Symptom
A new license type is available from SAP, for products and solutions other than SAP Business One, where licensing and fees are based on document transaction volume for certain document types within defined timeframes.
Volume based licensing needs to be supported by SAP Business One for integration with other SAP offerings to ensure that the correct volume of SAP documents is recorded; volume based licensing is not supported in SAP Business One directly.
SAP Passport functionality through SAP Business One identifies, and allows for the counting of, SAP created document transactions for the purposes of volume licensing.
The integration framework for SAP Business One (B1i) is required to support various SAP Passport requirements for different subsidiary scenarios.
Solution
The following changes, addressing this requirement, has been implemented in SAP Business One 9.3 PL08, and higher versions:
License Administration
SAP Passport for Volume Based Licensing is to be activated in License Administration.
A checkbox option SAP Passport for Volume Based Licensing is planned for License Administration (follow path Administration → License → License Administration).
SAP Passport for Volume Based Licensing is to be activated if the relevant licensing and authorizations are in place. Manual activation is required, SAP Passport for Volume Based Licensing is not activated by default.
Activating SAP Passport for Volume Based Licensing makes SAP Passport available in Series - Setup of Document Numbering - Setup.
Document Numbering - Setup and Series - Setup
SAP Passport checkbox options are to be made available for different document types, like A/R Invoices, in Series - Setup of Document Numbering - Setup.
A checkbox option SAP Passport for individual series of document types is planned for Series - Setup (follow path Administration → System Initialization → Document Numbering → select individual Document row → SAP Passport checkbox in Series - Setup for document).
SAP Passport is available in Series - Setup of Document Numbering - Setup if SAP Passport for Volume Based Licensing is activated. Manual activation is required for each required document type, SAP Passport is not activated by default. The change log in SAP Business One records changes to SAP Passport for series.
Recommendation: Use String Prefix and String Suffix in Series - Setup in series definitions to easily identify series for string connections and transfers.
The following document types can be covered by SAP Passport:
- A/R Invoices
- A/R Credit Memos
- Deliveries
- Return Requests
- Returns
- Sales Orders
- A/P Invoices
- A/P Credit Memos
- Goods Receipt POs
- Goods Return Requests
- Goods Returns
- Purchase Orders
- Sales Quotations
- Journal Entries
- Goods Receipts
- Inventory Transfers
- Production Orders
- Down Payments
- Purchase Requests
- Correction Invoices
- Correction Invoice Reversals
- Blanket Agreements
- Time Sheets
Integration Framework for SAP Business One (B1i)
The integration framework can pick up SAP Passport information and pass it to SAP ECC and SAP S/4HANA on Premise systems through a HTTPS connection in an additional SAP Passport header. When connecting to SAP ECC using RFC (Remote Function Call), the SAP Passport is handed over in an attribute to the RFC adapter. For more information about how to create and hand over the SAP Passport, see the how to guide available on the SAP Business One integration for SAP NetWeaver page on SAP Help Portal.
SAP supports the out-of-box Intercompany Purchasing (sap.IC.Purchasing) standard scenario that is available with SAP Business One integration for SAP NetWeaver. It is planned that the package will support the handover of SAP Passport with the next patch of SAP Business One integration for SAP NetWeaver.
SAP Passport Processing
Unique SAP Passport identification strings are generated for each transaction once set-up is complete in SAP Business One and B1i.
In the database tables for the activated document types, SAP Passport details are added to the SAPPassprt field. The SEVT table of the SBO-COMMON database, that contains SAP Business One events that trigger integration scenarios in the integration framework, also contains SAP Passport information in a SAP Passprt field.
