In my post on the authorization concept in SAP R/3, I had defined an authorization object as any element in the SAP system access to which needs to be restricted. Authorization objects help in granting access privileges to users by using authorization fields. Authorization fields help in performing complex access privilges tests for users. Authorization fields help in restricting user access by performing additional access tests. Examples of authorization fields can be a company code, sales group, customer group, purchasing group etc.

Every authorization object normally has the authorization field "ACTIVITY". The "ACTIVITY" field defines the possible actions that can be perfomed on a particular authorization object. To take an example, the activity 03 indicates Display access. Thus, in case an authorization contains purchasing group and activity, and the purchasing group field is marked with a *, then the user has display access to all purchasing groups. Using transaction code SM30 and SE16, a user can display all standard activities in the SAP system by displaying table "TACT". One more important point to remember is that authorization fields are also part of the standard ABAP function Authority Check. Authorization fields can be maintained using the SAP development environment.

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