Creating Service Confirmations

Service confirmations are created to report working time, service parts, and expenses, while performing a service. When a service confirmation is completed, the working hours are transferred to the cross-application time sheet (CATS). For the service parts used, a goods issue is posted using a material document and for the expenses a controlling document is created in accounting.

When such follow-up documents are created, the posting date is determined by the system, which is passed on to the follow-up documents. It is not possible to enter a date manually, to be used as the posting date for these follow-up documents. For example, an expense was paid three days ago, therefore these expenses should be posted to this date and not to the date when the service confirmation is completed.

For this reason, a field called the Service Rendered Date was introduced. It represents the date on which the expenses were incurred or a goods issue was posted for a service part picked from stock.

For a confirmation, there is a page with header details and there are also pages with specific item details. All this provides priority information for a customer service manager so that he knows where to act. There are individual tabs available for an item with more detailed information for the customer service manager. As illustrated in the figure, an example is the Price Details tab that is available for a pricing analysis at the item level in a confirmation.

The previously mentioned Service Rendered Date field is also provided at the item level in a confirmation. It is then passed on to the follow-up documents such as a controlling and/or a material document. This field is then used as the new posting date for these documents instead of the posting date that is originally determined by the system. It is also considered as the tax date for tax calculations at the item level. For services (as opposed to expenses and service parts), the start of work date is used as the service rendered date and in turn as the tax date.

If the service rendered date is entered, this date is also passed on to the billing document request (BDR) items. Each BDR item considers this date as the tax date for tax calculation.

Note

The Service Rendered Date field is also available for expenses and pick-from-stock items that are used as sub-items of a service bundle.

A list of all the counters of an equipment or functional location (maintained in a service confirmation header and Item) is available from within a service confirmation. The latest reading details for each counter (like reading ID, value, last reading dates, and so on) are available. Navigation from a service confirmation to display a created measuring point and/or measurement document, is also available. A new measurement document can also be created.

Transactional history is merged (header and item information) and is displayed on the item confirmation page. Change documents are also merged (header and item information).

Editing the confirmation (Web UI) is available in the item confirmation page (in the third column). The confirmation Edit option takes the user to the Web UI confirmation header page for editing the document. The Edit option is disabled when the confirmation has the status Completed.

Note

As stated before: in the Manage Service Orders app, after a service confirmation is canceled, the status of the relevant service order item (whose service confirmation has been canceled) is set to Completed. The status cannot be changed from Completed to other statuses anymore. As a result of this, when setting the status of the service order back to Released and trying to create a service confirmation for this service order item again, no items to be confirmed can be found. This is standard system behavior for the Manage Service Orders app.

In order to be able to create a new service confirmation, a new service order item needs to be created for this service order. Then the service confirmation for this new service order item can be created.

See SAP Knowledge Base Article (KBA) 3087091 for more information.

A service manager can reassign a service employee if the current assigned employee is not able to perform the work. This can be done from the item confirmation page.

A specific business role is available for a service technician. The table above describes what a user with the Customer Service Manager role can do in the system. Similar info is provided for the Customer Service Technician role.

This table provides a comparison of what a user with the customer service manager role assigned is allowed to execute in the system, compared to a user with the customer service technician role assigned.

A tile is available for a service technician that contains a to-do list with the following order types:

• Open confirmations: Orders with confirmations that are still open
• Completed confirmations: Orders with confirmations that are completed

The most important thing for technicians, as they start the day, is to see the list of assignments. This represents what they are supposed to work on for the next few days. If the work is extended, they can inform the manager accordingly. Assignments shows all current assignments for technicians. You can filter the assignments by requested start date.

The tabs show activities for a technician, based on progress made on the orders involved (open, completed):

• All Released Orders shows all the released service orders that are eligible for a service technician to create a confirmation.
• With Open Confirmations shows the orders with open confirmations for a technician (the logged-in user).
• With Completed Confirmations shows orders with completed confirmations for a technician (the logged-in user).

A confirmation can be created from the list as well as from the detail pages for released orders. The technician user is defaulted as the service employee in the pop-up screen that follows.

In the top part of the figure, Data for a Service Technician in a Service Order, you can see a service order header facet/tab for a technician specifically tailored to suit the technician's needs. The same logic applies to the details of the service order (in the lower part of the figure).

In the details page of a confirmation (not shown in the figure), a user with the Service Technician business role assigned also only sees information relevant to that role.

On the Confirmations tab in the Service Order Details screen, the service technician can find the items, grouped by confirmation ID.

Unplanned items are items that technicians are only able to identify at the site where they work and that are not planned by a service manager. They can be added from the Confirmations tab. This adds the items to the confirmation (with the status Open) and to the order (with the status Released).

The following are the conditions under which an unplanned item can be added by a user with the Service Technician business role assigned:

• Order is a standard service order type.
• Order has the status Released.
• Confirmation has the status Open.
• Only service items and expense items can be added.

Quick actions for a confirmation can be executed from the service order detail page in the Confirmations tab. The following quick actions for a confirmation are available:

• Complete confirmation
• Release for billing (done from the Order tab for fixed orders)
• Final confirmation
• Cancel confirmation

The buttons are enabled or disabled based on status and on errors in the confirmation.

The Complete Confirmation quick action (1) is enabled only when a confirmation has the status Open. Already completed confirmations are excluded from the list.

The Release for Billing quick action (2) is enabled for confirmations that are Completed (standard service orders).

The Cancel Confirmation quick action (3) is only enabled when relevant.

The Final Confirmation quick action (4) allows the setting of Final Confirmation for a specific confirmation ID in the list.