Compatibility Scope: What Happens after 2025/2030

[Anja_Wilde]

Background

SAP customers were informed that the usage rights for Compatibility Scope will expire on December 31, 2025 based upon board decision, SAP will provide a selective and specific extension of Compatibility Scope usage rights to December 31, 2030 for Transportation (LE-TRA), Customer Service (CS), and selected Production Planning in Process Industry (PP-PI) items on an exceptional basis.

Detailed information about available alternative functionality can be found in SAP Note #2269324. The S4HANA CompScope - Way Forward - Info.xlsx provides a list of corresponding business impact notes for each Compatibility Scope item with further details about the alternative solution in SAP S/4HANA, if any, in the note attachments .

SAP strongly recommends that customers check their Compatibility Scope usage well in advance to start their transition on time and to plan accordingly. This way customers can reduce change management efforts for the adoption of a new data model.

The following questions and answers provide insights on the next steps and are intended to further support internal and external discussions.

1. What happens to support of Compatibility Scope items? 

Support stops for Compatibility Scope items after December 31, 2025 with the expiration of the usage rights. Exception: The support of the selected items of CS, PP-PI and LE-TRA which will end on December 31, 2030.

2. What is the approach for the migration to the recommended alternative solution in SAP S/4HANA?

Customers must consider the following activities when they are planning to migrate from Compatibility Scope to the alternative solution in SAP S/4HANA.

• adaptation of custom code

• changes of customizing

• training of users in the new functionality

• data migration

More information about how the transition is supported by the respective application can be found in the business impact notes or will be added to the business impact notes in the future. This support could consist of, e. g. guides describing the transition to the alternative solution, functional, technical, and data model mapping between the Compatibility Pack and alternative solution, and dedicated reports and tools for automating individual steps of the transition.

3. What happens to artifacts (e.g. tables, transactions etc.) in Compatibility Scope after 2025?

SAP plans to make compatibility scope functionalities technically unavailable after expiry of the respective compatibility pack license, beginning with the initial shipment of SAP S/4HANA 2025. All support and maintenance (e.g., patches, legal changes) for Compatibility Scope will end with the expiration of the usage rights.

4. What happens to interfaces e.g. IDOCs, BAPIs? 

Interfaces to external systems e.g., IDOCs used for a functionality which is in Compatibility Scope will no longer be supported by the application after the expiration of the usage rights.

Please check the BAPIs you are using with the following monitoring tool: Unified Connectivity Tools (UCON)

Please check the IDOCs following the instructions in this blog chapter 2: Link

5. How can customers check if Compatibility Scope is in use in their system? 

Customers may run the relevance check via the report /SDF/RC_START_CHECK (for further details see blog: Link The report checks the main transactions, tables, and business functions, etc. to detect if there is a trace that Compatibility Scope is in use.

Thereafter the customers need to verify if they are still productively using the Compatibility Scope discovered by the relevance check or if they have already switched to the alternative solution in SAP S/4HANA.

This report can be run by customers at any time.

6. What happens when Compatibility Scope objects (e.g., tables, functions) are used in custom code?

SAP is no longer responsible in any way for correctness of these development objects, after the expiration of usage rights and if custom code refers to Compatibility Scope functionality, including their semantical and syntactical correctness. The customers must adjust their programs accordingly before expiration of usage rights.

7. How can customers check if their custom code uses Compatibility Scope artifacts?

Custom code can be checked using the ABAP Test Cockpit (ATC) in combination with piece lists, if already available, containing artifacts which are in compatibility scope.

8. Can documents and transactional data in Compatibility Scope still be displayed and can open business processes be finished? 

Started objects and open business processes using Compatibility Scope need to be finished by the expiration of the usage rights at the latest.

The data itself belongs to the customer. For compliance reasons, it is planned that customers will be able to only read data from Compatibility Scope applications after the expiration of usage.  This will be possible as long as architectural and data model changes are not invalidating this.

Nevertheless, the display transactions which belong to Compatibility Scope must not be used after the expiration of usage rights.

Please check the corresponding business impact note belonging to the Compatibility Scope item regarding recommendations to display the data.

9. Can customers still apply Data Privacy and Protection (DPP) related blocking and destruction activities on Compatibility Scope data?

All archiving and destruction objects from Compatibility Scope applications will be serviced in future in accordance with the applicable retention periods.

10. Can Compatibility Scope artifacts cause security issues after 2025?

SAP generally takes care of security issues in its products. If security issues in Compatibility Scope arise after the termination of usage rights, SAP may block or delete the affected code or use other means to rectify issues.

