Understanding Process Steps and Billing Documents for Project Billing

Objective

After completing this lesson, you will be able to understand the process steps for Project Billing.

Key Process Steps

Learn how to streamline the project billing process for accurate invoicing. See how automation ensures timely and consistent billing, giving companies confidence in their financials.

The key process steps supported by Project Billing include:

  • Manage Project Billing
  • Monitor Billing Elements
  • Prepare Billing
  • Review project billing requests
  • Automate the Billing process, scheduling the Project Billing preparation job
  • Submit BDRs
  • Schedule the creation of Preliminary Billing Documents (optional)

Note

The billing process and billing documents described in this lesson requires of the previous creation of a customer project. It is necessary the appropriate definition of the billing items and billing dates during the Contract Preparation phase of the project and the allocation of the project work packages to the billing items. Only planned work and expenses in the project declared as billable will be processed by billing documents. During the project execution phase, and depending on the contract type, actual billable costs are required to be posted in the project as a precondition for billing. These actual line items will populate the billing due list that sources the Project Billing Request (PBR) documents for T&E billing.

Billing Documents

The key documents used during the project billing process are:

  • Project Billing Request (PBR): A project billing request is a document generated when you start to prepare billing for one or more billing elements. It's an intermediary document based on which the billing document requests are generated. The project billing request captures the amounts that are:
    • To be billed to the customer.
    • Written off.
    • Postponed to the next billing cycle.
  • Billing Document Request (BDR): Document that contains the itemized data selected in the PBR that will be billed to the customer in the current billing cycle. Billing document requests are included in the billing due list alongside other billable documents.
  • Preliminary Billing Document (PBD): A preliminary billing document is an optional intermediary document between the billed reference document (Billing Document Request) and the final billing document (Billing Document). It is created solely for negotiation purposes and is structurally identical with a standard billing document.
  • Billing Document (BD): It is the final invoice submitted to the customer after preparation and negotiation. Billing document submittal is reflected in accounts payable by the customer.

Business Role

Billing Specialist Projects is the business role which enables you to manage project billing and schedule repricing of billing records for projects. SAP_BR_PROJ_BILLG_SPCLST is the template business role, which corresponds to the Billing Specialist based on the business catalog Project Systems Project Billing (SAP_PS_BC_PROJ_BLNG_PC) for the new billing solution for customer projects. The business catalog, Project Management Projects Billing (SAP_PSP_BC_PRJ_BILLING_PC), is deprecated, which provides access to the Release Billing Proposals, Release Billing Requests, and Edit Billing Request apps.

Process Steps

Process StepDescriptionResponsibleSAP Fiori Application
Manage project billingSetup project for billing during the Contract Preparation stageProject ManagerPlan Customer Projects
Monitor billing elementsUpdate billing elements and work packages during project execution and monitor the collection of data required for billing.Project ManagerPlan Customer Projects
Prepare billingCreate the Project Billing Request documents in preparation for billing.Billing SpecialistManage Project Billing
Review project billing requestsMonitor and update project billing requestsBilling SpecialistManage Project Billing
Conduct repricing for projectsRecalculate the billing amounts whenever there is an update in billing rates or to correct issues during the billing process.Billing SpecialistSchedule Repricing for Projects
Create Billing Document RequestsCreate billing documentsBilling Clerk
  • Manage Billing Documents
  • Schedule Project Billing Preparation
Create and adjust Preliminary Billing DocumentsWhen required, create preliminary billing documents for submittal to the custom- er and customer approval before submitting the actual final invoice.Billing ClerkManage Preliminary Billing Documents

Review of Billing Applications

Manage Project Billing App

The Manage Project Billing app enables the Billing Specialist to monitor billing elements, prepare Project Billing Requests for ones that are due, and generate corresponding Billing Document Requests.

The Manage Project Billing app, as described in the following text.

Key Features

A Billing Specialist can use this app to complete the following tasks:

  • Monitor and prepare billing for billing elements of contract types: Fixed Price, Time and Expenses, Periodic Service, Usage-Based.
  • For Time and Expenses and Usage-Based billing elements, you can do the following:
    • Postpone items to the next bill.
    • Postpone items with a service date after a specified date to the next bill.
    • Write off the entire or partial amount to be billed for one or more items.
    • Process previously written off items.
    • Include any items that were postponed or written off previously, before submitting the project billing request in the current billing cycle.
  • Prepare billing for multiple billing elements, all belonging to the same customer project, in one project billing request.
  • Create a billing document request for a billing element upon submitting the prepared project billing request.

