About Sales Documents 

Sales-related business transactions are recorded in the system as sales documents. These are grouped into four categories:

If your particular business processes require it, you can process deliveries and billing documents directly from a sales document. In addition, some sales documents, such as cash sales and rush orders automatically trigger the creation of subsequent delivery and billing documents.

Basic Functions Within Sales Order Processing

During sales order processing, the system carries out basic functions, such as:

Depending on how your system is configured, these functions may be completely automated or may also require some manual processing. The data that results from these basic functions (for example, shipping dates, confirmed quantities, prices and discounts) is stored in the sales document where it can be displayed and, in some cases, changed manually during subsequent processing.

Document Flow in Sales

The sales documents you create are individual documents but they can also form part of a chain of inter-related documents. For example, you may record a customer’s telephone inquiry in the system. The customer next requests a quotation, which you then create by referring to the inquiry. The customer later places an order on the basis of the quotation and you create a sales order with reference to the quotation. You ship the goods and bill the customer. After delivery of the goods, the customer claims credit for some damaged goods and you create a free-of-charge delivery with reference to the sales order. The entire chain of documents – the inquiry, the quotation, the sales order, the delivery, the invoice, and the subsequent delivery free of charge – creates a document flow or history. The flow of data from one document into another reduces manual activity and makes problem resolution easier. Inquiry and quotation management in the Sales Information System help you to plan and control your sales. For more information about how to display the document flow for a particular sales document, see Information on Individual Sales Documents.

The following graphic shows how the various types of sales documents are inter-related and how data subsequently flows into shipping and billing documents.

 

The Role of Organizational Structures in Sales Documents

Sales transactions occur within the organizational structure of sales and distribution. This means, for example, that all sales activities are allocated to a sales organization, a distribution channel and a division. Since sales activities within your organization are processed in different geographical locations, the system allows you to specify additional organizational structures that define sales offices, sales groups, and sales people. For more information, see Organizational Structures.