Creating Service Orders and Service Confirmations

Creating a new service order using the SAP Fiori app Manage Service Orders is a simple process. The basic steps are explained below. Once the service order is created, you can change the order details later by using the Find option in the app to search for the created service order.

1. Log on to the SAP Fiori launchpad using the Customer Service Manager role (based on template role SAP_BR_CUSTOMER_SRVC_MGR).
2. Under the Service Order Management header, choose the Manage Service Orders app.
3. Choose Create Service Order.
4. Enter all required data to create a service order.
5. Choose Save and Edit.

To release a specific service order, follow these steps:

1. Log on to your SAP Fiori launchpad home page using the Customer Service Manager role (based on template role SAP_BR_CUSTOMER_SRVC_MGR).
2. Choose the Manage Service Orders app.
3. Find your service order (based on relevant selection criteria) and choose the Release icon. You can now see that the Life Cycle Status of the order is updated to Released.

As an alternative, you can also go into the service order, switch to Edit mode and change the entry in the field Status to Released (followed by Save).

There are many detailed features and functions available within the SAP Fiori app for creating and managing service orders. An example is the option to download a list of service orders as a file.

Start the app and then enter your set of filter criteria for the service orders you want to retrieve and choose Go. The list of service orders for the entered selection criteria appears at the bottom of the screen. A link is available to export the list as a file.

The user interface for the app Manage Service Orders (and similar apps like Manage Service Quotations) can be adapted: custom fields can be added, using a menu option called Adapt UI.

This option is only available when displaying a service order in a production system. Custom fields cannot be added when editing service orders. This is intended behavior. Ideally, changes to the user interface should be made in a development system and then they should be transported to the production system.

The process flow is a visual representation of the transactional information flow for a service order. It shows what follow up documents (and how many) have already been created for a service order and also what their document numbers are.

It organizes and shows the various process steps for a service order in a chronological order.

The process flow is also dynamic, which means that a particular document will be shown only if it is available as part of the actual flow of that service order. For example: a service quotation will only be shown, if it is actually attached to the current service order.

The following objects can be shown in the process flow for a service order:

• Solution order
• Service quotation
• Service order
• Service confirmation
• Billing document/invoice

If multiple instances of the same type of document (like a service confirmation) are available, they show up stacked in the process flow.

In the app Service Order Issues, you can use filters to display only the issues based on your filter settings. At the top of the screen, choose Adapt Filters, select More Filters and choose Go.

You can change views by selecting, for example, a different dimension for reporting. It is also possible to export the results to a spreadsheet.

To analyze service order issues, follow these steps:

1. Log on to the SAP Fiori launchpad using the Customer Service Manager role (based on template role SAP_BR_CUSTOMER_SRVC_MGR).
2. Navigate to tile group Service Monitoring and Analytics.
3. Choose the Service Order Issues app and start your reporting.

The following SAP Fiori apps have been enabled for tablet mode which allows for more flexibility in terms of usage of these apps:

• Manage Service Orders
• Manage Service Order Templates
• Release for Billing
• Process Service Orders

Tablet mode is supported for the operating systems:

• Surface (Microsoft)
• Android
• iOS

SAP Service Cloud is a comprehensive customer service solution that supports omnichannel customer experiences and contact center efficiency. It increases customer loyalty with reliable, personalized omnichannel service, and drives business growth by delivering service excellence.

Some of its characteristics are:

• It provides seamless service experiences across different channels, including self-service.
• It increases customer service profitability with intelligent technologies, that cut resolution times and help agents excel.
• It improves employee satisfaction and performance with user-friendly agent tools and contextual support.
• It supports sales, commerce, and marketing with outstanding customer service.

The Agent Desktop is the central work environment for an agent in SAP Service Cloud Public Edition. It consolidates all attributes and object references that support the control and orchestration of a communication process, an interaction process, and the supported business processes for an interaction with a customer. The Agent Desktop also provides the main tools for the agent.

Service order management in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition integrates service processes with SAP Service Cloud Public Edition and the Agent Desktop. This integrated solution enables service agents to launch processes in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition directly from the agent console.

The following features are available:

• It eliminates the need to switch applications for agents for common operations (such as checking a service order status). No need to switch to SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition anymore. Instead, service orders appear in the time line on the agent console.
• It simplifies a project implementation: core processes stay in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition. Documents appear in SAP Service Cloud Public Edition contextually through mash-ups.
• It offers true front-back office support: SAP products connecting as one integrated solution.

Costs and revenue can be planned on a service order. This feature has the following properties:

• It allows for better reporting of planned costs and revenues per service order.
• It provides insight into the cost structure of a service order.
• It offers a better basis for decision-making for a service order.
• It allows for calculation of planned costs and revenues per service order line item and also a total amount.
• A specific tab called Planned Cost and Revenue in a service order is available for this feature.
• It offers an ability to update the baseline in case of changes to the planning.