The security maintenance of functionality outside of the Compatibility Scope is key to continuously protect also against all types of attacks or newly identified potential weaknesses: SAP Security Patch Day.

11. Can customers still run reporting on transactional data based on Compatibility Scope? 

Customers can still use historic data in previous structures which belong to Compatibility Scope for reporting purposes . Nevertheless they need to use reports which are not in Compatibility Scope. The data resides for reporting, machine learning and so forth in Compatibility Scope tables. This will be possible as long architectural and data model changes are not invalidating this.

12. What happens to the report painter and report writer?

Certain reports in the report writer and painter are in Compatibility Scope. In this case, the reports in Compatibility Scope may not be used after 2025. An alternative solution for the reports already exists. For details check  SAP note #2997574.

13. What happens to Logistic Information System (LIS)?

The LIS framework, as such, is not in Compatibility Scope. This means, that the LIS framework is planned to be available and supported even beyond 2025. Only particular LIS analytical standard reports in SD, MM-PUR, Vendor Evaluation, and PP have restricted usage rights as part of the Compatibility Scope which will expire end of 2025. Other applications, e. g. Inventory Controlling, still support their LIS applications beyond 2025. Currently, SAP is not planning specific developments / improvements in the LIS area.

14. What is the impact of Compatibility Scope usage on system conversions after 2025?

The expiration of the Compatibility Scope license will not affect customers on SAP ERP. They can continue to use this functionality beyond 2025 until the end of SAP ERP maintenance.

In addition, system conversions from SAP ERP to SAP S/4HANA which are done after 2025 are still possible, even if a customer is using Compatibility Scope functionality on SAP ERP. All system conversions done after 2025 are required to include the migration to the designated alternative functionalities of Compatibility Scope directly in the conversion project. The option to do the system conversion first and then the migration to Compatibility Scope alternatives at a later point in time, will not be available after 2025 (exceptions apply for selected Compatibility Scope functionality that has been extended to 2030).

Please check as well the blog by Jan Gilg: The Future of Compatibility Packs in SAP S/4HANA

[I044433]

Excellent blog anja.wilde !

[RajendraP]

Great!!

Very informative

 

Regards,

Rajendra Pandey

[mike_rusanov]

Hello, colleagues!

And what about the future of FM, IM (investment management) and PS functionalities in S/4HANA? Can anybody help to clarify this aspect to me?

[Anja_Wilde]

Hi Mykhailo,

Investment Management and Funds Management are not in Compatibility Scope. You need to check the Feature Scope Description. Information about PS (Project System) is included in the Wayforward XLS attached to the central note  SAP Note #2269324.

Kind regards,

Anja

[former_member502823]

Hello,

 

And what about the future of SAP Payroll Processing ?

 

Thanks,

[GregRobinette]

This bog provides a good description of your options for an S4 system with HT HCM/PY compatibility packs activated.

SAP Human Capital Management for SAP S/4HANA now available as part of the SAP S/4HANA 2022 release |...

[gyuho]

Hi anja.wilde

As you mentioned that 'The all support and maintenance (e.g., patches, legal changes) for Compatibility Scope will end with the expiration of the usage rights.' 

In terms of all support and maintenance, not only Support Packages and but also Notes will be no longer supported, right?

 

And as I understand, customers cannot use after the end of the usage rights from a "legal point of view". If it is correct, I would like to suggest you to put the article for clear understanding for customers.

 

Best regards,

Gyuho

[shirley_te]

It is not clear what "expiration of the usage rights" means to customers.  I understand about the support/maintenance will end.  But what is it to the customers as it relates to ,the expiration of usage rights because there are customers out there that even on versions of certain components of SAP are out of maintenance that they continue to use and accepting the risk that if something goes wrong, they do not get any support from SAP to fix the problem.  So for those customers who are willing to accept the risk of not having support or maintenance, what is the implication of the "end of usage rights given that SAP indicated "End of usage rights" does not mean those objects and artifacts covered by the compatibility pack will be deleted.

• Will that mean that in the S/4 HANA version there is a flag that suddenly gets turned on at the end of 2025 such that the users cannot execute any of the transactions covered by the compatibility pack?


• Will it mean they can still use it but SAP will be able to audit customers who are still using the transactions covered by the CP?  If yes, what would be the repercussion to the customer?  Will it be asking the customer to pay for license or fee for a product that is no longer supported?


