The Persecution of Poor or The Future of Failure Recently Social Media featured a news video titled: Homeowner Shoots, Kills Teen Burglary Suspect. (P.S. As I tried to find this news …
Category Archives: SAP Project
Thoughts on how to make your SAP Project run smoother!
Running in Parallel?
Is it a connection or just another conspiracy? Last night, I watched an interesting serial story on television. Alongside the storyline, established in several previous showings, the director’s pla…
Source: Running in Parallel?
Why I can’t like Tommy
Source: Why I can’t like Tommy
My Latest Publication: A Blatant Plug Blog Post
A Change in direction. A good change
Finally, my first book, my 4th published story is available.
Thank you for your support.
For those of you waiting for a soft cover copy, I will keep you posted.
I am sure all of you will enjoy, The 1% Solution.
The 1 % Solution: A Mystic’s Tale 
I also have short stories included in 3 other publications available in eBook or softcover
Please enjoy them as well. There are many excellant writers in these series
Writers’ Anarchy: A Short Story Anthology (Volume 1)
Writers’ Anarchy II: The End of the World as We Wrote It
Flash It! (Volume 1)
Resume of a SAP Blogger
SAP Trainer seeks Full Time position. Travel OK. Will move with correct incentives! I am available now.
I usually do blog posts here about SAP FI/CO Reporting or Training in SAP. I thought today, I would head in a new direction and post my resume. I have conducted 100’s of sessions to thousands of SAP attendees around North America and Europe.
I can provide a full scope of references, from Employers and attendees.
Here it is:
Stuart Welch
P.O. Box 951
La Quinta, CA 92247
Mail to:i002537@hotmail.com (Email)
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Independent Consultant/Instructor (May 2003 – Present)
Since AMTRAK, I have continued to train a variety of courses for SAP Education and IBC as an independent contractor. I teach at SAP Training classroom locations, SAP Virtual installations and customer on-sites. I am teaching SAP FI Application courses, the BW Application as well as Report Writer and Report Painter and SAP New Flexible General Ledger..
I maintain a periodic SAP Training Blog, sharing some of my almost twenty years of SAP Training and Consulting experience at https://saptrain.wordpress.com. I have a growing daily audience.
As needed, I fill requests for SAP European sites as well as for Toby Winter at Mikado Resources in the UK.
December 2010 – July 2011 AMTRAK SAM Project
Recently completed a six month assignment at AMTRAK, Wilmington, De. I was required to develop an understanding of their internal procedures and assist in development of multiple levels of training materials. I delivered several rounds of stand-up End-User Training and was assigned to specific AMTRAK field locations to provide “Refresh” Training to fill in the gaps following the regular course offerings.
I spent the final month working an SAP Help Line, fielding queries on all SAP applications after Go-Live.
2009-2010 European Training Assignments
Last year, I completed a series of SAP ERP Courses in FI/CO, Flexible Ledgers for SAP Belgium, SAP UK, IBM FI Academy and a large Swedish SAP Customer in phase 2 of their roll-out. The focus of my training was FI and Reporting.
- Continuing to work with SAP and their Customers in the areas of Reporting, Business Warehouse Query Design, developing Reporting strategies, End-User & Project Team Training. Teaching courses in SAP Finance, Reporting & Project overviews. Developed Customer-specific courseware.
SAP AMERICA (Waltham, MA)
Platinum Instructor (1994 – May 2003)
- Specialize in Enterprise Reporting in SAP R/3 and New Dimension Products. Spent several years training Customers and SAP Internals in the use of Report Writer, Report Painter, Logistics Information Systems, Human Resource Reporting, SAP Query, QuickViewer, Business Warehouse Analyzer, Infoset Queries and Special Purpose Ledger
- Worked many years with SAP FI, A/R, A/P, GL, SPL. In addition, configured Customer & Vendor Master Records, and MM/SD to FI integration.
- Designed, developed and delivered Workshop called “Reporting in SAP R/3: A Toolset Overview”. Workshop is a primer Course in many of the SAP Reporting Options.
- Taught the Configuration and Data Modeling of Special Purpose Ledgers and the Logistics Information System
- Global Course owner of Special Purpose Ledgers.
- Served as an Instructor Mentor designing training plans, scheduling courses and reviewing classroom performance for newly hired Instructors.
