Told not to use text in Accounts Receivable Module

5 pts.
SAP Workflow
I work for a Chinese company utilizing SAP and was told not to use the text field in FBL5N.   They also don't utilize the workflow or attachments.   I tried attachments but it was gone in a few days.  Is there any reason for this directive?  I have no understanding or reason from management.

Software/Hardware used:
SAP R/3 upgraded

Answer Wiki


If someone from the company told you not to use a feature, then only they can tell you why. That is an individual Business decision.

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  • Clinton Jones

    were you entering or planning to enter data into the text fields in latin or chinese characters? 

    On older SAP systems that are not unicode the handling of non latin/ascii characters is not handled well, it can cause issues. So even if it is visible in the UI, it can mess things up in reports and forms in particular. In some instances even background jobs will fail.

    You indicate that it is an upgraded R/3 system but is it an ECC6 system? Even as an R/3 system which version is it?

    One factor that may be in play may also be the hardware footprint that this system is operating on. They may be running with minimal storage available and that could be the reason why attachments are disliked. Or, perhaps they have a strategy for switching the document management store.

    Attachments can be incredibly painful on any SAP environment along with SAP Workflow, this is one of the reasons why I promote the use of workflows OUTSIDE of core SAP and only key workflows INSIDE SAP, I also promote using a proper DMS like SharePoint for attachments rather than cluttering ERPs with all possible attachments.

    As far as text and long text is concerned I really advocate using this as much as imaginatively possible. If your businesses relies on SAP as the source of the truth then make it that - fill it up with as rich an informational experience as possible - elaborative text is a great way to give data more context.

    I think you need to ask the person who instructed you accordingly - why? Their response as it stands does not support industry best practice.

    605 pointsBadges:

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