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SAPexperts | Ask the FI/CO Expert: "Can the 'Special Fields' Settings Be Made Available to End Users?"

0 the 'Speci al Fi elds' Settings Be Ma de Av ailable to End Users ?"

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Ask the FI/CO Expert: "Can the 'Special Fields' Settings Be Made
Available to End Users?"
by Kim Ciesla, Senior Financ ial Consultant and I nstructor, SAP America
Feb ruary 15, 2002

SAP experts/Fi nanci als

Thi s month's "Ask the FI/CO Expert" question concerns ABAP List View er (ALV) functi onali ty that wa s introduced
in R/3 Release 4.6: spe cifically, how to ma ke the "Special Fiel ds" (such as Ma teria l #, Quantity, User name, and
Entry da te) a vaila ble to end users. As this arti cle e xplai ns, the se cret is to run two quick ABAP programs a fter
you have changed the Ye s/No setti ngs.
Key Concept
Dear Marc,
Good question! I have an ans wer I think youll like. Ill include some st ep-by -step inst ructions for you. Let me start with
a brief background on t his t opic of Line Layouts and Special Fields for any readers who have not y et worked with this
functionality .
Your question refers to the ABAP List Viewer (ALV) functionalit y, introduced with R/3 release 4.6. It is pretty awesome!
It has enhanc ed the "Display /Change Line It ems" screens in the trans actions us ed for res earching c ustomer ac count ,
vendor account, and G/L account activity.
You can more easily do sorting, t otaling, s umming, and/or even downloading your dat a to a spreadsheet with t he ALV,
since the groups of dis played fields (called "Line Layouts ") are no longer fix ed, pre-as sembled objects that your FI/CO
configuration team has to create for y ou. Instead, you can create your Line Layouts on t he fly and change them without
a t hought about configuration.

This months FI/CO expert, K im Ciesla, a Senior Financial Consultant in S AP Americas Chicago office, answers a
question from Marc Bark in. Marc is a S enior Manager Financ ial S ystems Liaison at Sony Electronics, Inc. His quest ion
concerns the "Spec ial Fields " set tings , and how they can b e made available to end users.

Dear Marc,
Good question! I have an ans wer I think youll like. Ill include some st ep-by -step inst ructions for you. Let me start with a
brief background on this topic of Line Layouts and Special Fields for any readers who have not yet work ed with this
functionality .
Your question refers to the ABAP List Viewer (ALV) functionalit y, introduced with R/3 release 4.6. It is pretty awesome! It
has enhanced the " Display/Change Line Items " screens in the transact ions used for researching cust omer account, vendor
acc ount, and G/L account act ivity .
You can more easily do sorting, t otaling, s umming, and/or even downloading your dat a to a spreadsheet with t he ALV,
since the groups of dis played fields (called "Line Layouts ") are no longer fix ed, pre-as sembled objects that your FI/CO
configuration team has to create for y ou. Instead, you can create your Line Layouts on t he fly and change them without a
sapexperts.wispubs.com/Financials/Articles/Ask-the-FI-CO-Expert-Can-the-Special-Fields-Settings-Be-Made-Available-to-End-Users?id=F2D48C534A434F5

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SAPexperts | Ask the FI/CO Expert: "Can the 'Special Fields' Settings Be Made Available to End Users?"

thought about configuration.

Wit h the ALV, there are over 100 fields to choos e from to allow each end user to create his or her own A/R A ccount
Act ivity , A/P Account A ctivity, or G/L Account A ctivity Line Layout.
If 100 fields arent enough, there is a way to add more! These addit ional fields go by t he name of "Special Fields," and the
"How To" for making them available is the answer to y our question. A ll of the columns that you mentioned (e. g., Material #)
are, in fact, still available.
The firs t few steps for making these available are reasonably obvious, and it sounds as if youve already done those
correctly. But, the nex t few steps are not so obvious and (even though theres no IMG customization to creat e or trans port)
still ty pically require a minute or two of your FI/CO cons ultants t ime. If one of those folk s isnt st anding around nearby ,
then you can also ask a friendly-looking AB AP or Basis person t o help you, bec ause the " secret" in 4.6 is to run two quick
ABA P programs after you have added the desired fields to t he list!
The steps:1
1. Navigate t o your "Display or Change Line Items" transac tion as you normally would: Accounting > Fina ncial
Accounti ng > AP/AR/GL (choos e one only ) > Account > Displa y/Cha nge Line I tems. Or, just type in a fast-path
transact ion c ode note that we only do this onc e to updat e all three:
a. A/P: FBL1N
b. A/R: FBL5N
c. G/L: FBL3N
2. On the selection screen, enter your Vendor/Customer/GL Account, as well as your Company Code, and then Execute
the transaction. This is our starting point . You should be seeing a screen similar to the one shown in Figure 1 (next page).
This is where you can begin the proces s of telling R/ 3 which "S pecial Fields" you want available.

