Use SAP standard payment medium formats or create custom version

[lubos]

Dear colleagues,

I would like to ask a question regarding the use of the SAP standard payment formats i.e. CGI_XML_CT vs. using copies of the standard payment formats i.e. ZCGI_XML_CT.

What in you experience would be the better approach:

1. Use payment formats CGI_XML_CT / CGI_XML_DD directly and assign them directly to payment methods.
2. Always create Z* copy of the standard formats to keep the payment formats and assign the copied Z* version in the payment methods configuration?

Both approaches have its benefits:

1. With every Support pack upgrade, CGI_XML_CT/DD are always up to date and since it is directly assigned to payment methods, corrections / adjustments are immediately available.
2. In case of Z* copies of standard CGI_XML_CT/DD formats, every upgrade impacts only the standard formats and Z* copy is so to say more stable (not impacted by any upgrade or OSS note implementation changes), but then requires manual adjustments to reflect the updates.

There are also cases when companies create (used to create) separate country-specific payment formats to isolate the changes (which is irrelevant as we can use the country-specific BADI implementations).

In my opinion the direct use of standard i.e. CGI_XML_CT formats is better approach, teamed up with strong UAT / regression testing after every upgrade.

Thank you for sharing you recommendations.

[Michal_Pandoscak · Accepted solution]

Hi Lubos,

thanks for your comments!

As you wrote customer can decide whether use

1. SAP delivered Format and DMEE tree or
2. copy it to the customer's namespace and then use it.

SAP recommends option 1.

in case of both options, you need to check whether the DMEE tree/Format is updated as there could be additional SAP notes released after the development close for certain SP.

(option 1 is obvious and option 2 as there could be changes in event 05 which is used in the Z-Format or any other coding which is related to the BAdI solution)

The best approach is to check the excel (PF_Notes_and_SPs_2253571.xlsx) attached to note 2253571 for new notes after each SP upgrade.

Best regards,

Miso

[lubos · Accepted solution]

Servus Michal,

thank you very much for reply, really appreciated.

Some customers prefer to create custom copies of the same payment formats to decouple payment processing per country and ensure less impact during any upgrades but that ends up with various payment formats which are not updated for long time and at the end require more effort to get updated than using the SAP standard formats.

Thank you again and have a great day!

Lubos

[Michal_Pandoscak]

Hi Lubos,

SAP has a solution for the distribution of changes but only on S4 releases.

Please see https://blogs.sap.com/2018/09/21/mass-synchronization-in-dmeex/

I recommend also other blogs related to the payment topic mentioned here

https://blogs.sap.com/2020/04/28/payment-formats-in-sap/

Best regards,

Michal