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Case Study
“Successful access to the entire NetSuite database for all years including attachments.”
VP of IT Strategy and Data, software company
A read-only NetSuite archive with attachments, for a software company's users
Read more
SAP ECC decommissioning
SAP ECC Decommissioning: Keeping the History Answerable After the System Is Gone
Moving off SAP ECC does not end the need for what is inside it. Finance will still be asked for a ledger from a closed year, auditors for the postings behind a balance, tax teams for the documents behind a filing. The decision that shapes the next decade is where that history lives once ECC is switched off, and whether people can still find and explain it there. This page sets out what to migrate and what to archive, how the history is extracted and reconciled while ECC is still available, and what access looks like afterwards.
Migration and retention are different jobs
An S/4HANA programme, a move to another ERP, a divestiture or the retirement of an instance nobody needs all move the business forward. None of them decides what happens to the closed years ECC holds. Separating the two scopes early is the decision that most reduces risk later.
What the new system needs
Opening balances, open items, active master data, and whatever history the implementation team decides to transform and load. Their scope is deliberately narrow, because every legacy record loaded has to be mapped and reconciled in a system with different rules.
What still has to be retained
Closed fiscal years at line level, the documents behind balances, inactive customers and vendors, asset history and the custom tables the business relied on. Finance, tax, audit and legal set this scope, and it rarely matches the migration's.
Where that history goes
Into a read-only archive, extracted with its relationships intact and reconciled to your books, where finance and auditors can search and report from it without ECC. That is AcroXtract for SAP filling DBVault for SAP, running beside the migration rather than inside it.
An SAP ECC retirement, in order
The sequence matters more than any single step, because every check depends on the source still being there. Nothing is signed off until it reconciles to your own books.
1 · Name the reason and the owners
Why the history must stay available, and who decides: finance, tax, legal, audit, a buyer in a divestiture. The answer sets which years and which records are in scope.
2 · Agree the scope with your SAP team
Company codes, fiscal years, ledgers and data areas, the custom tables that come with them, and whether documents attached in SAP are needed. Every engagement is scoped here, so what the archive holds is what this step agreed.
3 · Divide migration from archival
Write down with the implementation team what the new ERP loads and what stays as history. Opening balances go across; the postings behind them stay in the archive.
4 · Extract while ECC is fully available
The extract packages are produced from SAP's own reporting and table exports, to the agreed specification, with your SAP team and under credentials you control. We load and map them per company code and fiscal year.
5 · Reconcile before anyone relies on it
Row counts per table against the packages, accounting documents netting to zero, and the trial balance tied to your own balances per company code. A plausible row count is not treated as proof.
6 · Your validation period
The people who will use the archive test it with real questions: a journal entry, a vendor's history, one company code for one fiscal year. Anything that looks wrong is raised and cleared before sign-off.
What an ECC archive keeps
The general ledger at line level, per company code, fiscal year and period
Accounting documents with their lines and accounts
Open receivable and payable items with customer and vendor master data
Asset accounting and the controlling objects reporting depends on
Custom tables and attachments where the scope includes them
Records read-only once finalised, with logins and downloads logged
Postings after the first package
Accountants often keep posting closing entries, accruals and audit adjustments after the main extract. A closing package taken after the last close replaces the earlier load and the reconciliation is repeated on it, so the archive matches the books for the period you agreed. Then ECC can be retired.
Three ways to hold the history, compared fairly
Each of these suits some organisations. The difference is what it costs to keep and what a finance user can do with it in year five.
Keep ECC running, read-only
Users know it and the data stays in its original application. The organisation also keeps an ERP environment to host, secure, patch, back up and staff, now serving mostly as a look-up tool, and still depends on people who know how to use it.
Load the history into the new ERP
One system to search, at the price of a larger migration: legacy structures, customisations and closed-period detail transformed into a system designed for the business as it runs now.
Extract it into an independent archive
The new ERP carries what it needs; the agreed history is extracted, reconciled and held read-only where finance and audit can search and report from it. A database backup is not the same thing: it restores a system, and answering a finance question from it means rebuilding one.
The history, answerable after ECC is gone
Once the archive is accepted, the everyday questions no longer need the retired system or an SAP licence.
The postings behind a balance
Search by company code, fiscal year, period, account, cost centre or profit centre, open an accounting document with its lines, and follow a customer or vendor to its open items.
