Creation of Complaints with Reference to Billing Documents 

Purpose

You create complaints with reference to billing documents mainly if there are problems between you and the customer (dealer) regarding an invoice, delivery, or sales order.

Prerequisites

A billing document exists in Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and you have made the necessary settings according to Customizing for Complaints with Reference to Billing Documents.

Process Flow

Creating Complaints

With the exception of Complaint due to Unsolicited Delivery, you can create a complaint with reference to a billing document. In the standard system, this type of complaint is always created with reference to an SAP CRM billing document.

       1.      You enter the CRM billing document number on the Select Reference Document screen. If you do not know the billing document number, you can find the billing document via the sales document or delivery.

The system displays the items of the preceding document in the copy screen.

       2.      You choose the relevant items contained in the preceding document. Then choose Copy.

The system checks whether you can create a complaint for the selected billing document items.

For more information, see Billing Item Check for Complaints with Reference to Billing Documents.

       3.      The system creates a complaint with reference to a billing document with the complaint item defined by default and copies data from the selected item, such as prices, product, and organizational data into this document.

       4.      If you want to create another complaint item, change the type.

       5.      Depending on your Customizing for complaint items, you enter the complaint quantity (Quantity field) or the quantity received (field in Customizing for item category: Type of Dominant Quantity. In the subitem, you enter the requested returns quantity (Quantity field). Depending on Customizing settings for complaint items, the system runs quantity checks (Customizing field for item category: Default Quantity) and calculates the complaint quantity from the quantity received and the billing quantity (field in Customizing for item category: Type of Dominant Quantity).

The following checks reflect Customizing in the standard system.

○     Complaint due to underdelivery

You enter the received quantity in the main item and the requested returns quantity in the subitem. The complaint quantity field is not ready for input and corresponds to the missing quantity (billing quantity minus received quantity ).

The system can successfully process the document further if the following conditions are met:

Complaint quantity <= Billing quantity

Requested returns quantity <= Received quantity

○     Complaint due to incorrect purchase order

You enter the complaint quantity. The received quantity field is blank and not available for input.

The system can successfully process the document further if the following conditions are met:

Complaint quantity <= Billing quantity

○     Complaint due to incorrect invoice

You enter the complaint quantity.

Because complaints can be created by using channels other than the SAP GUI, the system checks whether the complaint quantity is equal to the billing quantity.

○     Complaint due to incorrect delivery

You enter the quantity received in the main item and the requested returns quantity in the subitem. The complaint quantity field is not available for input; the content is a copy of the received quantity.

The system can successfully process the document further if the following conditions are met:

Requested returns quantity <= Received quantity

The system does not check the complaint quantity.

○     Complaint due to overdelivery

You enter the quantity received in the main item and the requested returns quantity in the subitem. The system calculates the complaint quantity by subtracting the billing quantity from the quantity received.

The system can successfully process the document further if the following conditions are met:

Quantity received >= Billing quantity

Requested returns quantity <= Received quantity

○     Complaint due to unsolicited delivery

You enter the quantity received in the main item and the requested returns quantity in the subitem. The complaint quantity is a copy of the quantity received.

The system can successfully process the document further if the following conditions are met:

Requested returns quantity <= Received quantity

○     Complaint due to incomplete kit (customer wants to return entire kit)

You enter the complaint quantity in the main item and the requested returns quantity in the subitem. The received quantity field is not available for input.

The system can successfully process the document further if the following conditions are met:

Complaint quantity >= Billing quantity

       6.      You use a code to enter the reason for the complaint on item level.

The code is dependent on the complaint type.

       7.      You enter the problem description on item level by using the Text tab page.

       8.      If it is a complaint due to incorrect delivery, change the product.

       9.      If necessary, create complaint items for additional invoices. To do so, choose Products ® Item Selection.

   10.      The system checks the returns request items against the product master. The system checks whether the item can be returned, provided that Customizing allows this check for the item type (field in Customizing for item category Check Returned Product).

If an invoice item has two reasons for a complaint, you must create a second complaint document.

Further Processing of Complaint Documents

After saving the data, there is now a complaint document with one or more complaint main items, which are processed further as follows.

After you have activated the Additional Functions for Service Parts Management, entitlement management determines the entitlements and the deposit value for the complaint item, according to the requested returns quantity. If there are insufficient entitlements, then the entitlement quantity is less than the requested returns quantity. The lesser entitlement quantity leads to a reduction in the approved quantity.

For more information about entitlements, see Entitlements Check and Quality Flow and Adjustment.

There is no entitlement check for the returns item.

The document is processed by the automatic execution of business rules and, if necessary, is forwarded to investigations. As a result, either the system or the processor in the investigation releases or rejects the complaint item.

For released complaint items, an agent or the Post Processing Framework in CRM can trigger actions that meet the meet the schedule conditions and start conditions when the document is saved.

○     Complaint items without returns

The actions create subitems for released complaint items. These can be invoice correction requests or credit/debit memos. For more information, see Actions for Complaints Items Without Returns.

For the invoice correction request, the system uses Difference Calculation to make an invoice correction.

○     Complaint items with returns

For the released returns request items, the actions create either returns authorization items or scrapping authorization items. For more information, see Returns Authorization.