Distribution Item

Definition

Unit that describes an advertising service that represents distribution sales.

Use

Distribution sales such as ad pre-prints, catalogs, CDs or trial samples that are distributed without a carrying publication are to be replicated in sales documents.

Note Note

Customizing settings control whether the distribution item type is active during sales document processing.

End of the note.

Structure

Each distribution item has an item record in which distribution sales are described as follows:

Data	Use
Business partner data	Describes which business partners are involved in distribution sales and the roles that they perform. Each distribution item has a sold-to party and at least one payer, bill-to party and advertiser. If you have not specified any alternate business partners or addresses in the sold-to party master data, the sold-to party is assigned to the distribution item with their address in the advertiser , payer and bill-to party roles. The sold-to party does not however have to perform these roles. If you create an agency or direct order with several advertisers, you can create a business partner who is not the sold-to party in the advertiser , payer and bill-to party roles. An advertiser can remain anonymous in agency orders. See also: Entry of Sold-to Parties and Advertisers If sales agent determination has been activated in Customizing and a sales agent contract requirement matches a distribution item, the system assigns this requirement to the distribution item when you confirm the item data. See also: Sales Agent Determination Suitable contract assignments can also be assigned to distribution items manually. See also: Sales Agent Assignment
Planning data	Used to plan distribution items and includes booking units, publication dates, planned quantity types and quantity information. The system performs the following checks during planning for distribution items: Has the booking unit been created in the master data? Can the booking unit be sold on the date specified? Have the lower-level booking units in which the ad insert is to be published been defined for a combined booking unit that is booked selectively? See also: Booking and Positioning (DT) Distributions can be published on one date in one booking unit. Additional booking units and dates cannot be entered in distribution items. See also: Entry of Booking Units See also: Entry of Dates Dates cannot always be moved in distribution items without losing the positioning. See also: Date Shift
Technical data	Required for distribution shipping and includes booking units, quantity information, ad insert types, weights and number of pages in ad inserts. See also: Booking and Positioning (DT) If you are using the Media Sales and Distribution component, you can manage distribution shipping in this component. In this situation, shipping uses the quantity information that has been recorded in the Media Sales and Distribution component. The system determines quantity information from the product master data in Advertising Management during order processing. You should perform a quantity comparison to ensure that quantity information is identical in both components. See also: Distribution Shipping See also: Quantity Comparison IS-M/AM - IS-M/SD (Order)
Business data	Used for pricing, billing, settlement and payment management in distribution items and includes booking units, ad inserts, prices, discounts, surcharges, contract and sales agent assignments, bank details and payment cards. Booking units, quantity information and page weights and numbers of ad inserts can be used in pricing. If a sold-to party or advertiser has a suitable contract, a contract assignment can be created and a discount granted. Manual discounts can also be granted. See also: Contract Determination The system usually performs settlement for a distribution item for each publication date and advertiser. See also: Generation of Billing Datasets Settlement can also be performed for each lower-level basic booking unit in a distribution combined booking unit. See also: Settlement by Basic Booking Units

A distribution item record has at least one sub-item, schedule line and billing dataset.

The system generates sub-items, schedule lines and billing datasets.

They are described in terms of production at sub-item and schedule line level. Distribution items are described in terms of billing and settlement at billing dataset level.

The system uses the following rules to generate sub-items, schedule lines and billing datasets for a distribution item in a basic example:

Document level	Generation rule
Sub-item	One sub-item for a full booking. One sub-item for each booking unit booked for a selective booking. See also: Generation of Sub-Items
Schedule line	One schedule line for each basic booking unit booked. See also: Generation of Schedule Lines
Billing dataset	One billing dataset for each publication date and advertiser. See also: Generation of Billing Datasets

Each distribution item record has at least one ad insert.

Advertising media that can be delivered with or without a carrying publication are described in ad inserts.

See also: Ad Insert

Ad inserts are created by the user and assigned to the distribution item.

See also: Creation of Ad Inserts

You can assign an ad insert to a distribution item at item, sub-item and schedule line level: You can assign alternate ad inserts to a distribution item at sub-item and schedule line level.

See also: Assignment of Ad Inserts

Integration

The item category and copying variant define how distribution sales can be replicated and controlled in the system.

The item category is specified when distribution items are created.

See also: Item Category

Copying variants are specified when distribution items are copied. Document flow can be used to control copying and copying variants.

See also: Copy Document Items

Each distribution item has a status.

Status levels describe the processing status of a distribution item and determine the activities that you must perform during document processing to allow the system to perform production, billing and settlement for the item.