- Promoted to Platinum Consulting as End User Training and Reporting Consultant. Defined End User Training requirements, designed and delivered End User materials.
- Rejoined SAP Training July 1998. Promoted to Platinum Instructor January 99.
COMPUTERVISION/PRIME COMPUTER Bedford, MA
SAP Project Standard Configuration Team Leader (1992 – 1994)
- Involved in worldwide SAP implementation project converting from various legacy systems to SAP’s Sales Distribution, Finance and Materials Management software modules.
- Developed and implemented end user training.
- Established FI and SD test environment for both domestic and European locations.
- Headed project teams to replace domestic Order Management, Accounts Receivable and Invoicing legacy systems.
- Received Corporate Excellence Award for contribution to project and vendor selection phase.
EDUCATION
- Certified in SAP Business Warehouse-Report Design: Business Analyser
- SAP courses in Business Warehouse, Finance, Sales Distribution, Materials Management, Special Ledgers, Reporting and Implementation Tools.
- Global Knowledge Courses in Web Basics, Web Site Design and Web Database Fundamentals
- Bachelor of Arts, English, California State University, Northridge, CA
Looking for ideas why a highly skilled group of Data Management and SAP Reporting People are being underutilized in today’s economy!
Recently, I completed a SAP Training Project and I hoped that I would be able to take the knowledge base of three different people who have been in Industry collectively for over 75 years and create a grand opportunity. Three of us find ourselves at the end of 2013 employed but barely.
I understand a tight economy, I understand cutbacks, but what I fail to understand is that there are Enterprises wanting to move forward into next year and the next decade. I am a firm believer that a Company is a sum total of all of the results of the transactions that the Company generates during a particular period.
Sale = transaction. Shipment = transaction. Payment = transaction.
And the cycle repeats.
And the way we capture those results is through REPORTING. Transactional Reporting tells us what happened day to day in our Enterprise. Analytic Reporting provides the information of where an Enterprise is heading. What products are moving, what sales in what areas are growing and what is falling behind our goals.
Regardless, our lifeblood is information and Reporting is that information. I have said in a thousand classrooms, at numerous conferences and many times on this blog that SAP Projects (all Projects for that matter) must begin with first considering Reporting. Reporting helps us define our organizational assignment. Reporting defines our Master Data requirements and Reporting outlines what information is captured from the results of our transactions. If we have followed the guidelines provided by the results of our Enterprise transactions, then we will have no problem extracting information to move us forward following the completion of our Project.
So often, I find that an Enterprise will enter a Project without considering the implication of their Reporting requirements and once completed, they look around helplessly for the guidance of their reports.
We all know what happens next. The Enterprise heads in one of two bad directions: they download raw data into spreadsheet tables (spend millions to implement a software package and then download the raw data into a $300 spreadsheet) or they find someone who can write an ABAP program and then create a huge bottleneck where reports trickle out so slowly that by the time the homegrown report is complete, the Enterprise has changed its’requirement.
And here is the kicker.
One member of our team is a detail-oriented IT professional with over 25 years experience developing and managing complex software projects in a team environment. Excellent communication skills with exceptional analysis and problem solving abilities. SQL Developer, Researched tax changes, authored data extraction and validation algorithms in VB and T-SQL, managed electronic submissions. He has Championed successful enterprise Data Warehouse initiative employing SQL Server and Business Objects technologies. Co-managed project from inception to roll-out. Conceived, modeled and implemented a Sales Datamart to drive all sales reports, cutting processing time from six to two hours. Implemented parallel job processing application in SQL and VB for ETL process and for generating reports, eliminating bottlenecks and facilitating restart for load failures.
The second member is an Analytics Professional. He is Expert and Expert Witness in Analytical Solutions, Business Process Analysis, Risk Scoring, Predictive Modeling, Team Leadership, Customer Analytics, Presentations and Communication, Documentation, Regulatory Oversight, Policy development, Automated Valuation Models /Cascade Development and Deployment . A regular speaker at industry conferences holding
Master’s Degree is in Psychology. He speaks several languages: French and Italian and of course English. His experience includes work in industry sectors include Banking, Consumer Finance, Scoring Development, B & C Mortgage, Automotive Finance.
