How Sales Documents are Structured
All sales documents have basically the same structure. They are made up of a document header and any number of items. The items can in turn be divided into any number of schedule lines. The following graphic shows the structure of a sales document:
Header data
The general data that is valid for the entire document is recorded in the document header. For example,
Number of the sold-to party
Number of the ship-to party and the payer
Document currency and exchange rate
Pricing elements for the entire document
Delivery date and shipping point
Item data
Whereas data in the document header applies to all items in the document, some data applies only to specific items. This data is stored at item level and includes the:
Material number
Target quantity for outline agreements
Number of the ship-to party and the payer (an alternative ship-to party or payer can be defined for a particular item)
Plant and storage location specifications
Pricing elements for the individual items
Schedule line data
An item consists of one or more schedule lines. The schedule line contains all the data that is needed for a delivery. For example, a customer orders 20 units of a particular material which you enter as one item in the sales order. However, you can only deliver 10 pieces now and the remaining 10 pieces next month so you need to schedule two deliveries. The data for these deliveries (dates, confirmed quantities) are stored in two separate schedule lines. In sales documents where delivery data is not relevant, for example, contracts, credit and debit memo requests, the system does not create any schedule lines.
Data recorded in the schedule lines includes the:
Schedule line quantity
Delivery date
Confirmed quantity