    Note

    If the billing document request is created directly after submitting the project billing request, you can preview the invoice and look at the actual printout that would be sent to the customer.
  • Create a billing document request for a billing element with a prepayment amount that is due.
  • Add, edit and delete additional items in project billing request for billing elements included in this project billing request.
  • Incorporate any received prepayment amounts automatically when preparing the bill in a billing cycle.
  • Continue to prepare billing seamlessly when the Billing Document Request from a previous billing cycle gets rejected. The billing amounts from the rejected billing document request are automatically integrated into your current billing cycle.
  • Prepare billing for unbilled amounts of projects in stage Completed.The Manage Project Billing app, showing categorized billing elements with explanations for statuses like To Bill, Unbilled, and Billed, highlighting amounts due, planned, written off, or in process.

Key figures in Manage Project billing – Use Help in the application for detailed descriptions of the billing KPIs.

Note

You can transfer customer reference details from sales order items to the billing document request (BDR) using the Manage Project Billing app. If the sales order items have different customer references, then individual BDRs will be created for each customer reference.

Schedule Repricing for Projects App

With this app, a Billing Specialist can schedule recalculation of the billing amounts when the following scenarios occur:

  • The sales rate changes.
  • There is a change in material configuration leading to a change in sales rate.
  • The To Be Billed amount does not reflect correctly in the Manage Project Billing app due to errors.
Step 1: Template Selection.

Key Features

A Billing Specialist can use this app to complete the following tasks:

  • Schedule jobs to update the sales rate and the unbilled amount for billing elements in the following projects:
    • Specific customer projects.
    • Projects belonging to specific customers.
    • Projects belonging to specific service organizations.
    • The revenue recognition corresponding to these billing elements also gets updated.
  • Monitor jobs that have been scheduled.
  • Display job results with detailed error logs. You can navigate to the job results by clicking the icon in the Log column.
  • Copy a job.
  • Cancel a job.

Schedule Project Billing Preparation

To further automate the billing process, the Billing Specialist can use the functions for scheduling the automatic preparation and release of the billing document requests that are overdue for the current date of different projects, billing methods, and prepayment posting.

Step 3: Parameters.

Key Features

You can use this app to do the following:

  • Create a new job to schedule the automatic release of billing document requests for billing elements belonging to a particular project or projects of a customer or service organization.
  • Select different billing elements or billing methods that you want to process and include in the billing document request.
  • Release the billing document requests for billing elements with existing project billing requests, without project billing requests or both.
  • Create one billing document request per project or billing method.
  • Schedule the release of billing document requests for a specific day and time, recurrently or immediately.
  • View existing application jobs and check their status, log, and other details.

    Note

    Billing document request includes the amounts that are requested to be billed. This document is generated based on the project billing request and is used to create a final billing document that is sent to the customer.

Manage Project Billing Requests

With this app, you can select and get an overview of the existing project billing requests.

Sample Project Billing Requests.

Key Features

  • Display, sort and filter a list of all project billing requests in the system.
  • Display project billing requests in detail.
  • Adjust view settings.
  • Navigate/share to related apps.
  • Track the approval status.
  • Create a billing document request.
  • Reject project billing requests.
  • Export data to spreadsheets.

Manage Workflow for Project Billing Request

With this app, you can configure workflows to set up the approval process for project billing requests. The app provides several options for specifying the approver and the start conditions and helps control and manage approval processes.

You can use this app to do the following:

  • Display the list of existing workflow definitions.
  • Display the detailed information for a workflow definition.
  • Define the order in which the start conditions of existing workflows are checked.

    If you’ve defined several workflows, the start conditions are checked in the order you've defined. As soon as the start conditions for a workflow are met, this workflow is used. This ensures that only one workflow in the list of your defined workflows is started, even if several workflows have matching start conditions.

  • Create new workflows or copy existing workflows and modify them according to your requirements. You can configure the workflow as follows:
    • Define recipients, such as an assignment by a user or a project responsibility (it can be a Project Accountant, a Project Controller, a Project Manager, or a Project Partner) who will receive approval requests. A project billing request will go for approval of that BE project role. Requests will be navigated to the member assigned to a corresponding role.
    • Set the step conditions for approval: if these conditions are met, the approval workflow is triggered.
    • Set automatic project billing request Approval/Rejection (after some time).
    • Support Approvals by multiple persons (different scenarios are available: approval by one of the specified recipients from the list or approval by all the persons specified).
    • Create, copy, define the order, or deactivate workflows.

