Business Volume Comparison in Subsequent Settlement
Use
Data on the volume of business done with a business partner (expressed as value, quantities, points etc.) is continually updated internally for rebate settlement purposes. At the same time, business partners determine and document the volumes of business done with you.
The business volume figures arrived at by the two parties for a rebate arrangement may differ, due to the vendor and customer assigning items to different accounting periods for example. The business volume comparison serves as the basis for the reconciliation of your and your business partner’s figures, the aim being to avoid having to make subsequent adjustments.
Prerequisites
For the business volume comparison, the following settings are necessary in Customizing for Subsequent Settlement:
The business volume comparison is controlled by the business volume comparison type (see below), which is assigned to the arrangement type.
The business volume comparison type determines the way in which the business volume comparison is to be carried out. Among other things, you can define:
In the business volume tolerance group, you can define the limits within which the business volume is to be compared for the period-specific conditions, the main condition, and final settlement of a rebate arrangement.
You can assign business volume tolerance groups to User groups. By doing this, you can define the limits within which a specific user or groups of users can carry out a business volume comparison. In this case, the user settings override the settings for the business volume tolerance group that you entered in Customizing for the business volume comparison type.
The aggregation level defines the level at which the business volume data is entered.
When you compare business volumes, you must bear in mind that your business partner’s fiscal year can differ from your fiscal year. You must therefore ensure that the value entered for comparison purposes relates to the same period as the value stored in the system.
Features
If comparison of business volumes has been agreed with a business partner as a precondition for partial or final settlement, the system will not allow settlement accounting to take place until this comparison has been carried out.
If the business volume recorded by you differs from that recorded by your business partner, you can enter an agreed value. Internally, the system stores both the value it actually determines and the agreed value, so that all changes can be traced and verified. The agreed value is used as the basis for settlements effected thereafter.
The storage of both values also ensures that any additional business volume recorded after the comparison and agreement process can be identified and additionally taken into account, provided that final settlement has not yet taken place.
The business volume comparison can be entered at any level of the key fields site, tax code, vendor, and month (analysis period). In the statistics, the data entered is then broken down to the most detailed level on the basis of the updated business volume data.
You can define tolerance limits (business volume tolerance group) within which the business volume for a rebate arrangement can be compared. These tolerance limits can also be defined per user. If the tolerance limits are exceeded or not reached in the business volume comparison, the system issues either a warning or an error message, depending on your Customizing settings.
You can still enter business volume data for sites (for example) even if no records for these sites exist in the statistics, that is to say, no business volume data exists in the SAP system. This may be the case, for example, if the stores in question use a non-SAP system.