Exploring Project-Based Service Procurement in Headquarter-Subsidiary Model (3TQ)

• Manage Purchase Orders (F0842A)
• Monitor Purchase Order Items (F2358)
• Create / Plan Customer Projects (F0719)
• Manage My Timesheet (F1823)
• My Inbox - Approve Timesheets (F3328)
• Release Billing Proposals (F0780)
• Release Billing Requests (F1761)
• Supplier Invoices List (F1060A)
• My Inbox - All Items (F0862)
• Review Customer Projects (F1659)

With the Manage Purchase Orders app, you can create and manage purchase orders to ensure you get ordered items on time, at the correct location, and in the required quantity. As a purchaser, you can manually order materials as well as services. The list of purchase orders displayed is based on the header level of the purchase order (PO). On the overview, you can immediately see the number of overdue items for each PO. The item categories of Standard, Consignment, Subcontracting, Third-party, and Limit are supported.

You can use this app to:

• Create a new purchase order
• Jump into the details of a specific purchase order to review it
• See details for 'Advanced' Purchase Orders
• When you click on the icon 'Advanced' Purchase Order, you can see a list of unsupported features for each purchase order. Because these features are not supported in the Fiori app Manage Purchase Orders, you can only edit or display the purchase order using the classic apps (Change Purchase Order - Advanced and Display Purchase Order - Advanced). You can click on each unsupported feature to see which database entries are filled and therefore prevent you from using the Fiori app.
• Edit an existing purchase order. Changes you can make to an existing purchase order depend on the status. For more information, please see the section Editing an Existing Purchase Order in this document.
• Use the button Withdraw from Approval to cancel the approval process for a specific purchase order, provided that you have the required authorization for changing purchase orders. You can then make changes to the purchase order and submit it again for approval.
• Create, edit, and display additional information to your suppliers in the form of texts in the Notes  section.
  Note

  You cannot edit texts containing formatting (SAPscript) using the Fiori app. Changing formatted texts that were created using the classic UI technology (SAP GUI for HTML) is not possible with the app.
• Add attachments to the purchase order.
• Save your personal filter criteria as a variant.
• View output items.
• Create a new item for planned lean services:
  • You have two options for creating planned service items:
    • You can enter master data under the field Material (the master data must be of the product type group Service).
    • You can specify the required services by entering a free short text and choosing the product type group "2" (Service).
  • You can influence the process control of service items and decide whether a service entry sheet (and a goods receipt) is expected for the service item or whether the invoice is to be posted directly.
  • If you decide that a service entry sheet (and a goods receipt) is required, the account assignment category of the purchase order can no longer be changed once a service entry sheet has been created.
• Create limit items for unplanned lean services.
  • You can define a value limit for unplanned services, that is, services that cannot be specified in detail at the time of ordering. This also applies to services that are of such low value that you want to reduce the administrative efforts involved in processing purchase orders and follow-on documents. You can define an expected value and an overall limit. For a limit item, you must enter a time period. The services can be specified later in the service entry sheet where the exact services and their price and quantity can be recorded. Otherwise, you post the invoice directly with reference to the purchase order.
  • You can enter the number of a purchase contract in an enhanced limit item for lean services to restrict the services recordable in the service entry sheet.
• Create limit items for materials. You can also create limit items when ordering unplanned materials (using free-text entries). For a limit item, you must enter a time period. Goods receipts are not possible in this case (limit item for materials). The invoices are posted directly with reference to the purchase order, provided that the specified value limit is not exceeded.
  Note

  You cannot create limit items for materials with master data records.
• Use the subcontracting process. Subcontracting is a form of procurement where the required product is manufactured by a supplier (in this case the subcontractor) to whom you provide certain components. You can provide these components either directly from one of your plants, or indirectly through one of your suppliers. Using the components you provide, the subcontractor completes the manufacturing process and delivers the required product to the ordering party.
• Use the service order integration.
  • A purchase order with the account assignment category Service Order is initiated by a service order from Service Order Management.
  • If the automatic creation of purchase requisitions from service orders is activated in the master data of the relevant material or service, the data of the service document is automatically maintained by the system. Otherwise, as a purchaser, you can maintain the data of the service document in the purchase order.
• Exclude a purchase order from Intrastat reporting. In exceptional cases, you can decide to exclude a purchase order from Intrastat reporting, even if the formal requirements for Intrastat reporting are met.
• Copy single items as well as entire purchase orders.
• Add from a document.
  • You can reorder purchase order items with reference to one of the following purchasing documents that already exist:
    • a purchase order item
    • an info record
    • a purchase contract item
  • If the field Supplier is not filled in the header of the purchase order, then all the data from the referenced purchasing document is taken over.
• Use the Info Record Update checkbox under the Source of Supply section. If you select this checkbox, the info record will automatically be updated with data from the purchase order when you choose Save.
• Assign a purchase order item to several accounts. You can distribute costs on a percentage basis.
• Create several schedule lines.
• Display purchase order commitments.
  • If the account assignment of a purchase order is commitment-relevant, you can view the commitments of the purchase order items in a table. The table displays one line for each combination of purchase order item, account assignment line, and schedule line. The respective amount also includes the commitment for the delivery costs of the item. If the commitment has been reduced, for example, by a goods receipt or by an invoice, the system displays the residual commitment in the corresponding line.
  • The commitment table considers standard items as well as limit items with a commitment-relevant account assignment.
  • By default, the commitment is displayed in transaction currency. In the Settings of the commitment table, you can also select amounts in other currencies, for example, the Amount in Company Code Currency. (Select only the required amount in the settings. The corresponding currency is automatically displayed.)
• Use the functionality provided by the flexible workflow. When you create a purchase order, a simulation of the workflow is triggered. If errors occur, you can use the error messages to analyze the issues.
• See details concerning the approval process, such as the processors involved and the status, under Approval Details.
• See all changes made to a purchase order (both on header and on item level) in the corresponding printout document of the purchase order.
• Use the checks related to International Trade Compliance.
  Note

