Understanding SAP Query

A functional area is where you group selected tables together to be reported on.

User groups are sections to build queries in.

A query is the report.

For example, lets say you wish to build a report (query) on the material master where you want to see certain fields from the MARA table and other fields from the MVKE table.

First you would create a functional area that has both the tables MARA and MVKE in it and appropriately linked.
(Different tables need a valid join to be queried on)

There is no need to create the functional area if of course a functional area already exists with at least those 2 tables in it.

Also to note is the fact that the functional area determines which fields of the tables can be queried on. You can select the desired fields to be either on or off.

Second you would create a user group to put your queries into.

You may have a 'material master' user group which has material master queries in it, then later you might have a 'bill of materials' user group with BOM queries, etc.

You would also assign various users to the user groups to give them the ability to run the reports within that user group.

Finally you would create a query within a user group where that query is based on the functional area and can therefore show selected fields from the tables in the functional area.