The condition technique is used in quality certificates for:

• Profile assignment and profile determination
• Certificate recipients and output determination

For example, in profile assignment you assign a certificate profile to a material, material group, or combination of material and customer. In addition to these three key combinations, you can also define other objects and combinations to which profiles can be assigned. The assignment records have a validity period.

When you create a certificate, the system searches for a certificate profile. In the process, the system accesses the assignments (condition records) using the document data (ship-to party, delivered material, etc.). In the standard system, the sequence for accessing the condition records is such that the system searches progressively from specific to general entries, until it finds an appropriate data record.

The output control for quality certificates involves:

• Defining whether and when a certificate must be created for a delivery
• The automatic output determination for a delivery item

A certificate recipient is identified by an output condition record for the delivery. In the standard system, two output types are predefined in Customizing:

• LQCA for a quality certificate to a ship-to party
• LQCB for a quality certificate to a sold-to party

Each output type has an access sequence assigned to it. The entries in the access sequence determine the possible key combinations for which you can store the recipient data (for example, sales organization/customer number). For each entry, you must specify the following data:

• The partner function to which the certificate is sent (for example, the contact person ["the quality certificate recipient"] at the customer site)
• The output form (print, fax, EDI)
• The language (if it differs from the language used in the master record)
• The time when the output is to be processed (for example, with a separate batch program, manually upon request or immediately after the document is saved)
• Print options

In Customizing, you define when the system can search automatically for the "Quality certificate" output using Conditions for the procedure. The following times are defined in the SAP standard system:

• After the goods issue (in this case, the data for the delivery cannot be changed)
• After picking has been completed

You can enter the output in the delivery item manually at any time.