• Will that mean that beyond 2025, the artifacts may have changed that those transactions using the artifacts prior to 2025 will stop working?  If yes, that means only those customer who are moving to S/4HANA version beyond 2025 will be affected but the ones below can continue to use minus the support from SAP.

I hope it can be clearly specified by SAP what does really "end of usage rights" mean to customers and not just saying that the CPs will no longer be supported or under maintenance because I am sure there will be customers who are willing to take the risk of not being supported for a certain period of time.

Thanks

S

 

[warpinwolf]

Thanks for the blog.

You write: "The LIS framework, as such, is not in Compatibility Scope." - does this mean that if I have defined information structures and update rules (in SD) that these will continue to be allowed and working?

 

Wolf

[Anja_Wilde]

Hi Wolf,

the information structures and update rules which you have built  on your own will continue to be allowed. It cannot  be guaranteed that they will be working in S/4HANA as other data structures in S/4HANA  may have changed. You need to test and adapt.

 

Kind regards,

Anja

[slavisalecic]

Thanks for very good blog, so what will happen if customer make decision to upgrade ECC instance in 2026 with the compatibility scope items which are not supported? They should switch during the technical conversion to the recommending products?

Thanks.

Slavisa

[antje_diekhoff]

Thank you very much, very informative!

[scott_hegarty]

Shirley,

 

Did you ever get an answer to this question even outside (email?) of the blog?  We have just encountered essentially the same issue with another customer.

 

Regards

[guy_venco]

Hello @anja.wilde,

We are a little bit lost with LE-TRA, LE-WM & PP-PI modules from ECC version and the end support of them.

Is there an official documentation that state their end support date ?

Thanks for your help,

Guy

[former_member759657]

Nice Article.... Thank u....

[Anja_Wilde]

Yes

Kind regard,

Anja

[Anja_Wilde]

Hi Guy,

 

please check the note 2269324 - Compatibility Scope Matrix for SAP S/4HANA concerning the  end of usage rights in SAP S/4HANA.

If you mean the support of these functionalities in ERP please check:

https://blogs.sap.com/2022/09/20/maintenance-timelines-for-sap-erp-6.0/

Kind regards,

Anja

 

[iguchi_hiro4]

HI.

Transaction code ME21, which has long since been deprecated, can also be used with S/4HANA.
And it doesn't support items that are only available in ME21N, but other than that you can use it without any problems.

The Compatibility Pack functions in S/4HANA2021~2023 will be in the same state (= usable) as ME21 after 2026, and the functions will be lost when upgrading to S/4HANA2025 or later, so switching will be necessary.

Is my interpretation correct?
Or,What penalties will customers incur if they use Compatibility Pack features after 2026?.

If you are an employee of SAP, you have a responsibility to specifically explain what is written here as a representative of the company.
(You will need to check with the licensing department and answer that specifically.)

Regards,
Hiroshi

[Anja_Wilde]

Hi Hiroshi,

 

the Compatibility Scope use rights are going to expire on 31.12.2025 for all SAP S/4HANA versions or 31.12.2030 for the 3 exceptions explained in our note 2269324.

So irrespective of the SAP S/4HANA version, customers must not use Compatibility Scope functionality anymore after that point in time. SAP is convinced that customers will adhere to the contractual obligations in place.

 

Kind regards,

Anja

 

Anja

[iguchi_hiro4]

OK.

Customers may continue to use it, which is risky.
I would like to know what happens in that case.

What penalties will customers incur if they use Compatibility Pack features after 2026?.


regards,
Hiroshi

[janbuchmann]

Hi shirley.te

I would also be very interested. Did you ever get answer from SAP?

Thanks
Jan

[hannes_mack]

In order to be compliant to use IDoc interface from S4 to ext. WMS I have following question:

Is it required that the function modules in table T327B are converted into custom developments in addition to the conversion of standard IDocs or could the standard function modules (e.g. L_IDOC_CREATE_WMTOID01 for WMTORD) continue to be used and only the custom Z-IDocs be generated via customer exits (e.g. EXIT_SAPLLIDO_001)?

[Bernhard]

Essential information, thanks for recompiling and publishing!

[hannes_mack]

As per my understanding the compliance check report only checks whether the IDoc message types are used together with the standard function modules.

Therefore it would be sufficient to simply copy the standard modules to custom modules and continue to use the standard IDoc types (WMTORD, WMCATO, etc).

Do you all agree?

Best regards