Modification Management 

Use

You can use this function to track changes that are considered relevant for modification management, for example, selected contract header and item data, the document billing structure (DBS) of the extended contract, funding information, contract conditions, and user fields. In this way, you can meet specific customer requirements relating to modification management.

Public Sector contractors in some countries must be able to provide a complete history of certain contract modifications; otherwise the customer can refuse to accept invoices.

Integration

The effectivity dates of billing-relevant modifications are taken into consideration during enhanced resource-related billing.

Prerequisites

·        You have released the extended contract (see Releasing an Extended Contract).

·        You have activated modification management for those fields that you want to track.

You specify these fields in Customizing for Sales by choosing Sales Documents → Advanced Order Processing and Billing → Activate Fields for Changes with Required Modification ID.

Modification management is always active for item funding data. This means that you do not have to activate modification management for the following fields on the Item Fund Data tab page in Customizing:

§         Material

§         Priority

§         Valid To / From

§         Amount / Budget

●      You have defined the different types of modification that can be performed.

You do this in Customizing for Sales by choosing Sales Documents → Advanced Order Processing and Billing → Define Modification Types.

You can use modification types to identify changes as administrative changes, pricing changes, and so on.

Features

Modification History

Changes that are subject to modification management are saved in the system with a modification identification number, a modification type, an effectivity date, and an optional modification text. You can assign several related changes to one modification ID, for example, all changes requested by the customer on July 27, 2007.

You can view the modification history of the entire extended contract at header level on the Modification History tab page. You can view the modification history of funding data separately on the Item Fund Data tab page by clicking Show Changes.

Changes that are subject to modification management are listed on the Modification History tab page. Clicking Show Contract Changes opens a list of all the changes that you have made to the extended contract from the time of its creation, regardless of whether they are relevant to modification management

Effectivity of Modifications

When you make a change that is subject to modification management, you must enter an effectivity date. This is the date on which the change becomes valid. When you run resource-related billing, those changes that are effective on the date of billing are taken into consideration. For more information on billing, see Enhanced Resource-Related Billing.

The original budget of USD 500,000 that was assigned to a contract item has been increased to USD 800,000, but this increase will only become available as of January 1, 2009. This means that even though the budget has increased, invoices issued before January 1, 2009 must stay within the original limits.

Versions

Every time you make a change to a field with active modification management, a new version of the relevant tab page is created. The version of the data before the change is saved and displayed as an older version below the currently active tab page. Only those fields that are subject to modification management are shown, and the currently active version is highlighted in green.

Activities

When you make a change that is subject to modification management, you are required to enter a modification ID and an effectivity date, and specify the modification type. You can also enter a descriptive modification text.

The system saves contract modifications with the underlying contract.