2.1 Launchpad and navigation

The Fiori launchpad is the single access point for end users, and new programs for users are designed as Fiori apps, rather than transaction codes in the classic GUI menu. In addition to standard apps provided by SAP, you can set up your own programs as apps or set up links to other systems. For example, you may have some apps on your launchpad for standard SAP reports and some apps which take you directly into reports on SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC), or directly to other systems such as SAP Ariba, SAP Concur, or SAP Document and Reporting Compliance (DRC).

2.1.1 The SAP Fiori launchpad

The launchpad is where you arrive after logging into SAP S/4HANA Fiori, and it should display only the Fiori apps assigned to you. They may be grouped differently depending on whether you are using the new pages and spaces layout or the classic layout, but you can usually drag and drop apps to rearrange the screen order according to your preferences.

You can have the apps you use the most at the top when you first open the launchpad, and you can either scroll down to see other groups of apps or use the tabs at the top of the screen. If you are using the new pages and spaces functionality, there may also be a dropdown next to the tabs for further options. The More dropdown at the top right of the screen also leads to groups of apps assigned to you. The Profile button is usually at the top right (although, in early versions, it was on the left), and an enhanced search field is located towards the top right. Figure 2.1 shows my launchpad, with the profile button as a small circle with a letter F. The F relates to my user details (it is an initial from my logon), so your profile button will most likely contain different letters.

Figure 2.1: Fiori launchpad using pages and spaces

Clicking on a square or app takes you into that transaction, which could be a new Fiori app, a GUI transaction, or a link to a site or program stored elsewhere. As you can see in the figure, some analytical apps display KPIs on the face of the app—for example, the value of overdue receivables or the number of days sales outstanding (DSO).

2.1.2 Fiori Profile button

Clicking on the Profile button displays a dropdown with various options (see Figure 2.2), which I will go through below.

Figure 2.2: SAP Fiori Profile button

Recent Activities and Frequently Used

These options both take you to the same popup list with two tabs. The first is a list of recent apps in the order you last used them. The second is for frequently used apps.

App Finder

The App Finder groups apps by smaller catalogs (different to the tabs or pages on the main screen). In Figure 2.3, the Accounts Receivable – Analytics catalog has been selected on the left and you can see the apps assigned to that catalog on the right. The button at the bottom right of each app (which varies depending on the status and version) gives a dropdown of the top menu tabs so you can see where this app has been assigned or assign it to a tab of your choice.

Figure 2.3: App Finder: Accounts Receivable – Analytics catalog

You can either use the Search in catalog field at the top right, if you have a rough idea of the name of the catalog you want to look at, or you can scroll down through the catalogs on the left if you are not sure of the name. Some examples of Accounts Receivable catalogs are as follows:

• Accounts Receivable – Analytics
• Accounts Receivable – Clearing
• Accounts Receivable – Incoming Payments
• Accounts Receivable – Invoices
• Accounts Receivable – Document Processing

When you click on a catalog name, you will see the apps assigned to that catalog. Rather than assigning individual apps or catalogs to a user, the apps that you see will depend on the business roles that have been assigned to you, which themselves may be made up of several catalogs.

Settings

The user Settings option allows you to change some of the settings listed below, depending on your release and authorizations.

• Appearance: here, you can change the color scheme and optimize for touch input
• Home Page: controls how many apps load on your home page on startup, and whether you see My Home as the first space
• Spaces and Pages: if you are using the classic layout displaying your groups on tabs, you can switch to this layout where apps are displayed as pages and spaces instead
• User Activities: track recent and frequently used apps
• Language and Region: also date and time formats
• Default values: you can preset various objects such as company code, plant, fiscal year, display currency, etc.
• Notifications: switch notifications on or off
• Search: switch personalized search on or off and track search activities

Figure 2.4 shows the Settings popup window. The left-hand side lists the various choices, and, in the figure, the Default Values option has been selected. You can see the Financial Accounting section and scroll up or down to see additional settings for Controlling, FSCM, Materials Management, Sales and Billing, and several others.

Figure 2.4: Profile settings: default values

Edit Current Page

Here, you can add and remove apps from different pages (tabs) and convert an app to a Link, Flat Tile, Flat Wide Tile, or Wide Tile by clicking on the three dots in the bottom right corner of the app. You can add, remove, or rename sections and add tiles to the sections.

