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 Structure and Data in a Sales Document

The user interface provides you with the following advantages for processing sales documents:

  • Easy navigation between different processing screens

  • Less switching between screens during processing

  • Transparent display of data

  • Complete display of processing screens even on smaller computer screens

The new interface with its flexible tables allows you to adjust the display to meet your requirements during processing. You can alter the width of the columns and their sequence to suit your way of working by simply dragging the mouse. You can then save your different version of the display as a variant.

An essential element of the interface is the tab page which looks like a box of index cards where you can easily find what you need. Each tab page has a title which is constantly visible. By simply clicking on the tab page title, you can bring the page in the box into the background, and process it if necessary.

This tab page technique means that all the data that belongs together can be displayed together, even if the display area available is limited.

The essential data in a sales document is contained on the following screens; each screen in the standard system has several tab pages:

  • Overview screen Tab pages: Sales, Item overview, Ordering party, Procurement, Shipping, Reason for rejection

  • Header screen Tab pages: Sales, Shipping, Billing, Payment slips, Billing plan, Accounting, Conditions, Partners, Texts, Purchase order data, Status, Additional data A and B

  • Item screen Tab pages: Sales A and B, Shipping, Billing, Country, Conditions, Account assignment, Schedule lines, Partners, Texts, Purchase order data, Status, Structure, Additional data A and B

You can also use icons to help you to switch between these tab pages quickly and easily.

Overview Screen

The overview screen provides the user with a choice of data for the document header. Under the display area, there is a table with the items for the document.

From this overview screen, you can switch between several tab pages. The Sales tab page contains important fields from the document header so it is particularly useful when you create the document for the first time. In Customizing, you can define which fields should be hidden. This gives you more space for the items.

The Item overview screen displays a limited amount of header data - and again this provides more room for the items.

The Ordering party, Procurement, Shipping, and Reason for rejection tab pages display data for the relevant area. The Procurement tab page shows both the items and the schedule lines.

Using the Configuration tab page, you can gain an overview of characteristic attributes for an item quickly and easily. This display possibility is particularly useful for materials with a relatively simple configuration, and for when you work with models, in which essential characteristics occur again and again.

The Configuration tab page is only displayed in the sales document if you have maintained the characteristics display. If no entries are available in Customizing, the tab page is not displayed. The settings for the characteristics display in the overview screen are found in Customizing for Sales and Distribution under Start of the navigation path Sales Next navigation step Sales Documents Next navigation step Define Characteristics Display for Overview Screen. Next navigation step You can find further information on this in the implementation guide. End of the navigation path

Header Screen

The header screen contains several tab pages with data from the document header.

Before Release 4.0, you could switch from the Business Data screen to the three detail screens Sales, Shipping and Billing. The data for these detail screens is now on the Sales, Shipping, Billing document and Accounting tab pages for the header screen, making it easier to reach than previously. As of 4.0, the data from the Business Data screen is divided between the relevant tab pages.

Instead of the additional data screen, there are now two tab pages for Additional Data A and Additional Data B and the latter can be designed to suit your needs.

Item Screen

The item screen displays data on an individual item for the document. Even here, there are several tab pages to choose from. Similar to the header screen, the tab pages in the item screen make data from the previous three detail screens for sales, shipping and billing directly accessible. The Business Data screen no longer exists here either and instead you can find the fields from this screen in the Sales A, Sales B, Shipping and Billing tab pages.

There are two pages for sales data ( Sales A and Sales B ), allowing full display of the tab pages even on smaller screens. The previous data in the Additional Data screen has now also been divided into two pages ( Additional Data A and Additional Data B ).

Additional Screens

Schedule Lines

The overview, header and item screens do not contain all the data for a sales document. Instead, you can go to the Schedule line tab page from the Item screen to see a schedule line in the Schedule Line screen. (This can also be done by double-clicking on the magnifying glass under the schedule line table.) This screen contains detailed information for a single schedule line.

Scheduling Agreements

Up to three scheduling agreement releases with different delivery schedule release types (forecast, just-in-time, or planning delivery schedules) can be assigned to one scheduling agreement item. Each delivery schedule comprises general data for the scheduling agreement release (release header) and a list of schedule lines in the delivery schedule. The items in the scheduling agreement do not have schedule lines so, in contrast to the other types of sales document, there are no tab pages here for schedule lines.

There are tab pages for forecast delivery schedule, JIT delivery schedule and planning delivery schedule. These pages are displayed independantly of the scheduling agreement type. The pages provide an overview of the current delivery schedule, with data for the delivery schedule header in the upper area, and a list of schedule lines in the delivery schedule below. You can reach detail screens by clicking on an icon for both the delivery schedule header (only for forecast and just-in-time delivery schedules) and the schedule lines.

You will find a few other screens, including the output screen, by going to Extras in the menu.

Navigation

You can switch between the Overview , Header and Item screens quickly by going to Goto in the menu bar. This enables you to switch to the required tab page with only a server access.

For example, from the Overview screen you can choose Start of the navigation path Goto Next navigation step Item Next navigation step Shipping End of the navigation path to reach the Item screen where the Shipping tab page will automatically appear in the foreground. In comparison to navigating with the icons, using the Goto menu allows you to specify exactly which tab page you require.

Areas from which you can switch to a detailed screen by double-clicking, are optically highlighted.

These areas are visualized via a changed cursor form on the relevant object (in the standard system, the cursor takes on the shape of a hand). By double-clicking, detailed information can be called up in sales document processing for the following objects:

  • Sold-to parties, Ship-to parties

By double-clicking on the sold-to party or ship-to party, you will reach the Partners tab page at header level.

  • Purchase order data, Purchase order number

By double-clicking on the purchase order date or purchase order numer, you will reach the Purchase order data tab page at header level.

Quick Input of Data with Subscreens

In order to enter document data quickly and effectively, it is important that you can enter all important detailed data for sales order header and item at once, and that this is available at a glance.

For this reason, the Sales and Item detail tab pages are enhanced. You can use these to reproduce detailed data for header and item. The entire amount of detailed data for header and item are available to you for the subscreens.

In the standard system, these additional subscreens are filled with a choice of fields.

Using transaction variants, you can fill these subscreens with further fields, or fade out fields you do not need. This means you can define how big the input area should be for the header data, and which fields should be displayed individually. As from a certain number of fields on the subscreen, the system automatically maps a scroll bar for this screen area.

You can assign individual order types to transaction variants (See Transaction variants dependent on sales document types .