Configuring Service Billing

In the last part of this unit, the main configuration settings related to billing the customer for the on-site service process are introduced.

In the SAP S/4HANA Service scenarios discussed in this course, the BDR document based on which the customer is invoiced, is a document with a billing type as document type. This billing type is called Cust. Mgmt Service Conf. BDR (SVCB) in the standard SAP S/4HANA system.

Customizing activities for billing need to happen in both SAP S/4HANA Sales and also in SAP S/4HANA Service.

The following settings are requirements to be able to use billing for service transactions:

• The organizational structure has been configured. For billing, the definition of a sales organization is required.

• SAP S/4HANA Sales document types need to be defined. These are later assigned to the service transaction types to enable the billing of service transactions through the use of BDRs: even though a BDR is a billing document (using a billing type), to be able to create it, the system uses a sales document type with items with a sales item category configured for order-related billing.

  In Customizing, navigate to SAP Customizing Implementation Guide→Sales and Distribution→Sales→Sales Documents→Sales Document Header→Define Sales Document Types.

  An example of a sales document type is Service Confirmation eBDR (BSVC).

• SAP S/4HANA Sales item categories need to be configured. One reason for this is that the SAP S/4HANA Sales item categories are later mapped to specific item categories in SAP S/4HANA Service to enable billing through the use of BDRs. An example of a sales item category used for this is Service Item eBDR (CS01). This item category has been configured to use order-related billing (using the Billing Relevance field).

  Another reason to define sales item categories is because sales items in service transactions are replicated to sales orders in SAP S/4HANA Sales. These sales orders can then be converged with the corresponding BDRs (and other billable sales documents) to create combined billing documents.

  In Customizing, navigate to SAP Customizing Implementation Guide→Sales and Distribution→Sales→Sales Documents→Sales Document Item→Define Item Categories.

• For each item category in SAP S/4HANA Service that requires billing, for business transaction category Sales (BUS2000115), the billing relevance needs to be set. The applicable billing relevance settings for items in Service include the following:

  • Not Relevant for Billing
  • Billing After Contract Release (B)
  • Transaction-Related Billing After Completion (D)
  • Service Confirmation-Related Billing (K)

  To do this, in Customizing, navigate to SAP Customizing Implementation Guide→Service→Transactions→Basic Settings→Define Item Categories, and choose the IMG - Activity icon.

  Select the service item category and double-click the Assignment of Business Transaction Categories folder. Select Sales (BUS2000115) and double-click Customizing Item. Here, the mentioned setting for billing relevance can be found.

  An example of this is as follows: service confirmation item category SVCP (Service Product) is set to D (Transaction-Related Billing After Completion).

• Billing types need to be defined and later on assigned to the transaction types used in SAP S/4HANA Service, in combination with the sales document types to be used for the billing document requests (BDRs).

  In Customizing, navigate to SAP Customizing Implementation Guide→Sales and Distribution→Billing→Billing Documents→Define Billing Types.

  See the last item of this list for the menu path in Customizing where these billing types are then assigned to the transaction types used in SAP S/4HANA Service.

• Copying control settings between the sales document type(s) used in the background to create the BDRs and the billing type(s) used for the BDRs also need to be maintained. For example, source sales document type BSVC (Service Confirm eBDR) and target billing type SVCB (Cust. Mgmt Service Conf. BDR), which is used for the actual BDRs. Copying control settings between the billing type(s) used for the BDRs (SVCB (Cust. Mgmt Service Conf. BDR)) and the billing type(s) used for the actual invoices that are sent to the customer(s), for example F2 (Invoice (F2)), also need to be maintained.

  In Customizing, navigate to SAP Customizing Implementation Guide→Sales and Distribution→Billing→Billing Documents→Maintain Copying Control for Billing Documents.

• First the sales document type(s), sales item categories (with relevant settings), billing types for the BDRs, and invoices sent to the customer(s) and copying control settings for billing need to be set up. The next step is to assign these document types to the relevant transaction types in SAP S/4HANA Service.

