Processing with Service Specifications 

Purpose

You can assign tasks to external companies based on service specifications. Refer to Standard Service Specifications.

In the case of long-lasting business relationships with particular vendors, it is advisable to create service specifications in contracts. Contracts are agreements about validity periods, acceptance of delivery (quantity or value) and conditions for providing the service. The individual lines in the service specifications do not have to be entered manually, but can be copied from the service master or existing service specifications.

If the expense required for an individual purchase order of services cannot be justified, or if the purchasing department can be credited owing to the frequency of tasks to be processed externally, you can also use a framework order, in which several purchase order operations are combined for a longer period of time, instead of the individual purchase order. Framework orders are contracts with legally recoverable commitments.

For more information, see Configurable Service Specifications.

Prerequisites

You mark the operations for orders to be processed externally, which you want to process with service specifications, using a corresponding control key. In the standard system, this control key is PM03.

Process Flow

  1. You create the order with operations to be processed externally in exactly the same way as an order to be processed internally (see Creation of an Order).
  2. The planner creates service specifications for the operations to be processed externally.
  3. The system automatically creates a purchase requisition for each operation with service specifications. Service specifications are linked with the item from the accompanying purchase requisition.
  4. The system automatically generates service entry sheets from the purchase requisition, on which services can be confirmed, as for orders processed internally.

    5. See Converting Maintenance Purchase Requisitions Directly into Entry Sheets.

  5. You have the following options for purchase orders:

The purchasing department leaves out all phases of the source determination and purchase order. The framework order can have a validity period over a longer period and can therefore be used more than once, notably always when services have been requested from the vendor, for whom the framework order was created.

The purchase requisitions generated are linked with the framework order.

See Processes for Service Procurement.
  1. The tasks are performed by the external company.
  2. The services provided are recorded in the service entry sheets for the purchase order.
  3. An employee who has provided the services competently in the past takes charge of the services. This acceptance forms the basis for the settlement of services. An acceptance document is posted.
  4. In the invoice verification, the entries from the purchase requisition are compared with those in the service entry sheets. The invoice should identify the amount that was previously signed off. If differences arise, the invoice is locked until the differences have been cleared up.
  5. Operations processed externally receive the status Partially delivered or Finally delivered.