Author: Thierry Julien, CEO of TJC Group
As organisations transition to RISE with SAP and embrace Clean Core principles, a critical challenge is emerging for SAP archiving projects: transactional debt. Thousands of SAP transactions may be finished from a business perspective yet remain technically incomplete, blocking them from being archived. In this article, Thierry Julien, CEO of TJC Group, explores how Clean Core’s governance framework impacts SAP data archiving ratios, why traditional preprocessing workarounds now face greater scrutiny under S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition, and what practical strategies organisations can adopt to manage this technical debt effectively.
Table of contents
- Does Clean Core reduce SAP archiving ratios?
- How SAP archiving traditionally solved the problem
- RISE changes the rules, not the problem
- Does RISE actually prevent these developments?
- Clean Core makes the debt visible
- The real cost appears during upgrades
- What should an SAP archiving project do?
- Could AI solve transactional debt?
- Conclusion: Clean Core does not prevent SAP archiving
- Sources a and references
Does Clean Core reduce SAP archiving ratios?
One of the objectives of RISE with SAP is to make SAP systems easier to upgrade and keep current. Clean Core plays an important role in achieving this.
For SAP data archiving, however, Clean Core can expose a long-standing problem: transactions that are finished from a business perspective but are not technically complete according to SAP.
Before an object can be archived, SAP checks whether the underlying business process has reached an acceptable final state.
The difficulty is that customers rarely use 100% of SAP functionality. A process may therefore be finished for the business but still appear incomplete to SAP.
For example, a delivery may still be waiting for freight costs that will never be entered. From the business perspective, the process is over. From SAP’s perspective, it is not.
The result: the document cannot be archived.
How SAP archiving traditionally solved the problem
This is not new.
For decades, SAP archiving specialists have used preprocessing logic to make transactions reflect what the business already knows: the process is finished.
Preprocessing can typically take three forms:
- Supported application completion — Standard SAP programs, BAPIs or business functions are used to settle, close, clear commitments, set deletion flags, etc.
- Customer-specific preprocessing using SAP application logic — Custom ABAP orchestrates supported SAP APIs and functions before archiving.
- Direct manipulation of SAP persistence status information — Application tables, status tables or document-flow information are updated directly.
The first approach is normally compatible with RISE with SAP. The second can be implemented as separate customer preprocessing rather than by modifying SAP archiving programs.
The third is where Clean Core becomes an issue.
RISE changes the rules, not the problem
I faced this situation years ago while working as a functional consultant for a US customer.
More than 30,000 production orders needed to be archived, but they were not technically complete. The proposed alternative was to close them manually.
Thirty thousand times.
That was obviously not realistic.
The same applies under RISE. Users are not going to spend weeks manually closing transactions created ten years ago, sometimes by teams or organisational units that no longer exist.
Removing an old technical workaround does not remove the underlying work.
Does RISE actually prevent these developments?
Not necessarily.
SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition still supports Classic ABAP. The important point is to separate four questions that are often confused:
- Is the development contractually permitted?
- Is it technically possible?
- Is it Clean Core compliant?
- Who carries the upgrade and support risk?
SAP’s public PCE terms allow Customer ABAP Add-ons and, for certain subscribed offerings, modifications.
However, SAP’s Clean Core model classifies modifications, implicit enhancements and unsupported or direct writes to SAP tables as Level D — Not Clean Core, the highest technical-debt category. [1]
SAP also makes clear that customer-namespace development activities remain the customer’s responsibility. [2]
So a problematic Z development or SAP modification can create a visible Clean Core finding.
But a Clean Core finding is a technical-debt classification, not automatically a technical prohibition.
Clean Core makes the debt visible
SAP now provides the governance framework to identify and measure this technical debt.
The RISE with SAP Methodology dashboard in SAP Cloud ALM provides visibility into Clean Core compliance, including detailed analysis of customer objects. [3]
SAP recommends using BAdIs, exits and other enhancement mechanisms before modifying standard SAP source code. [4]
In its September 2026 update, SAP continued to use imported results for B/C/D classification in the RISE Methodology dashboard while refining the KPI calculations. [5]
Clean Core is also embedded in the RISE implementation methodology. During Explore, Realize, Deploy and Run, project teams complete Clean Core Quality Gates in SAP Cloud ALM. [6]
SAP’s automated assessment service currently supports both Accepted and Conditionally Accepted quality-gate statuses. [7]
In other words, SAP has created the infrastructure to identify, quantify and govern technical debt. Customers can then decide whether Level D findings should become hard transport gates.
