Setting and Carrying Out Authorization 

Prerequisites

How and when the system performs authorization depends on the settings you make in Customizing for checking group routines. In Customizing for Sales and Distribution, choose Billing ® Payment cards ® Authorization and settlement  ® Maintain checking groups. The three main settings which influence authorization are:

·        Authorization requirements

·        Authorization horizon

·        Preauthorization

See the Special Features section below and the payment card interface topic for information on the many other factors that influence authorization.

Setting Authorization Requirements   

The system automatically authorizes a sales order with payment cards when you save it, unless you specify otherwise. In the AuthReq field, you can set the system to authorize:

·        Automatically for complete sales orders only

·        In batch for complete sales orders using a report

·        According to your own requirements which you set in Billing ® Payment cards ® Authorization and settlement  ® Maintain authorization requirements

The requirement is stored in the SAP System as ABAP/4 code. It is assigned to a checking group which in turn is assigned to a sales document type.

Setting the Authorization Horizon

Authorizations may sometimes expire before an order is delivered or billed. To reduce the chances that this will happen, you may want to authorize orders only several days before they are due for shipping, or billing.

The authorization horizon specifies the number of days before the material availability date, or billing date, that the system is to initiate authorization. If a sales order is saved within the authorization horizon, the system carries out authorization immediately. If a sales order is saved before the authorization horizon comes into effect, the system does not authorize at all, or carries out preauthorization.

In this example, the system has been set to authorize one day before delivery creation. The system does not carry out authorization when the order is saved on Day 0, rather on Day 2. Note that the authorization validity period has been set to 14 days in Customizing (Authorization and settlement ® Specify authorization validity periods). The transaction will have to be reauthorized if delivery activities take longer than 14 days.

Setting Preauthorization 

Select Preaufor preauthorization.

The system performs preauthorization when you enter and save a sales order. In this procedure, a 'soft' authorization is sent to the clearing house with an amount of $1 to check that the name, address and card number are correct. In this way, the risk of problems with the actual authorization, made at a later date, is reduced.

The system carries out preauthorization when the material availability date, or billing date lies outside of the authorization horizon, that is, before the authorization horizon takes effect. When the authorization horizon does take effect, the system does not carry out authorization automatically. You must regularly run a report to list sales orders due for authorization and authorize them in batch.

Special Features

Manual Authorization 

Sometimes, you may not be able to reach the clearing house computer system or technical problems may occur. In these cases, you can call the clearing house and manually enter the authorization information they give you in the sales order. Choose Manual authorization in the payment card plan. Manual authorization requires special permission determined in authorization profile V_VBAK_AAT.

System Reactions to Document Changes

Note that the system automatically reauthorizes when you:

·        Add an item to the sales order

·         Raise the sales order value

·        Change a schedule line quantity

The system issues a message, warning you to reauthorize when you:

·        Increase quantities in the delivery

·        Increase the value of the billing document

·        Have an incomplete delivery for which the authorization has expired

Batch Authorization

With report RV21A010 you can authorize documents in batch to support sales orders and deliveries with long processing cycles.

Multiple Authorizations on One Payment Card

When you define multiple authorizations on a single payment card, the system will automatically scan and choose the authorization amounts, trying to match the sales order value. In order of preference it will look for:

...

       1.      the same amounts

       2.      the next largest amount

       3.      the sum of two or more amounts

The following example explains how the system covers a sales order value with the sum of two authorizations.

Sales order value:    USD 500.00

Authorization 1        USD 100.00

Authorization 2        USD 200.00

Authorization 3        USD 300.00

In this case the system scans the authorization amounts, starting with the lowest of USD 100.00, to find the value closest to USD 500.00 and chooses Authorization 3. It then scans again, starting with the lowest amounts, looking for the authorization closest to the uncovered portion of the sales order value, which in this case is USD 200.00. It chooses Authorization 2, thus covering the entire sales order value.

System Reactions to Unsuccessful Authorization

In some cases, an authorization may be insufficient or the clearing house may request a block for a lost or stolen card. The system reacts to a failed authorization, by:

·         Setting the overall credit status to ‘Not approved’ in the sales order header (status B)

·         Setting the authorization block in the payment card plan

Use report RV21A001 to process blocked sales orders. You can then reauthorize by removing the block and saving the sales order.

·        Resetting the confirmed quantity to zero in the sales order and blocking the entry in the shipping index.

Requirements in copying control prevent the user from creating and picking a delivery as well as posting goods issue. To disallow subsequent functions, choose Subsequent functions in Customizing for payment cards. Here you can control:

¡        Availability requirements                      

¡        Purchase requisition/assembly                  

¡        Delivery due index                             

¡        Copying requirements for deliveries            

¡        Copying requirements for billing documents     

¡        Picking, packing and goods issue      

Handling Unsuccessful Authorizations

If you run authorization in batch, the system informs the appropriate person when authorization is unsuccessful: the credit controller if the authorization is denied due to customer credit, or the system administrator when technical problems occur. If you handle authorization online, the system issues a message informing you of the problem. You can then review the various statuses in the payment card plan.

You can regularly run a report to process sales orders with authorization problems. Use the authorization analysis report RV21A001 to identify when and where errors have occurred during the authorization process. The system lists sales orders that have failed authorization. You can then:

·        Release an order without authorization (and take your chances on collecting)

·        Resubmit an order for authorization

·        Change an order (which will trigger automatic reauthorization by the system)