  You cannot create a purchase order that violates one of these checks.
• Use the features available for Budget Availability Control that are also integrated in other apps for logistics processes (namely, Manage Purchase Requisitions and Manage Supplier Invoices) that result in cost postings.

Depending on the status, you can make the following changes:

• Status Draft: You can change all existing entries.
• Status In Approval, Not Yet Sent, Sent, and Rejected: You can no longer change the supplier. All other changes are possible.
  Note

  If the purchase order undergoes an approval process, you cannot edit the purchase order until it has been approved or rejected. This is also the case if you are using the feature Automatic Release of Purchase Order. The approval process can be set up using the flexible workflow with the app Manage Workflows for Purchase Orders.
• Status Follow-On Documents:
  • If a follow-on document exists, you can still add items with all related information, such as the delivery address. However, on the header level, you can no longer change the supplier.
  • On item level, you can no longer change the following:
    • material / service / free-text item
    • plant
    • unit of measure
    • Goods Receipt  checkbox
    • GR non-valuated  checkbox
    • Invoice Receipt  checkbox
    • GR-Based Inv. Verif.  checkbox
    • storage location
    • info record
    • account assignment data
    • service performer
• Delete purchase orders that have not yet been saved.
• If an invoice is expected, the net price cannot be "0". This means that the checkbox Invoice Receipt can only be deselected if the net price is "0".
• Directly request a specific service performer.
• Specify a performance period when ordering a service.
• Choose which Incoterms version you would like to use. An Incoterms version is an edition containing a list of international terms for transportation that is defined by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC).
• Status Deleted: This status only occurs if all items in the purchase order were marked for deletion. You can edit the purchase order, provided that is has not yet been archived.
• Status Output Error: This status only occurs if the purchase order runs into errors during the creation of the output. You can still edit the purchase order.
• Note

  • If a service entry sheet has been created for a purchase order item, you can no longer change, for example, the account assignment, the quantity, and the unit of measure of this item.
  • You can also display purchase orders with a custom document type or with a custom account assignment category within the object list of the app Manage Purchase Orders and from there you can jump to the further processing of such purchase orders. In this case, the system forwards you to the app Create Purchase Order - Advanced. Please also use this app to create such purchase orders.
  • Use the standard pricing procedure provided in the app Manage Purchase Orders. Custom pricing elements are not supported here.
  • Not all fields that you can select in the settings of the app Manage Purchase Orders are actually displayed. A few fields, for example, Purchase Order has Commitment Items are displayed only if you have activated the respective industry solution.

This app uses Situation Handling when there is a deficit in the quantity of materials to be delivered by the supplier for any purchase order item. As a purchaser, you receive a notification on the SAP Fiori launchpad and you also see a situation tag when you open such a purchase order item. This situation can arise for one of the following reasons:

• Supplier confirmation is missing.
• Supplier confirmation is available but a certain quantity of materials out of the total will not be delivered on the scheduled delivery date.

You can get more information about this situation in one of the following ways:

• Click the notification on the SAP Fiori launchpad to directly open the purchase order item where you can see the situation message and all the associated details.
• Open the specific purchase order item from the app, click the situation tag, and choose Show Details.

Using the details shown, you can:

1. Get an overview of the delivery confirmation with the information displayed such as the Requested Quantity, Confirmed Quantity, and Requested Delivery Date. If the purchase order item is assigned to a sales order, then you can also see this account assignment information.
2. Use the provided supplier contact data to ask the supplier about the missing confirmation or the deficit.
3. If necessary, choose an alternative supplier to make up for the deficit. You can either open the last purchase order from this alternative supplier or create a new purchase order and provide details of the remaining quantity to be delivered.

To return to the purchase order item, choose Hide Details on the situation message.

Key users can extend the Manage Purchase Orders app in the Custom Fields and Logic app using the following business contexts:

• Procurement: Purchasing Document
• Procurement: Purchasing Document Item

You have the following options:

• Add additional fields to forms and tables.
• Change the order of fields.
• Add groups.
• Regroup and rename fields.
• Save the current layout.
• Make settings to exclude fields.

In the UIs and Reports  section of the custom field maintenance in the Custom Fields and Logic  app, enable the custom fields for the data source Purchase Order GUI Application  or Purchase Order Item GUI. After enabling these custom fields, they show in the Custom Fields section in the header or item details of the purchase order.

You can implement logic for the following Business Add-Ins (BAdIs):

In some cases, neither BAdI Modification of Purchase Order Header nor BAdI Modification of Purchase Order Item is implemented. In these cases, the custom fields is open for input when creating or changing purchase orders and is in read-only mode when displaying purchase orders.