In practice, we have migrated ECC customers to RISE that still operate limited archiving-related Level D modifications.
The real cost appears during upgrades
This does not mean customer code is unsupported. SAP may still provide mission-critical root-cause analysis for Very High and High priority incidents involving customer custom code and may provide guidance where the development is properly documented.
The contractual position nevertheless depends on the subscribed RISE offering. Customer ABAP Add-ons and modification rights can vary, and Extended Services may introduce stronger restrictions.
The customer’s signed Order Form and applicable supplement therefore take precedence over generic statements about PCE. And our classic disclaimer: TJC Group does not provide legal advice.
What should an SAP archiving project do?
The first rule is simple: if SAP provides a released API, standard cleanup program or supported business function, use it.
The difficult cases are those where SAP provides no practical mechanism to complete an abandoned business process.
Separate customer preprocessing from SAP standard code
This is where TJC Group’s Archiving Sessions Cockpit (ASC) becomes particularly relevant in a RISE environment.
ASC can integrate customer-specific preprocessing and post-processing steps alongside SAP’s standard: (SAP) preprocessing, write, delete, and post-processing steps.
Instead of modifying SAP’s own pre and post-processing archiving programs, customer-specific preparation logic can remain separate while still being integrated into a controlled archiving workflow.
This does not automatically make every preprocessing technique Clean Core compliant. The implementation still matters.
But it provides a much cleaner architecture and operating model.
Sometimes Level D may still be the pragmatic choice
For some legacy transactions, the pragmatic decision may be to accept a limited Level D Clean Core exception.
The objective should then be to constrain its impact:
- automate execution through ASC;
- restrict it to defined organisational scopes using ASC Areas;
- restrict the technical scope using TJC Group options;
- document the exception;
- and manage it explicitly during future upgrades.
Clean Core should therefore be treated as a technical-debt governance model, not simply as a binary rule.
Could AI solve transactional debt?
A more futuristic option may emerge from SAP’s Autonomous Enterprise direction and technologies such as Joule and AI agents.
An agent could eventually be instructed to: “Identify old transactions that are no longer finalized from an SAP point of view, determine why they remain incomplete, execute the appropriate SAP business actions where possible, and escalate only the exceptions requiring human judgement.”
The agent would not bypass SAP standard process.
Instead, it would automate the business actions required to bring transactions into an archivable state.
This could also introduce a new ROI equation for SAP archiving: AI execution cost versus recurring HANA footprint, or simply, tokens versus RAM.
Conclusion: Clean Core does not prevent SAP archiving
What it does is make some of the technical shortcuts traditionally used to improve archiving ratios more visible.
The underlying problem remains transactional debt: business processes that are effectively finished for the customer but remain technically incomplete in SAP. Addressing this challenge is a key part of any S/4HANA data management strategy.
The preferred hierarchy should therefore be:
- use supported SAP completion mechanisms wherever possible;
- keep customer preprocessing separate from SAP standard code (using TJC Group ASC);
- automate and tightly control unavoidable exceptions;
- accept Level D technical debt where the business case justifies it;
- when Level D is not a corporate option, innovate with AI to complete old processes through supported SAP business logic.
To find out how TJC Group can help you manage data archiving costs in a RISE environment, explore our RISE with SAP data archiving pricing calculator.
