Purpose
The purpose of this wiki is to clarify the usage of the field status customizing and the transaction variants.
Overview
In different transactions you may expect that a specific field is hidden or displayed however what you see is completely the opposite. In other cases you get error messages informing that a field must be filled and you cannot even see this field. Below you can find a screen shot from the field status maintenance, in this case transaction FMU7 is in use, however the same is valid to others like OB14 or OB41 and so on. In this example the Grouping Number and the Business Area fields are customized as “hide”:
However, the fields mentioned above appear in the next screen shot. And why? As you can see, a transaction variant in is use.
How can I check if a transaction variant is in use in a specific transaction?
It's very simple, just click on menu 'system' -> status. In case a transaction variant is being used, its name will be there. Usually the transaction variants start with Z.
Via transaction SHD0, depending on your authorization profile, you can display, edit, remove or delete this variant. There, in the application help button (Crtl + Shift + F12) you can also check SAP Documentation. Below you can see SHD0, you just need to inform the Transaction Code and the Transaction Variant involved in your scenario. 
In this example the business area and the grouping number fields are in the transaction variant below, that's why they are not working as customized in the field status configuration. 
Although in this case we can see an issue related to transaction variants, depending on your business requirement this functionality can be very useful.
Among other things the Transaction variants allow you to:
Preassign values to fields
Hide and change the 'ready for input' status of fields
Hide and change table control column attributes
Hide menu functions
Hide entire screens
Bear in mind that transaction variants are made up of a sequence of screen variants. The field values and its attributes are stored in screen variants. The main purpose of a transaction variant is to make the process quicker including or suppressing fields in the initial screen customized according to your needs. There are both client-specific and cross-client transaction variants. All screen variants are cross-client, but may be assigned to a client-specific transaction variant. A namespace exists for cross-client transaction variants and screen variants and both are automatically attached to the Transport Organizer, however the client-specific transaction variants must be transported manually.
Restrictions: no transaction variants are possible with transactions already containing preset parameters (parameter transactions and variant transactions).
Related Content
Related Documents
Related SAP Notes/KBAs
SAP Note 186961: Maintenance of screen variants for Enjoy transaction
SAP Note 330945 : FI Enjoy transactions and screen variants
SAP Note 546889 : FAQ: Screen variants in FI Enjoy Transactions