Proof of Delivery 

Implementation Options

Proof of delivery (POD) is an instrument involved in business processes in which an invoice is issued only after the customer has confirmed the delivery's arrival. In addition to the proof of delivery itself, you can also record the POD date, POD time, the actual quantity that arrived and the reason for possible differences in quantities. This is especially important for deliveries in which the delivery quantity varies because of the nature of the goods or for which the exact delivery quantity is unknown from the start.

You are now in a position to issue an accurate invoice based on the customer's confirmation of goods received. It is no longer necessary to create credit memos after the fact. The reasons for deviation that occur most often in "real world" scenarios such as stock shrinkage, theft, certain characteristics of goods (volatility, for example) and transportation damage are recorded and analyzed in the system. This analysis is especially valuable when you are negotiating with forwarding agents, vendors or customers, since all deviations can be reflected.

Prerequisites

Proof of delivery is exclusively an instrument for confirmation of external customers' deliveries.

Proof of delivery uses IDoc DELVRY03, although if deviations occur, the delivery proof segment (E1EDL53) in delivery item E1EDL24 and the segments in delivery header E1EDL20 must be filled in. In this segment, the ship-to party enters the deviation reason, the deviation quantity and the delivery unit or stockkeeping unit and the corresponding unit of measure. You can carry out a proof of delivery more than once for the entire delivery (if differences were entered incorrectly during the first verification, for example). However, if all items of a delivery were recorded in the first verification with no deviations from the shipping notification, POD confirmation occurs automatically. In this case, it is not possible for the ship-to party to make multiple verifications. If there are no deviations, you must fill in segments E1EDL20 and E1EDL24.

For batch split items, proof of delivery occurs only for the sub-items, because the given batch is needed for informational purposes. The main batch item is confirmed with no deviations.

You should make the following settings in the Implementation Guide under Logistics Execution ® Shipping ® Deliveries ® Proof of delivery:

SAP recommends that you flag all item categories that belong to a delivery type as being POD relevant.

If you want to copy the POD relevance from a preceding document (such as an SD scheduling agreement) into inbound deliveries, select Copy POD relevance from preceding document (V) for the item category. In this case, as the preceding document is being processed, the system already knows whether verification for an item should occur or is expected.

Define how the quantity is to be calculated (add or subtract the difference quantity, depending on whether you are dealing with an overdelivery or an underdelivery).

Set the Relevant for POD indicator on the Shipping tab page of the customer with whom you would like to carry out POD-processing in the Sales area data of that customer's file.

You can also enter a time frame in which you expect to receive verification from the ship-to party. Once the time frame has passed, outbound deliveries can be confirmed using the Automatic Confirmation function.

Process Flow

Automatic Verification and Confirmation

The ship-to party transfers the proof of delivery to the SAP System via IDoc from another SAP System, an external system or via Internet. In this way, the quantities are verified for the delivery. Multiple verification is only possible if the outbound delivery has not yet been completely confirmed.

The current proof of delivery situation is reflected by the POD status: POD-relevant, Deviations reported or Confirmed. You can check the POD status at any time within delivery processing by using the status overview. The system does not make an entry in the document flow.

In most cases, there are no quantity deviations, meaning that the proof of delivery process does not create any additional work for you. This process enables automatic verification and confirmation via IDoc or Internet.

Manual Verification Processing

Manual processing of the verification is always necessary when deviations are reported by the ship-to party. In such a case, it is necessary to edit the POD confirmation.

When you process a POD manually, you can enter and analyze reported differences and deviation reasons in the SAP System. In this way, you can control the checks made and dictate when the POD is ready to be released for further processing. To process proof of delivery manually, proceed as described under Confirming Proof of Delivery Manually.