Route Accounting 

Use

You implement Route Accounting so that after a tour you can carry out the following for tour activities documented during a tour:

·        Enter

·        Check

·        Maintain

·        Release to settlement

·        Post

Entering outgoing and incoming control data is optional. Route Accounting begins after Output Control and ends once all the tour transactions have been posted.

Depending on their roles (for example, preseller, sales driver), drivers need information on how to carry out their tours. The system can provide the driver with this information in two variants:

·        Variant 1: Printout of the documents relevant to the tour

During the tour the driver enters the various tour activities non-electronically on documents (for example, delivery notes, .shipping papers).

·        Variant 2: Use of mobile devices

During the tour the driver enters the various tour activities electronically on a mobile device.

Once the tour is finished, you have to transfer the data to the system so that it can then be processed in the Settlement Cockpit:

·        If you have used the non-electronic variant (printout), transfer the data that was entered on the documents to the system using the Tour Data Entry function. Using tour data entry, you can manually enter a lot of data quickly and in a structured way.

·        If you have used the electronic variant (mobile device), the system transfers the data (upload) as soon as the mobile device is connected to the system (for example, when the mobile device is placed in the base station).

You can switch between electronic and non-electronic entry of tour activities.
If, for example, a mobile device was temporarily out of order, you could give the driver the necessary information in paper form. Once the tour is completed, you can transfer the data collected during the tour back into the system manually using Tour Data Entry. The system supports you for the tour and the subsequent processes. When the mobile device is available again, use it for the next shipment as usual.

You can use the subsequent processes in Route Accounting (for example, check the data in the Settlement Cockpit, trigger the final settlement run) irrespective of how you transferred to tour data to the system.

Route Accounting was developed for the final processing of documented tour activities based on the use of mobile devices or documents. We recommend you use mobile devices. Using Route Accounting with mobile devices has the following advantages:

·         Reduced processing time for each business transaction

·         Low risk of input errors and redundancies

·         Reduced internal costs

Integration

Route Accounting is part of the Direct Store Delivery component.

You create shipments using the single document or collective processing transaction. The system employs SAP standard message processing to transfer the movement data using the EDI standard or ALE control. The system transfers master data using the SAP integration tool Application Link Enabling (ALE).

To transfer the master data for the Route Accounting component to mobile devices, the system uses special transactions contained in a separate area menu.

After completion of the tour, the data is transferred from the mobile devices to the ERP system by means of upload procedures. The relevant documents (sales orders, deliveries, billing documents, FI documents) are created or updated in the final settlement run.

Constraints

The Route Accounting component is an offline solution. This means that data is exchanged between a handheld and the system at the start and end of a tour. It is not possible to transfer data during a tour.