And then my experience:
I have continued to train a variety of courses for SAP Education and IBC as an independent contractor. I teach at SAP Training classroom locations, SAP Virtual installations and customer on-sites. I am teaching SAP FI Application courses, the BW Application as well as Report Writer and Report Painter and SAP New Flexible General Ledger..
I maintain a periodic SAP Training Blog, sharing some of my almost twenty years of SAP Training and Consulting experience at https://saptrain.wordpress.com. I have a growing daily audience. As needed, I fill requests for SAP European sites.
Completed a six month assignment at **********. I was required to develop an understanding of their internal procedures and assist in development of multiple levels of training materials. I delivered several rounds of stand-up End-User Training and was assigned to specific ***** field locations to provide “Refresh” Training to fill in the gaps following the regular course offerings.
I spent the final month working an SAP Help Line, fielding queries on all SAP applications after Go-Live.
And while working with SAP Education, I specialized in Enterprise Reporting in SAP R/3 and New Dimension Products. Spent several years training Customers and SAP Internals in the use of Report Writer, Report Painter, Logistics Information Systems, Human Resource Reporting, SAP Query, QuickViewer, Business Warehouse Analyzer, Infoset Queries and Special Purpose Ledger.Worked many years with SAP FI, A/R, A/P, GL, SPL.
In addition, I have configured Customer & Vendor Master Records, and analyzed the SAP MM/SD to FI integration.
Designed, developed and delivered Workshop called “Reporting in SAP R/3: A Toolset Overview”. Workshop is a primer Course in many of the SAP Reporting Options.
Taught the Configuration and Data Modeling of Special Purpose Ledgers and the Logistics Information System.Global Course owner of Special Purpose Ledgers. Served as an Instructor Mentor designing training plans, scheduling courses and reviewing classroom performance for newly hired Instructors.
The three of us together form dynamic team able to build a path to the future using a myriad of Data Analysis, SQL and SAP Reporting tools.
What I am puzzled by is what is taking place that three people with decades of data analysis and reporting experience, would find difficulty in securing good secure positions in this economy.
I should finally point out that each of us received multiple awards from our respective Enterprises, we were promoted, given additional responsibilities and maintain a broad list of references from our clients and our employers
Really? Do you need any special SAP Training before your Project to guarantee success?
Hi,
Before I continue I needed to know an answer: Does a Project Team really require any training and should they be trained in areas outside of the scope of the project?
I know I have many readers and I hope you take a few minutes to take this poll and maybe answer with some comments.
I truly am wondering: Why has Training dried up over the last 5 years? What happened?
Spend a minute and let me know.
I know we need more SAP Training, but is this the answer?
Over the last week or so, I have gotten several sincere comments from a person, from a company that offers SAP Training.
Before I release a comment, I have to review it and without fail, I have released every post, every comment, positive or negative.
Until I received the last set of three comments.
The responses said things like:
“you should focus the selected specialization where you already master on that functionalists.
You need to use the previous experience of project and simultaneously upgrade up to the sap market requirement.”
I am not sure that makes any sense to me. And seeing how it makes little to no sense to me, I would be doing a disservice to release these comments. This is really the problem we face in Training today whether it be SAP or Oracle or whatever software is being implemented.
Do the Implementation partners really understand the business they are working with or do they know how they set up the project at their last assignment?
This is the reason that so many new Enterprises failed to utilize SAP Report Painter and Report Writer.
This is the reason that so many Enterprises went without the flexibility of using the Business Area (I have been hearing for a decade that Business Areas are going away! Balderdash!), setting up the Assignment field, using quick text.
This is the reason so many Enterprises even fully utilize 1/5th of the vast power of the New General Ledger with using Roll-Up functionality, using Profit Centers in FI, avoiding for special ABAP reports or silly downloads to Excel Spreadsheets, Planning in FI and on and on and ON.
Consultants know how they did it at their last project and that it what many will recommend at their next project whether it is right or wrong!
I was teaching at a Client in the last month and the “Project Manager” came it to sit in the back row. I asked if I could help or bring him up to date and he uttered with disgust as he walked away “Well I can see that SAP Training is still screwed up! We are not even going to use (whatever my colleague was talking about).
That Project Manager had it all wrong. The Client did not order a special class to reinforce what the Project Manager has laid out as the right course of action. The Client was contacted MULTIPLE times prior to the beginning of class delivery to see if there were any specific areas the Client internal Project Managers wanted us to omit as Trainers, which we did!
