Have you ever wondered how some people learn the transaction codes for SAP CML or any other module in SAP ECC? In S/4HANA we do not have that problem anymore, although we do need to learn the name of the apps and that seems to be equally confusing for some people. However, in ECC, the users of SAP CML still must access the T-codes by typing them or sometimes looking for them in their menus.
The good news is that there is a logic behind the naming of the transaction codes, or it seems there is because sometimes that logic is broken. In any case, the more you know about the naming conventions, the easier it is to remember those exceptions, and you can keep more and more transaction codes in the back of your mind for easy access.
Ready? Let’s go.
German Key Words
The first thing that we need to know is that SAP CML was developed in Germany, by Germans. Therefore, many acronyms are actually rooted in German words, rather than English words. That helps to understand why many tables and transactions have the letter “V” for example. That is because the German word “Vertrág”, translates to the word Contract.
In fact, something similar happens with the most important word in a loan’s module, the word Loan, for which the German word is “Dárlehen”.
So, guess how a Loan Contract is named in German? That’s right: “Vertrág Dárlehen”, so instead of the acronym LC for Loan Contract, we get VD! Sounds familiar?
- FNVD (Transaction)
- FNVS (Transaction)
- FVD (Naming Space)
- VDARL (Table)
- VDBEPI (Table)
Fortunately, both German and English are Germanic languages, and SOME words are similar. For example, the word for Finance is “Finanzen”.
In this case, when we get an F in our naming, it makes sense for it to be for a Financial transaction.
Another interesting case, although it is a little bit of a stretch, is the word Booking that translates into “Buchung”, and therefore Automatic Booking (or Machine Booking) translates to “Maschinelle Buchung”. The letters M and B are not uncommon in some of the FI and CML transactions.
Finally, other German/English keywords that are not so easily translatable are:
- “Ángebot” = Offer (Keep this one in mind as the letter A relates to Offers)
- “Ánfrage” = Inquiry
- “Überzahlung” = Overpayment
- Über = Above (aha!! Now we all know what that famous app stands for…)
- Záhlung = Payment (The letter Z will relate to payments)
SAP Standard Conventions
Even though the German keywords take a big role, you will see that the SAP naming conventions for other modules are well respected. If you have used other modules, you can easily identify the following pattern for suffixes:
- 1 for creation transactions
- 2 for modification transactions
- 3 for visualization transactions
Let me give you examples outside of CML:
- FD01: Create Customer, FD02: Change Customer, FD03: Display Customer
- FS01: Create G/L Account, FS02: Change G/L Account, FS03: Display G/L Account
- AS01: Create Asset, AS02: Change Asset, AS03: Display Asset
- … and the list goes on
So, it is not surprising that we get that same pattern in CML Transactions, for example:
- FNA1: Create Mortgage Offer
- FNA2: Change Mortgage Offer
- FNA3: Display Mortgage Offer
And remember that A stands for “Ángebot” that translates to Offer (ok ok… you don’t have to learn German). But now you can see that
FNA1 = FN+A+1 = FiNanzen + Ángebot + Create = Finance Create Offer
It is all coming together isn’t it? Try decoding the meaning behind the transactions:
- FNV1
- FNM1
SAP CML Ultimate T-Code Cheat Sheet
You are all set to decode SAP CML T-Codes! However, as a gift, find a Cheat Sheet below for many of the transactions that we usually use. I must confess that some of them really don’t know what they were thinking!! But don’t worry, some of the names for these transactions are also accidents, and there is really no rule behind it.