High- Level Specification

Functional Overview

Over time, many PPM items and SAP Project System (PS) projects reach completion or become inactive but remain open in the system and delay capitalization. This leads to administrative inefficiencies, a cluttered project portfolio, and potential compliance risks. To address these challenges, this enhancement proposes the automation of idle project closure. Additionally, this enhancement introduces a solution to identify idle projects and assets. 

The program offers 2 modes, which will be scheduled as a batch job:

1. Inactive Projects Closure (Quarterly)

Run on a quarterly basis to identify inactive or idle projects, which have not been set to Closed status. The program will attempt to automatically close these projects if all closure criteria are met. If a project cannot be closed due to outstanding issues (such as open balances or commitments), the system will include the projects in a custom table with other significant project information (Project Financial Controller, Project Owner, ect..). A report based on this table is then used to analyzed the projects that got closed, the ones that could not get closed due to related objects and the projects active with all their WBS elements inactive. The Project Financial Controller and the Project Owner appearing at least once in the custom table after an update are notified via the launchpad and invited to consult the report.  

2. Idle AuC Monitoring (Monthly)

Run on a monthly basis to identify any idle Assets under Construction (AuC). The program will feed a custom table listing all AuC requiring attention with the relevant AuC information (Regional Asset Manager, WBS element etc...). Regional Asset Managers appearing at least once in the custom table after an update are notified via the launchpad and invited to consult the report.  

Scope and Objectives

This enhancement specifically targets SAP Project System (PS) projects that meet the following criteria:

• Project status is either "Technically Completed" (TECO) or is still active but all depending WBS elements are set to TECO status, for which no financial transactions have occurred for a given period (defined as an input parameter, example 6 months).
• AuCs assigned to WBS elements for which no financial transactions have occurred for a given period (defined as an input parameter, example 6 months).

The scope includes:

• Assessment of whether these projects can be fully closed in the system.
• Notification to the responsible Project Financial Controller if closure is not possible due to outstanding issues (e.g., open balances or commitments).
• Notification for regular review of idle AuCs identified to the Regional Asset Manager.

The objectives are: 

• Minimize erroneous postings by preventing transactions on inactive projects
• Optimize reporting by ensuring only active and relevant projects appear as open
• Maintain good data hygiene by keeping project data accurate, 
• Highlighting non capitalized costs and POs or WOs left open.

Process Flow Diagram

1. Inactive Project Closure Review

2. Idle Asset Under Construction (AuC) Monitoring
(for periodic review and notification of AuCs with no recent activity)

Assumptions

SAP PS projects and WBS elements are assigned the TECO status once all project activities have been completed and no further work is expected.

The program can only be run in one mode per execution: Inactive project closure OR Idle AuC monitoring. 

Input parameter Inactivity period is used for the 2 program modes and can be set to different values. 

Dependencies

ERP-512 Sync Project Person Responsible & Applicant with HR Positions - Batch: To derive Project Financial Controller.

ERP-1018 Synch Status from PPM Item to PS Project/WBS: When closing the PPM item, the status Closed is replicated to the corresponding SAP PS project. 

: To derive Regional Asset Manager

Security, Integrity and Controls

Each user that has access to edit the PPM item is able to change its status to Closed. The program is designed in case the projects are not closed by the users when they should be closed. It is executed as a batch job. In exceptional cases, an firefighter user can execute it manually. 

Configuration Requirements

N/A

Language Requirements

Notifications are sent in English.

Special Requirements

N/A

Design Rationale

Functional Requirements

This section describes the business process and decision logic for managing inactive SAP PS projects and idle Assets under Construction (AuCs). It outlines the key steps and criteria used to identify, review, and act on inactive projects and assets.
Please note that technical implementation details are provided separately in the Processing Logic section.

1. Scheduled Processing

• The program runs in two modes:
  1. Inactive Project Closure Review: Conducted quarterly to identify and process inactive projects.
  2. Idle AuC Monitoring: Conducted monthly to identify and report on idle Assets under Construction.
• The period of inactivity (default: six months) can be adjusted as needed (input parameter).

2. Inactive Project Closure Review

2.1. Identification of Inactive SAP PS Projects

• • The program identifies SAP PS projects that are no longer active, marked as “Technically Completed” TECO
  • Some Project profiles will be excluded (input parameter). For example, Statistical, Provisional Expense or Intercompany Recharge purposes are excluded from this review.
  • Only projects and WBS elements with no recorded activity (actuals or commitments) in the past X months are considered inactive and subject to further review. X = Inactivity period. 
  • SAP PS projects that are still active (i.e., not TECO, Cancelled, or Closed), where all associated WBS elements have the status TECO, CNCL or CLSD assigned, and for which there have been no transactions during the past X months (with X being the specified inactivity period). In this case if identified, the program will issue a notification. 

