Sales Order Processing with Invoice List and Collective Billing (BKZ)

The creation of follow-up documents for sales orders can be done using collective processing. The procedure is very similar irrespective of the type of document you want to create. First, select all the documents for which you want to create the corresponding follow-up documents. Then, create the subsequent documents.

The figure, Collective Processing, shows the process steps that can be performed using collective processing.

Sometimes, you may want to use collective processing to create a single follow-up document for several preceding documents. For example, you may want to combine the materials for three sales orders in one delivery or create a single invoice for multiple outbound deliveries. In general, this procedure is possible, but the result depends on the values contained in certain fields in the selected documents. These fields are included in split criteria. The fields that occur frequently are listed in the figure, Split Criteria. You can maintain some of the criteria that affect the combination of documents in Customizing.

Outbound deliveries cannot only be created individually per sales order, but also by collective processing. In that way, the system may automatically combine the items of several sales orders to minimize the number of outbound deliveries (depending on various criteria). This function can be used in the following ways:

• Online processing

  Use the corresponding app (for example, Create Outbound Deliveries).

• Background processing

  Use a batch job to be executed during off-peak hours.

The relevant sales orders can be selected by various criteria, like the shipping point and the delivery creation date.

You receive a list of orders that meet your selection criteria. In this list, you can make your selection more precise by using sorting and filtering. From the list, you can create the corresponding outbound deliveries.

Some fields in the master data and in the sales documents can be used to influence system behavior in collective processing. The following scenarios can be identified:

• The customer requires a complete delivery.

  This adjustment means that all quantities of all items in a particular sales order should be delivered in a single outbound delivery.

• The customer does not require complete delivery.

  You can define a partial delivery agreement with the customer.

• The customer allows orders to be combined.

  This means that the customer allows items in multiple sales orders to be combined into a single outbound delivery during collective processing. Combining items from different sales orders is only possible if the items have several common characteristics, for example, as follows:

  • Shipping point
  • Date that delivery is due
  • Ship-to party
  • Route
  • Incoterms

The figure, Factors Influencing Delivery Creation, shows the different scenarios.

To speed up the process of creating billing documents, you can create multiple billing documents simultaneously using collective processing.

Collective processing can be performed as follows:

• Manually using an appropriate app (online processing)
• Automatically using a background job (batch) at off-peak hours

To combine multiple items of the preceding documents (sales orders, and deliveries) successfully, the items must have specific common characteristics. These characteristics are, for example, the billing date, the payer, and the terms of payment. The list of common characteristics is maintained in Customizing.

Depending on these characteristics, various results of the collective processing are possible. These include:

• Invoice split

  You have a sales order for which one outbound delivery has been created. If some of the above mentioned relevant characteristics of the preceding items are not the same, multiple billing documents are created.

• Separate billing document for each outbound delivery

  You have a sales order for which two outbound deliveries are created. Two billing documents are created with reference to these outbound deliveries.

• Collective invoice

  You have two sales orders for which three outbound deliveries are created (for example, different ship-to party or partial delivery). A single billing document is created with reference to the outbound deliveries.

The figure, Billing Options, shows the most common options used for the creation of billing documents using collective processing.

The figure, BKZ - Process Diagram, is the process diagram for scope item BKZ, Sales Order Processing with Collective Billing.

The following are the main steps in the process:

1. The Create Sales Order step confirms the intention of the customer to buy the goods and initiates the process.
2. The Create Delivery step initiates the preparation for shipping of the goods.
3. The Execute Picking step executes the picking of the goods from the warehouse and its staging for shipment.
4. The Post Good Issue step confirms the shipment of the goods.
5. The Create Billing Document step creates and sends the invoice to the customer for payment.

The table Main SAP Fiori Apps Used, provides a list of role(s) and app(s) for every process step.

With the Manage Sales Orders app, you can search for sales orders according to your filter criteria and display them in a list.

