Reference to Purchase Order

In invoice verification, differential invoicing takes place at item level. Depending on the value in the relevance field Differential Invoicing in the purchase order item, logistics invoice verification decides whether differential invoicing applies for the invoice item. The system also supports purchase order items with account assignments.

Non-Posted Predecessor Invoice

You can only post a differential invoice or a final invoice if you have already posted the corresponding predecessor invoice. The system ensures this, in order to avoid inconsistencies arising from retrospective changes to an item in a predecessor invoice, since each invoice refers to the predecessor invoice.

If a predecessor invoice has not been posted, for example if it has the status Held, the system also ensures that you cannot post a provisional invoice, differential invoice, or final invoice for the same purchase order item either.

Sequence of Invoice Types

Provisional invoices, differential invoices, and final invoices can contain both items relevant to differential invoicing and items that are not relevant. The system supports invoices with reference to different goods receipts and with reference to different relevant purchase order items.

In the invoice verification transactions (Enter Incoming Invoice (MIRO) and Park Incoming Invoice (MIR7)), you can, in addition to the standard procedures (Invoice, Credit Memo, Subsequent Credit, or Subsequent Debit), choose one of the differential invoicing procedures (Provisional Invoice, Differential Invoice, or Final Invoice).

The invoice type you can choose as the procedure for differential invoicing depends on the following conditions:

The following table shows the allowed combinations of different invoice types in differential invoicing.

Cancellations

In differential invoicing you can only ever cancel the last invoice in the document flow (transaction MR8M). The system does not allow you to cancel an invoice document for which a follow-on invoice document exists. This ensures that a valid sequence is maintained.

Two-Line Concept

In a differential invoice and a final invoice, assuming the latter has a predecessor invoice document, the system displays both the current item and the item in the predecessor invoice document (two-line display for each purchase order item that an invoice refers to). The first line displays the current amount of the item (invoice item); the second line displays the previously invoiced amount (credit memo item). In addition, the system displays the different in amount between the current invoice and the predecessor document.

When calculating quantities, the system takes into account a possible account maintenance document: If, for example, you have posted a provisional invoice with an invoice quantity that differs from the goods receipt quantity, you can subsequently balance out the quantity difference using the Maintain GR/IR Clearing Account transaction (MR11). If you post a follow-on invoice (differential invoice or final invoice), the system calculates the quantity in the credit memo item as the sum of the quantity from the predecessor invoice and the partial quantity of the account maintenance document.

The posting of the items follows the same posting logic as the Financial Accounting component for invoice or credit memo items.

Display Variant for Differential Invoicing

The Differential Invoicing layout variant offers an overview of invoice procedures in Differential Invoicing.

Invoice Block

At invoice item level there are tolerance checks that you can define in Customizing for Materials Management, under  Logistics Invoice Verification Invoice Block Set Tolerance Limits . If a check fails, for example because a price difference occurs that is too high due to a manual change, the system sets a payment block for the invoice. For Differential Invoicing, the standard tolerance checks are used:

Release of blocked documents

With the Release Blocked Invoices transaction (MRBR), invoice items that were blocked due to a tolerance check against the price (tolerance key PP) can be automatically re-checked with regard to a price variance, and then released if appropriate (see also Releasing Invoices). This function is not available for invoice items that are relevant to differential invoicing in a provisional invoice, a differential invoice, or a final invoice. You must remove the blocking reason manually.

Invoice Verification in the Background

The transaction Enter Incoming Invoice for Invoice Verification in Background (MIRA) and the program RMBABG00 support processing of provisional invoices, differential invoices, and final invoices.

Clearing Account Maintenance

As in the standard, you can start the transaction Maintain GR/IR Clearing Account (MR11) after posting a goods receipt, a provisional invoice, a differential invoice, or a final invoice (see Maintaining the GR/IR Clearing Account).

If you select the Differential Invoice checkbox, under Restrictions in the Selection group box, the system selects only procedures that are relevant to differential invoicing. For these procedures there are still quantity differences between goods receipt and invoice receipt postings, which you can balance out using account maintenance. If you do not select the checkbox, procedures relevant for differential invoicing are excluded from the hit list.