The key user in SAP Business One: what the role is, what it takes before and after go-live, and how to choose and train key users

What a key user is.

Key user is not a setting or a licence type in SAP Business One; it is a role in the project and in the organisation. Per department (sales, purchasing, warehouse, finance, sometimes production or service) one person learns how the whole process of that department runs in B1, and becomes the link between colleagues and the partner. In a small company one person may cover two departments; the role stays the same.

• First-line support. A colleague who gets stuck asks the key user first. The key user solves what is a question of use, and passes on what is a fault or a setting, with a clear description of what happened.
• Process owner. Together with the partner they decide how the department works in B1: which documents, which fields are required, which reports people use.
• Testing. They test the setup with their own cases before go-live, and later every change, update or new add-on.
• Training colleagues. They train their department, and later every new colleague who joins it.
• Contact with the partner. They bundle questions and change requests, so the partner hears one clear story instead of ten.

Before go-live and after go-live.

Before go-live the key user mainly works on the project. They explain to the consultant how the department works today, check the proposed setup, deliver and check the master data for their area (customers, vendors, items, prices), test complete processes in a test company, and write short work instructions in the department's own words. At the end they train their colleagues and are on the floor during the first days in production.

After go-live the work changes but does not stop. The key user answers questions, spots mistakes early (a delivery that was never invoiced, a goods receipt PO still open after the invoice came in), tests updates and changes before they reach production, trains new colleagues and keeps the work instructions up to date. They are also the one who notices that the business has changed and that B1 should follow.

How much time it takes.

More than most companies plan. During the project, the weeks of design, data migration and testing take a large part of the key user's working week. If their normal work stays the same, the testing is what suffers, and that only shows after go-live. The first weeks in production bring most of the questions, and then the key user should be available to colleagues, not buried in their own backlog. After that it settles to a few hours a week for questions, changes and new colleagues.

Make that time visible: agree with the manager which work goes elsewhere during the project, and name a backup who knows at least the main process, for holidays and illness.

What a key user needs to know.

A key user does not configure the system; that is the partner's work. But they need to understand enough of the setup to explain what B1 does and why.

• The whole process of their department, from the first document to the last, and what comes before and after it in other departments. Sales needs to know what the warehouse does with a sales order, and what finance does with the invoice.
• The document flow: base and target documents, Copy From and Copy To, open quantities, and when to close or cancel. See the guide on the document flow in SAP Business One.
• What each document posts: stock, committed and ordered quantities, and the journal entry. A key user who can read the journal entry of a delivery or a goods receipt PO answers half the questions finance asks.
• The settings that affect their department, at least to read: Document Settings (Administration → System Initialization → Document Settings), the posting periods, the G/L account determination behind their documents, and approval procedures (Administration → Approval Process → Approval Templates) if documents need approval.
• Queries and alerts: the Query Manager (Tools → Queries → Query Manager) to run the department's saved lists, and alerts (Administration → Alerts Management) that warn about what needs action. Writing complex SQL is not needed; knowing what exists and who maintains it is.
• Authorisations: what colleagues may see and do. General Authorizations (Administration → System Initialization → Authorizations → General Authorizations) is maintained by the partner or the administrator, but the key user knows what the department needs and checks it during testing.
• Finding their way: Form Settings (Tools → Form Settings) to show the right columns, the Relationship Map of a document, the Change Log (Tools → Change Log) to see who changed what, and the Open Items List for documents that are still open.

How to choose and train key users.

• Choose for knowledge of the work, not for rank. The best key user knows how the department really works, exceptions included, and is respected by colleagues. A manager who is never available is a poor choice.
• Choose someone who likes to explain. A key user who keeps knowledge to themselves becomes a bottleneck.
• Name them at the start of the project, not two weeks before go-live. Someone who was in the design meetings understands why the setup is the way it is.
• Train them deeper than the end users: the whole process, the postings and the settings behind it, in a test company with their own data. The ways to do that, and what a good training covers, are in the guide on SAP Business One training.
• Let them practise until they can do it without the instructions, and then let them train a colleague while the consultant is still there to help.
• Give them a direct line to the partner, and agree what they handle themselves and what goes to the partner.

Where it goes wrong.

• No time. The key user is named but keeps a full job. Testing is skipped and the problems surface in production.
• Too late. The key user joins after the design and never learns why the setup is the way it is.
• One person for everything. All knowledge sits with one person, who then leaves.
• Testing only the happy path. Tests with ideal orders miss the exceptions: partial deliveries, returns, batches, foreign currency, a price that differs on the invoice.
• Training by screenshots. A folder of screenshots replaces practice, and is out of date after the first change.
• Key user as configurator. The key user gets full authorisations and changes settings without the partner, which undermines the setup and its documentation.
• Nobody after go-live. The role ends with the project, and new colleagues learn from whoever sits next to them.

Checklist: before you name key users.

• One key user per department, plus a backup who knows the main process.
• Time agreed with their manager, for the project and for the first weeks after go-live.
• Present in the design meetings and in the review of the master data for their area.
• A test company and a test plan with their own cases, exceptions included, and the expected result of each case.
• Training on the whole process, the document flow and what each document posts.
• Agreements with the partner: what the key user handles, what goes to the partner, and how.
• Short work instructions per department, kept up to date after go-live, and a plan for training new colleagues.

How KoonLearn approaches it.

KoonLearn, our training simulation for SAP Business One, has a track for end users and key users: the user parts of chapters 00 and 02 to 09, covering purchasing, sales, inventory, production, service and financials. You work in a client rebuilt for training on SAP Business One 10.0 FP 2608, with an accounting engine of its own that really posts, so you see what a document does to stock and the ledger, and the journal entry preview shows it before you add the document. Tasks are checked per field, troubleshooting tasks ask you to find why a posting is wrong, and every chapter ends with a test. No SAP licence, test database or server is needed.

For a key user that is a place to learn the whole chain before go-live and to repeat it later; for the department it is a way to train new colleagues without a classroom. Organisations buy seats in the customer portal and give each seat to a colleague. It does not replace training on your own setup, and the setup itself (authorisations, approval procedures, alerts, data migration) is in the partner track, not in the key-user track. Chapter 03 Purchasing is free without an account: start the free chapter on learn.koonsystems.com. KoonLearn is not affiliated with SAP SE.

Sources: SAP Business One 10.0 help documentation (Document Settings, General Authorizations, Alerts Management, Query Manager, approval procedures, Form Settings, Change Log, Open Items List, Relationship Map); the KoonLearn chapter overview. SAP and SAP Business One are trademarks of SAP SE.