Customizing for Business Transactions 

Customizing for business transactions consists of several activities that can be found in the IMG. Menu path: Customer Relationship Management ® Transactions ® Basic Settings.

A transaction type specifies the characteristics and attributes of a business transaction and the control attributes (for example, partner determination procedure, text determination procedure, status profile, organizational data profile). A transaction type controls the processing of a specific business transaction, for example a standard order.

An item category specifies the characteristics and attributes of a transaction item, and controls the processing of an item.

In order that the transactions are transferred correctly from SAP CRM into SAP R/3, the settings for document processing must match for the business control in both systems. For sales transactions, this means, a sales document type of the same name must exist in SAP R/3 for the transaction type in SAP CRM. The same applies for item categories, item category groups and item category determination. SAP delivers standard settings for this.

In order that the same sales order number or transaction number is used in SAP R/3 and in SAP CRM for a transaction, you need to set internal number assignment in the CRM transaction and external number assignment in SAP R/3. Both should use the same number range.

You can find further information under Data Exchange for Sales Transactions: CRM Enterprise – R/3.

Defining Transaction Types

The following graphic shows the process when defining a transaction type:

One or more business transaction categories can be assigned to a transaction type. Only certain combinations of business transaction categories are possible. Depending on the leading business transaction category, choose the further business transaction categories.

You need to maintain various Customizing settings at header level, depending on the business transaction category. For example, you need to specify settings such as goal of activity or subject profile for the business transaction category activity, the document pricing procedure or payment plan type for the business transaction category sales, the subject profile for the business transaction category service.

Further information is available in the IMG documentation under Customer Relationship Management ® Transactions ® Basic Settings ® Define Transaction Types.

Defining Item Categories

The following graphic shows the process when defining an item category:

An item category specifies the characteristics and attributes of a transaction item, and controls the processing of an item. First, you assign an item object type to the item category. The item object type determines the business context in which an item category is used, as well as the structure of the item and its attributes.

One or several business transaction categories can be assigned to an item category. Only certain combinations of business transaction categories are possible. You need to maintain Customizing settings for each of the business transaction categories you have assigned, for item level in the transaction.

Here, for example, you can set whether the item is relevant for billing, or whether pricing is active or inactive.

Further information is available in the IMG documentation under Customer Relationship Management ® Transactions ® Basic Settings ® Define Item Categories.

Item Category Determination

The item category group determines how a product in the business transaction should be handled. It determines, for example, that pricing does not take place for free items such as promotional free gifts, or that inventory management is carried out for a service.

For processing of business transactions, the system uses the item category group to determine the item category. From the item category group of the product and the current transaction type, the system determines the item category and enters it as default in the relevant transaction at item level.

You can maintain the item category group when processing a product in the product master. For further information, see Transaction-Controlling Fields. If, for example, you create a sales order for a product with item category group “NORM” (sales item), the system automatically determines the item category suitable for this.

In addition to the system proposal determined, you can also specify which item categories can be manually entered as alternatives to the system proposal. A maximum of three alternative item categories are possible.

You can make the relevant settings for item category determination in the Implementation Guide, under Customer Relationship Management ® Transactions ® Basic Settings ® Define Item Category Determination.