Sales: Billing Plan on Header Level (SAP Library

Sales: Billing plan on header level

Description

The billing plan for milestone and periodic billing was previously only created and maintained on item level. During document updates for all items, there was therefore a lot of manual effort necessary to maintain the changes for all items. This, of course, was also linked with a high risk of error.

As of Release 3.0E, it is possible to define a billing plan that applies to all items that are assigned to it on header level. The header billing plan can be maintained on header level. The information is copied to the assigned items and can then no longer be changed there.

Functionality of the header billing plan

Item billing plans are automatically appended to the header

All items with the same billing plan type (controlled in the item category) reference the header billing plan. The assignment between the item and header billing plans is displayed on the item billing plan screen by a selection in the field Header BP If separate billing plans are to be defined for certain items, this assignment to the header can be cancelled and the item maintained separately.

Note

The assignment of an item can be cancelled and recreated using the asignment indicator. However, as soon as an item has been partially invoiced, it can be detached from the header but not appended again.

Copying the header billing plan to the item billing plans

Global changes on header level are passed on to the assigned items. Dates that have already been billed can no longer be changed. During periodic billing, the pricing, determination of the invoice value and status determination are carried out on item level independent of the header.

Dynamic determination of totals and statuses on header level

The information displayed in the header billing plan applies to all of the items that reference it. During milestone billing, the invoice value and billing status on header level are dynamically determined from all of the assigned items. The invoice value on header level then results from the total of all of the assigned items.

Display options

The header billing plan can be reached in the sales order via the menu option Header -> Contract -> Billing plan.

In the item billing plan (Item -> Contract -> Billing plan ), the fieldHeader BP indicates whether there is an assignment to the header billing plan or not.

There are two new fields on the billing overview screen (Overview -> Billing):

The field Billing relevance shows for each item whether the sales order is relevant for an order-related billing document and whether a billing plan exists (Billing relevance "I").

The field Header billing plan shows whether the item billing plan references the header billing plan (Header BP "X").

Milestone billing

The template for the header billing plan is taken from Customizing. During milestone billing, the following functionality is carried out on item level:

Billing valuation on the basis of percentages

Status determination

The dates on header level are copied to all of the assigned items. if changes are made on header level (for example, new billing dates or change of percentage rate), then the items are automatically changed correspondingly. Changes cannot be made on item level.

Example: Processing milestones

If deadlines are created in the header billing plan and milestones are formed (Edit -> Create deadlines -> Manual milestones), then the deadlines and milestones are copied to the assigned items.

If an item is to be scheduled independently from the header, it must first be detached from the header billing plan before milestones that are independent of the header can be assigned.

Note

If you reassign this item to the header billing plan, then any milestones that were assigned manually are lost. The data of the header becomes dominant again in this case.

Periodic billing

During periodic billing, the following functionality is only carried out on item level:

Pricing

Status determination

Date from/Date to

For this reason, the vheader billing plan does not contain any invoice values and status.

Example: Changes of validity period

The start and end date (either determined automatically using a rule or entered manually) define the validity period of billing and are copied into the item billing plans. If changes are made to the rule or the manually entered validity period on header level, the new dates are copied to item level.

To maintain alternative dates on item level, you must proceed as follows:

A validity period is manually predefined in the fields Date from and Date to in the item billing plan. In this case, the system deletes the corresponding rule and adopts the manually predefined dates of the fields Date from and Date to for the determination of the billing dates. Even when changes are made to the header billing dates, the dates on item level are retained. The rule in the billing header only regains priority if the predefined dates in the fields Date from or Date to are deleted: the dates are then determined according to the rule of the billing header again.

Change system parameters in customizing

The following enhancements have been made in Customizing:

1. In the copying control "Sales document to sales document", there is a new copying routine which specifies which fields are copied for the billing plan.

2. The settings for the billing plan have been enhanced by the possibility to make an assignment between the billing plan type and the sales document type.

Further notes

Further information on the new settings in Customizing can be found in the Implementation Guide in the section "Assign billing plan type to sales document type" and in the section "Maintain copy control for sales documents".