Procedure for POS Outbound Processing 

Use

POS inbound processing is used for evaluating data that is transferred from the POS systems in the stores to the head office. Normally, the system evaluates the data in the background at regular intervals, for example, every night. It also updates the transferred data in the system.

Prerequisites

The store must be configured for inbound processing.

Procedure

SAP recommends you organize the data flow for inbound messages as follows.

The POS converter communicates with the POS systems using a WAN (Wide Area Network) and with the SAP system using a LAN (Local Area Network). The inbound data should be processed as follows:

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       1.      The POS converter receives data from a store system, converts in to the IDoc format and saves the IDocs from it in a file (one file per store and IDoc type) on the server for the POS converter.

       2.      The POS converter transfers the IDoc files as a remote copy to the SAP application server and deletes them from the server for the POS converter.

       3.      The POS converter carries out a Remote Function Call (RFC) for the C program startrfc on the SAP system application server and transfers the storage location of the IDoc files on this server as a parameter. This C program triggers the following processing of the inbound data:

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                            a.      It starts the ABAP program edi_data_incoming that reads the IDoc files on the application server and saves the IDoc data in the ERP database in tables EDIDC, EDID4 and EDIDS.

                            b.      It deletes the IDoc file on the application server.

                            c.      It determines the appropriate EDI partner profile for the message category for every IDoc that has just been received by the system and the data can then be posted to the relevant application. This process can either be done directly using a function module or indirectly (using the worklflow or the process technology).

       4.      POS inbound transfers the sales data aggregated at store/article level to forecasting and replenishment.

If multi-step replenishment is activated (see Multi-Step Replenishment), the processing stops here. In this case, you have to let the system carry out the following steps once the time-critical processes are finished.

       5.      The SAP system updates the business transactions that were transferred. It also updates the inventory management for purchase and sales prices as well as the information system’s information structures and triggers the billing. Billing makes the necessary postings to the customer and vendor accounts.

       6.      The SAP system updates the document flow of the POS interface - inbound.

Result

The business transactions transferred from the stores are updated in the system.