Load SAP FI documents from Excel/CSV with ODIN (Open Document Interface)
At ProSiebenSat.1, we are often faced with the situation of having to transfer data in the form of lists from external and internal sources as posting documents to SAP FI. Until recently, we have created our own solutions for each individual case, and over the years we have accumulated an extensive collection of posting programs, batch input sessions and other interface tools.
Now we have considered how to make this more efficient, preferably with a single interface that can be used out of the box to integrate Excel and CSV and is maximally customizable if an interface needs to map specific logic or deviating data formats.
We didn’t find a suitable solution in the SAP standard (at least not within our SAP Netweaver 7.50 System with ERP 6.0 EhP 8) but we didn’t want a pure ProSiebenSat.1 solution either, as this challenge should also affect other companies. This is where abapGit comes in, a Git client for the SAP proprietary programming language ABAP. On Github numerous community-developed ABAP repositories are available. You can find an overview on https://dotabap.org/. We have been using tools available there, such as abap2xlsx, for some time now. Generally, it greatly expands our abilities to utilize community-developed software.
We also wanted to give something back and develop our solution so that it can be used and further developed by others. The result is ODIN, a flexible, extensible, easy to use, multi-purpose import interface for SAP FI documents.
It is suitable for postings as they can be entered in the dialog transaction FB01, such as incoming and outgoing invoices or G/L account postings.
Key features
- Can be used in frontend or as background job (with local or server-side files)
- Flexible dataset structure
- Suitable for mass processing
- Highly extensible with BAdI enhancements
- Various input interfaces such as Excel and csv, further options are planned
- Open Source, community based, free to use
Prerequisites
If Excel files are processed, abap2xlsx must be installed. For the processing of csv files, abap2xlsx is not required and doesn’t need to be installed.
ABAP releases older than 7.40 will not work. Release 7.40 might be ok; it has not been tested. Release 7.50 and later should be fine. S/4 releases should work as well, however test is missing. Feedback at this point is very welcome.
Installation, documentation
On our Github page you can find information about the installation (with abapGit), a quick starting guide and a wiki with extensive user documentation including the catalog of available fields and alias names. Developers that want to apply custom logic should check out the BAdI reference.
Once ODIN is installed, you can easily import booking files with transaction ZODIN. The tool is also explained in the following video, mainly from the user’s point of view:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOGsroiQpGY
The screenshots below demonstrate how ODIN (Transaction ZODIN) easily turns your excel or csv list into SAP FI documents:
First step: Simulation
Second step: Live run
Jump to FB03 from ALV List with double click
Get started
Check out the quick start section on the ODIN Github page.
If you have any questions or feedback, please use the comment section below!
