Why can't we deactivate PBET ?

[Former Member]

SAP Help says : "Once you have activated and configured period-based encumbrance tracking

it is not possible to resort back to fiscal annual-based encumbrance tracking".

First of all, I have no idea why (or since when) PBET was enabled in our system. I just found that we are now using update profile 102. We have no plan to activate multi-year budget execution, and on 01-Apr-09 we only enabled the year-dependent master data for Funds center hierarchy.

After 01-Apr-09, this PBET setting suddenly caused workflow errors at our final approval of cross-year Fund Reservation documents. So I tried in our QAS system to resort back to the fiscal annual-based encumbrance tracking (i.e. via the IMG "Override Update Profile" function). To my surprise I was allowed to save the "update profile" changes. Then I restarted the failed work items and they went through successfully.

Now my questions :

(1) if after PBET activation we SHOULD not (instead of "CANnot") revert the changes, why would the system allow it?

(2) any risks or hidden impacts we should consider before applying such changes to our production system? So far our test results in the QAS system look positive.

(3) any means to find out if the PBET was already turned on 1 year ago? or since 2006's initial launch?

Edited by: Wai Wan Gun on May 26, 2009 2:32 PM

[former_member184992 · Accepted solution]

Hello Wai,

If you use PBET, you have these options for avoiding some issues:

a) Closing operations or

b) use of FMOD transaction

c) Deactivate PBET for commitment budget. (override your profile).

d) Regarding to using a different update date (as in FMOD), you can also activate EXIT_SAPLFMFA_004.

Unfortunately, from the help.sap.com, I found :

If you want to use period-based encumbrance tracking in your organization, you should first consider the following points:

The volume of data increases manifold depending on the number of changes and the generation of change documents.

Once you have activated and configured period-based encumbrance tracking it is not possible to resort back to fiscal annual-based encumbrance tracking.

But you can overwrite PBET update profile as I told you before, so I hope it helps.

Best Regards,

Vanessa.

[Former Member]

Thanks Vanessa,

I take your reply (c) to mean that deactivating PBET in our case is not a violation of SAP recommendation, and I'll proceed to do so in our production environment.

Now my question 1 closed, any advice on my question 3 please?

Best regards,

Gun

[former_member184992]

Hello Gun,

I think I was not so clear. I provided to you some workarounds to avoid issues when using PBET, and as per the documentation provided, you should not deactivate it as I mentioned before. All my hints were provided but considering the use of PBET. I hope I could clarify to you.

Best Regards,

Vanessa.

[Former Member]

Thanks for your reply, although it doesn't seem to address my original questions.

It's like I'm suddenly issued with a free credit card which I don't need.

I want to cancel it properly but the issuing bank says this is not possible.

So I ask other cardholders if I may just cut it into pieces (to simulate a cancellation).

.... then I get replies suggesting ways to make clever use of credit card purchases.

[former_member184992]

Hello,

I believe that your issue is related to the fact that PBET settings caused workflow errors at your final approval of cross-year Fund Reservation documents. I am not sure if "errors" means error messages or error in the postings.

Maybe it is a correction note available or if you checked my hints the use of any of the suggestions would avoid workflow errors.

But since you believe that deactivate PBET is the best solution even SAP does not recommend (and will not support any further consequence), I am sorry but even you are able to do this, does not make sense to me and I dont know how to help you further.

Good luck

Best Regards,

Vanessa.

[Former Member]

Hi Vanessa,

First of all, we never want or need PBET. We don't even know when it was turned on (see my original question 3 above).

Two months ago, we started to encounter workflow errors in several cross-year Funds Reservation workflow transactions. Neither the requester nor the approver were aware of these background workflow errors, until one day somebody reported s/he couldn't use the approved Earmarked Funds due to zero open amount. For each of these reported problems we had to perform manual carryforward, and then ran tcode SWPR to complete its posting.

We logged a customer message 352667 to SAP Support Portal, and the processor identified it was caused by PBET. By quoting the same [SAP Help|http://help.sap.com/erp2005_ehp_04/helpdata/EN/9b/9e2a39b487605fe10000000a114084/content.htm] she concluded it was a consulting issue. She also referred me to this Forum, and I became a new member here.

During subsequent testing, I found that after deactivating PBET in the QAS system, new cross-year workflow transactions could be approved and posted smoothly. Then I read the "SAP Help" about considerations for enabling PBET, and had even stronger wish to stop it.

Of course I would not perform PBET deactivation if SAP does not support it. But I'm just wondering why the system allows me to make such "impossible" changes. I wish to explore this option and share other experts' experience & opinion because we don't want to be juggling with any operational workarounds FOR EVER... only because we had once accidentally turned on this unwanted feature (which brings us no benefit at all !).

I hope the above gives a better explanation of our problem situation now.

Best regards,

Gun

[mar_novalbos]

hello Gun,

fyi, I am still researching internally (as I told you in my e-mail) and I would like to update this thread as soon as I have more news.

please guys keep this thread in a stand-still ...

thanks!!

regards

Mar

[mar_novalbos]

Hi all,

Please excuse the delay in responding!

