The system validates the SAF structure to ensure that each SAF concept, both system and user-defined, has a default SAF code.

System SAF concepts use the SAF codes you define and associate with them; see System SAF Concepts. Operational transactions are posted automatically, and you cannot manually correct SAF data before posting. Therefore, to ensure that posting is successful, you must define default values. The defaults are used when a code for an active SAF concept cannot be retrieved for a transaction. This substitute SAF code ensures that the transaction is processed. See Example of System SAF Code Usage for an illustration of how defaults are used.

You define default codes for user-defined SAF concepts manually. Defaults for user-defined concepts applied to financial transactions are suggested by the system during the creation of postings. But if user-defined concepts are combined in a structure with system concepts and applied to operational transactions, values must be found through defaulting logic, since the values cannot be retrieved from the transaction. In this case, the default value is applied to every transaction, which might make this scenario of limited usefulness.

Default SAF codes can be defined on multiple levels. The defaulting mechanism selects the most likely default SAF code for the concept, based on an order of precedence determined by the type of transaction in which the SAF is being used. Only the default at the structure level is required; others are optional.

Default codes for SAF concepts are defined for multiple components:

SAF Defaulting Sequence lists the defaulting sequence for retrieving a code when a value is not found in the transaction or when the SAF data is being specified manually in programs such as Journal Entry. The system always finds the correct structure to use based on the type of analysis and the value of Retrieve SAF Structure from GL. It then finds default values for codes by searching the components listed in the table in the listed order. If no values are defined for a component, the system then checks the next component. Since default values must be defined for the SAF structure, a value is always found.