9.3 Text Control I: Text Objects, Text Types, Text Determination Procedures, and Manual Text Entry

Text Control I: Text Objects, Text Types, Text Determination Procedures, and Manual Text Entry

The S46056 course Setting up Text Control in SAP S/4HANA Sales (183 minutes) is a complete course in the C_TS462 learning journey, so text control is examinable configuration, not a side topic. This first section explains the concepts and manual text entry; section 9.4 covers automatic text transfer, analysis, and special features.

Why Sales Documents Need Texts

The course starts from the core idea of ERP software: documenting business transactions and supporting or even automating their processing. In SAP S/4HANA Sales, almost all information in a document is stored in coded form. The sold-to party, the payment terms (for example, payment term 0001 for payable immediately due net), the material, quantities, and dates are all keys. Some information, however, can only be expressed as text. The course examples:

• Special information about a customer, such as how to treat the customer with respect to their cultural identity.
• Marketing information in a quotation item, such as "the product will be sold in a set at a special price by the end of the month".
• Information for colleagues, such as a request to call a specific forwarding agent for collection.

Text Objects and Text Types

Texts can be stored in different places in SAP S/4HANA:

• In the customer master record
• In the material master record
• In condition master records
• In sales and distribution documents

These places are called text objects. Two text objects matter most in sales:

A specific piece of text is entered in a text type, also called a text ID. A text type has a four-character alphanumeric key and a description. The course suggests imagining a text type as a sheet of paper on which you write text. Standard text types include 0001 Form Header, 0002 Header Note 1, 0003 Packing Note, and 0005 Purchase Order Text. Texts can be entered in different languages: one text type can hold several texts, one per language, by specifying the language key before entering the text.

Configuring Text Types

A prerequisite for entering text in a sales order is that at least one text type exists for the text object. SAP delivers text types for the various text objects, and you can define your own in Customizing; text types are defined per text object.

In principle, one text type per text object would be enough, because a text type can hold any amount of text. The disadvantage is that you could not control different texts differently. Control settings exist per text type, for example:

• whether the text is printed on an output,
• whether and from where the text is copied automatically, and
• whether the text is copied to a subsequent document.

Text Customizing for sales documents is found in the IMG under Sales and Distribution → Basic Functions → Text Control → Set Up Text Determination. This opens the Customizing Text Determination application, which you can also call directly with transaction VOTXN.

Text Determination Procedures

When you look at a sales order, you will notice that fewer text types are available than are defined in Customizing for VBBK or VBBP. The reason: the Customizing of a text object contains all text types that are or ever were needed for that object, across all document types. For VBBK, that includes text types for deliveries, quotations, returns orders, rush orders, standard orders, and so on. A standard order header needs different text types than a commercial invoice.

You therefore define which text types are needed in a specific context with a text determination procedure. The course describes the procedure as a container holding a selection of text types for a context, such as the standard order header, the quotation item, or the returns order header.

Assigning Text Determination Procedures

How is the procedure itself found for a document? SD documents are created and controlled with document types:

• Billing documents with billing types (for example F2 Invoice).
• Deliveries at header level with delivery types (for example LF Delivery).
• Sales documents with sales document types (for example OR Standard Order).

The assignments are:

Manual Text Entry

As soon as a text determination procedure is assigned to a sales document type such as OR, users can enter text in documents of that type, in the required language (for example, EN), using a text type of the assigned procedure. The same applies to items: once a procedure is assigned to an item category such as TAN, texts can be entered in items controlled by that category. Texts entered during processing can be used in further processing, transferred to subsequent documents, or printed in output.

In the sales order, texts are reached through the Texts tab at header or item level (in the classic transaction via Goto → Header → Texts or Goto → Item → Texts). The course simulation shows displaying and editing header and item texts during order processing.

Configuration Checklist

To make a new text type available in standard order headers:

1. In VOTXN, choose text object VBBK (sales header) and create the text type, for example Z001 Delivery Instructions.
2. Create a text determination procedure (or use the existing one for the standard order header) and include the new text type.
3. Assign the procedure to sales document type OR.
4. Test in VA01: the new text type appears on the header Texts tab, and text can be entered in each needed language.

For items, repeat the steps with text object VBBP and assign the procedure to the item categories, such as TAN.

Worked Example: Texts in a Quotation and an Order

A company wants a header text Customer Notes in quotations and orders and a packing note only in orders.

• Text type 0002 Header Note 1 is used for customer notes, and 0003 Packing Note for packing instructions; both exist for VBBK.
• Procedure A (quotation header) contains 0002; procedure B (order header) contains 0002 and 0003.
• Procedure A is assigned to the quotation document type and procedure B to OR.
• A sales representative enters the customer note in English and German in the quotation; in the order created later, the packing note becomes available as an additional text type. Whether the customer note is copied from the quotation automatically depends on an access sequence for the text type (section 9.4).