SAP GUI ACCESS

Log on to the SAP System

If you have SAP GUI software installed on your system, you can see the SAP Logon Pad icon on your desktop. It can be either used to log on to the the SAP system installed on your local system or a remote SAP server. If you don't have this setup, refer to my article to get your SAP Server Access and once you have it ready, you can comeback here:

 I double-click on the SAP Logon icon, the following screen - known as SAP Logon Pad - pops up:

 SAP Logon Pad shows the list of SAP systems to which I have setup the connection. I select the second one in the list - SAP ERP IDES E62.

Note: In the top-left corner of the SAP Logon Pad, you can check the version of SAP GUI installed. SAP Logon 720 is SAP GUI Version 7.20.

 I double-click on the SAP system I want to connect to from the SAP Logon pad and I reach the logon screen:

 I enter my credentials (Login/Password). I leave the Language field as blank as the default language for the SAP system I am logging onto is English. 

There may appear SAP Copyright message and message from system administrators, if any. I press the button with the green tick mark and I reach the next screen called the SAP Easy Access screen.

SAP Easy Access screen is your starting point and you need to understand the features and functions available here. The below screen captures the main components of this screen:

SAP GUI Screen

Let us discuss them one by one: 

Menu Bar: offers the functions in the form of Menu items available for the current screen. The menu options vary from screen to screen.

Standard Toolbar: offers, as the name implies, the standard functions like Print, Search, etc. Sometimes some of the functions may be disabled for the users who are not supposed to use them. For example, the print button may be disabled for most of the users for invoices.

Title Bar: displays the title of the current transaction / screen e.g. SAP Easy Access.

Application toolbar: offers the functions available for users in the current transaction and so the options here vary from transaction to transaction.

SAP Transaction Code

Apart from selecting items available on the screen, you can make input into Input field. You can enter a Transaction Code here. Business Transactions in SAP system are assigned a Transaction Code (short-form TCode) e.g. to see the details of a material in a plant, you can use Tcode MM03 (Display Material) as shown below.

Note: Just take care of one thing, you can enter a TCode in the Input field when you are on Easy Access Screen. There are advanced options for doing so although. You can place the cursor in the input field and press F1 and you will know about these options. 

With this, Part-1 of SAP Free Training ends here and you have basic idea about SAP GUI. The next article in this series will include more information on SAP Easy Screen.

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 SAP Training Part-2: SAP Easy Access 

In Part-2 of our Free SAP Training session, we will continue our discussion from where we left in Part-1. You learnt how to log on to your SAP system and arrive at SAP Easy Access screen. In this article I will discuss about the structure of SAP Easy Access screen and the significance of various elements on the screen.

When you log on to the SAP system, you get the screen below. Let me first begin with the Application toolbar of the SAP Easy Access screen. The Application toolbar has buttons 1-6 and 10. 

When you log on, you get the menu tree (7- Favorites and 8-User Menu) specific for you. Different users are authorized to perform different tasks and have access to different transactions (9-SAP Transactions) based on their roles. So the user menu tree will vary from user to user. But if you click on button 2-SAP Menu, you will get the standard SAP Menu with all the transactions in the SAP system whether you have access to it or not.

You can save the most commonly transactions you use in your Favorites. Buttons 3 and 4 let you add or delete the items in the Favorites tree. You can change the details like description of a Favorite item using button 5-Change Favorites. Up-/Down- Arrow buttons 6-Move Favorites Up and Down allow you to change the position of your Favorite item in the menu tree.

The status bar displays elements marked 11-13. Hide/Show Arrow button(11) displays or hides these elements. SAP System details(12) displays the name of the SAP system (E62 for the system I used), Session Number (see the picture below) and the SAP client (800 in my case).

13-Insert/Overwrite shows your keyboard input mode i.e. whether INSERT button is On or Off.

14-Search buttons are very helpful when you are searching for a search term in the current transaction.

If you click on 10-SAP Business Workplace button, you reach the email / notification application for your user-id:

SAP Business Workplace is most commonly used for Workflows. For example, an employee applies for leave in the SAP system and a workflow is triggered which sends notification to the employee's manager. Here, the manager will see the notification in his Inbox and will approve or reject the the leave request. This action from Manager will trigger a notification to the employee indicating his leave request was approved or rejected by his/her manager. Of course Business Workplace incorporates the usual mail functions - sending or receiving mails within the organization or internet (based on BASIS settings), etc.

By the end of Part-2 of our Free SAP Training series of articles, you have an understanding of different elements of SAP Easy Access screen (which is like your Home page in SAP). 

After exploring a bit on your own, you know how to maintain your favorites, open multiple sessions and navigating through your mails/notifications in your business workplace Inbox. In the Free SAP Training Part-3, we will explore the functions in the Main Menu of the SAP Easy Access screen and SAP transactions. Wish you a great time!

Written by Mukesh Kumar