Frequently Asked Questions about Localization as a Self-Service for SAP S/4HANA Cloud

Localization plays a pivotal role in supporting your cloud journey. It supports business compliance and caters to adjusting the product’s functional properties, characteristics, and content to accommodate the language and legal differences. A dedicated team of localization experts working across the globe help deliver legal changes in SAP S/4HANA Cloud.

Localizations are segregated in a few different approaches as outlined below:  

Customers need business solutions that are localized to meet the ever-changing regulatory requirements of the countries and regions they do business in. SAP currently provides localized solutions for 51 countries/regions while 8 more are on the roadmap. These country/region-specific localized solutions are called local versions.

There are two types of local versions: 

• SAP-delivered local versions: SAP currently provides 51 local versions in SAP S/4HANA Cloud while 8 more are on the roadmap. These local versions provide business configuration content, features, and country/region-specific functions to help you meet the local business and legal requirements.

• Customer local versions: Customer local versions are developed by SAP’s customers or their implementation partners to support business activities in countries/regions for which an SAP-delivered local version is not available in SAP S/4HANA Cloud. This SAP Note lists the countries/regions for which you can create a customer local version. 

Localization as a self-service for SAP S/4HANA Cloud provides extensibility options to help you realize your business-specific localization requirements on top of the available localized functions for the SAP-delivered local versions. 

It includes key user extensibility and developer extensibility options for in-built localized features such as SAP Document and Reporting Compliance and tools such as Payment Medium Workbench, and other generic extensibility features such as APIs, custom fields, custom logic, UI, and CDS Views.    

You can also use the SAP Central Business Configuration: Configuration Localization Tool to create new customer local versions. Please note that the Configuration Localization Tool is currently available only for early adopters. Refer here for details about the early adopter program.

You can always refer to field guidance to get the latest information about localization, such as the roadmap.

You can learn more about localization as a self-service for SAP S/4HANA Cloud, public edition on our community page. 

All customers of SAP S/4HANA Cloud, public edition and their implementation partners can use localization as a self-service for SAP S/4HANA Cloud. 

No, the offering is not priced. Certain features are delivered as extensions; for example, some advanced features of SAP Document and Reporting Compliance, and might need additional licensing or may be priced based on the usage.

Our Community page provides detailed information on localization as a self-service for SAP S/4HANA Cloud. It lists several blogs that explain how you can extend your solution to meet your business-specific requirements using different extensibility options such as key user extensibility and developer extensibility. The page also lists blogs that provide guidance on creating new customer local versions. 

Most blogs describe a sample business scenario and dive further into details such as the prerequisites, authorizations required, and implementation steps with code snippets.   

If you have any questions or comments, you can post them right beneath the individual blogs. 

Yes, the SAP Central Business Configuration: Configuration Localization Tool enables you to create your own customer local version by copying configurations from an SAP-delivered local version (currently, you can copy configurations only from Germany).

Current customers of SAP S/4HANA Cloud, public edition who are using SAP Central Business Configuration (CBC) with a 3-system landscape can participate in the Configuration Localization Tool early adoption program to create a customer local version. Specific timeline for its general availability is yet to be communicated. You can find more information about the early adaptor program here.

Before you create a new local version, refer to this SAP Note to check if the county/region is supported by the SAP Central Business Configuration: Configuration Localization tool. If it is, then check if its legal requirements can be met using the existing standard features and their extensibility options available in SAP S/4HANA Cloud. To do this, the following factors need to be evaluated:

• Legal requirements of the country/region 
• Customer implementation scope for the country/region 
• Capabilities of localization as a self-service for SAP S/4HANA Cloud 

It is possible to create a new customer local version if the legal requirements applicable to the implementation scope match the capabilities of localization as a self-service for SAP S/4HANA Cloud.  Please refer to the feasibility checklist to know about the different extensibility options for features available in SAP S/4HANA Cloud.

Yes, we are aware that Germany as a source country is not always sufficient. We are trying to come up with a more scalable approach for source country. We will provide further updates to you once known. 

You can build extensions across key areas such as tax management, accounting, reporting, payments, and forms, to name a few.  

In terms of in-app extensibility, please have a look at the extensibility template that enables reuse of localization artifacts. You will find more information on the extensibility template here.

If your business has a very specific requirement for a localized feature or for a generic extensibility option, you can convey it using the Customer Influence portal. However, if you have a request for a new API, please convey it using the Customer Influence portal for APIs.  

It is vital that we receive regular feedback from you on where you see a need. We would then analyze the request for feasibility and work towards including additional extensibility options wherever possible. 

Please refer to SAP API HUB for an overview of available APIs for SAP S/4HANA Cloud. You can also check the extensibility patterns in SAP S/4HANA Cloud via the Extensibility Explorer. If you have a request for a new API or an extensibility option, please convey it using the Customer Influence portal.

Several SaaS services have been deployed on SAP BTP to deliver extensions for fast evolving regulations. These extensions or services act as a single source of truth and can be consumed not only by SAP applications but also by custom apps or partner apps, thus reducing maintenance costs.

We have partners offering services in their areas of expertise, for example for the tax service. On our community page, you will find blogs that describe scenarios on how the tax service could be integrated to easily calculate taxes in business transactions in your SAP S/4HANA Cloud system.

Yes, we are engaging with SAP S/4HANA Cloud implementation partners to understand how we can extend our support and increase our offerings. We encourage you to provide feedback and request additional scenarios. If you would like to engage with us and explore potential new scenarios, please feel free to reach out by posting a comment or registering for customer engagement initiative programs. Watch the customer influence portal for registration details.

We have multiple partner enablement webinars and summits planned this year, in which we plan to share detailed information about the capabilities of localization as a self-service for SAP S/4HANA Cloud. To know the events’ details and schedule, please contact your SAP S/4HANA specialist in the PSA organization. 

Our community page provides expert content and a variety of how-to guides. We are exploring different modes of delivery, for instance video tutorials. We would appreciate your feedback on what is more convenient for you so that we can design our expert content accordingly. 

Yes, you can seek guidance from our product experts while extending existing localizations or while implementing new local versions. To check if an available localization extensibility option can cover your legal requirements, please leave a comment on our community page or the relevant blog and our experts will get back to you.