With the Monitor Purchase Order Items app, you can display purchase order items and monitor their status, using filter criteria such as purchase order, material group, material, supplier, plant, and delivery forecast. You can also choose a purchase order item to view its item level information. You can enable your business users to predict the delivery date of purchase order items, as proposed by SAP Predictive Analytics integrator. The regression algorithm in SAP Predictive Analytics integrator is used to predict whether delivery of purchase order items happens earlier than scheduled, either on time or with a delay. Based on the predicted delivery date, your business users can take necessary decisions.

Note

The predicted date is based on training, which is in turn based on the historical data available in the system.

You can use this app to:

• View purchase order items based on filter criteria.
• Click on a purchase order item to view its item level information.
• Predict the delivery date of purchase orders using the Predict Delivery Date link.
• View details of the predicted delivery date in a popup showing a chart of the supplier's delivery reliability for the selected material and plant over the past 180 days.
• Navigate to view contextual information related to a material.
• Navigate to view contextual information related to a supplier.

You can use this app to create customer projects. This app is only used for the initial creation of a project. All further activities to manage work packages, billing, and analyze time and expense billing is completed in the Plan Customer Projects app.

Note

You can only create projects for service organizations for which you are authorized.

You can perform the following tasks if you are a project manager for customer projects:

• Create a customer project with information such as the service organization, cost center, profit center, customer, project manager, currency, and dates. The default currency is derived from the customer currency for the sales area of the selected service organization. However, you can change the default currency to one that you prefer.

  By default, the system displays the service organization of the project manager creating the project.

• Assign people to additional project roles such as project partner, project accountant, and project controller.

  Users assigned to these project roles can view and edit project plans.

• Decide whether other project managers can search for and view the project.

  To restrict access only to the responsible project manager and stakeholders, set the Public Project switch to No.

• Use the Restrict Unstaffed Posting  indicator to decide if unstaffed resources can post time on the project. By default, this value is copied from the settings for the project's service organization.
  Note

  This indicator is only applicable to time postings made through the Manage My Timesheet app
• After entering the required information, you can either choose:
  • Save to create the project.
  • Save and Proceed to create the project and continue to plan other aspects of the project, such as work packages, work items, roles, resources, expenses, and attachments.

Key users can extend the Create Customer Projects app in the Custom Fields and Logic app using the Engagement Project business context.

You have the following options:

• Add additional fields to forms and tables
• Change the order of fields
• Regroup and rename fields
• Save the current layout
• Make settings to exclude fields.

Note

UI adaption of this app is a one-time activity and is specific to this app. You must repeat this activity to view UI adaptations when you view a project or edit a project.

You can add fields to the following UI elements:

You can implement logic for the following Business Add-Ins (BAdIs):

You can use the Plan Customer Projects app to manage customer projects for which you are the responsible project manager. This app allows you to search for projects, copy existing projects, and edit your projects to plan work packages, efforts, resources, and billing, recalculate cost and revenue, and analyze financial KPIs (key performance indicators).

Note

Your ability to display or change projects depends on the service organizations for which you are authorized, and whether a project is public or private.

You can perform the following tasks if you are a project manager for customer projects:

• View a list of projects for which you are the responsible, as a project manager or one of the additional project roles.
• Filter the list of displayed projects.
• Manage your list of favorite projects.
• Search for other public projects.
• Create new customer projects.
• Analyze the financial performance of projects for which you are responsible.
• Manage the project life cycle using the following stages:
  • In Planning: You can update the project currency, and plan work packages, work items, resources, and expenses. You can also delete a project.
  • Contract Preparation: You can review your project plan, and create work packages and billing plans. You can also maintain project-specific prices in the Billing area.
  • In Execution: You can confirm the staffing of assigned resources, and thereby allow staffed resources to record their effort towards the project. You can also assign purchase order items to work packages. When you set a project to this stage, the system automatically creates a baseline version of the project plan.
  • Completed: In this stage, resources can no longer record effort towards the project. However, you can process invoices, post expenses, and transfer costs to accounting.
  • Closed: This stage prevents further processing of invoices or account posting for the project. However, you can reset the stage to In Execution (to allow recording of effort and processing of effort-related cost) or to Completed (to process pending invoices).
• Update the profit center for the project, but only as long as no actual cost or revenue has been posted.
• Create a new project by copying information from an existing one. Basic information from the project header and work packages are copied, and project dates are proposed from the duration of the existing project. Hence, it is recommended that you review this information before saving the new project.
• Manage work packages and resources.
• Manage the billing of services.

A baseline version is automatically created when you set the project stage to In Execution. This also enables the Versions area which displays a comparison of the project plan between the baseline and current versions. The default view displays a comparison of work packages that are different from the baseline version. However, you can also switch the view to display all work packages.

You can do the following:

• Update the baseline version with the current plan of one or more work packages.
• Synchronize key figures and values in the current project plan to enable financial reporting for projects.

When you use the Update Baseline or Sync with Finance buttons, a copy of the information is also transferred to finance, to enable management reporting for different entities, based on actual and plan data for projects. Hence it is recommended to periodically update and synchronize the relevant versions. For more information, see Analytical Apps for Plan/Actual Analysis.

Note

The planned revenue in the baseline for management reporting is based on time and expense billing even for work packages assigned to a fixed price contract

Key users can extend the Plan Customer Projects app in the Custom Fields and Logic app using the following business contexts:

• Engagement Project
• Work Package

You have the following options:

• Add additional fields to forms and tables
• Change the order of fields
• Regroup and rename fields
• Save the current layout
• Make settings to exclude fields.

