The system uses this function to calculate the rebate payable based on updated business volume and conditions, and creates a settlement list.

• Cumulative business volume data must exist for the conditions that are due for settlement.

In each settlement run, the system takes account of both the conditions that require once-only settlement and those that require periodic settlement. Settlement accounting covers all the conditions that are due in a rebate arrangement. The settlement list contains a record of each amount settled.

The amounts shown on the successfully generated settlement list are automatically posted in Financial Accounting on the basis of their settlement type (debit-side or credit-side). The settlement type is entered in Customizing for the rebate arrangement type.

If necessary, you can cancel settlement documents (vendor billing documents or customer billing documents) that have already been created. The system then activates the relevant condition records again. If necessary, you can perform settlement accounting again, once you have made adjustments.

The system can tell from the settlement date whether it must carry out partial settlement or final settlement. On the initial screen for invoking the settlement program, you can also specify whether or not an interim settlement is to be carried out.

The system only carries out partial settlement for rebate arrangements requiring periodic settlement, and only if the settlement date lies before the validity end date of the rebate arrangement.

During partial settlement accounting for a rebate arrangement, the system blocks the condition records for a new price determination process, for example, and sets the status of the rebate arrangement to Settlement effected for arrangement. If further documents relevant to business volume are to be posted for the condition record, the system assigns the business volume data to the next period.

The system performs final settlement accounting when the settlement date is later than, or identical to, the final date of the arrangement. In the case of periodic settlement, the last settlement accounting process carried out within the validity period of a rebate arrangement constitutes final settlement.

At the time of final settlement accounting for a rebate arrangement, the system blocks the condition records and deactivates the updating of business volume statistics. This is to ensure that the statistical data remains consistent with the settlement accounting data. In addition, the system sets the status of the rebate arrangement to Final settlement effected for arrangement.

If the Final settlement indicator has been set for the arrangement type in Customizing, the total business volume achieved over the entire validity period of the arrangement is taken into consideration in the course of final settlement accounting for a rebate arrangement requiring periodic settlement. This is done even if some of the business volume has already been taken into consideration in the past, in partial settlements. In this way, the system checks whether you can attain a higher scale level, and thus a higher rate of rebate, when the individual business volumes are taken together. The result of this computation represents the rebate payable by the vendor for the overall validity period of the rebate arrangement. The sum of the rebates already paid in previous partial settlements is subtracted from the final figure.

You can carry out interim settlement for both rebate arrangements that require once-only settlement and those that require periodic settlement. In the case of an interim settlement, you specify the end date of the current period as the settlement date. In this case, the system also carries out settlement accounting for those arrangement conditions that would otherwise not be due for settlement at the time of the settlement run (because either the validity end date of the arrangement or the next end date of a period has not yet been reached). The status indicator is not set, which means that the conditions remain active and are taken into consideration in the next partial or final settlement accounting run.