Statements for closed years
Trial balance, balance sheet, income statement and general ledger run inside the platform against the archived ledger, per company code and fiscal year, with each figure leading back to its postings.
Access scoped by company code
An auditor or a divisional controller is given the archive and the company codes their question covers, read-only, with logins and downloads logged, and nothing else appears.
What this does not do
It does not load data into S/4HANA or another ERP; records leave the archive as CSV for the team doing a load.
It does not reproduce SAP transactions or workflows; the archive is read-only history.
It holds what the scoping agreed: data areas beyond finance are scoped per engagement, not assumed.
It is cloud-hosted only; there is no on-premises installation.
When only one company code has to leave
Not every SAP extraction retires a whole environment. A divestiture, a reorganisation or a sale of a business unit can call for the history of one entity, for a defined range of fiscal years, separated from a much larger ECC system.
Copying the whole database would hand over far more than the requirement, and usually more than is allowed. The extraction has to select the records that belong to the entity while keeping the relationships that make them understandable: its postings, its master data and the supporting records within the agreed scope.
The same principles apply as for a full retirement. Define the scope, extract, reconcile the entity's trial balance to its own books, validate with the people who will use it, and give the receiving team read-only access to exactly that company code.
When to start
Before the migration scope is fixed, not in the weeks before shutdown. Extraction, reconciliation and validation all need the source, and the easiest place to investigate a missing dataset is still ECC itself.
SAP has announced mainstream maintenance for the core applications of SAP Business Suite 7 until the end of 2027, with optional extended maintenance until the end of 2030 (SAP News Center). For many programmes that is the planning trigger; what the 2027 date means for your historical data covers it in more detail. Put the archive on the programme plan as its own workstream with its own owner, so the validation period falls before ECC is switched off.
Archives in use on the same platform
All case studiesEach of these organisations retired a system and kept its history on DBVault. The write-ups describe NetSuite archives; an SAP engagement is described on this site only with the customer's written approval.
- Case Study
“Blueacrobat is efficient, professional and cost effective.”
Director of Business Intelligence, telecommunications companyA telecommunications company's legacy NetSuite archived on DBVault for audit
Read more - Case Study
“Their product, DBVault, was built and readily available to use after data extraction.”
Senior Systems Analyst, AwayAway: NetSuite records and File Cabinet extracted and hosted on DBVault
Read more
Questions asked about SAP ECC decommissioning
Does SAP ECC stop working at the end of 2027?
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No. SAP has announced the end of mainstream maintenance for Business Suite 7 core applications at the end of 2027, with optional extended maintenance to the end of 2030. The date starts programmes; it does not switch systems off. Confirm the dates for your release with SAP.
Do we have to migrate all our ECC history into S/4HANA?
Usually not. The new system needs what it takes to operate: opening balances, open items and active master data. Closed years, the documents behind balances and custom tables can be held in a read-only archive, reconciled to your books, instead of being transformed into the new system.
Who produces the extract from ECC?
Your SAP team and ours, together. The packages come from SAP's own reporting and table exports, to a specification agreed in scoping and under credentials you control; we load, map and reconcile them and put the result in front of your team for validation.
Can documents attached in SAP be included?
Yes, where the scope includes them. Each engagement is scoped at the start, so attachments, custom tables and further data areas are brought in when the business depends on them. Say during scoping which ones matter.
How do we know the archive matches ECC?
It is reconciled before sign-off: row counts per table against the extract packages, accounting documents netting to zero, and the trial balance tied to your own balances per company code. Then your team validates it with real questions while ECC is still available.
What if accountants keep posting after the extract?
A closing package taken after the last close replaces the earlier load, and the reconciliation is repeated on it. The archive then matches the books for the period you agreed, including closing entries and audit adjustments.
Can we extract a single company code for a buyer?
Yes. The scope can be one company code for a defined range of fiscal years, with the postings, master data and supporting records that belong to it. The receiving team gets read-only access to exactly that company code.
Do users need SAP GUI or an SAP licence to read the archive?
No. DBVault for SAP is a browser-based, read-only archive. Authorised users search, filter, run financial statements and export lists to CSV, with access assigned through roles and restriction profiles your administrator controls.
Plan the ECC retirement before the migration scope is fixed
Tell us which company codes and fiscal years must stay available, who will need them, and when ECC is due to go. We will set out what belongs in the archive, how the extraction and reconciliation run with your SAP team, and what it takes to have the history in use before the system is switched off.
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