Sources a and references
- SAP Learning — Clean Core extensibility model and best practices
https://learning.sap.com/courses/practicing-clean-core-extensibility-for-sap-s-4hana-cloud/explaining-extensibility-model-best-practices_e290f382-800e-40ef-a203-85a13115f487?utm_source=chatgpt.com - SAP — RISE Roles & Responsibilities, July 2026
https://assets.cdn.sap.com/agreements/product-policy/hec/roles-responsibilities/sap-s4hana-cloud-private-edition-and-sap-erp-pce-and-sap-business-data-cloud-roles-and-responsibilities-english-v7-2026.pdf - SAP Help Portal — RISE with SAP Methodology
https://help.sap.com/docs/cloud-alm/applicationhelp/rise-with-sap?utm_source=chatgpt.com - SAP Learning — Modifying SAP Objects
https://learning.sap.com/courses/technical-implementation-and-operation-ii-of-sap-s-4hana-and-sap-business-suite/modifying-sap-objects-1?utm_source=chatgpt.com - SAP Community — SAP Cloud ALM Clean Core Extensibility Assessment
https://community.sap.com/t5/enterprise-resource-planning-blog-posts-by-sap/sap-cloud-alm-s-clean-core-extensibility-assessment-is-getting-more/ba-p/14463584?utm_source=chatgpt.com - SAP Learning — RISE with SAP Methodology framework
https://learning.sap.com/courses/introducing-the-rise-with-sap-methodology-for-sap-partners-and-customers/defining-the-standardized-framework?utm_source=chatgpt.com - SAP Help Portal — SAP Assessment Service
https://help.sap.com/docs/cloud-alm/applicationhelp/sap-assessment-service?sap-outbound-id=249D2D38DF80B35A0740D85D9A728552D4B1D8A1&smc_campaign_id=0000047069&utm_source=chatgpt.com - SAP — S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition Roles & Responsibilities
https://www.sap.com/docs/download/agreements/product-policy/hec/roles-responsibilities/sap-s4hana-cloud-private-edition-and-sap-erp-pce-and-sap-business-data-cloud-roles-and-responsibilities-english-v7-2026.pdf
FAQ's
Q1. What is the "Clean Core" principle, and why does it matter for RISE with SAP?
Answer:
Clean Core is SAP’s recommended approach to keeping your core ERP system free of custom modifications, unnecessary data, and outdated processes. In a RISE with SAP context, maintaining a clean core ensures smoother updates, better performance, and lower total cost of ownership. Data archiving plays a key role by removing historical records that no longer need to sit in your production environment, helping you stay aligned with SAP’s best practices.
Q2. What is transactional debt, and how does it affect my SAP environment?
Answer:
Transactional debt refers to the accumulation of completed, outdated, or redundant transactional data that remains in your system long after it has served its purpose. Over time, this “debt” inflates your database size, slows system performance, and increases RISE with SAP costs. A structured data archiving strategy addresses transactional debt by moving this data to compliant, accessible storage, so your production system only keeps the data that is actively needed.
Q3. How does data archiving reduce my RISE with SAP costs?
Answer:
Your RISE with SAP subscription is directly linked to your HANA database size. By archiving historical and non-essential data out of your production system, you shrink your database footprint, which lowers your licensing and storage fees. Many organisations notice savings from the very first archiving cycle.
Q4. Why is it important to separate customer preprocessing from SAP standard code?
Answer:
Custom preprocessing logic embedded in SAP standard code creates complexity that makes upgrades, migrations, and maintenance significantly harder. By decoupling your custom processes from the SAP standard, you reduce technical risk and keep your system aligned with the Clean Core principle. TJC Group’s approach ensures that archiving and data management workflows operate independently of your custom developments, so your system remains flexible and future-ready.
Q5. Is archived data still accessible for audits and compliance purposes?
Answer:
Yes. Archived data remains fully accessible whenever you need it. TJC Group’s SAP-certified archiving solutions comply with local legal and tax regulatory requirements in every country, so you can retrieve records for audits, tax reviews, or internal reporting at any time.
Q6. Will data archiving disrupt my day-to-day SAP operations?
Answer:
No. The archiving process is designed to run alongside your live environment without affecting system availability. In fact, most organisations experience improved system performance after archiving, because the production database is leaner and more efficient.
Q7. When is the best time to start archiving in relation to my RISE with SAP contract?
Answer:
The sooner, the better. Ideally, you should archive before a contract renewal so you can negotiate terms based on a reduced database size. However, archiving delivers value at any stage of your contract by lowering ongoing storage costs and improving system performance.