On the list created using the Manage Sales Orders app, you can execute following actions:

• Able to search for sales orders using a free test search
• Able to search orders by entering a value in one or more filter fields
• Able to create a variant for the current filter selection and save it for later reference
• able to hide filter bar
• able to sort sales orders
• Able to hide and show columns in the list

From the list of orders, you can also navigate to related applications. For example, you can display sales order details or display the process flow. Navigating to the process flow provides you with a graphical overview of the chain of connected process steps and corresponding business documents (document flow). For example, you can see the status of a sales order, whether it is relevant for shipping, and if an invoice has been created. Following is a list of transactional features:

• Able to create sales orders
• Able to reject all items for a sales order.
• Able to set or remove header level delivery and billing block
• Able to navigate to the sales order details to either display or change data
• Able to navigate to the customer 360 view app
• Able to navigate to the sales order object page
• Able to navigate to the customer object page
• Able to navigate to the process flow

Using the Create Outbound Deliveries app, you can create outbound delivery runs from a list of sales documents. This app also allows you to display logs with information related to your sales orders or deliveries. For example, if errors occur while you are creating deliveries, the system issues a message to the log. Similarly, the system issues a message to the log if you successfully create a delivery. Following is a list of key features:

• Able to search for sales documents due for delivery using basic filter options. you can also search using additional filter options
• Able to sort table entries by ascending or descending and then select the filter option you want to sort by
• Able to personalize table columns by selecting the columns you want to display in the Sales Documents Due for Delivery table
• Able to display a log that provides information about the delivery run that you have created
• Able to create outbound deliveries from sales documents

With the Create Billing Documents app, you can create billing documents, for example, invoices and credit memos, from items in the billing due list. This includes debit memo requests, sales orders, deliveries, and other Sales and Distribution (SD) documents. You can also generate temporary billing documents that you can review before converting them to final billing documents.

When searching, you can show or hide the filter bar. You can save your filter settings and restore the original settings.

Saved layout variants also save the values that you have set in filters. You can share saved layout variants with other system users. Following are view and Search features:

• Able to search using basic filters; by document number, document category, and sold-to-party for all billing due list items created before and including a certain date
• Able to search using additional features; add additional filters to the filter bar and filter by sales organization, by billing type, by customer project or billing document issue
• Able to select the columns that you want to display
• Able to sort the displayed data by one or more data types
• Able to group the data
• Able to use page variants to save and load custom filter and column layouts that you have created

The Create Billing Documents app has the following transactional features:

• Display details of any SD document in the billing due list (for example, sales order, outbound delivery or credit memo request) by choosing the corresponding document number.
• You can make billing settings so that the system performs intended actions automatically when you create billing documents.
• You can select one or more items in the billing due list to create billing documents for them.
• After you have created billing documents, you can manage them using the Manage Billing Documents app.

According to the billing settings, the following actions are performed by the system when creating billing documents:

• Enter the billing date and type before billing.

  If you enable this setting and choose to create billing documents, the system requests a billing date and the required billing type before creating billing documents.

• Create separate billing document for each item of billing due list.

  If you enable this setting and choose to create billing documents, the system creates separate billing documents for each item of the billing due list that you have selected.

• Automatically post billing documents

  The system automatically posts all billing documents that you create to accounting and triggers output (for example, an invoice by e-mail). Note that if you do not choose to post billing documents automatically, you must post them manually using the Manage Billing Documents app.

• Display billing documents after creation.

  The system generates and displays temporary billing documents for the SD documents that you have selected for billing. You then have the option to save or discard them. Saving converts them to final billing documents, while discarding them returns you to the billing due list.

With the Manage Invoice Lists app, you can display a filtered, grouped, and sorted list of all invoice lists in the system. You can also navigate to individual invoice lists to view them in detail, cancel existing invoice lists, and navigate directly to the Create Invoice Lists app. Invoice lists are documents that combine billing documents (invoices, debit memos, or credit memos) that have already been posted to financial accounting and are intended for a single designated payer.

• Able to fuzzy Search across all searchable invoice list attributes
• Able to search using the default filters( invoice list document number, billing type, payer and billing date) to filter the worklist more effectively or by adding more filters (reference, posting status, document currency)
• Able to select the columns that you want to display
• able to sort the displayed data by one or more fields
• Able to group the invoice list by one field (e.g., by payer)
• Able to use page variants to save and load custom filter and column layouts that you have created

When searching, you can show and hide the filter bar. You can save your filter settings and restore the original settings.

Saved layout variants also save the values that you have set in filters. You can share saved layout variants with other system users.

Canceling an invoice list allows you to include the billing documents that it previously contained in another invoice list.

When you cancel an invoice list, an invoice list cancellation is created that offsets the original invoice list and its successor documents. Following is a list of transactional features:

• Able to cancel Invoice lists
• Able to navigate to Invoice lists object pages
• Able to navigate to other related apps by choosing an invoice lists document number in the worklist and then choosing an app (e.g., create invoice lists