By default, approvers are informed via notifications in the SAP Fiori Launchpad.

As an approver, you can display the list of the project billing requests that have been sent for approval with the My Inbox Project Billing Requests app. With this app, you can:

  • Approve or reject project billing requests.
  • Enter a reason for approval or rejection.
  • Claim a project so that only you can approve or reject it.
  • Forward a project billing request to another user for approval.
  • Suspend a project billing request for a certain period of time.
  • Display the workflow or task log.
  • View the complete object page embedded in the app.

Note

The billing elements of projects in stage Completed are also displayed in the Manage Project Billing app. You can prepare billing documents for projects in stage Completed in case the billing elements contain amounts that are not billed yet.

Process Steps for Project Billing

  • Billing for Fixed Price Items
  • Billing for Time and Expense Items
  • Billing for Usage-Based Items
  • Billing for On Account Prepayment
  • Manage Workflows for Project Billing Requests
  • Schedule Repricing for Project

Prerequisites

For billing elements to appear in the Manage Project Billing app, the following prerequisites must be met in the Create Customer Projects / Plan Customer Projects app:

  • The project must have the Use Project Billing setting set to Yes.
  • The stage of the customer project must be In Execution.
  • The billing items must have the contract type Time and Expenses,Fixed Price,Usage-Based or Periodic Services.
  • The billing items must also have at least one billing plan item defined in it. For Fixed Priceitems, the billing plan item specifies the amount and billing due date. For Time and Expensesand Usage-Baseditems, the billing plan item specifies the billing due date. For Periodic Services, the billing plan item specifies the amount, billing due date and the period of service.

Note

The billing elements of projects in stage Completed are also displayed in the Manage Project Billing app. You can prepare billing documents for projects in stage Completed in case the billing elements contain amounts that are not billed yet.

Billing for Fixed Price Item

Billing for Fixed Price Item

Process StepDescription
Create Customer Project for Fixed Price ItemYou can create a Customer Project where you have maintained the Contract Type as Fixed Price assigned to a work package with the Amount and Billing Due Date.
Check Billing Element and Create Billing Document Request

By accessing the Manage Project Billing app, you can check the Unbilled, To be Billed, Billing in Process, and Billed amounts. You can subsequently create and submit a Billing Document Request using the Prepare Billing option.

One can navigate to the Prepare Billing screen and process fixed price billing items by including items with due dates in the past as well as items with due dates in the future.

Create Customer InvoicingYou can create a billing document referencing to the Billing Document Request you created using the Project Billing.

Billing for Time and Expense Item

Billing for Time and Expense Item

Process StepDescription
Check Sales Price (optional)Check/Change the sales price for the material of your selection.
Create Customer Project for Time and Expense ItemYou can create a Customer Project where you have maintained the Contract Type as Time and Expense assigned to a work package with the Amount and Billing Due Date.
Time Recording for Staffed ResourcesThe resources submit the timesheet as per the assignments and tasks.
Create Supplier Invoice for Travel ExpensesYou can choose to create supplier invoices for Travel Expenses
Prepare Billing for Time and Expense items including Postponement and Write OffBy accessing the Manage Project Billing app, you can postpone or write off the To Be Billed and Time and Expense items. You can also reinclude the postponed items. Subsequently, you can create the Billing Document Request.
Create Customer InvoicingYou can create a billing document referencing to the Billing Document Request you created using the Project Billing.

Billing for Usage-Based Item

Billing for Usage-Based Item

Process StepDescription
Create Customer project with a Usage-Based itemYou can create a Customer Project where you have maintained the Contract Type as Usage-Based (example - license) assigned to a work package.
Prepare Billing Document RequestBy accessing the Manage Project Billing app, you can find your project where your billing element is WBS and billing method is Usage-Based Billing for preparation of the Billing Document Request.
Submit the Billing Document RequestIn the New Project Billing Request screen, choosetab UsageBased Billing,and then the tab To Be Billed. Then select a line and choose Submit. You can also optionally choose to write off, postpone or defer after date.
Create Customer InvoicingYou can create a billing document referenc- ingto the Billing Document Request you cre- ated using the Project Billing.

