Object documentationLicense Usage Confirmation

 

Business transaction, which forms the basis for usage-based incoming and outgoing royalties settlement. Quantities or values (such as audience figures, or books sold) are confirmed here.

 

The IPM confirmation is entered in CRM. Information entered in the confirmation is required by other applications that are triggered by subsequent processes.

Royalties in license sales contracts are calculated from the data you enter in the IPM confirmation. Incoming royalties billing documents and outgoing royalties settlement documents are both prepared in IPM billing.

Royalties for licensors can also be calculated from the data you enter in the IPM confirmation. They can also be paid based on the incoming royalties, which are calculated from the confirmation data.

Quantities or values can be confirmed in each confirmation. It is also possible to enter different currencies in parallel. This is only possible if an exchange rate has been maintained in the system.

Confirmations are created automatically when a license sales contract is saved. To ensure that a confirmation or additional confirmation items can be created, the corresponding item in the contract for which the confirmation is made, must fulfill the following criteria:

  • The item must have an item category that is relevant to confirmation.

  • The product must have been maintained.

  • The rights and license period must be maintained.

  • The item must be released.

If an existing license sales contract is changed, the system creates new confirmation items for the existing confirmation for the new contract item when the contract is saved.

Prerequisites

To use this function in CRM WebClient UI, you must activate the business function Intellectual Property Management.

You have made the necessary configuration settings for the license usage confirmation in the Intellectual Property Management media business scenario in the SAP Solution Manager application management solution.

Structure

You can access the License Usage Confirmation application in the navigation bar in the CRM Web Client UI under the License Sales work center.

Valuation Features in the Contract

This section explains the processing logic for performing settlement for billing request items (BRIs).

Overview

Since you can enter cumulated data (ITD data) and data that refers to the current settlement period (PP), the cumulation type is distinguished by the type of data. Both the ITD data and the PP data are saved under the billing request item (BRI). Lines are read from the database and used during pricing according to the condition types that have been defined in the pricing procedure. Following transfer to CRM billing, the PP data for the BRI is added to the ITD data for the royalties item.

Actual settlement takes place in CRM billing: Royalties due in the current period (PP royalties) are determined by the difference calculation, advances paid are recouped by the royalties, taxes are determined and the billing document is created.

Pricing and in some cases settlement can also take place even if confirmations are incomplete. For more information, see Handling Missing or Incomplete Confirmations.

BRI Determination

The system determines the corresponding royalties item and billing request item for a confirmation entered in the system using the data specified (contract number, contract data, period, rights maintained).

Pricing

Pricing can only be performed if royalties conditions have been maintained in the price agreements. Contract-specific royalties installments can be defined in the billing plan.

Each time new confirmation data is entered, the system performs new pricing in the contract using this new data.

BRI Status

A billing request item is generated with the Open status in the first instance. Once pricing has been performed, the BRI that has been valued is transferred to the Accrual Engine and the settlement data collector.

Once the confirmation is complete, meaning that all anticipated periods have been returned, the system status of the BRI is set to Released for Billing. The BRI can now be billed.

However, a corresponding BRI can still be modified if corrections to a confirmation period that has already been entered are received prior to billing. Select and change the usage confirmation history data, or enter a new confirmation.

If billing is to be performed on the usual date for incomplete (delayed) confirmations in spite of the missing data, the status can be set to Released for Billing manually or the system released the BRI automatically when the subsequent BRI was already released.

Once the Billing Engine has performed settlement, the status is set to Fully Billed. A billed BRI can no longer be changed. To change a fully billed BRI, do one of the following:

  • Cancel the billing document and modify the BRI

  • Add new confirmation data for the already billed period

Transfer Confirmed Values

The confirmation also contains the total royalties paid by the licensee for a confirmation period.

Integration

The reference to the confirmation transaction is visible from the contract using document flow. The underlying contract can also be identified in each confirmation. The data required for revenue distribution is prepared in the corresponding application using middleware and then transferred to the Accrual Engine (FI tool that can be used to calculate and post accruals automatically in different application components).