Configuring Service Confirmations and Service Billing

In this part of the unit, the main configuration settings related to service confirmations are discussed.

Multiple confirmations can be created for a service order, for example, confirmations on a daily basis for tasks that require more than a day to complete. If multiple service representatives are working on an assignment, they can also confirm their work individually.

The following are some examples of features that are available for service confirmations:

• Contract determination: the system can determine valid service contracts for reference in a service confirmation. It is more common, however, to execute contract determination in the service order preceding the service confirmation, or even in the service request (if applicable). If a service contract is referenced, details from the contract are automatically copied into the subsequent service document. An example of this is as follows: a service order is priced based on a service contract that was determined in the service order. The pricing conditions are then copied over from the service order into the subsequent service confirmation.

• Warranty information: valid warranties for reference objects can be determined automatically and warranty information can be displayed in a service confirmation.

• Pricing: an accounting indicator can be used in a confirmation item to determine different pricing condition master records for products, based on absolute or percentage discounts and surcharges for services performed under warranty. As discussed earlier, this can also already be done in the service order preceding the service confirmation. The pricing conditions are then copied over from the service order into the subsequent service confirmation.

  Note

  The same logic as discussed here for an accounting indicator also applies to the use of a service type or a valuation type.

• Cost allocation: an accounting indicator can also be used in a confirmation item to determine, during period end closing, the ultimate settlement receiver of the incurred costs for the service. Separate line IDs per accounting indicator can be determined for the results analysis, or separate value fields in CO-PA.

• Billing: billing can be based on the resources planned in a referenced service process, or the resources actually confirmed in a service confirmation. A service type and a valuation type can be specified in a service confirmation item to determine different rates for billing (for example, weekend work, overtime, travel time, senior, or junior service representative).

• Document attachments: electronic documents can be attached to service confirmations.

• Serial number integration: entering serial numbers for service parts in service confirmations is also supported.

The default available transaction type for a service confirmation is SRVC (Service Confirmation). This transaction type has leading business transaction category BUS2000117 (Service Confirmation). It has also been maintained for business transaction categories BUS2000115 (Sales), BUS2000116 (Service Order/Quot.), and BUS2000126 (Business Activity).

Transaction type SRVC (Service Confirmation) has the following main configuration settings:

For the determination of the pricing procedure, a document pricing procedure needs to be assigned to the transaction type(s) used for the service confirmations. As a default, entry S1 Service Order can be used for all transaction types for service confirmations.

Other settings for transaction type SRVC (Service Confirmation) include a warranty check profile and a subject profile with standard damage codes (both maintained for business transaction category BUS2000116 (Service Order/Quot.)).

Default available item categories are as follows:

• SVCP (Service Product) is used for a service product in a service confirmation. It is assigned to object type BUS2000143 (Service Product Confirmation Item). For a service product with a fixed price, item category SFCS (Service (FixedPrice)) is used.
• SVCM (Service Part) is used for a service part in a service confirmation. It is assigned to object type BUS2000142 (Service Material Confirmation Item). For a service part with a fixed price, item category SFCM (Service Part (FxPrc)) is used.
• SVCE (Service Expense Item) is used for an expense item in a service confirmation. It is assigned to object type BUS2000158 (Service Expense Confirmation Item). For a service expense item with a fixed price, item category SFCE (Expense (FixedPrice)) is used.

The following table provides an overview of some important settings for the mentioned item categories:

Item category determination configuration for SRVC (Service Confirmation) has been set up by default in the system. See unit 2 of this course for more details concerning the configuration of this item category determination.

Copying control settings on transaction type and item category level are also required. In the standard configuration available for SAP S/4HANA Service, settings for source transaction types SRVR (Service Request) and SRVO (Service Order) and target transaction type SRVC (Service Confirmation) are available. The corresponding settings on item category level are also available (such as copying control from source item category SRVP (Service Item) to SVCP (Service Product).

The copying control settings in Customizing where the combinations of source item category, and for the target transaction type, the target item category are defined, need to also be maintained. Navigate to SAP Customizing Implementation Guide → Service → Transactions → Basic Settings → Copying Control for Business Transactions → Define Item Category Determination when Copying.

An example entry is item category in the source document SRVP (Service Item), with target transaction type SRVC (Service Confirmation) and target item category SVCP (Service Product).

Besides the elements mentioned previously, the following configuration needs to be maintained:

• The date type SRVC_ACTUAL (start of Work) has been entered in the date profile assigned to the item categories used in the service confirmation. For example: date profile SRV_RM_ITEM1 (SAP Confirmation Service Item) which has been assigned to SVCP (Service Product) and date profile SRV_RM_ITEM2 (SAP Confirmation of Spare Part Item) which has been assigned to SVCM (Service Part) and also to SVCE (Service Expense Item).

• When using expense items in a confirmation, the item category determined for the expense item needs to be mapped to the correct cost element in Customizing.

  Note

  There is no mapping between the item category determined for an expense item and an activity type: activity type mapping is only relevant for service products. This makes sense because an activity type represents the rate at which a service product is costed; for an expense item, the expense amount is entered manually in the confirmation.

  In Customizing, navigate to SAP Customizing Implementation Guide → Integration with Other SAP Components → Customer Relationship Management → Settings for Service Processing → Time Sheet Integration → Define Derivation of Attendance Type, Activity Type and Cost Element.

  Note

  See also unit 2, lesson 6 of this course for more information about the configuration of the integration with the cross-application time sheet (CATS).

• Similar to what needs to be set up for service orders, the integration with other scenarios in Logistics needs to be configured. The logistics scenario for material withdrawals needs to be defined, for example.

  In Customizing, navigate to SAP Customizing Implementation Guide → Integration with Other SAP Components → Customer Relationship Management → Settings for Service Processing → Logistics Integration → Create and Change Logistics Scenario for Material Withdrawal.

  Note

  See also lesson 2 of this unit for more details concerning the configuration of the integration with Logistics.

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)

Since release 2022 of SAP S/4HANA, there is 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.