Billing for On Account Prepayment

Billing for On Account Prepayment

Process StepDescription
Create Customer Project for Time and Expense ItemYou can create a Customer Project where you have maintained the Contract Type as Fixed Price assigned to a work package with the billing item which has a due date set up with the Item Usage type Payment on Account.
Time Recording for Staffed ResourcesThe resources submit the timesheet as per the assignments and tasks.
Billing for On Account PrepaymentBy accessing the Manage Project Billing app, you can choose On Account Prepayment. An On Account Prepayment is billed to your customer in advance for Time and Expenses contracts and reduces the amount posted to accounts receivables during billing. The Billing Document Request generated from this item is then referenced to create a billing document for the customer.

Manage Workflow for Project Billing Request

Manage Workflow for Project Billing Request

Process StepDescription
Manage Workflow for Project Billing Request

You can configure different workflows to streamline the approval process for project billing requests. The Manage Workflow for Project Billing Request app provides multiple options for setting the approver and start conditions, and helps control and manage approval processes.

By default, approvers are notified via notifications in SAP Fiori Launchpad. You can also configure the system to notify approvers via e-mail.

Schedule Repricing for Projects

Schedule Repricing for Projects

Process StepDescription
Schedule Repricing for ProjectsYou can schedule the recalculation of billing amounts whenever there is a change in the sales rates or material configuration using the Schedule Repricing for Projects app.

Benefits

The benefits of Project Billing are:

  • Reducing time to bill for a project billing manager or billing team.
  • Reporting and tracking of different financial values that are relevant for billing.
  • Ability to write off or postpone full amounts or quantities.
  • Enabling of flexible material determination so that new activity types and sales materials can be defined.

Additional Information

The following Core Data Services (CDS) Views have been released for Manage Project Billing, which allows users to consume data related to project billing for analytical purposes:

  • ProjectBilling Element (I_ProjectBillingElement)
  • Entriesfor Project Billing Element (I_ProjectBillingElementEntry)
  • EntryFlow for Project Billing Element (I_ProjectBillingElementEntrFlw)
  • BillingPlan for Project Billing Element (I_PrjBlgElmEntrBillgPlnLink)
  • JournalEntry for Billing Element (I_PrjBlgElmEntrJrnlEntrLink)

Completing Project Billing for Professional Services (4E9)

Note

An SAP S/4HANA Cloud training system is required to complete the following exercise.

Training Systems for Self-Paced Students: If you are working through the training content self-paced in the SAP Learning Hub, please purchase an SAP Learning System Access contingent to access the training system designed to accompany exercises in the training course content. Navigate to SAP Learning System Access Quick Startand search for the course code to locate the correct training system.

To execute this exercise with best system performance you can remove any other business roles assigned to your user except for S4C Generic Role provided. You can assign further roles as required in the subsequent exercise anyway and can perform this task in the same step if necessary.

Some exercises use the characters ### as placeholders for your three digit user number. Once you are on the SAP Fiori Launchpad of the training system, open the user profile icon in the upper right corner. There you will see your user: A followed by digits. Please use the last three digits of your user consistently instead of ### whenever you see ### in an exercise.

Task 1: Review Billing Configuration

Steps

  1. Make sure the following roles are assigned to your user:

    • Billing Specialist – Projects
    • Billing Clerk
    • Accounts Payable Accountant
    • Configuration Expert – Business Process Configuration

    1. Look for and open the SAP Fiori application Maintain Business Users and select your user name in the search section.

    2. Click on the user name item or select it and click on Edit.

    3. In the user details Assigned Business Roles section make sure the required roles are present. If they are not, click on Add, search by the business role description in the exercise and add them to your user.

      You need to add one role at a time. Save your business user after you finish adding roles.

      Note

      Some roles may enable new spaces in SAP Fiori. You may need to refresh your screen in order to see them.

  2. Go to Business Process Configuration page and select the application Implementation Activities.

    Note

    Implementation Activities application will be available if SAP Central Business Configurations is enabled. Otherwise select the application Manage Your Solution and search for the SSCUI ID 103637.

    Use the Find function in the actions bar to find Maintain Billing Profile.

    1. When you select the magnifying glass button, a pop-up window is displayed containing the search parameters. Type Maintain Billing Profile in the field Search Term and click on Continue. The configuration tree should expand, and the configuration item Maintain Billing Profile should be highlighted.

  3. Execute the configuration item and open the billing material determination for the billing profile CMPRJBL001.

    1. Select the execute icon to access the Maintain Billing Profile configuration.

    2. The first screen displays the available billing profiles in the system. Select the checkbox for billing profile CMPRJBL001.

    3. Double click on Billing Material Determination in the Dialog Structure panel to display the content of the clustered table.

