SAP Business One

SAP Business One

SAP Business One Client
Developer(s)	SAP AG
Stable release	9.1
Development status	Active
Operating system	Microsoft Windows / SAP HANA (Server), Microsoft Windows (Clients)
Platform	x86 / x64
Available in	Arabic, Chinese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Slovak, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish
Type	Enterprise resource planning
License	SAP-EULA
Website	http://www.sap.com/solution/sme/software/erp/small-business-management/overview

SAP Business One is business management software designed for small businesses, sold by the German company SAP SE. As an ERP solution, it aims to automate key business functions in financials, operations, and human resources.

History

SAP Business One was initially launched in Israel in 1996 under the name "Menahel" or TopManage in English. The company was founded by Reuven Agassi (CEO) and Gadi Shamia (VP of sales, marketing and product). The product was designed by Gadi Shamia and the head developer was Hilla Mazinter. In its first years TopManage was sold in the Israeli market only and was the first Windows/Mac business management product to be offered in the Israeli market. In 2000 TopManage started its global expansion into markets in Europe and Latin America. In March 2002, SAP purchased TopManage Financial Systems, an Israeli developer of business applications and branded their system as SAP Business One. TopManage founders Reuven Agassi and Gadi Shamia, took key executive positions at SAP following the acquisition. A year earlier TopManage's sister company TopTier, was also acquired by SAP. TopTier was founded by Reuven Agassi's son Shai Agassi.^[1]

The acquisition allowed SAP to reach out to the midmarket through its partners and also to gain additional business from the smaller subsidiaries of its enterprise customers.^[1]

Features (modules)

SAP Business One development center in Israel

SAP Business One are arranged into 13 functional modules, covering the typical functions in a business organization. The most widely used modules are Financials, Sales Opportunities, Sales – A/R, Purchasing A/P, Business Partners, Banking and Inventory.^[2]

• Administration, where setup of the various core settings in the application are done
• Financials, where definition of Chart of Account are set up and the core Journal Entries can be created
• Opportunities, where Lead generation are used to keep track of potential Sales and Purchases
• Sales - A/R, where the sales flow (Quotation > Order > Delivery > Invoice) are managed
• Purchasing - A/P, where the purchase flow (Quotation > Order > Delivery > Invoice) are managed
• Business Partners, where master data of Leads, Customer and Supplier are maintained
• Banking, where payment of Incoming (sales) and Outgoing (purchase) payments are created
• Inventory, where master data of goods to be sold/purchased are maintained and their quantity/value in warehouses are tracked
• Resources, where master data of resources (machines and people) to be used in production are defined (capacity and planning) [only SAP 9.1 and higher]
• Production, where Bill of Materials master data are maintained and Production orders are created
• Material Requirements planning (MRP), where forecasts of needed items in sales/production are defined in order to make purchase order recommendations
• Service, where management of service contracts are maintained and service calls are created
• Human Resources, where employee master data (Names, contract information, roles, etc.) are maintained

Each module handled specific business tasks on its own, but is linked to the other modules where applicable. For instance, an invoice from the billing transaction of Sales & Distribution would pass through to accounting, where it will appear in accounts receivable and cost of goods sold.

Releases

Prior to SAP Business One 2004 specific country versions called 6.x existed until the first global release in 2004

Partners and Community

SAP Business One are delivered through its global partner network (SAP PartnerEdge) consisting of "Value Added Resellers" (VAR) and "Software Solution Partners" (SSP)

Americas' SAP Users' Group (ASUG) is the largest User Group^[3]

Extensibility

Custom development (called Add-ons) are done using the SAP Business One SDK.^[4] It is COM-based development done in Microsoft Visual Studio with C# or VB.NET.

SAP Business One SDK consist of:

• Data Interface API (DI-API), where you can create new business object around the normal SAP Business One client but still adhere to the core business rules^[5]
• User interface API (UI-API), where you can modify existing SAP Business One client screens, create new screens and change/block the normal event flow^[6]
• SAP Business One Integration Technology (B1i), where you can visually create Business flows using XML/XSLT^[7]
• Service Layer for SAP HANA, where you can, using OData, create business objects^[8]

Code samples

Sample #1 - DI-API: Create an A/R Invoice in the system (company)

var invoice = (Documents) company.GetBusinessObject(BoObjectTypes.oInvoices);
 
//Invoice Header Data
invoice.CardCode = "C20000";
invoice.DocDate = DateTime.Today;
 
//Invoice Line Data            
var lines = invoice.Lines;
lines.ItemCode = "A0001";
lines.Quantity = 2.0;
lines.Price = 200.0;
lines.Currency = "EUR";
 
//Add invoice to system
invoice.Add();

Sample #2 - UI-API: Add button to existing SAP Business One Screen (form)

var item = form.Items.Add("BTN_UID", BoFormItemTypes.it_BUTTON);
item.Top = 10;
item.Left = 100;
item.Width = 80;
item.Height = 22;
var button = (Button)item.Specific;
button.Caption = "Hello World";

Examples of type of Add-ons developed by VARs and SSPs can be found at the SAP Application Development Center and the SAP Store

See also

• List of ERP vendors

References

External links

• SAP Business One