Fi gure 1

An Example Fi rst Detail Scre en in the "Display Line I tems" Transacti on

3. On the menubar, find and click on t he ic on that looks like t his

or like this
in order to review the fields t hat are
currentl y available for use in your Line Layouts or, failing that, use the t rusty menupath: Settings > Layout > Current.
Onc e there, t ake y our t ime. No need to rush. Do you find t hat s ome of your favorite fields from 3. 1 or 4.0 are not showing
in the right-hand column lis t? If so, close the dialog box (but stay in t he Line It em Display screen!), and go to Step 4.
4. Now, if you feel you still need additional fields, choose the Set tings menubar highlighted in Figure 1, and then choose
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Special Fields. This will take you to the Change View "Line Layout V ariant Special Fields" overview screen. Here you c an
add any new fields that you want available in your Line Layouts .
5. On that Overview screen, selec t the New Entries push button. R/3 will respond by making available for ent ry two of the
screens three columns: Table and Field name. Put your cursor in the firs t field in the "Table" column, and then type in one
of the s ix table names shown below. Then, put your cursor in the "Field name" column jus t to the right of where y ou ty ped
in the t able name, and choos e the drop down box to see a list of available "Special Fields" related to that table, suc h as
whats s hown in Fi gure 2 for the BKPF table.

Fi gure 2

Som e of the Availa ble "Speci al Fi elds" Rela ted to the BKPF Tabl e

Repeat t his exercise until y ou have added all of the fields you felt were miss ing from t he list you saw in S tep 3. In your
specific case, you will find two of your fields (User name, Ent ry date) in the BKPF table, and two (Mat erial, Quantity ) in the
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BSE G table.
These are the tables you can choose fields from:
a. BKPF: Accounting Doc ument Header, s uch as the Entry dat e of the document.
b. BSEC: One-Time Account Document Dat a, such as name and address.
c. BSED: Bill of E xchange Fields Document Data.
d. BSEG: Accounting Doc ument Debit and Credit Detail, such as t he Material #.
e. PAYR: Online Check Regist er, e.g., the Check #.
f. BSEGC: Doc ument : Dat a on Payment Card Payment s.
Now comes the "sec ret" part! Depending on y our authorization and comfort level with the technical side of SA P R/3, you
may need to get your favorit e FI/ CO consult ant or ABA Per/B asis person to give you a hand for Step 6 and Step 7. W e
need to run t wo st andard R/3 programs. 2 Here we go
6. Navigate t o: System > Services > Re porti ng. Or, us e the fast -path transaction code: S A38.
a. In the Program field, ent er RFPOSXE XTEND.
b. Selec t Execute.
c. Selec t Yes ! when the syst em as ks you to confirm that you are extending the struc ture.
d. The s ystem will return a message st ating that the program "S ucces sfully Completed." 7.
7. Next we run a s econd program t o refresh the A LV buffer so that we can see our new fields. Go back to the first screen
from Step 6.
a. In the Program field, ent er BA LVBUFDEL.
b. Selec t Execute.
8. Log off and then log back on. You may give the sys tem a few minut es to proc ess you know it has to think
sometimes. Your new fields s hould now be available for selection.
I hope t hat following t hese steps solves your my stery ! Thanks for your question, and good luc k wit h your fut ure FI/CO
res ults!
1 A s you step through t his excerc ise, you will learn (following the "Spec ial Fields " menu) how to add more fields in t he

ALV list . Tec hnically s peaking, t he fields listed in struc ture RFPOS XEXTE ND are a c omponent of the line item indices
BSIS, BS ID, and BS IK, and are available in the A LV list. If you need a field t hat is not on t hat s truct ure, through
cus tomiz ing, you add that "s pecial field" t o the list , regenerate the structure, refresh the buffer, and you are good to go.
These additional fields are considered "special" because y ou ac cess the originating table i.e., BKPF, BSEG, PAY R,
etc . not the index.
2 Here is the techie sc oop: Struc ture RFPOS XEXT contains all of the fields in the s elect ion list when y ou choose the

Change Layout pushbutton in the display screen. Now, we have just told R/ 3 that we want to see more fields the ones
we just entered in the Special Fields screen. To complete that process, we act ually have to formally request (via the
running of a standard A BAP program) R/ 3 to extend this structure, as well as t o refresh the A LV buffer, so t hat we can use
the new fields. After S tep 8, be sure to us e transact ion c ode " se11" to verify that the new fields , in fact, got added to t his
structure.

Kim Ciesla
Kim Cies la is a senior financial consultant and instructor with SAP America, s upporting and
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implementing SAP R/3 Financials. Kim has worked at SA P America for 10 years and has
developed expertis e in the areas of lockbox , Acc ounts Receivable, Ac count s Pay able, and
General Ledger, and has an extens ive background in cross-applic ation func tionality. In her free
time, she is a world traveler, visiting 23 count ries to date.
See more by t his author
You may contact the aut hor at kim.cies la@sap.com.
If you have c omments about t his article or publication, or would lik e to submit an artic le idea, please cont act t he editor.

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