Key users can also extend the Billing area of the app in the Custom Fields and Logic app using the following business contexts:

• Sales: Sales Document
• Sales: Sales Document Item

Note

When you adapt the UI to display your custom fields, you have to do this once in the display mode and once in the edit mode.

You can add fields to the following UI elements:

You can implement logic for the following Business Add-Ins (BAdIs):

You can use the Manage My Timesheet app to do activity-based time recording for billing and invoicing of projects assigned to you. You can also record time for non project related tasks, such as administration, training, travel time, and so on. This app also supports the contingent worker scenario.

If you have the business role Employee Self Services  (SAP_BR_EMPLOYEE), you can perform the following tasks:

• View the total number of missing hours in your timesheet
• View all the tasks assigned to you
  • In the My Tasks  side panel, you can view the list of tasks assigned to you for the selected week, view the list of tasks grouped by accounting objects (e.g. Customer Projects: Billable, Non Project related Task Types, Internal Orders), and the total number of hours recorded (for the selected week) for each task. You can also search a task from the My Tasks  list. Prefilled project tasks are displayed in the My Tasks  side panel for the duration of the work package to which you are assigned.
  • In addition to the accounting objects related to the Professional Services LoB, the following accounting objects are also supported:
    • WBS Element
    • Internal Order
    • Cost Center
    Note

    Only 4 attributes are displayed for each task, irrespective of the number of attributes assigned to it.
• Change the calendar settings

  You can change the calendar settings like showing the work week, setting the start day of the week and time format using the Calendar Settings.

• Navigate to the required week
  • You can navigate to the required week using the navigation arrows. You can navigate to the previous or next week.
  • Each week displays days of the week depending on the calendar settings. You can log up to 24 hours of time per day.
  • You can also navigate to any week by choosing the calendar week link. It opens the calendar in a dialog box for you to select a specific date from the dialog box. You can also navigate to the previous or next month in the dialog box using the arrow keys.
• Create, edit, and delete time entries for the selected week
  • You can update a time entry and add a Note (if necessary).
  • If the work location is enabled in the configuration app Maintain Data Entry Profiles, you can also add a work location.
  • If overtime is enabled in the configuration app Maintain Data Entry Profiles  for internal employees, then you can add an overtime category. Overtime is only available for internal employees.
  • You can either save the time entries using Save  or send them for approval using Submit.
  Note

  • Work Location can be country, region or county (area/location).
  • Overtime is defined as the time worked outside of contractual working hours. It is used in time confirmations by internal employees or in service confirmations by service technicians to record their overtime work. For example, a consultant or a technician contracted to work from Monday to Friday from 9 am to 5 pm uses an overtime category to record work performed on a Saturday. Various overtime categories can be defined based on business needs.
  • Overtime can be enabled in the SSCUI Maintain Data Entry Profiles, and is only supported for internal employees. Overtime categories can be maintained in the configuration app Maintain Overtime Categories. The fields: work location or/and overtime can be made mandatory fields by implementing the BADI - HCM: Timesheet Validations (HCM_CATS_V1_TS_VALIDATION) with the Custom Fields and Logic app.
  • Currently, both internal employees and contingent workers can submit their timesheet for approval.
  • For a contingent worker timesheet, an automatic posting is made to the service entry sheet for the approved time entries.
  • A Note of up to 300 characters can be added when creating a time entry.
  • An employee can view the notification that their time entry was rejected on their launchpad, and can then navigate to their timesheet by selecting the notification message.
  • By default, the timesheet approval process is enabled only for contingent workers. You can enable the approval process for internal employees using the configuration app Maintain Data Entry Profiles.
• View the approved and rejected time entries

  The approved time entries are displayed with a green bar and the rejected entries are displayed with a red bar on the left of the entry. You can select a rejected entry to view the rejection reason.

• View last approved time entry

  You can view the last approved time entry duration and note in the Time Entry's Details dialog box.

• View deleted time entry (Zero Hour Time Entries)

  You can view the deleted or zero hour time entries that have been saved, submitted for approval, or rejected by the approver in the timesheet. The zero hour time entry will disappear when the entry is approved.

• Manage your tasks
  • You can manage your tasks by using this function. You can select Create Task  to create a new task, update a task by selecting the task to be updated, or delete a task in Manage My Tasks.
  • Internal employees and contingent workers can record time when they are not staffed to a project. To enable this feature, the project should have the switch Restrict Unstaffed Posting  as off and Unstaffed Projects  should be enabled in the configuration app Maintain Data Entry Profiles.
  • Internal employees and contingent workers can create a task for unstaffed projects by selecting Create Task > Unstaffed Project. The work package provided to the employee should be entered in addition to selecting the correct combination of fields to create the task.
  • Contingent workers can create a task for staffed projects using Create Task > Staffed Project.
  • If a purchase order is created with account assignment category Cost Center (K) only, then the Activity Type  is required to Create Task. This is required for intercompany and intracompany subcontractor processes.

Note

• By default, the task list does not have any tasks for contingent workers. You will have to add tasks manually using Manage My Tasks.
• Freelancers are currently not supported in Manage My Timesheet.

1. Select a task from the My Tasks  list.
2. Choose the time (in hours) to be recorded for the task for a relevant day in the selected week. The selected time is blocked.
3. Save the time entry.