2.2 Closure Criteria Review:

1. 1. In the case of SAP PS projects that are still active (i.e., not TECO, Cancelled, or Closed), where all associated WBS elements have the status TECO, and for which there have been no transactions during the past X months (with X being the specified inactivity period): Include these projects to the notification for review. 

   2. For all identified projects in step 2.1, the program first attempts to close the WBS elements. Closure is only possible if all of the following conditions are met:

      1. Outstanding Time Transfer Check: Confirm that all time bookings have been fully transferred to the relevant WBS elements

      2. No process or work orders with active status
      3. No open purchase orders
      4. Process Orders and Work Orders fully settled
      5. All linked assets under construction are fully capitalized or settled
      6. The WBS element has a zero balance

Some of these conditions are handled by the standard solution. When attempting to close a SAP PS project, the system automatically verifies that these requirements are met and, if not, displays an error message.
However, the standard solution does not perform the checks for (i) outstanding time transfers and (ii) process order status by default. As a result, these checks will be carried out by the custom program in advance, prior to initiating the project closure.

c. Project Closure Action:

• • • If all conditions are satisfied, the project status is set to closed. If the project is linked to a portfolio management item, its status is also updated to “Close.”
    • If any condition is not met, the project remains open and the reasons are documented in a notification to the Project Financial Controller (see section 4).

3. Idle AuC Monitoring

For each AuC assigned to a WBS element project:

• • Identify any AuCs that have not been fully capitalized or settled.
  • Identify last activity (posting) date.
  • Exclude the AuCs for which the Capitalization date is set to a future date on the WBS element.
  • If last activity date is older than the Inactivity period defined and outstanding balance exist, send a consolidated notification to the Regional Asset Manager (see section 4).

4. Notifications

• • Inactive Project Closure:
    Project Financial Controllers and Project Owners receive a consolidated notification listing:

    • Projects that were successfully closed
    • Projects that could not be closed, with reasons for each (e.g., open commitments, pending time transfers, unsettled assets)
    • Guidance on next steps and the date of the next scheduled review
    • One consolidated notifications to the Project Financial Controller and one to the Project Owner with the projects assigned to them. 
•  

  • Idle AuC Monitoring:
    Regional Asset Managers receive a notification listing all identified idle AuCs, including relevant details and recommended actions.

• • If a recipient cannot be identified, the issue is logged for further investigation.

  • See Processing logic for rules to derive email recipients. 

Proposed Technology to Use

Application job.

Data Source Considerations

Data Validation Considerations

Include an overview of the data validation requirement. Can be deleted if not needed.

Custom Tables

Master Data

Inactive Projects

Table listing the projects identified by the program: 

1. Projects that the program could close
2. Projects that the program could not close for some reason
3. Projects that have all their WBS elements inactive but remain active

Inactive AuC

Configuration Table

Title Configuration Table 1

Include an overview of the table and what it’s used for

Selection Screen Enhancement

This section will give the details on the selection screen parameters, parameter type and whether it’s obligatory or not. This section can be used to define the Import Export parameters for Function Module or User Exit or Screens. Can be deleted if not needed.

Processing Logic

This section defines the detailed step-by-step logic implemented within the BAdI/User Exit to process the data received from the standard SAP program and database retrieval. It explains the operations performed on the data, the expected outcomes in different scenarios and how the system should behave in response to specific conditions.

1. Scheduled Processing

The program can be executed in 2 modes: 

1. Inactive project closure review: The identification and processing of inactive projects must occur quarterly.
2. Idle AuC Monitoring: The identification and reporting of idle AuCs must occur monthly.

Only one mode can be executed at a time. A single input field, "Inactivity period," is defined and can be applied to both modes.

2. Inactive project closure review

For each identified inactive project, the program:

2.1.Identification of Inactive SAP PS Projects

• • The program identify SAP PS projects with:
    • status TECO: 
      • JEST: Object Status (stores status information for objects like projects and WBS) STAT field = TECO and INACT = Blank
      • PROJ: Project Definition (main project header data)
      • Join the 2 tables to keep only project definitions.
      • Result: List of project definitions (IDs) that are TECO.
    • Exclude PS project with Project profiles values mentioned in Selection screen - PROJ-PROFL

• • • Check that no transactions for the past X months (X = Inactivity period) months: no Actuals nor Commitment posted on the related WBS elements.

Get all the related WBS elements table PRPS field PSPHI = Project id

Query ACDOCA where OBJNR = PRPS_OBJNR (WBS element Object number)

• • • • • Filter by BUDAT for posting date.
        • Check that the latest posting date is older than (Current date - X (Inactivity period))
    • Insert the identified projects in custom table "Inactive Projects" along with the Project Description, 

• • The program also checks for the SAP PS projects that are still active (i.e., not TECO, Cancelled, On Hold or Closed) with all their associated WBS elements in status TECO/Cancelled or Closed:
    • Identify active projects = Projects not assigned to statuses TECO, CNCL, CLSD, HOLD.