      Note

      The billing material determination table for each billing profile, contains the materials associated to each billable transactions supported by the project. The best practice is to code labor-related materials materials the same as the related activity types and expenses the same as the configured resources. Postings in the project generated by materials, for example through purchases, use the same materials for billing (Material Direct option is selected for them).

      For each material in the table, the Quantity/Cost column indicates the data considered for billing. In general activity types and materials will use "Transfer Costs and Quantity" and postings by GL account such as travel expenses use "Transfer Cost Only" option.

      Select one of the materials in table and double click on the clustered table Billing Material Determination Criteria. Repeat this step for various materials representing different types of resources. Note the defined determination rules for each of them.

      Note

      Labor materials associated with activity types have two entries in the criteria table; the first identifies the associated activity type (note the best practice is both material and activity type are coded the same), the second determines the G/L account of group of accounts used in the posting. The combination of both determines the material.

      Materials associated with journal postings require only one entry in this table to associate them with the individual G/L account or set of G/L accounts used for their determination.

      Billing materials associated with cost originating materials only require one entry to specify the relevant G/L accounts for determination. This allows filtering beyond the material alone.

      Return to your Home page.

Task 2: Understand Project Billing

Steps

  1. Open the SAP Fiori application Manage Project Billing and look for the project you created in previous units.

    1. Search for the application Manage Project Billing and run it.

    2. From search use the project field to look for your project. Alternatively, type your project ID in the field Search.

  2. How many billing elements do you find for your project and for which billing methods?

    1. If you follow the instructions from previous exercises, you should see at least three Billing Elements:

      • Time and Expenses
      • Fixed Price
      • Periodic Service

      Other billing elements may be displayed depending on how you setup your project in the system.

  3. Prepare billing for the time and expenses item by postponing the item for the earliest Service Date and writing off the item with the latest Service Date.

    1. Select the billing element with billing method Time and Expenses. The option "prepare billing" should be enabled at this moment.

    2. Click on it to access the Project Billing Request editor.

      In the table containing the items for billing you should see one entry per time booked against the project.

    3. Select the item with the earliest Service Date and click on Postpone. Accept the confirmation pop up. The full item is postponed.

      Note

      You can also partially postpone items by imputing the quantity to be postponed in the item field "Quantity to Postpone" and save. To do so you need to select "Edit" first.

      Note that the postponed quantity is subtracted from the "Open Quantity" to determine the "Quantity to Bill" for the item.

    4. Select the item with the latest Service Date and click on "Write Off". Accept the confirmation pop up. The item has been written off in its totality.

      Note

      You can also partially postpone items by imputing the quantity to be postponed in the item field "Quantity to Postpone" and save. To do so you need to select "Edit" first.

      Note that the postponed quantity is subtracted from the "Open Quantity" to determine the "Quantity to Bill" for the item.

      You can verify the postponed and written off items by selecting the corresponding tab over the item list.

  4. In the same project billing request add an additional item with the description "Overtime" for 1500 EUR.

    1. Select the option Additional Items above the itemization table.

    2. Click on Edit to allow the creation of a new item and then select Add.

    3. Enter the data from the following table:

      Billing ElementMaterialService DateItem DescriptionQuantityTo Bill
      Select from the drop down list a work package from your projectB001Select one day before the billing due dateOvertime11500

  5. Do not submit the project billing request for billing. Review the new values for the billing item in the Manage Project Billing application screen. Note down the number of the Project Billing Request for the Time and Expenses item.

    Document Number: ______________________________________

    1. From the Project Billing Request screen, navigate back to the billing item screen in the Manage project billing application.

    2. Note that now a project billing request number is provided for the time and expenses item.

    3. Note the document number down.

      Document Number: ______________________________________

  6. Prepare the Fixed Price Item.

    1. Select the item with billing method Fixed Price and go to prepare billing.

    2. Note the billing plan dates due are already selected in the list. You can select "Edit" and check or uncheck other items to be included in the billing document.

    3. Click on Save. Do not submit and go back to the Manage Project Billing application. Note that a new project billing request document has been created.

  7. Prepare the Periodic Service Item.

    1. Select the item with billing method "Periodic Service" and to go prepare billing.

    2. Click on "Edit" and select the check box "Include for Billing" of one of the items. Click on Save. Do not submit and go back to the Mange Project Billing application. Note that a new project billing request document has been created.

Creating Billing Document Requests

Watch the simulationCreating Billing Document Requests to learn more about the system-related activities.

DemoStart Demo

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