There are a variety of SAP Books available. However there appears to be a
lack of books that address configuration adequately. Many books cover the
business use or project management aspects of SAP (both very important) without
getting into configuration details. This site is intended to address
those gaps.
Book Reviews:
Many SAP books at Amazon have been reviewed by purchasers.
Read the reviews that have been submitted to decide whether it is worth spending
the money. The range of comments is interesting - many sound frustrated -
along the lines of 'would make a good paperweight but otherwise don't waste your
money' - sometimes expressed more crudely. This may just be indicative of
the interest / demand of individuals who are keen to 'break into' the SAP market
and think they can become experts if they just had the right book.
Books that I looked at in some detail back in 1999 are commented on below.
"Using SAP R/3 FI - Beyond Business Process Reengineering" by Ben
W. Rockefeller (edition available in 1999)
This book is targeted at the novice FI user (not
configurer). It will be useful for someone who wants to learn how to process the
SAP transactions from the user menu in FI (GL, AR and AP). It has
detailed instructions for each transaction, menu paths and screen dumps so you
can be sure you are on the right screen. It also tells you the
standard reports that are available, which may not always be immediately obvious
(such as parked invoices).
The book assumes that you have some accounting knowledge and does not
attempt to explain accounting concepts or how they have been implemented in
SAP. It is very strictly limited to FI and does not cover any
interaction with CO (posting to cost centres etc) or point out when useful
functionality is available in other modules. For example: it has a chapter on
'entering the bank statement' using journals and 'reconciling the bank
statement' using control totals, but does not point out that there is a 'manual
bank statement entry' transaction available in Treasury Basic Functions which
could be useful / easier.
It does not cover any configuration at all, not even those aspects
which may be considered as maintainable by a key or super user (such as screen
entry layouts).
In my opinion the book is useful as a startup aid for an accounting user or
for a sap analyst coming from another module who does not have time to attend FI
training and needs to know how to process the FI transactions from a user
perspective.
"Administering SAP R/3: The FI-Financial Accounting and CO-Controlling
Modules" by Jonathon Blain (editor), ASAP World Consultancy (1999 edition)
Reading this book had me wondering whether the authors had really thought
about the most likely audience out there. The book does not explicitly
state it's target audience - I suggest that the book would most easily be
understood by either :
a fairly sophisticated accounting user who has already had some
exposure to SAP and it's terminology and perhaps wants a better idea of what
might be possible in SAP;
a fairly experienced sap FI / CO analyst who is reasonable
comfortable with basic accounting and who is perhaps looking for something
to round out his/her accounting and specifically SAP accounting knowledge.
This book will NOT teach you how to run the SAP transactions or how to
configure the SAP system. For those of you who remember the SAP 'white
books' with their general discussion on the SAP functionality in each module,
this book is similar - perhaps with more accounting depth. The book is
fairly comprehensive in it's range of subject matter. Major chapter
headings are
Preparing the Public Accounts (GL, subledger, assets and consolidating
accounts);
Planning and Controlling (Cost management, activities, project system,
analyzing profitability);
Funding, Investment and development (Treasury, Investments etc).
Note that there are :
NO detailed explanations on how to run or process anything (no menupaths,
screens etc). Usually there is just a brief explanation of key steps and /
or information required with no indication of or relation to the screens
involved.
NO configuration explanations other than some brief one sentence 'notes'
advising what can be done. For example: "Any type of correspondence can
be generated in the language of the business partner."
NO diagrams or pictures of any kind - all concepts are discussed in
textual paragraphs (you need to be a good reader, with a good accounting and
english vocabulary).
The book also appears to over emphasise the Special Ledger.
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