Output Determination for Sales Transactions

A sales transaction involves various stages like presales, order, delivery, picking and packing, shipping, and billing. At each stage, various documents are generated specific to that stage. They might be required for legal or commercial reasons, or act as a stage completion milestone.

For example, an order acknowledgment that confirms the seller’s acceptance of the order marks the completion of the order stage, and an invoice sent by the seller to the buyer is a confirmation of the completion of the sales transaction and so on. These documents often have different formats, and can be communicated in various forms such as printed copies, EDI, email, fax, etc.

In SAP SD, all these documents are called outputs, and their processing is controlled using the output determination technique provided by SAP. Order acknowledgment, delivery note, pick/pack list, shipping order, invoice, etc are examples of output documents.

Output determination sets up the output control, which is needed to provide information to various stakeholders. It involves two functions:

• Output Determination
• Output Processing

The Condition Technique functionality is used to determine the output. The system can automatically propose the output for a Sales and Distribution document, or it can be manually chosen as well.

Output determination can be defined at various stages of the sales cycle:

• Sales activities
• Sales documents
• Logistics execution related
• Billing related

 In this section we’ll describe how to setup/view the Output Determination process for

• Sales documents
• Delivery documents
• Invoice

Sales Document

Open the sales document in edit mode (VA02). Goto Extras àOutput à Header à Print Preview. We can see a preview of the sales document, if the ouput determination configuration has been done correctly. We can chose to print the order by going to menu, Text à Print.

Delivery Document

In transaction VL02N, enter the delivery number for which output is to be viewed. Donot open the document, but in the same screen go to Outbound Delivery à Issue Delivery Output. Output type is LD00, corresponding to the delivery. Using the Preview button, the output of the delivery can be seen, and it can be printed by issuing the Print butotn command.

Invoice

In transaction VF02, enter the invoice number for which output is to be viewed. Donot open the document, but in the same screen go to Billing Document à Issue Output To. Output type is RD00, corresponding to the invoice. Using the Preview button, the output of the invoice can be seen, and it can be printed by issuing the Print button command.

Service and Management Contracts

Service contracts to record the details of the service package that you have agreed to provide a service recipient with over a specified period of time. For example, you specify:

• The routine service tasks which are to be performed on a piece of machinery you have sold or rented to a customer
• The prices which are to apply for these routine tasks
• The prices which are to apply for additional service tasks and for any spare parts required
• The terms under which the contract can be cancelled
  
  

 During the validity period of the service contract, you use the service contract as follows:

• To initiate automatic billing of the routine service tasks at regular intervals
• To determine whether a service request from the customer is covered by the service contract
• To determine which price agreements apply for service tasks not covered by the service contract
• To determine whether a cancellation request from the customer is valid
• To initiate follow-up actions before the service contract becomes invalid

After you have negotiated the terms of a service package with the service recipient, you create a service contract in the system to record this information.

You can create a service contract in the following ways:

• From scratch, without reference to another document
• With reference to a preceding inquiry or quotation
• With reference to an existing contract

When you create a service contract with reference to another document such as another service contract or a quotation, the system copies the relevant data (for example, validity period and cancellation data) into the new contract.

To ensure consistency of data in all service contracts for a particular customer, you can link each service contract to a master contract that contains the general terms and conditions, which you have agreed with the customer

 Service Contract type:

Standard SAP contract type for service is SC.

Service contract types are defined in Customizing for Sales and Distribution. You can create service contract types that meet the requirements of your organization by copying the existing service contract types and adapting them as required.

In addition to defining the usual control data for sales document types, you also specify contract-specific data in the service contract type such as:

·         Pricing procedure for determining prices for service tasks and service products

·         Service contract profile containing default data for service contract processing

·         Billing request type for resource-related billing

Service Contract profile:

Control element for service contract processing which contains default contract data-

When you create a service contract, the system determines whether a contract profile has been assigned to the service contract type you have chosen. If so, it copies the data defined in the contract profile into the service contract

Service Contract item:

Element of the service contract in which you define the services or products you are providing the customer with under the terms of the service contract. A service contract item can be any of the following:

·         Service (for example, a particular task)

·         Material (for example, a spare part)

·         Time (for example, an hourly rate for a technician’s time on the job)

·         Response time (how soon you are obligated to respond to a problem call)

·         Warranty (the agreed duration and coverage)

The items in a service contract are controlled by item category. It is possible for a service contract to include items with different item categories. For example, some items may be rented, others sold.

Determine Serial Number in Material Master

What is serial number in material master  

Serial numbers are used to uniquely identify material and technical objects. The serial number profile defines how and when serial numbers are assigned to material and technical objects. 

A serial number can be assigned to a material only after a serial number profile is created.   

It is important to solidify the business processes pertaining to serialization prior to creating the serial number profile.  The following issues should be discussed:

·         What materials will be tracked?

·         When will serialization occur? (Which business transaction?)

·         Who will be responsible for serialization?  (Which end user?)

·         Will serial numbers be internally or externally assigned?

The serial number profile documents these decisions and is then assigned to a material's master record.  Later, this material serial number is assigned to an equipment master allowing access to the complete order processing and maintenance history functionality. 

Create Serial Number Profile

      A serial number profile defines the conditions and transactions governing the assignment of serial numbers         to technical objects.  This group of configuration data is represented by a four digit code

which must be entered in the material master record before a technical object can be assigned a serial number.  The serial number profile is defined in Customizing for Plant Maintenance.

The serial number profile contains important serial number creation and assignment rules.  Serialization can occur in different components such as SD - Sales and Distribution, MM - Materials Management and QM - Quality Management.  The serial number profile establishes the business transactions for which serialization:

·         Will not be carried out

·         Can be carried out

·         Must be carried out

·         Automatically is carried out

In addition, the serial number profile specifies whether or not an equipment record is automatically created when a serial number is created or specified during a business transaction.

The serial number profile also defines the prerequisites for serialization during certain business transactions.  For example:

·         Material serial numbers do not need to originate from material masters

·         Material serial numbers must originate from material masters

It determines the type of material number being created by the equipment category specified in the serial number profile.  Equipment categories group like technical objects according to their use and are used here to classify the technical object being serialized.  If no equipment category is specified then the technical object is classified under a default category. 

Since serialization functionality crosses into several different SAP modules it is important to coordinate the design of the various integration points before configuring. 

Assign Serial Number Profile to Material Master

A material master record contains all the data required to describe and manage a material.  However, it does not allow differentiation between the individual items of the technical object.  If a company services and maintains large numbers of similar objects, for example personal computers, identifying individual pieces of the material are important for tracking quality issues, maintenance history, etc. 

To establish a material's uniqueness it is assigned a serial number.  In order to create a material serial number combination in the system a serial number profile is assigned to the particular material's master record.  The material serial number combination, when assigned to an equipment master, allows end users access to the complete order processing and maintenance history functionality.

Assign the Serial No profile in Material Master data in tab Pant data/store- 2

Transaction Code  

IQ01-Create Serial Number Master Data

IQ02-Change Serial Number

IQ03-Display Serial Number

MM02-Maintain material master