Working with Scheduling Agreements and Quantity Contracts

In copying control, you decide which types of sales documents can be used as release orders from a contract.

You can create release orders in the following ways:

• Choose Create with reference on the initial screen

• In the Sales document menu, choose Sales document → Create with reference → To contract...

• Assign an order item to a contract retrospectively

• Use the automatic system to search for open outline agreements when you create an order

You can configure Customizing for the sales document type so that, when you create a release order, the system automatically searches for any open outline agreements. You can choose several options for the search and determine how the system should react if the search is successful:

• Blank: No checks.

• A/B: Check at header/item level: The system compares the customer numbers and material numbers. If there are any open outline agreements, it displays a dialog box in which you can make a selection. You can then display the open agreements in the form of a list, or continue to process the sales order.

• C/D: Check at header/item level and copy if unique: If the system finds exactly one open outline agreement, this document is created automatically. Instead of displaying a dialog box, the system issues an information message in the status bar for the release.

• E/F: Check at header/item level and branch immediately to selection list: Instead of displaying a dialog box, the system immediately goes to the selection list. No dialog box is displayed. If there is only one open contract, the system reacts as in C/D.

Example: for a sales contract of 300 EUR, you request the customer to pay 100 EUR before goods delivery.

You maintain a delivery block in the milestone billing plan and specify the billing plan value as 100 EUR in the sales contract. You further create a contract release order of 300 EUR, referencing the sales contract. The system determines the delivery block reason from the milestone billing plan, and assigns delivery blocks to the schedule lines of the contract release order. Before the customer pays the required 100 EUR down payment, the contract release order cannot be further processed.

When the customer fully pays the 100 EUR down payment, the journal entry of the down payment request is cleared and the down payment status on the sales contract becomes Fully Paid. The system then removes the delivery block from the schedule lines in the contract release order. You further process the contract release order by creating an outbound delivery, executing picking, and posting the goods issue. After that, you can create a final invoice that contains an item referencing the paid down payment (down payment clearing line). The contract release order and the sales contract are then completed.