1. Choose the time entry to be updated.
2. A Details  dialog box opens up.
3. You can change the time recorded for the time entry. If required, you can also add a note for the time entry. If the work location is enabled in the configuration app Maintain Data Entry Profiles, then you could also add a work location. If the overtime is enabled in the configuration app Maintain Data Entry Profiles  for internal employees, then you can add the overtime category. This field is available only for internal employees recording time for customer or internal projects.
4. Save the changes in the Details dialog box. Save the time entry by choosing Save.

1. Choose the decline icon 'X' on the time entry that you want to delete.
2. Save the time entry by choosing Save.

Note

Once an invoice is created, the associated time entry will not be allowed to be updated or deleted for contingent workers.

Approvers can use the My Inbox - Approve Timesheets app to approve or reject time entries. This app is embedded in the unified inbox, My Inbox.

Approval is enabled only for the project-related tasks by default. Other accounting objects like WBS Element, Internal Order, Cost Center, and non-project-related tasks are approved automatically by default. If you want to enable the approval for these accounting objects, you can implement the custom BAdI with the Custom Fields and Logic app.

Note

• This app supports approvals for both the internal employees and contingent worker timesheets.
• This app supports approval of time entries for all the Accounting Objects (Customer projects, Internal Order, Non-Project related tasks, WBS Element, and Cost Center) supported by the timesheet.

• View the timesheets sent for approval.
  • You can view the list of employees who have sent their timesheets for approval.
  • You can search for an employee or by the fields related to the accounting objects from the table list.
  • The timesheet with the time entries sent for approval are displayed in My Inbox.
  • You can view the planned hours for the project, and the approved and rejected hours for the purchase order in each time entry for customer projects.
  • Approval is enabled only for Customer Projects by default.
• If you implement the custom BAdI for determining the approver for accounting objects, the corresponding approver has to select the related fields for approval. The approver can create a new variant and set it as a default variant for their initial experience so the next time the app loads, it will load with their saved variant.
• The following fields are always displayed:
  • Notes: If the employee entered any note while recording time, a note icon will be displayed. When you click the icon next to the employee's name, the note will display in a popover.
  • Previous Time Entry: If the employee changes an approved time entry using their timesheet, the approved entry will display under this column with an icon. If you select the icon, the previous recorded time and the note will be displayed.
• The Work location field can be enabled to display in the approval list via Settings.
• The Overtime field can be now enabled to display in the approval list via Settings.
• The fields, First Time Entry and Submitted By will display on the object header.
• Priority

  The priority of the task will be shown based on the First time entry in the time entries that are received for approval. If the first time entry work date difference is greater than seven days (when compared with the current date), the priority will be set to High. If the difference is less than seven days, the priority is set to Medium.

• Approve or reject time entries
  • You can approve or reject the submitted time entries of employees and contingent workers.
    Note

    You can change an entry, even after approval. You can also view the previous and new time entry or note changes under the Previous Time Entry column.
  • You can select a rejection reason if entries are selected for rejection. A dialog box will display all available reject reasons when you choose Reject.
• Sort, group, or filter time entries
  • You can sort the time entries based on any of the fields available in the table.
  • You can filter the time entries based on any of the fields available in the table.
  • You can group the time entries based on any of the fields available in the table.
    Note

    The sort, filter, and group settings are reset to default each time you navigate to the object pages in a new window.
• View employee, customer, project, and purchase order details

  You can also view the employee, customer project, and purchase order details by choosing the employee, customer project, or purchase order names in the time entry. You are then automatically directed to the relevant apps where the details are displayed.

• Manage Substitutes

  Using this feature, you can create a substitute and assign the workflow task to someone else in your absence.

Note

• Notes containing 300 characters are now supported in the excel download. An additional column will appear next to the note called Long Note, which contains text that exceeds 60 characters.
• By default, the submitted time entries will go only to the Project Manager for approval.
• If the Project Manager would like to enable the approval for the Project Controller or any other approver, he or she would need to use the substitute feature.

Key users can manage the approval process using the HCM: Timesheet Approver Determination (HCM_CATS_V1_APPROVER_DETRMN) Business Add-In (BAdI):

You can use this BAdI to determine the approver for each timesheet entry, or auto-approve the timesheet entry.

Note

You have to select the Approval Required field in the Maintain Data Entry Profile configuration app to enable the approver determination for timesheet entry.

You can use the Release Billing Proposals app to get an overview of all open billing proposals assigned to projects, prepare the list of billing proposals to be released, and trigger the succeeding billing processes. By default, you can view the billing proposals that are due on the current day. By changing the filter options, you can limit the billing projects based on project, customers, billing dates, billing type, and billing item. You can also determine which billing proposals are blocked or postponed.

A billing proposal represents a collection of billing plan items of the same billing type that is planned to be billed on a target billing date. One or several billing proposals of the same project can be edited simultaneously to create a debit memo request (DMR) for further processing and billing. You also have the option to generate the DMR in the blocked status.

You can perform the following tasks if you have the role Customer Project Manager.

• Edit the billing proposal

  You can edit the billing details for the selected billing proposals. For instance, you can write-off amounts or quantities, or postpone the billing of items for selected billing types of a billing proposal. You can additionally edit the notes for each of billing proposal items. On editing the billing proposal items, synchronize the entries to be sure that the data is accurate and up-to-date. You can also go back to the last saved data.

  Note

  • You cannot edit billing proposals that are in the blocked status. You also cannot edit billing proposal items that are set to non-billable for the billing control category.
  • To edit down payment requires, you must only select billing proposals of the type that belong to the same project.
• View the overtime billing proposal items

  You can view the billing proposal items that are classified under an overtime category. For an item with this category, the sales price per unit is the price that includes the overtime rate.

