Data Extract Browser This tool allows the user to perform generic (ad-hoc) queries against data within the DART extract files. This can be helpful for verifying the contents of a DART extract files when preparing for an IRS audit, and also during your DART implementation when performing testing and validation. Some users may find it helpful to use this while performing general auditing tasks. 34

35 Data Extract Views DART comes with predefined views: 1. Asset depreciation 2. Asset master 3. Asset planned depreciation 4. Asset transactions 5. Chart of Accounts 6. Customer Master 7. Standard project 8. Sales/use tax 9. Trial balance summary 10. Trial balance FI transaction details 11. Vendor account balance 12. Vendor master These views create DART reports (or extract files) based on SAP predefined structure definitions. For many, these views will suffice, but if not, you can create your own views. 35

36 Reporting From DART Extracts DART Extract DART DART Extract Extract DART reporting programs read through your DART extracts and create reports or file extracts of the selected data, based on the view selected DART Reporting Program (View) View Output File DART Extract Report 36

37 Output from DART Reporting Jobs You can create reports or file extracts as output from the DART report programs. Reports can be used by your FI team to verify data that is contained in the DART extracts. These reports can also be used to verify the data that you will be providing to the IRS during an audit. Extract files can also be created from these jobs. These files are what you would present to the IRS as a softcopy of the data requested during an audit. 37

38 How does DART fit into my archiving plan? Question: How does DART fit into my archiving landscape? 38

39 DART is NOT Archiving Reminder! DART is NOT archiving. DART does not delete any data, as data archiving does, but simply copies it to separate files that can then be reported from at a later time. 39

40 Integral Part of a Data Archiving Strategy Answer: While data archiving and DART perform two very different functions, it is always strongly recommended to integrate the development of a DART strategy as part of a Data Archiving project. Remember that DART extract jobs consume significantly more resources when run against archive files. Therefore, it is strongly recommended that DART extracts be run against live data, rather than archives. It is a good idea to time the completion of your DART implementation prior to the Go-Live date of your Data Archiving Project. This will allow you to complete your DART extracts before archiving. 40

41 Where Do I Start? 1. Build your team 2. Collect user requirements 3. Configure your system based on team s input 4. Test DART; Validate extract s contents 5. Implement in Production 6. Performance tune 41

42 Step 1: Build Your Team As with any other project, it is critical to get the right people on your DART implementation team. Team members; FI Usually the project leader, maintains set-up and configuration Basis Disk space, backup of files Development Develop ABAP code to support user-exits Business Users Requirements Tax Department Requirements Audit Department Requirements Legal Department Requirements These people are not necessarily needed full-time, but their input is CRUCIAL in order for your DART system to configured properly! 42

43 Step 2: Collect Business Requirements Meet with members from your Tax Department, Audit Department, Legal Department, and Business Users in order to collect and analyze your business requirements. These users could be either part of your team, or other people in your company who could be used as a part-time resource. Meet with your Basis team to communicate your need for disk space for the DART extract files. You will also want to discuss backup and long-term storage strategies at this time. A few hours spent during planning could save you days or weeks later on! 43

44 3: Configure Your System You can begin configuration of DART once you have input from the necessary departments. Technical Settings: 1) Set-up your DART extract directory 2) Determine the maximum size of your DART files Functional Settings: 1) Types of data (FI, CO, MM, SD, ) to be extracted 2) Joint Venture 3) Hierarchies (cost center, profit center) 44

45 4: Test DART You can begin testing your DART system once you have completed configuration. Goal: Take time to validate your DART extracts and verify that all required data is being written into the extract files. Make sure that everything you planned on being there, actually IS there! It never hurts to have a copy of your production data to perform your tests on. This will give you a better idea on how long your DART extract jobs will run, and if you might encounter any abends when running against your production data. Once again, a few extra days spent now could save you much more later on! 45

46 5: Implement in Production You re now ready to implement DART in production. You will first need to promote your DART configuration into your production system. Create DART configure transports directly out of DART. Verify that you have plenty of room in your DART directory before starting. Warning: DART extract jobs tend to run a long time sometimes 12 hours or more also, DART extracts tend to be rather large in size. Make sure you let your Basis team know when you plan to start running your extracts in order to give them a heads-up! 46

47 6: Performance Tune Despite thorough testing, you might still experience problems with your DART extracts while running in production. If this is the case, then you may have to perform some tuning of DART in order to improve run times and to help minimize impact on the R/3 system. Some options: u You can limit the amount of functional data extracted during a single DART extract run for example, try extracting FI data first, and then MM next, etc. You can then merge these separate extracts together. u Try limiting the number of periods or company codes extracted during a single run. Again, merging the separate files afterwards. u See Performance Tips later in this presentation for more ideas! 47

48 Performance Tips Tip Run extract jobs on a separate server than users. This can benefit both the users and the extract jobs by decreasing run times and reducing total memory utilization/contention. If extract runtimes are too long, try turning compression and checksums off. Your runtimes will be reduced, but your extract files will be almost twice as large. Keep DART extract filesystem mounted locally to server that is running job to help minimize network (LAN) traffic. 48

49 Performance Tips Tip Single thread extract jobs since only one job can read the DART index at a time (TXW_INDEX). Try selecting only one company code per extract job in order to help reduce runtimes Further reduce runtimes by splitting the types of data extracted during a single run u For example you could archive FI data with one extract, MM in another, and then SD during another run. You could then merge the separate extracts into one single extract file. 49

50 Getting Around Abends Tip Sometimes the amount of data read by the DART extract program becomes too large and causes performance problems or abends. This could be caused by the way DART is accessing your financial data. If this is the case can change the access method DART uses to select data from BSEG. u Extract configuration; Select Goto Extras BSEG Selection Mode u Experiment to see which works best for your company! 50

51 Warning!!! Warning Make sure your DART extracts are completed before archiving any data DART extracts have the ability to read archived data, because they but jobs are MUCH MORE system intensive when run this way. 51

52 Don t Assume Anything! Heads Up! REMEMBER! Just because you have implemented DART, does not mean that you have all data you will need for an IRS audit! Different industry sectors have different requirements which may not be met by the standard DART configuration. Some companies may require extraction of additional fields to support all audit requirements. 52

53 DART Resources SAP Training BC680 ASUG SAP Website 53

54 7 Key Points to Take Home 1. DART provides significant value at no additional cost. 2. DART provides a single source for data required during an audit. 3. DART provides data in IRS accepted format. 4. All companies/industry sectors are different, and have different IRS requirements DO NOT assume that basic DART configuration will meet all your company s needs without performing an analysis first! 54

55 7 Key Points to Take Home 5. You don t have to perform data archiving in order to reap the benefits of DART. It can still be used as a single source for data required during an IRS audit. 6. Keep current with DART patch levels! Example: One version of DART would not abend when it ran out of space in the extract directory. This could lead to data loss if the error was not detected. 7. You can use DART as a way to view data that has been archived from your system (instead of AS or DRB). 55

56 Your Turn! Questions? 56

Data Retention Tool (DART) (CA-GTF-DRT)

Data Retention Tool (DART) (CA-GTF-DRT) HELP.CAGTFDART Release 4.6C SAP AG Copyright Copyright 2001 SAP AG. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form