Billing plans are controlled in Customizing for Sales by the following elements:

• Billing Plan Type

• Date Description

• Date Category

• Proposed Date Category

• Proposed Date

• Assigning billing plan types to sales document items

The billing plan type defines the basic control data for the billing plan. For example, the billing plan contains rules for date determination. These rules determine, for example, the beginning and end dates for the schedule of billing dates. The billing plan type also contains a date rule for determining the horizon for the billing plan. The horizon calculates the last billing date in the billing plan, based on the current date plus a specified time period (for example: today’s date plus one year). The standard version of the SAP R/3 System includes the following billing plan types:

• Milestone billing (for example, billing dates determined by the percentage of project completion)

• Periodic billing (for example, monthly fees for a rental contract)

The billing plan type is displayed in the sales document but cannot be changed.

Date descriptions are defined to describe the various purposes for which billing plans can be used. Depending on the date category you use, the system proposes a date description for the billing dates in the billing plan. The descriptions are for information purposes only and do not affect processing.

The date category defines data for each billing date that appears in the billing plan. For example, the date category determines the following data:

• Billing rule (determines whether the billing date is based on, for example, the percentage of project completion or a monthly periodic payment for a service contract, and so on)

• Date description (specifies, for example, whether the billing date is for a rental contract, maintenance contract, and so on)

• Billing block (the billing date may be blocked, for example, if a project milestone has not been confirmed)

• Whether the date is fixed or not (in milestone, you may want the system to use the actual date of the milestone, for example)

• Billing type (proposes the type of billing document to be used during billing: invoice, pro forma, and so on)

For every billing plan type, you can assign a date category. During sales order processing, the system then automatically proposes the date category and its corresponding data for each billing date in the plan.

The date proposal function is used only for milestone billing. This function enables you to create a standard billing plan as a reference. This reference can be used during order processing. The dates can be used as the basis for an actual billing plan and changed if required.

Billing plans are controlled by item category. In Customizing for Sales, you can specify that individual item categories are relevant for order-related billing by means of a billing plan. You can also specify a billing plan type for each item category.