• Release the billing proposal to create DMR in the blocked or unblocked status
  • You can decide which billing proposals have to be released for billing. On releasing a billing proposal, a DMR is created.
  • You have the option to create a DMR in the blocked status. You can later edit the DMR in the Billing Request Editor (BRE).
• Make mass changes to the billing proposal items

  You can carry out a mass change for billing proposal items of your choice. You have the option to postpone, write-off or bill the selected billing proposal items.

• Postpone the billing proposal

  You can postpone the target billing date for a billing proposal to a date in the future.

• Defer the billing proposal items

  You can defer all billing proposal items occurring after a specified service date. This enables you to limit the billing proposals you want to view and release for further billing processes.

• View the written-off billing proposal items

  You can view the comprehensive list of all written-off amounts and quantities for the billing items referring to the billing proposal you have selected.

• Undo write-off for billing proposal items

  You can undo or reverse the write-off of previously written off items. You can subsequently edit or bill these items.

• Mass release billing proposals

  You can carry out a mass release of billing proposals. The mass release option is available only to billing proposals of type fixed price, periodic services, and payment on account.

1. Select the billing proposals that you want to edit from the list of billing proposals.
   Note

   You must select billing proposals that belong to the same project.
2. Edit the billing proposals. Based on the billing type, the following options are available:
   • For the Fixed Price item, you can view the details such as the material group, date of the service, and net amount.
   • For the On Account to Be Billed item, you can view the expense details such as the expense type, the date of service, and billing amount.
   • For the Time and Expense item, the editing options vary based on the billing type.
     • You can view service item details such as who performed the service, the date of service, the corresponding work package, billing amount, and quantity. You can edit the quantity to be written-off. This quantity will no longer be considered for billing. You can also edit the quantity to be postponed.
     • You can view expense item details such as the expense type, the date of service, the corresponding work package, billing amount, and quantity. If you have a quantity, you can postpone and write-off the quantity as applicable. The corresponding amount is derived based on the quantity you postpone or write-off. If you only have an amount, you can postpone and write-off the amount as applicable. Postponing an amount or quantity moves the corresponding item to the next billing cycle.
     Note

     You cannot edit billing proposal items that are set to non-billable for the billing control category. The amounts and quantities associated with non-billable items are entirely written-off. These items do not contribute to the DMR generation.
   • For the On Account to Be Utilized item, you can view the expense details such as the expense type, the date of service, and billing amount. You have the option to edit the amount to be postponed. Postponing an amount moves the corresponding expense item to the next billing cycle.
   • For the Down Payment Request item, you can view the details such as the material group, date of the service, and net amount.
   • For the Periodic Services item, you can view the details such as the billing item, date of service, and the billing amount. You cannot edit any details for this item.
   • For the Usage-Based Billing item, you have the following editing options:

     If you have a quantity, you can postpone and write-off the quantity as applicable. The corresponding amount is derived based on the quantity you postpone or write-off. If you only have an amount, you can postpone and write-off the amount as applicable. Postponing an amount or quantity moves the corresponding item to the next billing cycle.

Note

The target billing dates are determined based on the billing plan dates that you define for a billing item in the Create Customer Project app. For billing types Time and Expense and Usage-Based Billing, the following cases are important to understand how the dates and amounts are determined:

• For Time and Expense  and Usage-Based Billing  types referring to the same billing item, there can be a maximum of only two target billing dates. These are:
  • Latest planned billing date in the past
  • Earliest billing date in the future (this can only be displayed if you adjust the Billing Date on which you filter the list)
• The amount calculated for a billing proposal is independent of the target billing date. The billing amount is always calculated until the current date irrespective of the dates for the billing proposal. For instance, if for a billing proposal of type Time and Expense  orUsage-Based Billing, there are two target billing dates referring to the same billing item, the billing amount displayed is only for the earliest billing proposal. It is independent of the service date of the costs incurred.

Note

• You can postpone billing proposal items as desired. The project manager should ensure that the project contains open billing plan items that can reflect the amount postponed from the last release process.
• For a billing proposal item of type On Account to be Billed, you can generate a DMR and create a billing document. On posting the billing document, a new billing proposal is created of billing type On Account to be Utilized. You can later release this billing proposal and generate a customer invoice.
• You can further personalize the billing proposal item details. You can filter the list based on the required fields and can limit the columns displayed with the fields of your choice.

1. Select the billing proposals you want to release from the list of billing proposals.
2. Edit the billing proposal.
3. Select the billing proposal items that you want to carry out a mass change for.
4. You have the option to postpone, write-off or bill the selected billing proposal items.
   • The mass change functions are not applicable for billing proposal items of billing type Fixed Price, Periodic Services, Down Payment Request and Payment on Account.
   • The Write-Off option is not available for billing proposals of type On Account to be Utilized.

Note

The mass change option works such that it postpones, writes-off, or bills the overall amount or quantity of the selected billing proposal items.

EXAMPLE: If you choose to do a mass postpone for billing proposal items of type Expenses, then both the actual and written-off amounts are postponed to the next billing cycle. If for instance, you choose to do a mass write-off for billing proposal items of type Services, then both the available and postponed quantities are written-off.