We have discussed internally about this topic. If you use OF36/OF39 to change the PBET setting for the whole update profile you will get notifications and warnings but not for individual value types.

It is stated that PBET should not be deactivated, but even that, if a customer erroneously activated PBET and it caused problems, there should be a chance to undo the changes and set the update profile according to their needs.

Of course all of these changes must be tested thoroughly.

I hope this will help to better understand the reason why customizing allows PBET activation/ deactivation even if it is not recommended

Regards

Mar

[Former Member]

Thanks for your reply. It sort of answers my question #1, but not #2 or #3.

I can't say we erroneously activated PBET, because we have no idea by who or since when this was done. If PBET was activiated long time ago, then it might be too risky to "undo" changes NOW since we are not sure of its impacts on the production data which had been accumulated "in PBET mode" over several years.

I had hoped that some people might share their experiences with me... but it seems nobody had been in similar situation before.

I trust your simple reply (after 3 months' study) is backed up by more technical findings in background which are not suitable for release in public forums. Anyway, it does give me a positive message that "NOT all long outstanding forum threads are forgotten or ignored". Thank you and bye.

[mar_novalbos]

Hello Wai,

<BR>

Of course I understand your point.

<BR>

Questions 2 and 3 are not easy to answer...

<BR>

2) How FM gets updated?:<BR>

- With PBET: document and account assignment changes are entered in commitment as individual documents<BR>

- Without PBET: original document data are overwritten<BR>

Activation of PBET implies increase of data volume since chronological changes are recorded in tables FMIOI and FMIFIIT (and FMIT is updated subsequently)<BR>

Deactivating PBET will change this behaviour and therefore document changes will overwrite existing records in FM tables. You may encounter some issues during fiscal year change again since, for instance, the current amounts (most recently updated) could be in a date earlier than prior changes & reductions...This would require possible data reconstruction (via tools mentioned in note 189761)<BR><BR>

3) how to find out when PBET was turned On one year ago is also hard. It could have been active by default in your update profile, or maybe it was activated and transported to all of your systems. I can only suggest you to check the old transport requests containing the relevant IMG activity, as I presume the system logs are no longer present in your system after one or more years.<BR><BR>

Anyway, You say you never wanted this feature but it was somehow present in your system(!)....I presume everything would have been tested before going live and results were accepted, including operations during fiscal year change.<BR>

But then, after fiscal year change you found out some problems with Workflows, because documents from the previous year could not be approved in the new Fiscal year.<BR>

In the reference message you were suggested to use Carry Forward, FMOD, and EXIT_SAPLFMFA_004 but none of these options were suitable in your opinion.<BR>

These options are delivered by SAP to accomplish PBET logic during fiscal year change. FMOD and the EXIT can be enabled temporarily when both the new and the old fiscal year are still open in parallel due to closing activities.<BR>

However none of these did suit you...but it does for most of customers (provided that they chose the most appropriate update profile fitting their business needs)<BR>

I honestly think these options are better than deactivating PBET like that.<BR><BR>

This decission must obviously be taken under a project scope because we in the forum don't know the whole business behind, so if you decided PBET deactivation, we will all try our best when giving any sort of answer.<BR>

Kind regards<BR>

Mar<BR>

PS:I am sorry if this thread did not fully meet your expectations but I'm also sure the whole community will appreciate your participation (this one and future ones)!

[Former Member]

Dear Mar,

Thanks again for the additional info and professional advice. I do very much appreciate your eagerness to help. Also, I understand the limitations of a public forum. No offence, but I just wish to share one interesting story with everyone :

A man in a hot air balloon realized he was lost. He reduced altitude and spotted a woman below. He descended a bit more and shouted, "Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don't know where I am." The woman below replied, "You're in a hot air balloon hovering approximately 30 feet above the ground. You're between 40 and 41 degrees north latitude and between 59 and 60 degrees west longitude."

"You must be an engineer," said the balloonist.

"I am," replied the woman, "How did you know?"

"Well," answered the balloonist, "everything you told me is, technically correct, but I've no idea what to make of your information, and the fact is I'm still lost. Frankly, you've not been much help at all. If anything, you've delayed my trip."

The woman below responded, "You must be in Management."

"I am," replied the balloonist, "but how did you know?"

"Well," said the woman, "you don't know where you are or where you're going. You have risen to where you are due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise which you've no idea how to keep, and you expect people beneath you to solve your problems. The fact is you are in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but now, somehow, it's my fault."

Cheers,

Gun (Neither an engineer nor in management)

[mar_novalbos]

so as I

cheers

Mar

[Former Member]

The biggest problem of PBET is during change in Fiscal year where you have to post the document both in last fiscal year i.e. March'2015 and new fiscal year i.e. April'2015. Once you carry forward the open PR and POs, the system will not allow to POST in previous year i.e. March'2015 which is open period in MM(MMRV) as well as FI(OB52). It is impossible to close MIGO and MIRO as on 31.03.2015 and start year afresh in our organisation where SAP user are more than 25000.

It's because of such restriction, we want to deactivate PBET and request all concerned to look into this even GOD gives second option for rectifying the mistake.