Sales Order

Sales Order Processing Sales & Distribution

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Topics 1. Introduction 2. Customer Inquiry 3. Quotation 4. Sales Document structure 5. Data Origin in Sales documents 6. Control in Sales documents 7. Features in Sales order 8. Special Sales orders

Introduction  Sales order processing is at the core of Sales & Distribution module.  Sales allows execution of various business transactions which get recorded in system as sales documents.  There are four basic groups of sales documents    

Customer Inquiries and quotations Sales orders Agreements like contracts and scheduling agreements. Complaints like returns and credit & debit memo requests.

 Sales order processing in turn triggers basic functions like availability check, pricing, credit check etc.  Other subsequent documents like delivery & billing can be generated from sales order based on business requirements.

Introduction  In system the sales order is linked with previous and subsequent documents like a chain and can be viewed in document flow storing history of events.  This linkage is evident in the diagram below Inquiry Contract

Sales

Quotation Order

Returns

Shipping

Delivery Debit Memo

Billing Doc

Sched. Agmt.

Credit Memo

Billing

 Data flows from one document to another reducing manual

Customer Inquiry  Customer Inquiry is part of pre-sales process, it represents in system the request of customer for a sales quotation or information.  Customer inquiries created in system can be used for subsequent sales processing, these are also used when record of complete sales cycle is necessary.  An inquiry in system contains one or more items consisting of quantity of material or service as asked by customer.  Quantity specified by customer can be split in different schedule lines and dates. Pricing conditions are determined as maintained in records.  Inquiry document gets status as ‘Complete’ once it is used as reference for quotation.

Quotation  Quotation represents an offer which is legally binding to deliver the product or provide a service in some fixed conditions. In the specified time period of quotation company needs to agree to the conditions.  Quotations can be referenced from Inquiries and also copied on to sales orders as a reference via Copy control  These are normally used when companies are dealing with Government or large organizations.  In system where quotations are created analysis can be done to check quotations to sales order conversion ratio for Sales analysis.  Like inquiries the order quantities can be split in multiple schedule lines and pricing data is also available.

Sales Document Structure  Sales documents including inquiry and quotation explained earlier have the same basic structure  Any sales document is made up of a document header and any no of items. Items can in turn be divided in schedule lines.  General data applicable to entire document is recorded at header level like Sold to party, Document currency.  Item data applies to specific items like Material no, delivering plant etc.  Schedule line data contains information needed for delivery.  Structure of sales document graphically →

Sales Document Structure  Sales document in system has a user friendly interface which facilitates easy navigation and switching between screens.  An important feature of interface is the tab page which is like of box of index cards as shown below  Important date in a sales document is contained in following three screens which in turn have several tabs. 

Overview Screen Overview screen presents user with main Header data of document and links to other screens to which user can navigate to. It gives a snapshot of sales document and important fields where entries are necessary for the creation of document.

Sales Document Structure 

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Header Screen Screen has tab of various important header data which applies to the entire document. Eg. Of tabs shown below Item Screen Item screen displays data on individual items in a sales document. Item screen also has various tabs containing various relevant data.

 There are additional screens for Schedule lines etc to which user can navigate from item screen.

Data Origin in Sales  Sales order as explained earlier is a contractual agreement between a sales organization and a Sold-to party on delivering product or providing service on agreed terms.  The creation of sales document hence requires that all proper terms are available, to aid this system proposes much of the data from various sources i.e   

Data from Master records Data determined from system From preceding documents

 Explanation of each source in detail follows:

Data Origin in Sales  Data from Master records Data from master records is copied when sales document is not created with reference to preceding document. Following data is copied:  From Customer master From the customer master data of Sold-to party, system proposes Sales, Shipping, Billing & partner data. In addition customer specific data like texts, additional data is also copied. For Sold-to party having multiple partners system proposes the Partner for selection and then copies relevant data from such partners if they are different.

Data Origin in Sales 

From Material Master System copies data relevant to Pricing, Tax determination, Weight/Volume, Availability check, Plant details etc from individual material master record of that Sales organization.

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From Customer material info record

Customer specific master data for a material is maintained in Customer material info record and copied on to sales order. The data like customer specific description, material no, shipping data etc can be maintained and copied to sales order. Following graphic explains data origin from master data.

Data Origin in Sales  Data determined by system Some of the data is determined in system based on combination of data provided from Customer and material master. Eg. Routes is proposed from configuration based on input parameters derived from Customer. The data is determined from a combination of configuration maintained and other sources of data like Pricing etc. System determines data separately based on various factors at various times.

Data Origin in Sales  Data from preceding documents SAP provides an easy way of creating sales documents i.e. with reference to previous document. With this method system copies nearly all the data from previous document. Eg. Sales order when created with ref to a quotation copies all relevant data of partners, sales, shipping and billing information. These parameters may be different from what is stored in master data.

Control in Sales documents  Control of sales documents is via customizing and explained in detail in customizing guide. This is covered in brief here.  Sales document processing is controlled at three levels   

Sales document type Item category Schedule line category

 Sales document header level controls are at Sales document type, whereas controls of how an item should behave in the document are controlled at Item category level. Controls of individual schedule lines of items like requirements transfer and availability are at schedule line category level.

Features in Sales order  Various features in sales order processing are provided in system which are common across sales documents. These are explained here: 

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Making Fast changes This function allows changes for several or all items at same time. Data that can be changed with this function include: Reason for rejection, Plant, Delivering block, Billing block, Delivery date, Delivery priority. Additional Data Sales document contains Additional data A and B tabs which contain fields like Customer group 1-5 and Material group 1-5, these can be copied from Customer and material master respectively and can be used for analysis or inputs in pricing etc.

Features in Sales order 

Displaying Changes This is an important feature in sales order which helps in displaying changes made to sales document, which can be very useful for audit purpose. It displays a list with following points  Situation before and after change.  Change date and time  User name of person making changes.

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Derivation of Sales Area Processing of any sales document is for a sales area and derivation of sales area is important. If Sales area is not specified at initial screen this can be derived from Sales area of Sold-to party or Ship-to party customer master record. For customer belonging to multiple sales areas system prompts for user input in a dialog box.

Features in Sales order 

Item Proposal To aid the user and reduce time system can propose items in sales order from two sources, Existing document like quotation or sales order and an Item proposal For frequently ordered item by a customer the items can be entered in a document called ‘Item proposal’. During sales order creation the no of item proposal can be entered from which all or some items can be copied on to sales order. The item proposal no can also be entered in customer master record from where it can be automatically proposed when creating a sales order.

Special Sales Orders  Cash Sales 

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Cash Sales is a special sales order where Customer orders, picks up and pays for the goods immediately. This is also called as counter sales. The cash invoice is immediately printed from Order and delivery is also immediate. Invoice amount is directly posted to cash account and so there is no receivables like normal sales. Process flow:

Special Sales Orders  Cash Sales  

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Standard system has order type CS (or BV) for cash sales. On creation of Cash sales order by sales employee system proposes current date for delivery and billing, on saving of order system creates delivery of type BV immediately in background and Invoice output from cash sales order is printed. The output type for this in standard system is RD03. Delivery can be processed manually as it is already picked up. Billing index is created and invoice can be created by an background job. The order type can be customized in configuration to suit specific business process as required.

Special Sales Orders  Rush Order 

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Rush order is a special sales order where Customer picks up the goods or company delivers the goods on the same day as order is placed. In standard system sales document type RO is used on saving of which creates delivery of type LF immediately. Goods are picked and goods issue posted. Invoice is created later and papers are posted. Process flow: