General information

Best Practices "Data Archiving"

This "best practices" guide is the result of a workshop jointly held on July 15, 2008 in Walldorf by the DSAG workgroups
"Globalisierung" (Globalization) and "Datenarchivierung und ILM" (Data Archiving and ILM).
Thanks to everyone for your input, work, and inspiration!

The purpose of this guide is merely to give you some ideas and recommendations for retention periods and residence times for your
archiving projects.
Please note that the accuracy and completeness of the information and recommendations contained herein is beyond our responsibility.

Before starting a data archiving project it is your responsibility to check that the retention periods and the storage scenarios comply
with your local laws.

This document is a 'living' document and can be changed/adopted. You are wellcome to give us your input to update this document.
Please send your comments, enhancements to Bernd Reichel, who will collect your inputs: [email protected]

Walldorf, December 2008

Frank Schellenberger, AG Architecture within AK Globalization

Pier-Francesco Cantatore, AG Datenarchivierung und ILM

History
Version Date
0.01 Jul. 15, 2008
1.00 Aug. 14, 2008

This publication is protected by copyright. Unless otherwise explicitly specified, all rights are reserved by
DEUTSCHSPRACHIGE SAP-ANWENDERGRUPPE e.V.
Altrottstrasse 34 a
69190 Walldorf
Deutschland
Unauthorised use is not permitted. This applies in particular to copying, distribution, translation or the use in electronic systems / digital media.

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 Overview
Retention time - legal view -

recommandation for
Archiving Object Descrition Country Memo
retention time
"long straw" -
BC_DBLOGS Customizing table changes Best Practice highest retention It is not possible to split the DBLOGS by countries/companies
time
"long straw" -
BC_SBAL Application Log Best Practice highest retention The application log can be reorganized, in case of archiving take "long straw"
time
CHANGEDOCU Change documents Best Practice no recommendation No recommendation possible due to lack of feedback
CO_CCMAST - obsolet - Cost center master data see CO_ITEM
CO_CCTR_EP - obsolet - Cost center document data see CO_ITEM
CO_COPC Product costing data Best Practice country specific
CO_ITEM CO line items Best Practice country specific
CO_ML_BEL Material ledger documents Best Practice no recommendation No recommendation possible due to lack of feedback
CO_ML_DAT Material ledger data Best Practice no recommendation No recommendation possible due to lack of feedback
CO_ML_IDX Material ledger index data Best Practice country specific
CO_ORDER CO order Best Practice no recommendation No recommendation possible due to lack of feedback
CO_TOTAL CO total records Best Practice country specific
COPA1_XXXX COPA costing based operating concern Best Practice country specific As of SAP ERP 6.0, the archiving object is COPAA_XXXX
COPA2_XXXX COPA account based operating concern Best Practice country specific As of SAP ERP 6.0, the archiving object is COPAB_XXXX
COPAA_XXXX COPA costing based operating concern Best Practice country specific for releases < ECC 60, the archiving object is COPA1_XXXX
COPAB_XXXX COPA account based operating concern Best Practice country specific for releases < ECC 60, the archiving object is COPA2_XXXX
EC_PCA_ITM PCA current and plan line items Best Practice country specific
EC_PCA_SUM PCA current and plan total records Best Practice country specific
FI_DOCUMNT Financial accounting documents Best Practice country specific
FI_MONTHLY Sales figures A/P, A/R, G/L Best Practice country specific
FI_SL_DATA Totals and line items in FI-SL Best Practice country specific Recommendation depends on usage and country-specific reasons
IDOC Idoc - Intermediate Documents (interfaces) Best Practice depends on usage The retention period depends on "leading" (superordinate) business document
LE_HU Handling Units Best Practice depends on usage

Recommendation depends on usage and country-specific reasons

MM_ACCTIT MM accounting interface posting data Best Practice country specific
The creation of the data can be prevented, see Data Management Guide

MM_EBAN Purchase Requisitions Best Practice country specific

MM_EINA Purchasing Info Records Best Practice country specific
MM_EKKO Purchasing documents Best Practice country specific
No recommendation possible due to lack of feedback, but the retention period of
MM_INVBEL Best Practice no recommendation
Materials management: Inventory documents MM_MATBEL or FI_DOCUMNT can be a base to find a retention period
MM_MATBEL Materials management: Material documents Best Practice country specific
Another rule for determining the retention period can be based on the retention period
MM_REBEL Materials management: Invoice documents Best Practice country specific
of FI_DOCUMNT
PCA_OBJECT obsolet Best Practice no recommendation No recommendation possible due to lack of feedback

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 Overview
Retention time - legal view -

recommandation for
Archiving Object Descrition Country Memo
retention time

PM_ORDER Service- and maintenance orders Best Practice country specific Recommendation depends on usage (e.g. product liability) and country-specific reasons

PP_BKFLUSH Document log Best Practice country specific

PP_ORDER Production order Best Practice country specific Recommendation depends on usage (e.g. product liability) and country-specific reasons

Recommendation depends on usage (e.g. product liability) and country-specific

PS_PROJECT Project system: operative structures Best Practice country specific
reasons, the average retention period can be 10 years
QM_CONTROL QM inspection transaction data Best Practice no recommendation No recommendation possible due to lack of feedback
QM_QMEL Quality notification Best Practice country specific Recommendation depends on usage (e.g. product liability) and country-specific reasons
RL_LUBU MM-WM posting change notices Best Practice country specific
RL_TA MM-WM: Warehouse management: Transfer orders Best Practice country specific
RL_TB MM-WM: Warehouse management: Transfer requirements Best Practice country specific
RV_LIKP Deliveries Best Practice country specific
SD_VBAK Sales documents Best Practice country specific
SD_VBRK Billing documents Best Practice country specific
SD_VTTK SD Transport Best Practice country specific
US_AUTH User master change documents: Authorization Best Practice country specific
WORKITEM WORK items from the Workflow system Best Practice country specific Recommendation depends on usage (scenario) and country-specific reasons
MM_MATBEL_POS Material documents - Retail - POS Best Practice no recommendation No recommendation possible due to lack of feedback
FT_VEIAV Intrastat documents Best Practice no recommendation No recommendation possible due to lack of feedback
FT_VEXAV Extrastat documents Best Practice no recommendation No recommendation possible due to lack of feedback
US_PASS Change documents: User (other data) Best Practice no recommendation No recommendation possible due to lack of feedback
US_USER User master change documents: User authorizations Best Practice no recommendation No recommendation possible due to lack of feedback
US_PROF User master change documents: authorization profiles Best Practice no recommendation No recommendation possible due to lack of feedback
AM_ASSET Assets - master data, values and movements Best Practice no recommendation No recommendation possible due to lack of feedback

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 Overview
online residence time

recommandation for
Archiving Object Descrition Country Memo
online residence time
3 to 6 month for all
BC_DBLOGS Customizing table changes Best Practice For development systems residence times are longer or undefined, with SCU1 display possible
countries
3 to 6 month for all
BC_SBAL Application Log Best Practice With SLG1 display possible
countries
Access to archived data is limited, only with the latest releases possible, but third party product
CHANGEDOCU Change documents Best Practice 12 to 48 month
available
CO_CCMAST - obsolet - Cost center master data 15 month see CO_ITEM
CO_CCTR_EP - obsolet - Cost center document data 24 month see CO_ITEM
CO_COPC Product costing data Best Practice 12 to 24 month Depends on industry
CO_COSTCTR Cost Center - all data Best Practice no recommendation
CO_ITEM CO line items Best Practice 12 to 24 month Archiving "in the course of a year" possible
CO_ML_BEL Material ledger documents Best Practice 3 to 15 month Access to archived data is limited
CO_ML_DAT Material ledger data Best Practice no recommendation
CO_ML_IDX Material ledger index data Best Practice 12 to 24 month
CO_ORDER CO order Best Practice no recommendation
CO_TOTAL CO total records Best Practice 12 to 24 month
COPA1_XXXX COPA costing based operating concern Best Practice 15 to 24 month As of SAP ERP 6.0 COPAA_XXXX, archiving "in the course of a year" possible
COPA2_XXXX COPA account based operating concern Best Practice 24 month As of SAP ERP 6.0 COPAB_XXXX
COPAA_XXXX COPA costing based operating concern Best Practice 15 to 24 month for releases < ECC 60, the archiving object is COPA1_XXXX
COPAB_XXXX COPA account based operating concern Best Practice 24 month for releases < ECC 60, the archiving object is COPA2_XXXX
EC_PCA_ITM PCA current and plan line items Best Practice 3 to 24 month Depends on the business
EC_PCA_SUM PCA current and plan total records Best Practice 24 month
FI_DOCUMNT Financial accounting documents Best Practice 15 month Before archiving, extract the data with DART
only archive, if data no
FI_MONTHLY Sales figures A/P, A/R, G/L Best Practice
longer used
FI_SL_DATA Totals and line items in FI-SL Best Practice 15 month
IDOC IDoc - Intermediate Documents (interfaces) Best Practice 15 days to 24 month Depends on IDoc type
LE_HU Handling Units Best Practice 12 to 24 month
MM_ACCTIT MM accounting interface posting data Best Practice 3 month the creation of the data can be blocked, see data management guide
MM_EBAN Purchase Requisitions Best Practice 6 to 12 month
MM_EINA Purchasing Info Records Best Practice 12 to 24 month
MM_EKKO Purchasing documents Best Practice 12 to 24 month
MM_INVBEL Materials management: Inventory documents Best Practice no recommendation
MM_MATBEL Materials management: Material documents Best Practice 12 to 24 month
MM_REBEL Materials management: Invoice documents Best Practice 15 to 24 month
PCA_OBJECT obsolete Best Practice no recommendation
PM_ORDER Service- and maintenance orders Best Practice 12 to 24 month
PP_BKFLUSH Document log Best Practice 6 to 24 month
PP_ORDER Production order Best Practice 12 to 24 month
PS_PROJECT Project system: operative structures Best Practice 24 to 36 month
QM_CONTROL QM inspection transaction data Best Practice no recommendation
QM_QMEL Quality notification Best Practice 24 to 36 month
RL_LUBU MM-WM posting change notices Best Practice no recommendation
RL_TA MM-WM: Warehouse management: Transfer orders Best Practice 6 to 12 month
RL_TB MM-WM: Warehouse management: Transfer requirements Best Practice 6 to 12 month

