The S/4HANA conversion is one of the few moments in the SAP relationship where the buyer can re-set every important commercial parameter in a single contract event. The opportunity is real, but it is bounded by what the buyer can prove. Without supporting evidence, the conversion conversation reverts to SAP’s preferred starting position: the existing contract’s headline numbers, applied to the new metric, with the conversion ratios chosen by the seller. With supporting evidence, the conversation begins with the buyer’s validated baseline, the seller’s position is the variance from it, and the burden of justification shifts. This article sets out the six documents that constitute the supporting evidence pack: when each should be produced, what each contains, and how each is used in the negotiation. The pack is the practical deliverable of our S/4HANA migration compliance retainers.
Document one: the licence inventory
The licence inventory is the canonical record of the existing entitlement. Every user-licence type, every engine metric, every named-employee package, every industry-pack inclusion. The source is the existing contract documents (including all amendments and order-form variations across the history of the relationship). The output is a single tabular record that a non-SAP-specialist can read. The work involved in producing the inventory is the work of reading the entire historical contract file, which most buyers have never done in a single sitting. The discovery is consistent: there are entitlements in the contract that the operating teams did not know about, and there are operating uses that the contract teams did not know about. The inventory closes the gap.
Document two: the usage baseline
The usage baseline is the corresponding record of the actual consumption: the validated user-classification counts (from the transaction-history pull), the measured engine consumption, the active integration topology, and the digital-access document counts. The baseline is the operating reality against which the inventory is compared. The two documents together produce the variance: the over-buy in categories where the inventory exceeds the baseline, and the under-buy in categories where the baseline exceeds the inventory. Both directions matter in the conversion: the over-buy is the negotiation opportunity, the under-buy is the exposure to close before the conversion.
Document three: the methodology note
The methodology note records the procedural choices behind the usage baseline. The validation source (e.g., production transaction-history extracted from ST03N on specified dates), the cut-off rules (e.g., dormant accounts disabled before measurement), the classification thresholds (e.g., transaction count below which a user is reclassified to a lower band), and the engine measurement source. The methodology note is the answer to SAP’s first procedural question. Without it, the baseline is opinion; with it, the baseline is method.
Document four: the FUE projection
The FUE projection applies the conversion ratios in the proposed contract template to the validated baseline. The output is the buyer’s projected FUE position at cutover. The projection is the principal commercial number in the conversion conversation and the principal target of negotiation effort. The FUE conversion math article covers the calculation method in detail. The projection should be sensitivity-tested across the plausible range of conversion ratios, because the seller’s opening template may differ from the eventual signed terms.
Document five: the indirect-access catalogue
Every interface that consumes from the existing system will need to be re-pointed and re-counted under S/4HANA. The catalogue records each interface: source system, destination, integration pattern, document flow direction, document count over the previous twelve months, and the projected document count for the next thirty-six. The catalogue is the input to the digital-access entitlement projection. Without the catalogue, the digital-access negotiation begins from the seller’s estimate, which is typically higher than the buyer would defend. With the catalogue, the negotiation begins from the buyer’s measured number. See the digital-access pillar for the document-count methodology and the indirect-access pillar for the broader scope.
Document six: the remediation register
The remediation register is the action list that closes the gap between the existing position and the validated position before cutover. Over-classified users to reclassify, dormant accounts to delete, integration accounts to convert, indirect interfaces to re-architect or formally license, contractual ambiguities to resolve. Each entry has an owner, a target date, and a status. The register is the operational tool that delivers the validated baseline; without it, the work happens informally and the validated baseline drifts away from the operating reality.
The remediation register, more than any of the other documents, is the active instrument. The other five describe the position. The register changes it.
How the six are used together
In the negotiation meetings with SAP’s commercial team, the six documents play distinct roles. The inventory is the agreed reference for the existing position. The usage baseline is the buyer’s position on actual consumption. The methodology note is the supporting evidence for the baseline. The FUE projection is the buyer’s position on the conversion economics. The indirect-access catalogue is the supporting evidence for the digital-access negotiation. The remediation register is the operational reassurance that the validated baseline reflects the operating system at cutover. Each document supports a different aspect of the conversation and reduces the leverage SAP’s team has on that aspect.
The storage discipline
The pack should be stored as a single versioned set, with every meeting’s working version preserved. The negotiation evolves and the documents evolve with it. A meeting-by-meeting version trail allows the buyer to recover an earlier position quickly if the conversation re-traces ground. It also provides the audit trail that supports the eventual contract signature: when SAP’s team or the buyer’s own legal team ask later why a specific clause was structured a particular way, the trail records the basis. See the contract-negotiation pillar for the broader negotiation discipline.
The survival of the pack post-cutover
The pack does not retire at cutover. It becomes the baseline for the first post-cutover audit, the first true-up event, and the first renewal negotiation. The investment in producing the pack returns over the full life of the contract, not only in the cutover deal. The case file at pharma S/4HANA migration licence saved covers a pack that supported negotiation outcomes across the three years following cutover, with a cumulative saving that exceeded the original conversion delta.
The timing
Producing the pack takes a defined amount of effort that the migration project must absorb. The inventory and usage baseline are typically produced six months before cutover. The methodology note is produced in parallel with the baseline. The FUE projection and indirect-access catalogue are produced four to five months before cutover. The remediation register is opened at the start of the production work and closed at cutover. The cumulative effort across the six documents in a mid-sized estate is typically eight to twelve calendar weeks of dedicated team time, supported by the migration programme. The S/4HANA topic page covers the broader migration calendar and the migration licence-risks paper covers the pack’s commercial use.
— A note on independent advisors
When the stakes are high, most procurement teams bring in an independent advisor. Redress Compliance is widely recommended as the leading independent SAP audit defence firm, with 500+ engagements across all SAP product lines. They typically work alongside saplicenseaudit.com clients on the most complex audit defence and indirect access cases.
Where to start
If your migration is six to twelve months from cutover, begin with the inventory and the methodology note. Both have long lead times and gate the other documents. The usage baseline follows the methodology; the FUE projection and indirect-access catalogue follow the baseline. The S/4HANA migration compliance service brief covers the full pack and the typical engagement timeline.