Setting up Preference Determination

Preference determination in SAP GTS is based on the BOM of the product whose originating status is to be determined. Therefore, you have to transfer the BOMs of all products for which SAP GTS is to perform preference determination from the feeder system.

Before you can transfer fixed BOMs, you have to define at least one preference model in Customizing for SAP GTS. In a preference model, you define whether SAP GTS performs preference determination for an individual plant or for a group of plants (menu path: SAP Global Trade Services, edition for SAP HANA → General Settings → Organizational Structures → Define Plant-Based BOM Evaluation and → Define Cross-Plant BOM Evaluation respectively).

To set up cross-plant preference determination, you first have to group your plants into one or more plant groups. You create plant groups in connection with the definition of a preference model for cross-plant preference determination.

In cross-plant preference determination, SAP GTS first calculates a minimum ex-works or FOB price for each plant in the plant group. It then compares these prices and adopts the highest price for the entire group according to the worst-case principle.

Preference determination for configurable materials is also based on a preference model. However, this model is hard-coded so that no Customizing settings are required.

During preference determination, the SAP GTS system checks for all components of a BOM that, due to lack of other information, it considers as non-originating materials, whether the rules of origin that apply to the final product have been met and/or calculates the minimum sales price of this product.

You set up the transfer of BOMs to SAP GTS in the Customizing of the feeder system. In SAP ECC, choose Sales and Distribution → Foreign Trade/Customs → SAP Global Trade Services - Plug-In → Control Data for Transfer to SAP Global Trade Services → Control Transfer of Bills of Product for Preference and Re-Export.

In an SAP S/4HANA feeder system, choose Integration with Other SAP Components → Integration with Governance, Risk and Compliance → SAP Global Trade Services → Control Data for Transfer to SAP Global Trade Services → Control Transfer of Bills of Product for Preference and Re-Export instead.

You can control the transfer of BOMs at three levels. In each case, you have to make settings at global level (Control Settings for BOM Transfer - Global folder in the dialog structure). If required, you can also make additional settings for individual countries. If this differentiation is not sufficient, you can control the BOM transfer at plant level. The selection of the control parameters is the same at each level.

You must always decide on the BOM category in transfer control. If you want to transfer fixed BOMs, choose category 1 (BOM Category: Static). Category 2 (BOM Category: Configurable) is used to transfer order-dependent BOMs of configurable materials.

In the control settings for the transfer of fixed BOMs, enter the BOM application for discrete manufacturing or – if you are using PP-PI – for process manufacturing in the BOM Application field. In the control settings for transferring configurable BOMs, select the BOM application for sales and distribution.

If you set an indicator for the BOM usage, the feeder system discards the BOM items that are not flagged for this usage during the transfer to SAP GTS. For example, if you set the Production BOM indicator, only BOM items flagged as relevant for production in the Status/Lng Text view of the item details can be transferred to SAP GTS.

In transfer control, you can set up additional filters for selecting BOMs that are relevant for transfer. The configuration of these filters is the same on all three transfer levels. For example, if you enter individual BOM usages in the BOM Usage folder of the dialog structure, the feeder system only transfers BOMs of these usages to SAP GTS.

Once preference determination has been completed successfully, the SAP GTS system sets a preference indicator in the master data of the product for which preference determination was performed (Preference Statement tab). If a sales or billing document is created in the feeder system, SAP GTS can compare the net value of the item with the threshold value of the product to be exported. If the net value is equal to or greater than the threshold value, SAP GTS considers the product as being entitled to preferential duty.

If the retransfer of the preference indicator is configured for the sales order type and/or the billing document type in Customizing, the feeder system transfers the net value of the items to the SAP GTS system for comparison with the threshold value of the product, or for determination of the preference indicator if the value of the product does not matter. Based on the information received from SAP GTS, the feeder systems sets a preference indicator in the item details (Sales A tab in a sales order, Item Detail tab in a billing document),

To retransfer the preference indicator from SAP GTS to the SAP ECC feeder system, you must implement SAP Notes 379269 and 829932. In SAP S/4HANA feeder systems, you implement SAP Note 2476880 instead. You also have to set the Set Preference Indicator in Feeder System indicator in the control settings for the transfer of all relevant sales and billing document types.

The third prerequisite for retransferring the preferential status of a product is the information in the feeder system about which preference agreements are active for which country combinations in SAP GTS.

You can use the preference indicator in the billing document item to control the printing of proofs of origin, in particular to output an invoice declaration. Printing the commercial invoice on the basis of the billing document is part of output control on the feeder system. However, the standard forms for invoice printing do not contain a text module for the invoice declaration, nor do the standard print programs check the preference indicator. A customer-specific adjustment is therefore required.