About

The About option helps you check the Fiori app ID and system. Generally, processes and transactions should look fairly similar regardless of whether you are using an SAP S/4HANA on-premise, private, or public cloud edition. The speed of innovation is very fast, so I may often be using an earlier or later version of an app.

Sometimes apps are deprecated, the name changes, or an app is only available in certain releases. When I mention an app in the book, I will give the ID as well, so that you can compare it with apps in your system or find out more information in the SAP Fiori Apps Reference Library (see Section 2.1.7).

To check the ID of an app and the SAP S/4HANA release in your system, open the app and go to the profile button (top right in recent versions, top left in older versions), and then click on About. See the example in Figure 2.5. This will then open a window where you can see the Fiori app ID (under Application) and usually your system information (under System).

Figure 2.5: About: Fiori ID and system version

2.1.3 Search bar

In Fiori, you will see only apps that have been assigned to you, not every app that exists. In addition to searching for an app in the App Finder (see Figure 2.3) or in the top menu bar tabs (see Figure 2.1), you can use the search bar.

If you know roughly the name of the app, you can use the search bar at the top of the main screen. The search is enhanced, so that as you type, the system already searches using that part of the word. Click on the button if the search field itself is not visible. If the word to the left of the search field defaults to All, you can change it to Apps, or any of the other fields in the dropdown to reduce the number of search results obtained. If you do not restrict the search to apps in the dropdown, the search will include and return everything else that matches as well, for example, cost centers or customer master data, billing documents, journal entry numbers, and so on.

2.1.4 Generic search

Instead of first opening the relevant app, to search for a specific object, you can search for it directly in the top search bar. If you enter, for example, just the customer number in the search field at the top of the launchpad, the system will return everything related to that customer. This can include the customer master data or fact sheet, outbound deliveries, sales orders, billing documents, journal entries, etc. At the top left is a filter button, so you could filter on just sales orders, for example. Figure 2.6 shows the results from a search for a specific customer number in the search bar.

Figure 2.6: Results of a search for a customer number

2.1.5 Default apps search

If you mainly use the search bar for one type of search—for example, just apps or customers—instead of changing the dropdown to Apps each time you search, you can restrict the scope to your favorites. To do this, from the Profile button, choose Settings and go to Search and then select My Default Search Scope and you will see a list of options to choose from (see Figure 2.7). You can still change the search dropdown if you need to search for something else, this only restricts the number of items that the system returns if you are just searching for one type of object such as an app or a customer.

Figure 2.7: Settings: search bar scope

2.1.6 Learning center/help

You can sometimes use the Help button to find out more information about an area or field. Any available fields are displayed on the right and hovering over them displays an arrow to the circle in that field. Clicking on a circle or clicking on a field on the right displays the help window for that field. In Figure 2.8, the field Top Ten Debtors has been selected from the list on the right and a line to a small popup explanation is shown.

Figure 2.8: Accounts Receivable Overview (F3242): help topics

There are two other small buttons available in the help functionality that you can toggle between. The Learning button takes you to standard learning tutorials depending on what is installed. The Help Topics button takes you back to the help options for that screen.

2.1.7 The SAP Fiori Apps Reference Library

You can check in the SAP Fiori Apps Reference Library for more information about an app. You can search by name or ID and find out which versions the app is applicable for, as well as, for example, which role or catalog it is in. The current link for the library is: https://fioriappslibrary.hana.ondemand.com/.

A point to note is that once users on SAP S/4HANA public cloud are upgraded to the latest release, the previous release quickly becomes obsolete, whereas this is not the case for other editions. Therefore, there will only be one public cloud release or at most two referenced to in the SAP Fiori Apps Reference Library.

For other releases, you will see information for all previous releases in the dropdown. For example, the Manage Customer Master Data (F0850A) app displays information about releases starting from 1610 and also gives the feature pack stack (FPS) number. The FPS number refers to mini releases of new features during the year. Figure 2.9 shows the header information for the Manage Customer Master Data app for SAP S/4HANA 2023 (Private Cloud) FPS02.

Figure 2.9: Manage Customer Master Data (F0850A): SAP Fiori Apps Reference Library

Below the header are three tabs: the first tab, Product Features, gives more information about what the app does. The second tab, Implementation Information, gives information about how to set the app up, including the roles that contain the app (under the sub-heading Configuration), and the third tab, Related Apps, shows related apps where applicable.