US postal address validation.

[Former Member]

Hi experts,

Our SAP system currently does not do address validation at the time of Order entry (should the user overwrite the ship-to address coming from customer master). The result is at times having an invalid address causing issues with Shipping. What function module can be used to check for postal address validation at the time of Sales Order entry?

thank you,
George

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi,

    Can you tell us what is your requirement little more elaborate.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Srinivasan,

Our Sales order entry people have to override the Ship-to address in VA01/VA02 at times i.e. they change the address that comes from Customer Master to a new address which is not in the system. SAP allows that but sometimes because of typos or ignorance fields such as zip code, region, street etc are not entered correctly. So I need something to check the address for them and give them the options available (in case they enter a non-existent or dicey address).

That way if they enter a wrong address the system will let them know or if they enter a dicey address the system will offer probable addresses. This is at the time of Order entry/change only. I may extend this address check to SD Customer Master create/change later too. Right now only US addresses are under question but later may want to extend it to other countries too.

Best,

George

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi,

    As per SAP standard you can't change or override the ship to address in VA01/VA02 flown from the master, if you change here this change is automatically updated in Customer master also what you can do here SAP has give option to change the ship to party code, you can do override of the ship to address only in VL01N/VL02N check and confirm.

To have check point when overriding the address in VL01N/VL02N you can use the BADI for deliveries LE_SHP_DELIVERY_PROC

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi,

You can override the Ship-to address in VA02 by going to the partner tab and double clicking on the Ship-to party. This is updated in ADRC only and not in KNA1 (Customer Master).

Is ADDR_CHECK the only function module I can use for this requirement? What are the other ways, experts please help...

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi,

    Yes your correct i checked, you can use function module ADDR_CHECK. Also check below user exit in SMOD

V45A0002

V45A0003

V45S0001

V45S0003

[Jelena · Accepted solution]

George, the basic check (like general ZIP code validity) should already be embedded within SAP address screen, unless it was deactivated on purpose. But if you want to validate the address against the USPS database then you'll have to connect to it. This can be done via a web service (USPS has an API available for that) or through the third party software. For example, we use Vertex tax software and it at least validates city/state/region for tax purposes.

There is no way to have the address fully validated with just some FM in SAP. An FM can do a generic validation, e.g. whether ZIP code has a valid format, but it won't check if the ZIP code matches the street / city / state or even if city/state combination exists. (Just think logically about it - how would SAP know?)

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Jelena, that is what I thought too to connect with the USPS as we do not use Vertex etc. Would you happen to know the USPS API name? I searched and found ambiguous information about that.

Thanks for the reply!

[Jelena · Accepted solution]

George, I don't know the specifics, sorry - have not used it myself. Here is a link to ecommerce tools on USPS site.

This is a very common thing in ecommerce though, so there should be lots of information available, I imagine. Maybe search outside of SAP domain.

[eduardo_hinojosa]

Hi

Have you seen note 707113 (deactivacion of postal code check for USA)?

I hope this helps you

Regards

Eduardo