  In Customizing, navigate to SAP Customizing Implementation Guide→Service→Basic Functions→Billing→Assign Service Transaction Types to Billing Document Request Types.

  Here, both the sales document type used in the background when creating the BDRs and the billing type to be used for these are assigned to each transaction type used in SAP S/4HANA Service. Entries can be found for repair confirmations, service contracts, service confirmations, and service orders.

  Per transaction type, a mapping also needs to be maintained between each SAP S/4HANA Service item category and the SAP S/4HANA Sales item category, which is used in the background when creating the BDRs.

Ad hoc billing is a structured method of service billing that doesn’t conform to periodic or milestone billing plan rules, but instead enables you to define billing values and dates freely.

You can use an ad hoc billing plan to define the dates on which billing is to occur and the value that is to be billed. For each billing date, the system generates one billing request line. In addition, you can optionally specify the settlement period that an individual billing request line covers.

One feature that is available with ad hoc billing, is called Billing of Remaining Net Value. This feature enables the system to automatically generate a billing request line with all the remaining net value of the service contract or service order item. The billing date of this billing request line is set to the current date by default.

Ad hoc billing allows a total billing value higher, lower, or equal to your item net value. Therefore, you must set the Billing Plan Is Finalized indicator, to let the system know that the billing plan is finalized. This means that no more billing value is to be planned. After you set the indicator, the billing status of the ad hoc billing item is set to completely billed when all the billing request lines in the billing plan are invoiced.

Unlike service contract items, whose prices are calculated based on the contract validity period, ad hoc billing items can be set to a fixed price by using a price condition type of manual item amount (PMV1). By doing so, the net value of the ad hoc billing item is always fixed at the manual item amount that you specify, despite the change to its validity period.

The following are required configuration settings for the use of ad hoc billing for service contracts and service orders:

• Configure a billing plan type for ad hoc billing. In Customizing, navigate to: SAP Customizing Implementation Guide→Service→Transactions→Basic Settings→Billing Plan→Define Billing Plan Types. For the billing plan type you want to use, for the field BilPlanUse, choose the option Ad hoc Billing.
• Assign your billing plan type for ad hoc billing to the item category for which you want to use ad hoc billing. In Customizing, navigate to: SAP Customizing Implementation Guide→Service→Transactions→Basic Settings→Billing Plan→Assign Billing Plan Type to Item Category.

The predefined Customizing settings for ad hoc service contract billing include the transaction type SC and the item category SC Itm (Ad Hoc Bill) (SCNB).

For service order, the following predefined item categories are available for ad hoc billing:

• Service Product Item (Ad Hoc Billing) (SBOS)
• Expense Item (Ad Hoc Billing) (SBOE)
• Service Part (Ad Hoc Billing) (SBOM)
• Intercompany Service Item (Ad Hoc Billing) (SVAI)

There is also a feature available that enables the use of alternative tax classification in service orders and service confirmations.

The field Alt.Tax Classification on the Billing tab in these documents allows you to choose (using a dropdown list) whether a service transaction is tax exempt or taxable.

• Billing document requests (BDRs) are generated when a service transaction has been completed and released for billing. They appear in the billing due list along with other billable SAP S/4HANA Sales documents, such as sales orders and debit memo requests.
• A customer can be billed either for the resources planned in a service order (Fixed Price), or for the resources actually used and recorded in a service confirmation (Time and Material).
• The following settings are requirements to be able to use billing for service transactions: configure the organizational structure, configure SAP S/4HANA Sales document types and assign them to service transaction types, define SAP S/4HANA Sales item categories and map them to service item categories, define the billing relevance per service item category, define billing types and assign them to the transaction types used in SAP S/4HANA Service (in combination with the sales document types to be used for the billing document requests), and maintain all relevant copying control settings.
• You can define ad hoc billing for service contracts and service orders. Ad hoc billing is a structured method of service billing that doesn’t conform to periodic or milestone billing plan rules, but instead enables you to define billing values and dates freely.