An SAP licence audit is SAP's check that your use of its software matches what your contract allows. For most customers it starts as the annual system measurement: SAP asks you to run its measurement tools in each production system and send back the results. A smaller number receive a fuller audit, with SAP or its appointed auditors reviewing the estate in more depth.
Either way, the measurement is data you produce from your own systems. That means most of the preparation is in your hands.
How does the SAP system measurement work?
In classic ECC landscapes, each system is measured with the USMM transaction and the results consolidated across systems in the License Administration Workbench (LAW). S/4HANA landscapes use SAP's newer measurement tooling for the same purpose. The output counts users by licence type and the use of measured engines, and SAP compares it with your contract.
Where do audit findings usually come from?
- User classification. Users left on default or outdated types, or users who have left but were never locked.
- Engines. Metrics that have grown past the licensed quantity since the last order form.
- Indirect use. Integrations creating documents in SAP with no Digital Access or indirect-use licence behind them.
- Missing paper. Rights agreed in a negotiation that were never written into a signed document.
Seven steps before results reach SAP
- Collect the contract set. Master agreement, every order form and amendment. Your entitlement is only what is signed.
- Run the measurement internally first. Review results before submission rather than after.
- Clean up users. Lock or delete leavers, and remove duplicate and test users from productive counts.
- Reclassify on evidence. Assign licence types from what users actually do, and keep the logic on file.
- Map integrations. List every system that creates documents in SAP and check the licence that covers it.
- State the exposure as a range. Where use exceeds entitlement, estimate a low and high figure so leadership can decide how to respond.
- Agree who speaks to SAP. One owner, one set of documents, and no figures shared until they are checked.
On our governance platform, every measurement result and entitlement is cited to the document it came from, and every document asked of SAP stays marked as requested until it is on file.
The short version
An SAP audit is mostly a test of whether your own data, your own classification logic and your own contract set agree. Check all three before SAP does.
Common questions
What is an SAP licence audit?
An SAP licence audit is SAP's check that an organisation's use of its software matches its contract. For most customers it takes the form of an annual system measurement, in which the customer runs SAP's measurement tools and submits the results.
How often does SAP audit customers?
Most SAP customers are asked to complete a system measurement every year. Fuller audits are less frequent and are often linked to contract events or measurement results that raise questions.
What is the most common cause of SAP audit findings?
User classification is the most common source, followed by engine metrics that have grown and indirect use by integrated systems that has no licence behind it.
Should we involve an advisor before submitting the measurement?
It helps to have the results checked before they reach SAP, because classification errors are much easier to correct before submission than to dispute afterwards.