Data Migration approach and process during new s/4hana implementation is crucial step. we were part SAP S/4HANA 2021 new implementation for one of the our customer – which is leading electrical technology wholesaler in Nordics.

We would like share our recent experience of SAP Finance Data Migration from S4Finance 1511 to S4HANA 2021 using “Direct Transfer” option of SAP Migration Cockpit – Migrate your data Fiori application.

Data migration

• This is one key task during the transition to SAP S/4HANA
• Make sure to understand your requirements early and plan for them accordingly

source: SAP standard documentation

We were able to use and migrate data using SAP Migration Cockpit – Migrate your data Fiori application (Direct Transfer option) for SAP Master Data Objects successfully

• FI – G/L accounts,
• CO – cost centers
• CO –  Profit Centers,
• CO – Internal Orders
• FI-AA- Fixed Assets

The limitation with SAP S/4HANA Migration Cockpit is, source system must be SAP ERP system

The SAP S/4HANA Migration Cockpit limitation (source system must be SAP ERP system) comes in play when we have tried to migrate “Transactional Data Migration” for below objects .

Please see the official guide SAP S/4HANA Migration Cockpit – Migrate your data to SAP S/4HANA
On Technical preconditions it mentions:
‘SAP S/4HANA Migration Cockpit does not support the migration of data from SAP S/4HANA systems to other SAP S/4HANA
systems. SAP S/4HANA Finance systems (formerly known as SAP Simple Finance) are classified as SAP S/4HANA systems.

SAP Business Suite on HANA with SAP Simple Finance 2.0 Add-on – is also considered as S/4HANA system

To overcome the limitation of Transactional Data Migration from S4FIN to S/4HANA, Tarento has developed custom solution – Programs/BAPIs to extract the data from source S/4 HANA system and post it into Target S/4HANA system

Migration Object Name

• FI – Accounts payable open item (new G/L)
• FI – Accounts receivable open item (new G/L)
• FI – G/L account balance (new G/L)
• FI – G/L open item (new G/L)
• FI – Historical transactions

What was the limitation that we come across with Migration Cockpit to migrate Transactional Data ?

The migration object describes how to migrate a data for specific migration object, it has also information about required source and target structures and relationship between these structures , the migration object also contains mapping information for relevant fields , it also provides option or possibility to convert the values that are migrated from source to target system.

When we create the migration project for a specific Migration Object, the Migration Cockpit creates the transparent table/view /1LT/OTPxxxxx is was not activated, because

• The transparent table / view which creates in source system, trying to create the table with all fields as key fields, hence it is not able to activate the table and giving error 
• Ideally the migration object must pick only relevant fields as key fields based on the table structure of the respective migration object

How did we create the custom program/BAPI to over come the limitation with Migration Cockpit?

In Source system, data has been exported and downloaded to the excel file.

In Target system, created the custom program or BAPI with mapping for the required fields, used standard BAPI –  BAPI_ACC_DOCUMENT_POST – to post the data from exported excel

once all the data is migrated, reconcile the data and make sure the data matches in the source system.

Please reach out to us if you need help on this kind of migration scenario, thank you