1. Select the billing proposals you want to edit from the list of billing proposals.
2. Edit the billing proposals.
3. You can edit the amounts, quantities, or notes of the billing proposal items. On editing either amounts or quantities, the corresponding net amount displayed is an approximate value.
4. Update your entries to save your data and to keep it accurate and up-to-date. You also have the option to discard the edits and go back to the last saved data.

1. Select the billing proposals you want to edit from the list of billing proposals
2. Edit the billing proposals.
3. Defer the billing proposal items. Based on the service date you provide, all the billing proposal items occurring after this date are deferred to the next billing cycle.

Note

This option is not applicable to billing proposal items of type Fixed Price , Periodic Services, Down Payment Request, and Payment on Account.

Note

to be able to postpone billing proposal items, you must expand all your grouped entries.

1. Select the billing proposals you want to release from the list of billing proposals.
2. Edit the billing proposals.
3. Release the billing proposal items. A DMR is created based on the billing proposal details and the billing amount shown.

Note

• You have the option to create a DMR in the blocked state. You can edit this DMR through the BRE.
• If you have personalized your billing proposal items based on certain filter criteria for instance, the release of the billing proposal items is not restricted only to the filtered list. All the billing proposal items are released and a DMR is created. The billing amount corresponds to the total amount to be billed and not restricted only to the items present in the filtered list.

1. Select the billing proposals that you want to postpone from the list of billing proposals.
2. Postpone the billing proposal to the required date. You have the option to provide the reason for postponing the billing proposal. The billing plans corresponding to the billing proposal are adjusted automatically.

Note

• If multiple billing proposals are selected, you must enter a date beyond the target billing date that is the latest of all these billing proposals.
• The postpone reason displayed appears for all the billing plan items corresponding to the billing proposal.

1. Select the billing proposals you want to edit from the list of billing proposals.
2. Edit the billing proposals.
3. To display the written-off items, select View Written-off Items.
4. You can choose to select the items for which you want to undo the write-off. Upon doing so, these items get added back into the list of billing proposal items. You can subsequently choose to edit or bill these items.

Note

You must have at least one open billing proposal item to be able to view the previously written-off items and undo them if you choose to.

1. Select the billing proposals within or across projects that you want to carry out a mass release for.
   Note

   For carrying out a mass release of billing proposals, the billing types supported are fixed price, periodic services, and payment on account.
2. Preview the list of billing proposals selected.
3. Choose the release setup to organize the creation of the DMR at the project level. You have the option to create a DMR per project, per billing proposal, or per billing type.
4. Release the billing proposals. The billing proposals are released immediately as a background job. You can view the job details in the Schedule Release of Billing Proposals app.

Note

You can also choose to schedule the release of billing proposals.

You can use the Release Billing Requests app to view a list of billing requests that were blocked for processing in the Release Billing Proposals app.

If you are a project manager for customer projects, you can do the following:

• Filter billing requests by the document number, customer, or the billing date.
• Edit a billing request.
• Release a billing request.
• Reject a billing request.

With the Supplier Invoices List app, you can search for supplier invoices and use the search result as a supplier invoice worklist. The supplier invoices have been created with or without using the Business Network.

• In the header section of the worklist, you can do the following:
  • Filter the number of supplier invoices by entering a value in one or more selection fields
  • Create your own filter variant
  • Hide the filter bar
• In the worklist header row, you can do the following by using the Settings icon:
  • Sort supplier invoices by different criteria
  • Hide or show columns in the worklist
• In addition, you can export the search result data to a spreadsheet.
• In the worklist, you can navigate to the details of a specific supplier invoice.
• Depending on the status, you can, for example, do the following:
  • Status Posted or Blocked for Payment: You can navigate to the supplier invoice. You can review the detail data and reverse or release the supplier invoice.
  • Status Held: You can navigate to the supplier invoice. You can choose the Edit function, and you can change the data and simulate, hold, or post the supplier invoice.
  • Status Draft: You can navigate to the supplier invoice. You can complete the detail data and simulate, hold, post, or discard the supplier invoice. Supplier invoices with the status Draft are sent out by suppliers using the Business Network or external applications.
  • A supplier invoice with status Draft can contain incomplete items, if the data retrieved automatically from an external supplier invoice is erroneous or incomplete. You can correct an incomplete item, and you can also assign a purchase order item. After checking the incomplete items, you can trigger the creation of real invoice items. The incomplete items are discarded when a real invoice document is created. You cannot delete an incomplete item.
  • Status Draft (Personal): Supplier invoices with the status Draft (Personal) are created whenever you start entering an invoice with the Create Supplier Invoice tile. In the supplier invoice list, the supplier invoices with status Draft (Personal) are only displayed for your user. The status Draft (Personal) allows you to open the invoice draft in several views at the same time.

Note

If supplier invoices are posted in the Manage Supplier Invoices app, journal entries are posted in Finance as a result. You can display the journal entries in the Manage Supplier Line Items app. Please note that supplier invoices and journal entries have different document

Note

If an SAP Ariba invoice is too complex, you cannot use the Create Supplier Invoice app to post the invoice. If the Create Supplier Invoice - Advanced app is available, you can create and post the invoice in this advanced app. Then, you can use the Create Supplier Invoice app to confirm that the SAP Ariba invoice already exists. To do this, choose the  Confirm  function and enter the invoice number of the previously posted invoice.

Note

The Supplier Invoice views belong to the Manage Supplier Invoices app. For more information, see the app description Manage Supplier Invoices.

