Billing 

Purpose

As a subprocess of billing, CRM Billing transfers billing due list items to billing document items and assigns these to the billing document headers. Therefore, billing documents (for example invoices, credit and debit memos) are created from items which come from a wide range of CRM Business Transactions.
During billing, the system combines as many billing due list items as possible together in one billing document. Such a combination is not possible if one or more Splitting Criteria prevent this. The system cannot combine, for example, two billing due list items with the same sold-to party but different payers in a joint invoice, as every billing document is created for exactly one Business Partner “Payer”. The “Payer” is for this reason predefined in the system as a fixed splitting criterion.

Prerequisites

It is possible to create transaction or delivery-related billing documents. You can set controls for this in Customizing for CRM Billing using the field Billing Relevance in the Item Category. For these settings choose SAP Implementation Guide àCustomer Relationship Management àTransactions àBasic Settings àDefine Item Categories.
For further information on billing relevance in CRM Business Transactions, see the documentation for Triggering Billing.

The system predefines the splitting criteria using the fields of the billing document header. Therefore, the system can only combine a number of billing due list items in a joint billing document when they have the same field contents for the following fields:

·         Billing Type

·         Billing date

·         Business Partner “Payer”

·         Billing unit

·         Terms of payment

·         Incoterms

You can use the Billing Engine Framework metadata to add further fields as splitting criteria. Branch to this in Customizing for CRM Billing and choose SAP Implementation Guide à Customer Relationship Management à Billing à System Enhancements à Call Up BE Navigator.
You can also influence the splitting criteria via the copying requirements. For this, choose SAP Implementation Guide à Customer Relationship Management à Billing à Define Copying Requirements.

Process Flow

The following methods are possible for generating billing documents:

·         Create individual billing documents

·         Create collective billing documents (online or in the background).

Fig.: Subprocess - billing of billing due list items showing all process steps up to creation of billing documents

 

As soon as you have triggered individual or collective billing, the system executes the following steps up to creating billing documents:

...

       1.      Grouping of billing due list items according to payer and suggested billing document type for each processing package (for collective billing this takes place in the background)

       2.      Transferring billing due list items into billing document items and completing relevant master data (item partner, item text and item price) by calling up the relevant services

       3.      Combining all relevant billing document items for a billing document while taking splitting criteria into consideration

       4.      Assembling the billing document including header, item and service data and completion of relevant master data (header partner, item text and item price) by calling up the relevant services

       5.      Updating the billing document in the database (for collective billing in the background) and triggering output processing (by calling up action processing among other methods)

Result

The system has created one or more billing document items from one or more billing due list items while taking the set splitting criteria into consideration.
If you were expecting a combination of relevant items in one billing document instead of the creation of two documents, you can find more information by displaying the reasons for the invoice split. To do this, select both relevant billing documents in the billing document list under Processing Billing Documents and choose Display Split Analysis.