Use of Objects in the Leasing Life Cycle 

Purpose

You can use objects in all leasing business processes in which a specific lease quotation is the subject of a lease. The object plays a major role for leasing in the car industry, for example, because the lessee does not only want to lease a general material (such as a car model), but also a specific car (which has a desired model, as well as specific equipment, a vehicle identification number, registration date, and so on).

Usually, you start to use objects after an actual lease has been created. This is because quotations are not legally binding, which means you can create them without an object. Therefore, you generally use a general material (reference product) to create lease quotations, and then replace it with an object if the lessee accepts the quotation. You can configure the time for exchanging objects, as long as you do so before releasing the lease. The use of an object is mandatory from this (configurable) point.

In contrast, if the object already exists in the CRM system – because you are leasing it for the second time or it is already in your possession, for example – you can use the object to create the lease quotation as well.

When you release a lease, the system checks whether the object you entered is available. The system also checks whether the number of leased items for each financing is equal to one. For more information, see Internal Status of Objects.

Prerequisites

●      In Customizing for Customer Relationship Management → Transactions → Basic Settings → Define Item Categories), you have entered the item categories that use objects (Object Usage) field.

●      In Customizing for Financial Services → Leasing → Checks → Checks Dependent on Status of Financing Item → Customizing for BAdI Implementations → Customizing for Certain Checks → Check Transition from Product to Object, you have defined the product categories that require a transition from reference product to object .

Process Flow

In leasing, you use the category of the financing product to control the use of an object. If the category of the project is assigned to the object family 0311, the leasing life cycle processes the object as follows:

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       1.      When you create a lease quotation or lease, you can either start by using a reference product or use an object immediately, depending on whether or not the object already exists in the system.

In the case of a used object that you want to remarket, the object is known and exists in the system. Therefore, you enter this object directly in the lease quotation or lease in the Product field. For more information, see Remarketing.

In the case of a new object, the object is unknown or does not yet exist when you create the lease quotation. You therefore use a reference product to create the lease quotation.

       2.      As soon as the object is defined in the system, and prior to contract release at the latest, you replace the reference product with the object.

The system checks whether you have replaced the reference product with an object. If not, the system displays an error message. In this case, you create an object manually and use this to replace the reference product.

After you have incepted the lease, the system sets the internal status of the object to Leased.

       3.      When the contract data is transferred to accounting in the ERP system, the system replaces the object with the reference product again because the ERP system can process only the reference product and not the object.