Key users can extend the Supplier Invoices List app in the Custom Fields and Logic app using the following business context:

• Supplier Invoice Header

You can do the following:

• Add previously created fields to the table
• Change the order of fields
• Rename fields
• Save the current layout
• Make settings to exclude fields.

You can add the following UI elements: Supplier Invoices List (Business Context: Supplier Invoice Header)

You can use the My Inbox app to make important decisions via mobile or desktop devices anywhere and anytime. Using this app, you can process your workflow tasks based on the decision options defined in the back-end system.

• Process your workflow tasks.

• Perform the standard actions (for example, claim, release, or forward a task), available by default.

• Forward Tasks

• Perform mass actions, that is, process several tasks of the same type at the same time.

• View and add comments to an item using the Comments tab of the Detail view.

• View custom attributes that provide additional information about the task instance.

• View, upload, and delete attachments.

• Create and manage substitution rules to manage the tasks in your absence.

• Send emails or post tasks on a preconfigured JAM site.

• View the business cards of the application users.

• Browse, sort, filter, and group tasks requiring action.

• Easily process all your tasks with the preconfigured All Items tile.

• View the support information about a task instance.

• View the task history for workflow tasks.

• View the additional information provided in the related objects for workflow tasks.

• View the completed tasks and suspended tasks from Outbox tile.

• Filter the tasks based on substitute users.

• Filter the tasks using the filter criterion My Tasks and Tasks on Behalf of.

Note

The Open task feature is not supported on mobile devices.

You can use the Review Customer Projects app to perform a monthly review of customer projects for percentage of completion (PoC) by cost and to adjust the estimate to complete (ETC). This app also provides an overview of various key performance indicators, displayed up to the forecast month or the current month.

Note

This app only displays projects that are in the In Execution stage

• You can perform the following tasks for customer projects:
  • Display a list of projects that you are responsible for. You can also use filters to control the list of displayed projects.
  • View information such as PoC, cost deviation, effort deviation, actual margin, and the overall status of the project.
  • Carry out monthly reviews of projects by setting the forecast month. When you review a project, the system fetches actual postings only until the forecast month. The system always sets the current month as the forecast month when you review a project for the first time. Subsequently, a new forecast month can be set only if the previous forecast is completed and the calendar month has changed.
  • Navigate to view project-level KPIs and details of the project plan and actuals.
• In the Forecast area, you can do the following:
  • View project-level KPIs such as PoC, EAC trend, margin at completion, margin (sold), and deviations.
  • If the forecast month and the current month are different, then the app displays two views with information up to the corresponding months. Detailed plan information is displayed and project-level KPIs are calculated based on the active view (Forecast Month or Till This Month).
  • View the list of work packages, the planned roles, resources, and expenses, the corresponding planned and actual numbers, ETC, the resulting EAC cost, and the PoC for each item.
    Note

    Planned roles with similar attributes are grouped into a single row. Values in Cost (Forecast) and Effort (Forecast) are based on the sum of individual plan items in the corresponding row. Work packages without a planned role or expense are not displayed for review.
  • View information about actual time postings for an item, by choosing the Actual link.
  • Update the estimate at completion, if necessary. This is possible only in the view for the forecast month. If the actual effort or expense exceeds the plan, the ETC value is set to 0 (zero).
  • Use the Recalculate button to simulate the effect of ETC adjustments on individual rows and on overall project KPIs.
    • For resource-based work packages, the following steps are applied:
      • The system determines the average cost rate based on the total planned cost for each row.
      • The system calculates the variance (between planned and actual values) that must be adjusted into the plan of the current and future months of the respective work package
      • The system equally distributes only the variance from previous months, into the current and future months of respective work packages.
      • The system calculates the ETC cost as a product of the average plan cost rate and ETC effort.
      • The system calculates the estimated cost at completion (EAC) as the sum of actual cost and ETC cost.
    • For service-based work packages, the system calculates the POC as (Actual Units / Planned Units) * 100.
    • The KPIs in the header section of the app are refreshed to display newly calculated PoC, margins, and deviations. The system also indicates values where the EAC is affected positively or negatively.
      Note

      The adjusted EAC value is not taken into account when you use the Customer Projects app to monitor a project.
  • Save the changes to a project. This also results in a recalculation in the background.
• In the Status area, you can do the following:
  • Create a new entry to record the current status of the project, for parameters such as budget, staffing, and execution. You can also record the trend for each of these parameters.
  • Set the overall status of the project.
  • View a historical record of statuses and trends set for the project.
• In the Versions area, you can view a comparative table that displays values for work packages across the baseline, the current plan, and the EAC.

• SAP Activate Roadmap Viewer

• SAP Best Practices Explorer: SAP Best Practices for SAP S/4HANA Cloud

• SAP Help Portal: SAP S/4HANA Cloud

• SAP Fiori Apps Reference Library

Note

Please open links to standard websites in your regular desktop browser instead of the remote desktop browser used for the S/4HANA Cloud training system. Use the remote desktop browser only for accessing the training system. In both SAP Activate Roadmap and SAP Best Practices Explorer, verify that you are logged into an active session before attempting to access or download accelerators. Active sessions time-out after approximately 10 minutes of inactivity. You must refresh the webpage to renew an active, logged-in session. In SAP Best Practices Explorer, also verify the "Version" of any solution package you access is set to the correct country localization. This dropdown menu is found at the top of the solution package information, next to the description.