You can view the latest data of planned cost and revenue when relevant changes occur in your service planning process. Additionally, you can monitor the always up-to-date planned margin in percentage, which allows you to have a better planning view.

This feature is available under Ongoing on the tab called Planned Cost and Revenue in the Manage Service Orders app at both header and item level.

You can assign work breakdown structure elements (WBS elements) as attributes to service transactions such as service contracts, service orders, or repair orders. In service transactions, a WBS element is used as an attribute of a profitability segment, which allows you to associate the cost and revenue of service transactions with a project and analyze profitability at project level.

SAP S/4HANA Cloud, public edition - Service also contains the possibility to create substitution rules to determine the costing variant for service documents. You can use the app Manage Substitution/Validation Rules - Service Documents to define substitution rules for service transactions (service documents). Substitution rules signify which profit center, costing sheet, functional area, and settlement profile is applied.

When you create a service transaction, the system uses the conditions that you have defined in the substitution rule to derive the available target field for the item. When you make any changes to the service transaction item, the system automatically redetermines the profit center, costing sheet, functional area, or settlement profile using the conditions which were defined for the item.

The ongoing planned cost and revenue can be calculated and the ongoing planned margin can then be updated automatically before you release a service order.

This feature allows you to check the planned margin of a service order before its release, and, if required, make changes in the service order to increase the profit margin.

You can view the early calculated results under Ongoing on the Planned Cost and Revenue tab in the Manage Service Orders app at both header and item level.

When using service bundles, in order for the ongoing planned cost and revenue to be calculated automatically before releasing the service order, the items in a service order or service bundle must be error-free.

The ongoing data are still updated automatically whenever changes are made to a service order. For example, when you add a service order item or edit an item, a recalculation of the ongoing values is triggered.

In this process step, once an activity for a service order is completed, a follow-up service confirmation is created. It includes setting the confirmation to Completed. If it is the final confirmation for the activity (the item in the service order), the Final Confirmation checkbox must be selected.

By default, the confirmed items are set up for complete billing to the customer. This means you can only bill an item of the service order to the customer once all items of the service order have been confirmed and all item statuses have been set to Completed. Alternatively, you can change the item category used in a service order to partial billing (SCP3, SCE3, or SCS3). Partial billing allows you to bill a single item of a service order as soon as it is confirmed, even if the other items have not yet been finalized.

Once the status has been set to Completed, the confirmation cannot be changed further: it can only be canceled. Once the final confirmation has been set, the life cycle status of the related service order is automatically set to Completed. This is the prerequisite for the items to be released for billing. However, it is still possible to cancel the confirmations.

There is a specific template business role available for a customer service technician, who needs to perform these steps in the service process. This template role is called SAP_BR_CUSTOMER_SRVC_TEC. It is part of the Business Catalog with the ID SAP_S4CRM_BC_CUST_SRVC_TEC_PC. With this role, a user can create, complete, and cancel confirmations. Assignments can also be checked, expenses can be booked, and unplanned items can be added to a service order.

To create a service confirmation, follow these steps:

1. Log on to the SAP Fiori launchpad using the Customer Service Technician role.
2. Choose the Manage Service Orders app and find the service order for which a confirmation needs to be entered.
3. Choose the Create Service Confirmation action for your service order in the list.
4. Enter all data related to the service confirmation.
5. Change the life cycle status to Completed.
6. Choose Save.

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. There you can find this field for a service confirmation item.

The previously mentioned Service Rendered Date field is 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.

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.

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.

Concerning the canceling a service order: 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.

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 service confirmation item details, through the option Propose Alternatives on the tab Parties Involved.

There is a specific role for Customer Service Technicians which has some key differences when compared to the Customer Service Manager role. Lets compare the two roles:

The Customer Service Manager business catalog enables working with service contracts, service orders and service confirmations in the SAP Fiori app called Manage Service Orders. It is also possible to check planned versus actual values for duration and for costs, as well as the progress percentage.

Customer Service Managers can also assign a technician for unassigned orders, release service confirmation items for billing, schedule jobs for creating billing document requests and analyze the overall status in the Service Orders Overview analytical Fiori app.

This business catalog enables working with the Process Service Orders application. It is possible to create, complete and/or cancel confirmations and also to check assignments, book expenses and add unplanned items.

This table lists some of the differences between the available business tole for a service manager and the one for a service technician:

Object	Action	Customer Service Manager	Customer Service Technician
Service Order	Create/Edit
Service Order	Display
Service Confirmation	Create/Edit
Service Confirmation	Display
Request For Billing	Display/Release

The Customer Service Technician role allows a service technician to have a specific set of unique tiles available in SAP Fiori Launchpad which provide the information and functionality needed while performing service tasks. Information is clearly divided and assignments are defined to assist a service technician in day-to-day work.

