
Business processes of sales and distribution are reflected by a flow of documents in the SAP system. For example, when a customer orders a product the relative information is stored in sales order document, then, when the product needs to be shipped, a subsequent delivery document is created in the system. Such documents chain is captured in the document flow.
You can also create a sales document with reference to a preceding document, for example using the Create with Reference function. You can choose Copy to copy the reference document completely or you can choose Item Selection to copy only certain items and change the quantities before they are copied.
You can use copying control to activate options such as to update the document flow. The document flow is updated at the document header level by default. If the Update Document Flow check box is selected in copying control at item level, the document flow is updated for individual items too. You can navigate from the document flow to the relevant documents display screen. You can also display additional data about the status of a document listed in the document flow.