Identifying Enhancements to Ad Hoc Billing Plans for Service Orders

In this lesson several enhancements to ad hoc billing plans for service orders are presented. You learn …:

• … how to use item categories of billing plan templates.
• … how the automatic determination of billing plan templates for ad hoc billing plans in service orders works.
• … how percentage-based billing of billing request lines (BRLs) in ad hoc billing plans in service orders are created (to faster enter billing values).

You can assign item categories to billing plan templates. You define the assignment of item categories in the view Item Categories of Billing Plan Template in Customizing via Service→Transactions→Basic Settings→Billing Plan→Create Billing Plan Templates.

An ad hoc billing plan for a service order item can be created using the function Create from Template.

Starting with release 2025, the value help for billing plan templates supports the search parameter Item Category. The default value is the item category of the service order item.

The search considers the new assignment and lists all billing plan templates to which the service order item category is assigned. It also takes into consideration other assignments such as sales area. This enables a more precise search.

The column Item Category is added to the search result list to check the search results accordingly.

When you create an ad hoc billing plan for a service order item, you can use the function Create from Template to fill the ad hoc billing plan with predefined billing request lines from a billing plan template.

You do not need to manually choose Create from Template to copy from a billing plan template, because a billing plan template can be determined automatically according to specific keys entered for a service order item. An example is the sales area used.

You define a billing plan type with the billing plan usage Ad Hoc Billing via the menu path Service→Transactions→Basic Settings→Billing Plan→Define Billing Plan Types.

You can enable the automatic determination of billing plan templates using the checkbox Determine Billing Plan Template.

If you enter a new service order item with an item category that is relevant for ad hoc billing plans, the billing plan template is determined based on the assignments made/defined.

If a billing plan template has a 1:1 assignment, the billing plan template is then used to create billing request lines within the ad hoc billing plan. If the determined billing plan template is defined properly, no error message is raised when the system checks if the sum of the billing values of the billing request lines is the same as the net value of the item.

Example: A service order item is created with the item category SrvItm (Ad Hoc Bill) that is relevant for ad hoc billing plans. See the image above.

You define a billing plan type with the billing plan usage Ad Hoc Billing in Customizing via Service→Transactions→Basic Settings→Billing Plan→Define Billing Plan Types.

You can enable the percentage-based billing for billing plans using the billing rule Percentage Based Billing (Ad Hoc).

In percentage-based billing, you enter the billing request line percentage which calculates the billing value in an ad hoc billing plan automatically. The field Billing Value becomes a display-only field.

When the net value of the service order item changes, the billing value is recalculated based on the percentage entered . If lines have already been billed before the net value change, the subsequent lines are recalculated based on the percentage, and the percentage for the lines that have already been billed is adjusted according to the amount billed.

You can use percentage-based billing when you create a billing plan with a billing plan template as well.

• You can assign item categories to billing plan templates. An ad hoc billing plan for a service order item can be created using the function Create from Template.
• The value help for billing plan templates supports the search parameter Item Category.
• A billing plan template can be determined automatically according to specific keys entered for a service order item. An example is the sales area used.
• You define a billing plan type with the billing plan usage Ad Hoc Billing in Customizing. You can enable the automatic determination of billing plan templates using the checkbox Determine Billing Plan Template.
• If you enter a new service order item with an item category that is relevant for ad hoc billing plans, the billing plan template is determined based on the assignments made/defined.
• You can enable the percentage-based billing for billing plans using the billing rule Percentage Based Billing (Ad Hoc).