Einführung in das Geschäftsszenario
Die Abrechnung im Datenmodell von SAP Utilities verstehen
Abrechnungsstammdaten verstehen
Erkunden von Rabatten und Zuschlägen
Analyse der Fakturierung
Manuelle Abrechnung erkunden
Fakturierung erläutern
Die Verrechnungssteuerung verstehen
Abschläge verstehen
Rechnungsdruck erläutern
Besonderheiten der Abrechnung erläutern
Verkaufsstatistik verstehen – Integration von Daten und Analysen
IS-U-Abrechnung und -Fakturierung – Erweiterung und Erweiterbarkeit
Nachberechnung verstehen – Empfehlung für das Abrechnungsschema
Einführung in die Sammelrechnung
Die Real-Time-Pricing-Abrechnung erläutern
Vorauszahlung verstehen
Prozess Zähler bis Kasse der Versorgungsindustrie ausführen

Understanding Invoicing in SAP Utilities

Objective

After completing this lesson, you will be able to describe the invoicing process

Invoicing

Invoicing enables us to group billing for several contracts/services/time periods onto one document for presentment to the customer. Invoicing is executed at contract account level, whereas billing is done at the contract level.

During invoicing, other functions can be executed: budget billing calculations, late payment charges, interest, dunning, account maintenance, deposit interest/release, etc.

Existing open items for an account can be included in the invoice document (print document) so that the printout can accurately reflect the customer’s account balance.

Invoicing provides the integration to FI-CA and financial posting. It uses the posting information generated by the billing document.

Outsorting can be performed at the invoice level, for example if the invoice amount is above or below a threshold.

Invoices can be reversed (which also reverses the financial postings).

Flowchart illustrating the process of budget billing, invoicing, and associated functionalities like discounts, manual billing, and sales statistics in a business scenario.

The scenario in this unit deals with test invoicing.

A customer has made a payment within the current billing period and was billed according to the corresponding rate. The customer also wishes to receive an interim bill.

Another customer receives a bill but is not in agreement with the meter reading results billed. The meter reading results are too high. Invoicing and billing are reversed (full reversal). An adjustment bill is created.

Bill Creation

Process flow diagram illustrating billing stages, from order creation to bill printout, emphasizing meter reading data validation and correction for accurate invoicing.
Demonstrates machine learning applications in utility management, highlighting automated processes for error resolution, customer behavior insights, and payment matching.

Invoicing Tasks

Note

Standard SAP Utilities process that establishes the link to contract accounts receivable and payable, and provides the basis for bill creation.

Invoicing Tasks:

  • Group invoicing orders and billing documents from contracts in a contract account into a joint bill (bills are created per contract account and not per contract/business partner).
  • Supply print documents for bill creation.
  • Post documents in subledger accounting.
  • Process budget billing plans.
  • Clear items in contract accounts receivable and payable.
Process flow of invoicing and document management, illustrating connections between inputs, validations, outputs, and physical or financial outcomes. Detailed explanation follows.

Invoicing

  • Generates posting documents for bill receivables or credit memos from the billing documents

  • Clears the posting documents with down payments, especially budget billings (only for statistical budget billing)

  • Supports determination and charging of taxes, charges, and duties

  • Prepares data for bill printout, that is, generates print documents

  • Creates budget billing plans for the next budget billing period

  • Creates the posting documents and the budget billing plans in FI-CA

  • FI-CA documents can be processed in invoicing as part of clearing control (for example, settling payments on account with receivables from invoicing)

Invoicing and Master Data

Flowchart demonstrating relationships between business partners, contract accounts, contracts, and billing processes in an SAP system. Further details of the structure are explained in the text.

  • Invoicing

  • Reads the business partner

  • Uses the contract account from contract accounts receivable and payable that contains agreements for processing business transactions with the business partner. Procedures are defined in the contract account that are used for processing document items.

    • A business partner can have several contract accounts

    • A contract account can only be allocated to one business partner

  • Uses the SAP Utilities contract, which contains division-related agreements between the business partner and the utility company. A contract is allocated to a contract account.

  • Invoicing can create a bill for several contracts for an account master record

Invoicing Data from Contract Account

Diagram illustrating components and data associated with a contract account, split between invoicing data (budget billing data, correspondence, outsorting data, invoicing block) and general data (general data and general data additional functions).

The following occurs based on the contract account data:

  • Correspondence and bill printout are controlled

  • Bill outsorting is controlled

  • Budget billing amounts are processed

  • Bills are blocked

Invoicing Data from Contract

Diagram illustrating components and data associated with a contract, split between invoicing data (budget billing data and invoicing data) and general data (general data ,account assignment data, and deregulation fields).

Invoicing Functions

Diagram highlighting various invoicing functions, featuring key processes such as billing clearing, credit processing, open item inclusion, and cross-company code invoicing.

Bills

Individual processing that creates bills for a business partner or contract account:

  • Create bill (EA19)

  • Create partial bill (EA25)

  • Create bill and partial bill together (EA45)

Mass processing that creates bills for a business partner or contract account interval:

  • Create bill (EA10)

  • Create partial bill (EA11)

  • Create bill and partial bill together (EA46)

  • Request budget billings (EA12)

  • Create collective bill (EA10_COLL)

Partial bills are only created when you enter Partial bill procedure for budget billing collection as the budget billing procedure.