Additionally, the ability to edit service confirmations in the event of unexpected changes to the scope of work is provided to the technician who is carrying out the service order.

An SAP Fiori app tile is available for a service technician that contains a to-do list with the following order types:

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

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. My Assignments shows all current assignments for a technician. You can filter the assignments by for example requested start date.

The tabs/selection options show service orders to be processed by a technician, based on the progress made on these service orders (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.

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 within a service confirmation (as shown above in the screenshot). This adds the item to the confirmation with the status Open, and to the service 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.
• Various types of items can be added, like service parts, service items and expense items.

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 Cancel Confirmation quick action (2) is only enabled when relevant.

The Final Confirmation quick action (3) allows the setting of Final Confirmation for a specific confirmation ID in the list.

For service parts, you can view the serial number information on the Serial Number tab page of a service confirmation item. The information includes the serial number, equipment ID, and manufacturer's serial number.

Releasing an order item for billing creates a document called a billing document request. This document is the basis for the billing clerk to create an invoice document for the customer. This process step is part of the Customer Service Manager role and not the Customer Service Technician role.

To release a set of service order items, follow these steps:

1. Log on to the SAP Fiori launchpad as a user that has the Customer Service Manager role (SAP_BR_CUSTOMER_SRVC_MGR) assigned.
2. Navigate to space Service Management.
3. Choose the Release For Billing app.
4. Find your order items and choose Release for Billing.

In the Release for Billing app, various filters have been provided to refine the search for service order or service confirmation items that can be released for billing.

These fields can be added by choosing Adapt Filters.

You can create single customer invoices for service transactions (for example, service orders) whose respective items have different divisions. This enables you to perform granular financial reporting (for example, profitability) down to divisions at item level.

For fixed price orders, the release for billing of an item can be done from within the Service Order Items tab. In this case, no pop-up appears and the service order is released for billing for all items combined.

Service order billing with non-billable items management was enhanced with release 2408 of SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition. Since this release, you can easily identify and exclude non-billable items. A new category was added by SAP for items that should not be included in the final invoice. When creating a service order, you can choose the non-bill category for any items that the customer should not be charged for. Items in this category are automatically excluded from the billing invoice.

To create a billing document (invoice), follow these steps:

1. Log on to the SAP Fiori launchpad using the Billing Clerk role (based on template role SAP_BR_BILLING_CLERK).
2. Choose the Create Billing Documents (Billing Due List Items) app in space Billing (on the Overview page).
3. Define all your default settings and select the items for billing that are required (based on a billing document request).
4. In the Create Billing Documents dialog box, enter the following values:
   • Billing Type: F2 Invoice (F2)
   • Billing Date: today's date
5. Choose OK.
6. In theF2 Invoice screen, choose Save.

In SAP S/4HANA Cloud, intercompany billing for service documents is also supported. A resource-related intercompany billing request can be created. This can be done using the app Generate Intercompany Billing Request.

This billing request is generated for the time recordings and expenses related to intercompany services. The Service Order field (see above) which covers both the service order and the repair order has been added as an optional field to the Resource Related Billing Between Company Codes job that you can create for intercompany billing.

Ad-hoc billing enables you to use ad-hoc billing plans in the Manage Service Orders app to define billing values and dates freely for fixed price service order items. This feature is particularly helpful if you want to create billing document requests (BDRs) for fixed price service order items with a long duration, that you want to be able to bill on specific dates and not just when the service order item is completed.

For ad hoc billing, you use the tab called Billing Plan, which is available on the details page of a service order item. Ad-hoc billing allows you to do the following:

• Define the dates on which billing is to occur and the value that is to be billed. For each billing date defined in an ad hoc billing plan, the system generates one billing request line.
• Bill the remaining net value in one go, which enables the system to automatically generate a billing request line with all the remaining net value for a service order item.

For ad hoc billing, you use the following predefined item categories:

• Service Product Item (Ad Hoc Billing) (SVP6)
• Service Bundle (Ad Hoc Billing) (SVB7)
• Expense Item (Ad Hoc Billing) (SVE6)
• Stock Service Part (Ad Hoc Billing) (SVR6)
• Service Part (Ad Hoc Billing) (SVS6)
• External Service Procurement Service Item (SEW6)

Jobs can be scheduled to create billing document requests (BDRs) based on the ad hoc billing plan of a service order item (and a repair order item) using the SAP Fiori app Schedule Creation of Billing Document Requests.

This app can do the following:

• Create new jobs to schedule the creation of BDRs and save them as job templates
• Use a simulation to quickly test run the job without actually creating any BDRs
• Display and sort the list of BDR creation jobs
• Filter the BDR creation jobs by status, date range, job ID, or job creator and save your filter settings as a page variant
• View the details of BDR creation jobs
• View the job log with details for each logged event, such as status, time stamp, and description
• Adjust view settings and save and load custom views
• Export data to spreadsheets