Reporting

Information system must provide information about the important factors that an enterprise’s management needs for its business decisions. Documents (Sales Orders, Purchase Orders, Production Orders, and Material Documents) are captured and stored in SAP with various amounts of information while reports can be run at any time. In the SAP information systems, key figures are derived from the master and operative data and incorporated into the key figure system. These key figures describe both corporate factors such as the revenue situation, financials, personnel structure, and so on, as well as external factors such as prices, customer, vendors, and so on. By selecting, assigning, and aggregating the information available in the operational area, the key
figure system can be customized to meet a company’s specific reporting needs. The SAP information systems provide numerous predefined reports, as well as options for enabling the user to define their own report structures.

Distinction is made between different reporting types:

• Standard reports list documents, master data, and combinations of these objects (characteristics) to be selected in the report request
• Reporting via information systems in the applications: Standard analyses from FIS (Financials), LIS (Logistics), HIS (Human Resources)
• Reporting via information systems with separate databases and tools for generating flexible report structures: EIS (Executive Information System) and BW (Business Warehouse)

To introduce participants to some of the various reporting options available, this lesson examines two of the reporting tools in detail, List Displays and Information Systems (for example, Logistics).

List Displays

List display is one of the reporting tools available throughout the SAP system. List display enables the user to request a listing of documents or master data information, as well as combinations of these objects (characteristics). List displays are reports generated directly from the online transactions or other various sources of summarized data. From these lists, the user can access the source documents directly.

Information Systems

Key reporting tools available in SAP include the Information Systems available within each of the applications (such as Logistics, Accounting, Human Resources). Detail transaction information is stored in the SAP system
and aggregated for the Information Systems for statistical purposes. Data from other systems can also be input for analytical purposes.

The application reporting trees provide numerous predefined reports that have been defined by SAP according to business requirements (Standard Analysis). The application information systems also enable you to define your own information structures in the SAP system to meet your enterprise’s individual requirements (Flexible Analysis).