Selected Questions from our recent DART Webinar

Q: What happens if we've already done some data archiving?

A: The impact of your data archiving depends on what was archived and for which fiscal years. Some data archiving objects do not impact data needed for a DART extract. Three "safe" objects include: IDOCs, DBLOGS, MM_ACCTIT. Discuss the impact of your situation regarding other archiving objects with a DART expert.

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Q: Please speak about the removal of data from DART once it is deemed disposable?

A: DART extracts should be managed like other transaction data information within your Information Lifecycle Management (ILM) strategy. DART Extract and DART View output files need to have defined retention times for their total life. The physical purging of these files may depend on your architecture and rule policies. If extract and view files are stored on hardware with rule capabilities, and the rules were defined with adherence to your retention policies, the files will be protected until the retention expires. At that time the files can be purged. Some clients purge DART files for fiscal years that have passed tax authority audit timeframes as soon as they have audit signoff in writing. It is very unusual for a tax authority to return to audit a fiscal year that has already passed an audit.

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Q: We are having a difficult time copying files to dart from the SAP environment. There are an enormous amount of transactions. As a result, it takes too long to bring back files that have been DARTed. Question- Does it make sense to turn off the segments that the IRS generally would not need- such as SD, CO and MM - as long as we keep the master data "on" and the FI data "on"?

A: It is possible to generate very large DART extracts consisting of multiple files. While SAP is designed to handle this, we have found keeping transaction data together while limiting both Fiscal periods and the number of company codes is helpful. You may find a single period and company code will work. In addition, the technical environment should be evaluated. Are all performance SAP notes applied? Are extracts run on the database server? Are extracts run during lower system load times? Regarding retrieval and storing, have you characterized your network performance and what network connections are being used? Where are DART extracts stored relative to the SAP system and the business user (physically, geographically, and logically)? Although the IRS may not need SD or MM data in the extracts, other international tax authorities may require these. Not every DART user has the option to exclude these.

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Q: In terms of security, is it possible to restrict access to data stored in DART at the record level (i.e., limit access to specific Company Codes, GL Accounts, etc.) or is it only possible to restrict at the t-code level?

A: DART provides authorization objects with company code, authorization group control and activity controls.

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Q: What if we do archiving throughout the year? Do we need to have multiple DART extracts or can they be combined into 1 file?

A: Most archiving efforts of tax relevant data do not have residency times less than a fiscal year. Yes multiple DART extracts can be created, but you probably will not need to combine them together. The DART View tool can read multiple extracts, such as extracts for periods 1 through 12.

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Q: So there are two different versions of DART? One for the US and one for Germany?

A: Actually there are three versions: German (DE), Global (GEN) and US. The versions are automatically selected based on the company code. The US version has everything the Global version of DART has, plus a few more segments.

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A: Yes. Some organizations choose to add fields to existing segments, and sometimes add new segments for additional source tables.

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A: DART has been used to answer tax audit questions in many countries for many businesses and industries. You need to evaluate the specific information requested by Canadian tax authorities and verify it is available in the DART extract.

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A: We prefer to keep all tax relevant transaction data together (FI, CO, SD, MM) for DART extracts. This provides simpler retrieval for any audit request. This also simplifies what can be archived when it is time to archive. In other words, if you complete DART extracts for all fiscal years through 2007 for all company codes. You know transaction data up to and older than 2007 can be archived without impact to DART. The DART retrieval or View tool can selectively retrieve specific company, period, account, customer, plant, and many other types of data filters.