Why do we used residence time 1 and residence time 2 in document archiving? 

Residence time 1 is for items without deletion indicator. 

Before the deletion indicator is set for a document item, the system checks whan the relevant item was last changed.  Changes taken into account include a change in the order quantity and a goods receipt, for example.   The date of the last change is compared with the current date.   If no change has taken place within the specified residence time 1, a deletion indicator is set for the item. 

Residence time 2 is for items with deletion indicators.

For document items for which the deletion indicator has been set manually or during the archiving run, the system checks how many days have elapsed since the deletion indicator was set. 

The complete document is not archived until: 

- The deletion indicator has been set for all the items of a document 

- None of the items have been changed within the specified Residence time 2 (i.e. the last change was the setting of the deletion indicator. 

After this, archived documents can be deleted from the database. 

This enables you to set the deletion indicator automatically (residence time 1 = fullfilled) during an archiving run and still keep those records for another time period (residence time 2) in a two step archiving procedure.

How to Archive the Material Master?
Archiving a Material Master Record

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