SAP Business One training: the ways to learn SAP B1, what an end-user training covers and how to prepare for C_TB120

Ways to get SAP Business One training.

• Training by your SAP partner, on site or in a classroom, usually during the implementation. The strong point: it is done on your own company and your own setup. The weak point: it happens once, just before go-live, and what stays behind is often a folder of screenshots.
• Key-user training (train the trainer). A few people per department learn the whole process and the settings that matter to them, and then train their colleagues and answer the first questions. It works when the key users get time for it, and fails when they don't.
• Consultant training. Consultants at a partner learn the setup: company and posting periods, chart of accounts and G/L account determination, items and warehouses, document settings, approval procedures, user-defined fields and data import. They learn through SAP's partner learning material and on projects, and many take the C_TB120 certification.
• SAP's own learning offer. SAP Learning (learning.sap.com) is SAP's learning site; search it for SAP Business One for the current learning journeys and the page of the C_TB120 exam. SAP Learning Hub is SAP's subscription to its wider training material. Content, languages and conditions change, so check them there rather than in a guide like this one.
• Self-study with a test company. A copy of your own company or a demo database on a test server, where a mistake costs nothing. You need a licence, a server and someone to set it up, and a demo company comes without a task list: you click around without knowing what the right result is.
• Learning by doing in a simulation. A training client with tasks, a story and a check of every result, in the browser, without licence or server. It does not replace training on your own setup, but it is where you can repeat a process until it sits.

What a good SAP Business One end-user training covers.

The processes are the same in every company; the setup differs. A good end-user training covers the parts each person works in, from the first document to the last:

• Business partners: customers, suppliers and leads, contact persons, addresses, payment terms and price lists.
• Items: the item master data, units of measure, warehouses and stock per warehouse, prices, and batches or serial numbers where you use them.
• Sales: sales quotation, sales order, delivery and A/R invoice, with copy from and copy to between them, plus returns and A/R credit memos.
• Purchasing: purchase request or quotation, purchase order, goods receipt PO and A/P invoice, and landed costs if you import goods.
• Inventory: goods receipts and goods issues outside a document, inventory transfers between warehouses, inventory counting, and the stock reports.
• Financials: the chart of accounts, journal entries, what each document posts automatically, posting periods, VAT, and the balance sheet and profit and loss statement.
• Banking: incoming and outgoing payments, bank statements and reconciliation, and dunning for overdue invoices.
• Finding your way: find mode, the link arrows from a field to its record, the relationship map of a document, queries and reports, alerts and approvals, and printing a document.

A good training follows one order through the whole chain and shows the journal entry each step creates, instead of explaining one window at a time. And people do it themselves, on data that looks like their own; watching a trainer click does not stick.

Consultant training and C_TB120 exam preparation.

C_TB120 is SAP's certification exam for SAP Business One (SAP Certified Associate – SAP Business One). It covers implementation, financials and logistics. SAP publishes the topic areas and their weighting per exam version; check the current version, the number of questions, the duration and how to book on SAP's certification page before you plan your preparation.

• Start from the topic list. Divide your time by the weighting, not by what you already like.
• Do every process yourself. The exam asks scenario questions (what happens if, which setting causes this), and you answer those from having done it, not from having read it.
• Learn the setup that explains behaviour: G/L account determination, item groups and valuation methods (moving average, standard, FIFO), document settings, approval procedures and user-defined fields.
• Practise under exam conditions: timed, with a score per topic, and repeat the weak topics until the score holds.
• Leave leaked question lists alone. They breach SAP's certification terms and teach you answers, not reasons; the next exam version asks it differently.

Good exam preparation makes you ready for the questions; whether you pass depends on you and on the exam. Be wary of anyone who promises the result.

Self-study with a test company: what you need.

• A separate test company, never your production company. Your partner can make a copy of production or install a demo database; both need a licence and a server.
• Care with personal data: a copy of production contains real customers and employees, so treat it like production.
• A task list with the expected result: what to post, and which stock, journal entry or balance you should see afterwards. Without it you practise without knowing whether you got it right.
• Someone to ask. A key user or the partner, for the moment the result differs and you don't see why.

Checklist: choosing a SAP Business One course.

• Version: is it based on SAP Business One 10.0 and a recent feature pack, and on SQL Server or SAP HANA like yours? For users the difference is small, for the setup it is not.
• Audience: end user, key user or consultant? One course for all three helps none of them.
• Complete processes: does it follow a document from quotation to payment, and show what it posts?
• Hands-on time: how many hours does each participant actually work in the client, rather than watch?
• Data: your own setup, a demo company or a simulation? Each has its place; know which one you get.
• Afterwards: what stays behind to look things up, to repeat an exercise and to train a new colleague next year?
• For the exam: does it follow the current topic list and weighting, with timed practice and a score per topic, and does it call itself preparation rather than a guarantee?
• Language: is it in the language your people work in?

How KoonLearn approaches it.

KoonLearn, our training simulation for SAP Business One, is the simulation from the list above: a client rebuilt for training on SAP Business One 10.0 FP 2608, with its own accounting engine that really posts, set in the story of an implementation project. One track is for end users and key users (purchasing, sales, inventory, production, service and financials); the other is for partners, with all 12 chapters including the setup and exam training in C_TB120 style, with a score per topic. No SAP licence, test database or server is needed; it runs in the browser.

Chapter 03 Purchasing is free without an account: start the free SAP Business One chapter on learn.koonsystems.com. KoonLearn is exam preparation and practice; it does not replace the official SAP training or the exam itself, and it is not affiliated with SAP SE.

Sources: SAP Business One 10.0 help documentation (business partners, items, sales and purchasing documents, inventory, financials, banking); SAP Learning (learning.sap.com) and SAP's certification page for C_TB120; the KoonLearn chapter overview. SAP and SAP Business One are trademarks of SAP SE.