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 Overview
online residence time

recommandation for
Archiving Object Descrition Country Memo
online residence time
RV_LIKP Deliveries Best Practice 6 to 12 month Depends on data quantity, before archiving extract the data with DART
SD_VBAK Sales documents Best Practice 6 to 15 month Depends on document type, before archiving extract the data with DART
SD_VBRK Billing documents Best Practice 12 to 24 month before archiving extract the data with DART
SD_VTTK SD Transport Best Practice 6 to 12 month
SD_COND SD Conditions Best Practice no recommendation
US_AUTH User master change documents: Authorization Best Practice no recommendation
WORKITEM WORK items from the Workflow system Best Practice 3 to 18 month Depends on workitem type
MM_MATBEL_POS Material documents - Retail - POS Best Practice no recommendation
MM_MATNR Material Master Best Practice no recommendation
MM_HDEL Historic data Best Practice no recommendation
FT_VEIAV Intrastat documents Best Practice no recommendation
FT_VEXAV Extrastat documents Best Practice no recommendation
US_PASS Change documents: User (other data) Best Practice no recommendation
US_USER User master change documents: User authorizations Best Practice no recommendation
US_PROF User master change documents: authorization profiles Best Practice no recommendation
AM_ASSET Assets - master data, values and movements Best Practice no recommendation

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 Country specific informations

"Normal" retention time for FI-Documents

Country Description Retention time Additional Informations

AT Austria 7
BE Belgium
BR Brazil
CH Swiss 10
CN China
CZ Czechia
DE Germany 10 DART usage for GDPdU
DK Denmark
ES Spain
FR France
GB Great Britain
HU Hungary
IRL Irland
IT Italy
JP Japan
LU Luxemburg 10
MX Mexico
NL Netherland 7
PL Poland
PT Portugal
RO Romania 10 and 50
SE Sweden 10
SK Slowakia 5
SN Senegal
TR Turkey
US USA 15

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 Important Link

Country Description Link

Germany German Treasury department www.bundesfinanzministerium.de

Germany Side from AUDICON www.gdpdu.com
Germany Portal with informations about GDPdU www.gdpdu-portal.com
Germany Portal with informations about GDPdU www.elektronische-steuerpruefung.de
Austria Austria Treasury department www.bmf.gv.at/
Swiss Swiss Treasury department www.admin.ch/ch/d/sr/c641_201_1.html
Netherland Netherland Treasury department www.belastingdienst.nl/
USA US IRS (Treasury department) www.irs.gov/

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