Unit 1: Navigation

Client: An independent unit in the system. Have own user master

and transaction data. For a user log onto a SAP system, must have a
user master record in the client.

The image in the SAP GUI is a cross-client setting

A role describes a defined number of activities in the system. The

user can choose between the user menu (assigned to the role) or
the SAP standard menu.

Parts of screen:

Command field: The user inputs in this field the transaction code. /n
closes the current transaction, /o<transaction> opens a new screen
with the transaction (the user can open, depending on the
configuration, between two and six sessions simultaneously,
maximum). /i<transaction> closes the current transaction and
opens a new one with the transaction.

Standard toolbar: Are the buttons that are available in all the
screens

Check boxes: controls that allow the user to select several options at
the same time

Radio Buttons: Controls that allow choosing only one item from a
group of several options

Status Bar: In the bottom of the screen shows different info such as
warning or error messages, transaction code, client, etc.

Menu bar: Contains the menus of application. