Lesson 4 of 5
Choosing the data scope
10 min
The defining feature of SDT is that you choose which business data comes across, not just "master data and open items" as in a new implementation, and not "everything" as in a conversion. That choice is made along a few dimensions, and every choice has a cost in transfer effort, runtime and testing.
Organizational scope
The easiest data to leave behind belongs to organizations that no longer matter: a company code for a business that was sold, a plant that closed, a sales organization that was merged. SAP's lean SDT is designed around this, letting customers deselect company codes for divested or unused businesses, using SAP Readiness Check data to see which are still active. Organization is also how SDT supports consolidation and carve-outs: company code transfer moves one company code's data into a target client, and client transfers or merges bring whole clients together.
Time slices
A time slice brings closed history for a defined period, on top of open items. A common choice is the current fiscal year plus one or two prior years. SAP's lean SDT includes a time slice function for this. Time slices are popular because they give users year-over-year reporting, warranty and returns history, and audit access in the new system, without dragging decades of data along.
- Before FY2024Left behindClosed documents stay in the archived source system or an archive
- FY2024 startSlice beginsBalances carried forward to the slice start; closed documents from here are transferred
- FY2024–FY2025Closed historySales, billing, purchasing and finance documents with their document flow
- CutoverOpen itemsOpen orders, stock, open receivables and payables, current balances
Time slices are not free. Closed documents refer to each other: an invoice refers to a delivery, which refers to an order. If the slice cuts through a chain, the new system holds an invoice whose order is missing. Transfer tools handle these dependencies, but the rules must be designed and tested. Finance also needs a clean starting point: balances at the start of the slice must equal the old system's balances on that date, or every report over the slice will be off.
What each choice costs
| Scope choice | Benefit | Cost and risk | Who decides |
|---|---|---|---|
| Leave out divested company codes | Less data, cleaner target | Statutory access to old data must be met elsewhere | Finance process owner with legal |
| Open items only | Smallest transfer, simplest testing | No history in the new system for reporting or returns | Process owners |
| One- or two-year time slice | Year-over-year reporting in the new system | Document-chain rules, opening balances, more reconciliation | Finance and business owners |
| Full history | Everything in one place | Runtime, storage, cost, test effort; old data quality problems come along | Steering committee, rarely justified |
| Active master data only | Fewer obsolete records | Records referenced by transferred history must still come across | Data owners |
Scope choices and their consequences. Write each decision down with the owner who made it.
What would you do?
In the what-if SDT, Dan asks for seven years of closed finance history "because auditors might ask". What is the best response from the migration lead?
- Does the business need this data to run processes after go-live?Yes → transfer (open items, active master data) · No → next question
- Do users need it in the new system for reporting, returns or warranty?Yes → include in the time slice · No → next question
- Is there a legal or audit retention need?Yes → keep accessible in an archive or read-only legacy system · No → leave behind
- SDT scope is chosen by organization, application, master data filter and time.
- Company code transfer and client merges are SDT scenarios for consolidation and carve-outs.
- A time slice brings closed history for a period on top of open items; it needs document-chain rules and clean opening balances.
- Every scope choice has a cost; owners decide, and retention can often be met by archive access rather than transfer.
Check your understanding · not graded
Lesson check
1. What is a time slice in SDT?
2. Why must balances at the start of a time slice be correct?
3. Which SDT scenario moves one company code's data into a target client?
4. What risk comes with filtering master data to "active only" while transferring history?