Consolidate billing forms conveniently and efficiently

Invoices are among the most important printed forms in a company. When adapting them for different suppliers, it quickly becomes difficult to manage the multitude of form variants and associated driver programs. The parallel use of multiple technologies such as SAPscript, SmartForms, and Adobe Forms further increases the complexity.

Many existing forms and driver programs are only slightly modified copies of each other, but still have to be updated individually – common functions such as watermarks in numerous variants have to be repeatedly reviewed, analyzed, maintained, and adapted. This significantly increases maintenance costs.

Every change requires new testing and correction loops because each form-driver program combination has its own specific features. This complexity is further exacerbated in mass processing.

This results in high maintenance costs, makes extensions considerably more difficult, and increases the risk of errors in productive processes.

We developed a lean and clear architecture that consistently reduces redundancies and improves maintainability in the long term. The central guiding principle here was the targeted simplification of the existing structure. We wanted to significantly reduce the number of repository objects and completely eliminate unnecessary duplicates.

Another important aspect was the strict separation of layout, logic, and data. The form is solely responsible for the display; it contains neither ABAP code nor complex data structures and uses only minimal scripting. Business logic and data models were completely encapsulated in ABAP classes to ensure a clean, modularized structure.

We also placed great emphasis on a clear distinction between common and specific building blocks. Reusable functionalities are provided centrally and implemented only once – copy-paste solutions should thus be completely avoided. Specific components were grouped logically and semantically to ensure consistency and extensibility.

The new architecture results in a significantly reduced amount of source code and a noticeable reduction in the number of forms. The overall structure is clearer and more transparent. This makes new developments much faster, extensions easier, and corrections more reliable. The consistent design also significantly reduces potential sources of error.

The clear decoupling of the individual components prevents other areas from being unintentionally affected when adjustments or corrections are made. The architecture is future-proof, as it is fully compatible with SAP Forms Service by Adobe, while also supporting backward-compatible technologies such as Smart Forms and SAPscript.