Using Additional Functionality Related to Service Contracts

For long-term service contracts with customers, prices of individual items are usually determined once, then remain fixed for the duration of the contract. For scenarios that require flexible pricing, price adaptation for service contracts offers two methods to update the pricing:

• Set the billing date, settlement start date, or settlement end date in a billing request line as the pricing date of a service contract item. Varying prices can then be determined according to varying pricing dates.
• Maintain the prices of service contract items manually at billing request line level.

It is also possible to specifically define an item in a service contract as a price adaptation item. When you create a service contract item by using the Manage Service Contracts app, you can choose a product and assign item category SCN2 (SC Itm (Pri. Adptn.)) to it. This is intended to be used exclusively for price adaptation, meaning that flexible pricing is now active for this item.

For the second option mentioned previously (maintain the prices of service contract items manually at billing request line level), on the Billing Plan tab, you can maintain the prices of service contract items manually at billing request line level. To maintain prices on billing request line level of a service contract item, navigate to the billing request line details level. Here you can change the price for each billing request line in the price details screen.

You can also maintain the prices on service contract billing plans with a fast entry screen for price adaptation. The Change Prices - Fast Entry option in the Billing Plan section of the screen can be used for this.

Select one or multiple settlement periods and enter the relevant prices. To save the prices, choose Save Changes. After saving, the maintained prices are updated in the billing request lines of the billing plan.

A specific item category is available for ad-hoc billing items in a service contract: SCN3 (SC Itm (Ad-hoc Bill)). An ad-hoc billing item uses an ad-hoc billing plan. This means that end-users can manually create and update the billing request lines in the ad-hoc billing plan, based on their business requirements. An ad-hoc billing plan is initially empty. The option Bill Remaining Net Value can be used to automatically calculate the remaining net value of a service contract and to then create a billing request line accordingly.

In SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, you can extend a service contract in Service Contract Management (3MO) via the service contract renewal change process. Existing service contracts are updated by change processes. In both contract management and accounting, these change processes lead to changes in the follow-up process. Change processes for a service contract are available on both header and item level. It is possible to use the Contract Renewal - One Item Only option for changes at item level. The item must have the status Released.

If you want to execute a contract renewal for a service contract in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, follow these steps:

1. Choose Change Processes on the service contract item level.
2. Choose Contract Renewal – One Item Only from the dropdown list.
3. Enter a duration for the renewal period. If necessary, change the Date Received date field.
4. Choose Execute Change Process.

As the result, a new item for the renewal period is created with the status Open. The user must release the new item to activate it. This is shown in the figure, Steps when Renewing a Service Contract, as step 5 in the contract renewal change process.

There is also a price agreement copy function available for service contracts. When copying service contracts or service contract items, already maintained price agreement condition records will also be copied. When executing service contract change processes like an item renewal process, the system will copy already maintained price agreement condition records and add them to the renewal item.

When executing change processes that create (as a result) a new service contract (change of sold to party), the system will also copy already maintained price agreement condition records and add them to the newly created service contract.

You can also edit and delete price agreements in a service contract. You can delete existing price agreement condition records directly in a service contract. Editing capabilities for existing price agreement condition records are also available. It is recommended that you do not change the Valid To date of a price agreement condition record in a service contract item. Only three price agreement condition types are provided: PSC0, DSC1, and DSC2. It is not possible to create other price agreement condition types.

Dates are important for the correct processing of all service transactions. In global business processes that cover several countries and time zones, it is particularly necessary to have a date management solution that can convert time zones and the factory calendar in documents of business partners involved in a service transaction.

Date Management enables the processing of as many dates as are required in a service document. Dates can either be entered manually, or, by using date rules, the system can calculate them. Date types, durations, and so on, can be configured to meet a company's specific requirements.

Date Management configuration for SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, service is available through a Self-Service Configuration User Interface (SSCUI). Start the Configure Your Solution app, and navigate to: Service → General Settings → Date Management. The following steps are available:

1. Define Date Types, Duration Types and Date Rules.
2. Define Date Profile.
3. Assign Date Profile to Transaction Types.
4. Assign Date Profile to Item Categories.
5. Optimize Date Fields for Queries.

In step 1, it is possible to define new durations and date types by copying existing ones or creating new ones. It is also possible to edit existing durations and date types. They cannot be deleted however. Date rule definition is also not (yet) supported.

In step 2, new date profiles can be defined (starting with the character Z or Y) by copying existing ones. SAP predefined profiles cannot be edited or deleted. Own profiles can be edited or deleted. Reference Objects are not editable.

In step 3, a new or an SAP predefined date profile can be assigned to the available service transaction types. It is not possible to create new transaction types or delete existing transaction types. Only service contract and service order related transaction types are available for date profile assignment.

In step 4, a new or an SAP predefined date profile can be assigned to the available item categories. It is not possible to create new item categories or delete existing item categories. Only service contract and service order related item categories are available for date profile assignment.

If custom fields have been defined for service transactions, in step 5 these fields can be maintained as relevant for searching, reporting, and analytical purposes.

Situation Handling is a framework that helps increase the quality and efficiency of a customer's business processes. The right users are automatically alerted to situations and provided with the information they need to solve them.

End users can be proactively informed about issues requiring their attention, for example:

• Service Confirmations Required (related to scope item 3D2)
• Billing for Service Order Not Completed (related to scope item 3D2)
• Solution Order Delivery Date Changed (related to scope item 4GT)
• In-House Repair Not Confirmed (related to scope item 3XK)
• Expiring Service Contracts (related to scope item 3MO)
• Service Contract Items Not Released (related to scope item 3MO)
• Service Contract Items Blocked for Billing (related to scope item 3MO)

Templates for a wide range of standard use cases are available.

Users can be informed about these situations in various ways:

• Through notifications on the SAP Fiori launchpad (optionally also as e-mails).
• As situation messages in various SAP Fiori apps.
• In a dedicated SAP Fiori app, called the My Situations app.

Key users can define the situations and the users responsible for solving these situations using an SAP Fiori app called Manage Situation Types. The role Configuration Expert - Business Process Configuration (SAP_BR_BPC_EXPERT) or a copy thereof is required to be able to access this app.

Situation handling supports two kinds of situations:

1. Object-based situations: situations for a specific business object, such as a service contract or a service order, an invoice, or a material. The conditions can be defined that specify when a situation is created.
2. Message-based situations: situations that refer to warning and error messages occurring in the system.

For SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, service, various templates are available to support the definition of situations, that users need to be informed about. They are available for various scope items belonging to SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, service.

As an example: for scope item Service Contract Management (3MO), the following situation templates are available:

• Service Contract Due to Expire Soon
• Service Contract Item Due to Expire Soon
• Service Contract with Zero Billing Value
• Service Contract Item Not Released
• Service Contract Item Blocked for Billing

On http://help.sap.com a list is available containing all these situation templates, and an explanation of how to set up the templates.

The slide shows an example of a situation type created, based on one of the available situation templates for SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, service. A situation message will be created for all service contracts with a contract expiration date within the interval of today's date plus up to 60 days.

Another example of such a situation template is SRVC_CONTRACT_ITEM_BILLG_BLOCKED, which raises a situation if a service contract item is blocked for billing.