Budget billing amounts are only requested if you enter statistical procedure for budget billing collection as the budget billing procedure.

Collective bills can only be created when the collective bill concept is used.

You can find invoicing in the SAP menu under Utilities Industry→Invoicing→Execute Invoicing.

Data Selection

During invoicing processes, contract accounts are selected in different ways:

  • An invoicing order triggers:

    • Bill creation

    • Collective bill creation

    • Joint bill/partial bill creation

  • Contract accounts to be processed are selected using the budget billing plan items in the following cases:

    • Budget billing request

    • Creation of partial bills

    • Joint bill/partial bill creation

Individual Processing

A flowchart of a simulation leading to bill creation and partial bill creation, containing document dates, posting dates, and reconciliation keys.

You can bill or partially bill a contract account or business partner with the individual processing function. You must specify the following:

  • Document Date

  • Posting Date

  • Reconciliation Key

You can run a simulation for both processing forms with a special indicator.

Parallel Processing

Illustration depicting a parallel processing workflow for billing. Tasks include creating bills, partial bills, and budget billing, all leading to End of Runtime Log.

The parallel processing function in invoicing is used to process a large number of contract accounts.

Here, you can:

  • Create bills

  • Create partial bills

  • Request budget billing

You can also carry out the above processes in mass processing.

Carry Out the Invoicing Procedure

A customer has made a payment within the current billing period and was billed according to the rate valid up until now. The customer wishes to receive an interim bill. For this, billing and invoicing are started in the system.

Steps

  1. Invoice the business partner create from the previous exercises (Billing). Use the existing billing document.

    Note

    If you don’t have any master data created from the previous exercises (Billing), create the master data and at least one billing document before proceeding with the next steps.

    1. On HOME page, select User Profile→App Finder→SAP Menu.

    2. Navigate to Utilities Industry→Invoicing→Execute Invoicing→Individual Processing→Create Invoicing (transaction EA19).

      Hint

      Do not change the document date, posting date and the reconciliation key fields. These fields must be automatically filled. Otherwise, complete the date fields with the current date and reconciliation field with your user ID.

    3. Enter Business Partner and choose Execute.

      Note

      Select Yes in the dialog box when you are asked whether you want to create a reconciliation key.

      Result

      A dialog box with the available billing documents will appear.

    4. Select only the periodic billing document. Click Continue.

      Note

      Do not select the manual billing document.

    5. In Logs dialog box, click the Print Doc. button at the bottom to display the print document. Take note of the print document number.

  2. Execute the print preview for the invoice document.

    1. Select the Simulate Bill button.

      Result

      This function does not produce an original printout. The original printout was already produced in the previous step.

    2. In Output Device field, enter LOCL (local printer) and choose Continue.

  3. Display the postings in the account balance display.

    1. On HOME page, select Display Account Balance (transaction FPL9).

    2. Choose the selection criterion Business partner from the invoice document created in the previous step. Select All items in the List type field.

    3. Choose Continue.

      Result

      The postings for the invoice document is displayed.

  4. In the previous unit, you created a manual billing document for this customer. Use the existing manual billing document.

    1. On HOME page, select User Profile→App Finder→SAP Menu.

    2. Navigate to Utilities Industry→Invoicing→Execute Invoicing→Execute Invoicing→Individual Processing→Create Invoicing (transaction EA19).

    3. Do not change the document date, posting date and the reconciliation key fields. These fields must be automatically filled. Otherwise, please complete the date fields with the current date and reconciliation field with your user ID.

    4. Enter the Business Partner and choose Execute.

      Note

      Select Yes in the dialog box when you are asked whether you want to create a reconciliation key.

      Result

      A dialog box with the available billing documents appears.

    5. Select only the manual billing document. Click Continue.

    6. In the Logs dialog box, click on the Print Doc. button at the bottom to display the print document. Take note of the print document number.

  5. Simulate billing in the document display.

    1. Select the Simulate Bill button.

      Result

      This function does not produce an original printout. The original printout was already produced in the previous step.

    2. In the Output Device field, enter LOCL (local printer) and choose Continue.

  6. Display the postings in the account balance display.

    1. On HOME page, select Display Account Balance (transaction FPL9).

    2. Choose the selection criterion Business partner from the invoice document created in the previous step.

    3. Select All items in the List type field.

    4. Choose Continue.

      Result

      Now, additional to the periodic invoicing, the postings for the manual invoice document is displayed.

  7. Check the definition of invoicing outsorting in the Implementation Guide. Which menu path would you use to define outsorting in invoicing?

    1. On HOME page, select User Profile→App Finder→SAP Menu→Search in SAP Menu→Customizing – Execute Project (transaction SPRO).

    2. Navigate to SAP Reference IMG→SAP Utilities→Invoicing→Invoice Processing→Define Outsorting Check Groups for Invoicing.

    3. Navigate to SAP Reference IMG→SAP Utilities→Invoicing→Invoice Processing→Define Checks per Outsorting Check Groups for Invoicing.

    4. Navigate to SAP Reference IMG→SAP Utilities→Invoicing→Invoice Processing→Define Manual Bill Outsorting for Invoicing.

  8. Which outsorting is maintained for residential customers in the system?

    1. Select Define Checks per Outsorting Check Groups for Invoicing.

      Inv OCGrp = 0001

      Validation: AMOUNT2 = Min. amt receivable.

      Billing Gross Amount Against Minimum and Maximum Limits

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