BAPI_PROJECTDEF_GETLIST can be used to select the projects based on system and user statuses.  
Exclude system status TECO, CLSD and user status HOLD and CNCL.

• • • Exclude PS project with Project profiles values mentioned in Selection screen - PROJ-PROFL 

• • • For the projects identified, check if all Level 2 (L2) WBS elements have inactive statuses TECO, CNCL or CLSD.

• • • • Table PRPS field PSPHI = Project id
      • Table: PRPS field STUFE = 2.
      • Table JEST-STAT: Check that all L2 WBS elements have the status TECO, CNCL or CLSD assigned with field INACT = Blank.

• • • If not, ignore the project. 
    • If so, then check if all WBS elements at other levels also have the status TECO, CNCL or CLSD.

• • • • Table PRPS field PSPHI = Project id and field STUFE > 2
      • Table JEST-STAT: Check that all WBS elements have the status TECO, CNCL or CLSD assigned. 

• • • If so, Check that no Actuals nor Commitment posted on all of the related WBS elements for the inactivity period defined.
      • Get all the related WBS elements table PRPS field PSPHI = Project id
      • Query ACDOCA where OBJNR = PRPS_OBJNR (WBS element Object number)
      • Filter by BUDAT for posting date.
      • Check that the latest posting date > X (Inactivity period).

• • • If no Actuals nor Commitment posted on all of the related WBS elements for the inactivity period defined:  Insert the project in custom table "Inactive Projects" with Activity = Suggest to close.

2.2 Checks if no outstanding time transfer 

For all the projects identified in step 1, check that all time booking is transferred to the WBS element (Time booked and time transfer completed).

Table CATSCO

RPROJ = WBS element = Project id followed by * to obtain all WBS elements for a given project definition (Example, if the project id = A.000004, then search all RPROJ values starting with A.000004); 

TRANSFERRED = " "

If any records with Transferred = " ", then some records are still expected to be transferred. The project cannot be closed. Update the project and the WBS element in custom table "Inactive Projects" with Activity = Failed to close and Reason = "Outstanding time transfer".

2.3 Checks related Order statuses

Identify the Work orders and Process Orders assigned to the WBS elements: 

Identify the WBS elements assigned to the SAP PS project.

Function Modules:

• • CO_WBS_ELEMENT_ORDERS_READ => retrieves all the orders assigned to a WBS element.
  • STATUS_READ => Read status of an order
  • If status = Created or Released, The project cannot be closed. Update the project and the WBS element in custom table "Inactive Projects" with Activity = Failed to close and Reason = "Open Work orders or Process Orders".

2.4 Attempt to set the project status to CLSD (Closed). If 2.2 and 2.3 are successful (No outstanding time transfer and Order statuses are closed), simulate a SAP PS Project status change to Closed. If not the below closure criteria are met, the system will prevent the closure and issue an error message.

*If Purchase requisitions are not replicated from Ariba to S4, no check at project closure is done. 

Before performing any actual status changes, the system will simulate the project closure using the following BAPIs:

• • BAPI_PS_INITIALIZATION – to initialize the PS environment

  • BAPI_BUS2054_SET_STATUS – to set the WBS/project status 

  • BAPI_PS_PRECOMMIT – to check for errors prior to commit

In this simulation mode, no status changes are saved. The purpose is solely to detect whether any of the above closure conditions are not fulfilled. 

Update the project in the custom table "Inactive projects" with Activity = Failed to close and Reason = SAP Standard Error message generated when attempting to close the project. 

2.5 If all the above criteria (2.2, 2.3) are met, meaning that the project closure simulation reported no errors, the project can be closed:

• • • If the SAP PS project is related to a PPM id, the PPM item status be updated:
      • If PPM Item status = TECO/Cancelled => change PPM Item status to Closed/Cancelled.
      • If PPM Item status = TECO => change PPM item status to Closed. 

Check project id exist in /RPM/ITEM_D field ITEM_D

Function Module /RPM/ITEM_CHANGE - This function module allows to change attributes of a PPM item, including its status.

The status change to Close on the PPM item will be replicated to the SAP PS project. 

• • • Else set the SAP PS project to status CLSD.
    • Update the project in the custom table "Inactive projects" with Activity = Closed

3. Idle AuC Monitoring

3.1. Identifying AuC Related to WBS
Use ANLA fields:
ANLN1 (Asset Number)
ANLN2 (Asset Subnumber)
POSNR (WBS Element)
ANLKL (Asset Class — to filter for AuC)
Filter where ANLKL corresponds to the AuC asset class and POSNR matches your WBS element.