But our job has NEVER been to tell a Client what SAP cannot do. Our job is not to hide other solutions to business processes just so the SAP Project Manager will look good.
Our job, first and foremost is to train, to educate, to let the Client know about all of the functionality that is availability right out of the BOX. We don’t deal with user exits, special interfaces to legacy systems; we don’t solve problems that arise from antiquated Business Processes. We show Clients how to use the tools that they have been provided
We Train. We Educate. We open doors and let the client look in, see what it available and only then can they make a decision on what is the right path to chose.
I understand that End User Training is End user Training and not Project Team Training. I understand that after the decision has been made on how the system with work and respond that my job is to understand your needs, how our software meets those needs, how is it configured and design courseware that COMPLEMENTS the project.
I’m sorry. I can’t in good conscious, post a comment that says something so off base as:
“Training provided by functional consultant to end user before project go live. End user roles involves like a data entry level, who creates inquiry, quotation, order, shipping and billing transaction, i dont think so additional enduser training required..”
Imagine if they can’t write a simple marketing piece, how effectively will they train you end-users or your project team? And I really don’t care if they say their name is Peter…
Write back. Tell me I am off base. I still am puzzled if all of these Software companies are selling so much, just who is doing the training. I just know it is going to the lowest bidder. I am not blowing my own horn, but I have nearly 21 years of SAP implementation FI and Reporting experience. My colleagues have equal amounts of SD and MM and you name it. Each year we teach fewer and fewer courses. These teams and these users are being trained by someone. MANY of the companies I cross paths with or who contact me every day to represent them can spell SAP, but that is about it.
It is very distressing!
CA710 Report Writer offered this week in Newtown Square
I am just a little shocked and bewildered at why people have not signed up for the SAP CA710 course November 13-15, but some are taking the ca705 the first 2 days of this week.
I just wonder where are people getting there reports from. Where do people go for transactional reports? Do they download to spreadsheets? Are they writing ABAP code? Heaven forbid: are they doing transactioonal reporting in their data warehouse?
This is a perfect User Report writing tool that can be used throughout the SAP ERP system and these classes should be packed. But the one coming up was cancelled…
What am I missing?
How do you write off a Bad Debt in SAP Accounts Receivable?
Every class, someone asks “How are we supposed to write off Bad Debt or unpaid Receivables in SAP FI?”
Tough question. Should be easy, but….
With the Individual Value Adjustments (IVA) in SAP, the transaction allows the user to change the reconciliation account to a Uncollectible Reconciliation Account until it is settled or a credit is issued and matched to the unpaid item. Well I think that is how they use the functionality in IAS or IFRS countries of Europe.
I seem to believe, our North American Accounting office’s accrue Bad Debt as some factor each month or quarter end as maybe something like a periodic percentage of Sales. The Accounting Manager bases that accrual amount on some historical bad debt expense.
Documents seeking approval circulate through an Enterprise allowing the write off and then someone says: How do we write off this Bad Debt?
I thought I have suggested is to first create a new document type, oh something like “BD” for maybe Bad Debt. Post the credit to the customer’s account (I will let you figure out what you should debit and credit) but then use the Account Clear transaction and clear the Bad Debt Credit against the unpaid Bad Debt item(s).
Sounds easy enough.
I prefer creating the accrual posting to the Bad Debt Accrual; create a new BD document type. Then use the Incoming Payment Transaction in Accounts receivable. Put in your new Bad Debt Doc type in the transaction header, use the Bad Debt EXPENSE account (instead of where you would normally put in your Bank G/L account number and put in the amount of the total write-off. Perform the posting as normal. Maybe even get fancy and use a little quick text to indicate that this is a Bad Debt Write off so there is no confusion! Save and Voila!
At the end of the month, search for your SAP doc types “BD” (maybe a Document List from FB)# as a selection and there is your total monthly or quarterly bad debt write off totals!
Post your accrual against the Bad debt expense as an adjustment (Please use something other than doc type SA) and you have a neat, clean bad debt write off with a nice audit trail and even a few reports you can run to recap your Bad Debt history.
If you have any other thoughts on how you would write it off, share and let us know!
This Blog continues to grow in popularity because YOU are sharing this Blog address. Please keep sharing! If you have a topic I can address, let me know. Let’s see if we can come up with an anwer!
SAP User Training 