Starting with the SAP Data Retention Tool (DaRT)
For a company I work for there was a need for archiving data as the database was growing. But there was also the need to keep data available for future audits.
What if we delete the data from the database and it is needed for an audit? Well then we still have the archive files and we still can view the data.
See "Archiving SAP data and how to access it after the delete run"
Although that is true, the customer wanted to work with DaRT extract to be able to give a future auditor exactly what they needed. And this DaRT process is normally done before the archiving project starts.
So in the below steps I will show you the steps how to configure and create a DaRT extract.
It will be shown from a technical point of view (as I'm a technical consultant).
Of course you also need a functional- or business-consultant to determine the data to be captured (for example the period and the company code).
First a small definition of DaRT, compared to ILM (information Lifecycle Management):
(see http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-28852)
DaRT is a tool offered as part of the SAP Business Suite. The main purpose is to retain the relevant finance and tax data from a productive system to make it available to auditors. The data being exported (so called DaRT extracts) is not deleted within the productive database which leads to a duplication of data. As soon as the data is needed to support an audit, the exported files are imported into the “DaRT Viewer”
SAP Netweaver ILM is a total solution of which Retention Management is part of. It applies to productive systems and enhances archive files with their specific retention time, stores the files and enables automated destruction once the retention time expired. The technical foundation is the standard data archiving provided as part of the SAP Business Suite.
In this example I performed the DaRT extracts for a French company code and there were a few notes to be imported specifically:
0001906078 - FTW1A: BADI for additional selections from BKPF
0001923322 - DaRT: View file creation for France Legal Requirement
0001935509 - Carry forward postings for new GL in France
Related transaction codes
First an overview of DaRT related transactions:
DaRT configuration
SAP transaction FTWP
In this example we choose Financial documents and Tax data.
Go to tab File directories and create a new one:
The 0 is placed automatically. Leave this field blank.
If your SAP system has separate application servers, make sure this directory is accessible from all systems.
The other tabs we can leave default
Create DaRT extract
We use SAP transaction FTW1A
Here we choose need the functional- or business-consultant to determine the data to be captured. In this example we choose a certain company code and a certain fiscal year.
Result:
At operating system we see that the files are created:
DaRT logging
Use SAP transaction FTWL to see the DaRT logging after the run is done:
DaRT extract browser
SAP transaction FTWF to browse through the DaRT extract
Double click on a line to see the detailed data.
DaRT data view queries
Besides the SAP transaction FTWF to browse through the DaRT extract we have transaction FTWH for the DaRT data view queries
Because we created a Tax related DaRT extract we now choose: "0SAP_BSET Tax data document segment".
In the next screen select the source extract and directory set and execute.
Then the data is shown which an auditor needs to see/review
Best Regards,
Marco