3.2. Checking for the last Activity (identifying dormant AuC)
Use BUDAT (Posting Date) in ACDOCA.
If there are no entries for the asset in the last X months (X= Inactivity period), it meets inactivity criterion.

3.3. Checking Capitalization/Settlement
Analyze postings in ACDOCA for the asset to determine if it’s fully capitalized or settled.
Use FM FI_AA_VALUES_CALCULATE to determine if the calculated balance is zero, which indicates full settlement.
If there are still open balances or no settlement/capitalization postings, the asset is not fully settled.

3.4 Capitalization date check

Exclude AuC meeting the above criteria (3.1, 3.2 and 3.3) for which the Capitalization date PROJ-USR08 is set to a future date (Capitalization date > Current date) on the assigned WBS element.

3.5 If AuCs meets the above criteria, send a notification to Regional Asset Manager. Details in section 4. 

4. Notification

4.1. Inactive project closure review: 

4.1.1 A consolidated notification for each Project Financial Controllers highlighting: 

• • • • Projects that were closed by the program
      • Projects that could not be closed and the reasons.
      • Projects not set to TECO when all depending WBS elements are TECO or inactive status.
      • 2 consolidated notifications are issued: 
        • one consolidated notification for the Project Financial Controller of the concerned projects
        • one consolidated notification for the Project Owner of the concerned projects. 
      • Consolidated notification means that only one notification is sent to the Project Financial Controller and one to the Project Owner, listing all the projects which are under their scope only.
      • Email notification Language = English

Template email: 

Recipient: Project Financial Controller for the concerned projects. Derived from PROJ-ASTNR and separately the Project Owner for the concerned projects derived from PROJ-VERNR.

Subject: Inactive Project Closure Review Results – [Processing Date]

Dear [Project Financial Controller, see section 4.3 for deriving Financial Controller], or [Project Owner, see section 4.3 for deriving Project Owner],

As part of the regular review of inactive projects (PS status TECO and no activity in the past [Inactivity period] months), please find below the summary of closure attempts performed on [Processing Date].

1- PPM Items and Projects Successfully Closed

The following projects were successfully closed:

2- Projects Not Closed

The following projects could not be closed. 

*Custom error: In these cases the notification does not display the SAP error message, as no error is generated during the project closure attempt. Please use the mentioned reason. This occurs if condition 2.2 and 2.3 have failed the check.

3- Projects found active, while all related WBS elements are set to TECO, CNCL or CLSD and no activity in the past [Inactivity period] months:

Please review the reasons and take the necessary actions (e.g., settle balances, close orders, resolve AuC issues).

4.2 Idle AuC Monitoring:

A consolidated notification highlighting all the AuC which have not been closed. Language requirement = English.

Email template : 

Subject: Consolidated List of Idle Assets Under Construction (AuC) – [Processing Date]

Dear [Regional Asset Manager, see section 4.3 for deriving Regional Asset Manager],

As part of the periodic review of inactive AuC, the following Assets have been identified as inactive (no activity in the past [Inactivity period] months) and are not fully capitalized or settled, and for which the capitalization date has not been maintained or is overdue. 

Please review the list below and take appropriate action to settle or capitalize these assets as needed.

4.3 Deriving email recipients

• • • Project Financial controller: Project Financial controller position is stored in table PRPS, field ASTNR. From the position ID the SAP Personal ID can be derived through table HRP1001. Then obtain the email address through PA0105.
    • Project Owner: Project Owner position is stored in table PRPS, field VERNR. From the position ID the SAP Personal ID can be derived through table HRP1001. Then obtain the email address through PA0105.
    • Regional Asset Manager: Refer to FS ERP-87 Automate Asset & Settlement Rule Creation - Workflow.

4.4 Handling notification errors (No recipient derived)

If email recipients cannot be identified, no notification is sent, error is shown in the job error log report. 

Volumetrics

Unknown.

Performance Considerations

N/A

Error Handling

The job log report should:

• Record the execution details of the program, including start and end times and selection criteria (Execution mode + Inactivity period).
• Log the number of objects processed 
• List PPM items and SAP PS successfully set to closed
• List projects not closed and provide reason (error)
• Capture any errors encountered during execution.
• Provide an overview of the notifications sent (recipient, successful or failed)

Testing

How to Test

Test Conditions and Expected Results

Test Considerations/Dependencies

N/A

Other Information

Development Details

Package

Enhancement Implementation

Other Development Objects

Appendix

Custom Authorization Group Naming Convention

This table is based on the Syensqo development standards document. It provides the naming conventions for authorization groups to associated with custom reports and tables to comply with security requirements.

See also

Insert links and references to other documents which are relevant when trying to understand this decision and its implications. Other decisions are often impacted, so it's good to list them here with links. Attachments are also possible but dangerous as they are static documents and not updated by their authors.

Change log