This scenario is based on the existing EDI interfaces in the SD and MM modules. The messages for purchase orders, order acknowledgments, shipping notifications and invoices are also used for internal data communication between distributed purchasing and sales systems.

The sales system and the purchasing system have a customer - vendor relationship:

The customer called "purchasing" places an order with the vendor called "sales and shipping", who will receive this order as if it were sent using EDI, but without an EDI sub-system (incoming orders in SD). After the order has been checked a confirmation is sent to the purchasing system.

Changes to purchase orders are sent to the sales system.

The incoming orders arrive via the EDI input in the SD system.

The order confirmation is sent via the message control, transmission medium "6" (EDI). The changes that are marked as such are changes to either the quantity or the deadline.

The order confirmation is sent via the standard EDI communication to the decentral MM. The only acknowledgments that are automatically imported are those that do not contain corrections (full confirmations). Changes have to be processed manually.

The effect of the acknowledgment is that the number that was assigned to the sales order in the sales and shipping system becomes visible in the detail screen of the purchase order item in the purchasing system.

A shipping notification can also be sent to the purchasing system at the same time that the delivery is made. The shipping notifications are sent using the message control, transmission medium "6" (EDI).

The incoming shipping notification is treated as an acknowledgment of the purchase order in MM.

Since an accounting system can be installed in various different scenarios, the following kinds of communication are all possible. In each of the three cases, an invoice is sent from the shipping system to the sales system.

There are two separate company codes for the decentral sales and the central shipping.

Both functions are located in one company code.

The two companies do not form a single accounting unit. There are two independent systems with independent accounting systems. The relationship between the functions is based on a customer-vendor-relationship, which means that invoices are written and that there is a flow of cash.

The Invoicing

If the central accounting is running on a third system, then ALE communication in both the forms Sales <=> Accounting and Shipping <=> Accounting will be necessary. If the central accounting is located in the shipping system, however, then only the decentral sales will need to communicate with the accounting system.

If both systems are in the same company code (case 2), then the valuation of the material may not be changed as a result of the stock transfer. If the valuation of the material is based on the standard price, then the standard prices have to be same everywhere; if valuation of the material is based on the moving average price procedure, then the value of the material in the sales and shipping system has to be the same as the value of the goods received in the purchasing system.

Note the following:

• Standard price: price differences can be avoided if the price in the invoice is the same as the valuation price in the sales and shipping system.
• Moving average price procedure: the price in the invoice has to be the same as the valuation price in the sales and shipping system.

This means that "sales and shipping systems" cannot operate as profit centers by posting revenues from internal sales.

If the two systems are in different company codes, these restrictions do not apply, since the differences can be taken care of in the consolidation. However, it is important to note at this point that the consolidation in Release 3.0 is not able to resolve the differences automatically.