Client: Can you provide me a list of subtotals, in pricing and sales order type, for this list of customers and materials for 2006?

Me: Well, yes and no. It is not a standard report. It involves two different tables: VBAK for the sales order type and VBAP for the pricing procedure details. I can try to combine them in Microsoft Excel or Access, but it will take some time. Could you come back at the end of the week? If you need this type of analysis often, you should enter a change request for a new report. Is there a budget for this analysis?

Client: Hey, this is urgent! Why can’t I create a simple list? Our old system …

Users and consultants often run into this issue — you always need the report that the ABAP programmers did not build. After go-live, you would like to have a list that is not available with existing reports. The ABAP programmer has left and you are faced with the uphill struggle of having a change request approved. This occurs more frequently if your R/3 or mySAP ERP Central Component (ECC) system includes custom tables that are outside normal reporting.

Many of us have wished for an uncomplicated method that allows us to perform this analysis. With R/3 Release 4.6, SAP has complied. A functionality called QuickViewer lets you define reports without programming or a long course in Report Painter. It hides in the System>Services menu path. I discovered it by accident. After you understand the various data sources involved, you’ll find that this is a good tool to know. Of course it is not a solution to all problems. The tables and reports you create are straightforward with SAP List Viewer (ALV) functionality. You cannot add additional logic as you could if you specified a report for ABAP programming.

I’ll show you the basics of QuickViewer in three steps, using an example of logical database VAV, which combines the main sales order-related tables in the Sales and Distribution (SD) module. Then I’ll give you a tip about using QuickViewer to join information from two different tables — no customizing required.

The Steps

My first example is based on a simple question. A sales manager wants to analyze a subtotal in the pricing procedure for a combination of customers, materials, and sales order types. Of course, the sales manager should have thought about that when the programmers configured Profitability Analysis (CO-PA), but it’s too late now. Normally it would take significant time and work to provide this analysis. However, once you understand QuickViewer you should be able to do this in a couple of hours. To find QuickViewer, use menu path System>Services>QuickViewer or transaction code SQVI. Click on the Create button. This takes you to the Create QuickView screen (Figures 1 and 2).

Figure 1

Click on the Create button in the QuickViewer: Initial Screen

Figure 2

Create QuickView screen

Step 1. Give your QuickView a name and choose your data source. For example, I named my QuickView EXAMPLESCM and selected the Logical database as the data source. When finished, press Enter.

In QuickViewer, you have the following choices for the data source:

• Single table: Using a table allows you to create and share a report on a single table.


• Table join: A set of two or more tables that you create


• SAP Query InfoSet: Combinations of tables that are used by queries in the system. They allow reuse of information explored by existing queries.


• Logical database: A preconfigured set of tables that provides a view of several database tables. You can choose from a drop-down list of more than 180 logical databases defined in SAP. You use them in ABAP programs to retrieve data and provide it to application programs. Useful logical databases are AAV (sales order-related tables), ARV and VFV (billing document-related tables), and VLV (delivery-related tables).

In this example I used logical database VAV. This database combines the main sales order- related tables in the SD module (Figure 3).

Figure 3

Logical database VAV combines major SD tables for analysis and reporting

Step 2. Select fields. After you press Enter, the main screen for QuickViewer appears (Figure 4). Now you select the relevant fields for your report. Checking items in the Selection Fields column narrows down the report results. Checking items in the List fields column includes the items in the report. In the List fld. select. tab on the right side of the screen, select the values you need in the Available fields column and move them to the Fields in list column by clicking on the left arrow.

Figure 4

Select the fields for your report

Another way to select fields is to use the left side of the screen, open the table, and select fields you need by dragging the separation line to the right. I prefer this method because it’s clear from what table the field value is coming. For my example, I chose the selection fields sold to, sales order document type, material number, and subtotal 4 from the Data Fields on the left side of Figure 4. SAP provides the logical database key fields as standard.

Before you execute a test run of your report, select the type of output you want. In Figure 4, click on the drop-down menu in the Export as field. You can choose all standard SAP formats, plus Excel and Word (Figure 5). I chose Microsoft Excel for my example.

Figure 5

Select the type of output for your report

Step 3. Execute the report. Click on the Execute button in Figure 4. The selection screen for your report appears (Figure 6). I chose Excel for the output format in step 2, so the system defaults to Spreadsheet in the Output format section in Figure 6. If I wanted, I could choose to display the data in another format.

Figure 6

Report selection screen

Enter the selection data for your report and click on the Execute button (Figure 5). The report shown in Figure 7 appears. If the report output is not exactly what you want, you can go back into QuickViewer and change some details. You can adjust the colors in the layout mode. When you are satisfied, you can save the report output for later use.

Figure 7

The report output

Creating this should not take very long for consultants or experienced support professionals who know which table fields are needed. After you become used to QuickViewer it should be a matter of hours to create an analysis.

QuickViewer with Table Joins

As I explained earlier, logical databases are not the only source for a QuickViewer. You can also work with tables. The main steps are the same; only the data source is different. Use this approach when you want to combine data from two or more tables. For example, I recently needed a list of IDocs with error status 51 (IDoc could not be processed) sorted by error message. Table EDIDS stores the error message number; table EDIDC stores the IDoc number and error status.

Use menu path System>Services>QuickViewer or transaction code SQVI. Click on the Create button to return to the Create QuickView screen. This time, select Table join as a Data source (Figure 8) and press Enter. Next, you need to provide the tables you want to analyze. After you press Enter, the system displays an empty screen on which you can enter the tables by selecting Edit>Insert table (Figure 9).

Figure 8

Select Table join as a data source

Figure 9

The table join that results when you insert tables EDIDS and EDIDC

For my selection and report I need IDoc number (EDIDC-DOCNUM), IDoc status (EDIDC- STATUS), and error message number (EDIDS-STAMNO). An example of this is IDoc 654321, error status 51, and message, “Delivery could not be processed due to insufficient stock.” Inserting tables EDIDC and EDIDS in results in a graphical display of joined tables (Figure 9). This is the basis of your report. The system links the tables automatically. However, if you want to remove a link, click on it and select Remove join condition from the pop-up screen that appears. In general, this is not necessary, as the links are standard SAP. However, you might have a special case in which you want to use a different logic to link one or more tables. If the link is not correct, the system shows an error message.

Clicking on the green arrow icon takes you back to the main screen, where you select the fields to include in your report and define the selection screen as you did in the first example. You might want to click on the check icon circled in Figure 9 first to see if any inconsistencies exist in the links between tables. These can occur if you change the links between tables and make a logical mistake. After you have mastered these two examples, working with the other two available data sources — single tables and SAP Query InfoSets — should pose no problems.

QuickViewer Tips

Unskilled users can create resource- consuming queries, so QuickViewer is primarily for functional experts, super users, and support functions. However, if you think your report is worth the attention of others, you can publicize it as a query. To do this, follow menu path Tools>ABAP workbench>Utilities>SAP Query>Queries. On this screen, select the user group you want to read your report by going to Edit>Other user group. Select Query>convert QuickView and a screen pops up to convert your QuickView into a query that all members of your user group can read. You have to enter a name for your query and a name for the InfoSet linked to it. Both are free format.

If you want to use your QuickView as a report or transaction in SAP, you can do your programmer a favor. Run transaction SE38 and clear the input field. Then, run QuickViewer and execute transaction SE38 again. In the input field, you now see the program name that represents your QuickView. Give this information to the programmer, who can copy the code into a report and add a transaction code, menu path, and authorization object, if required.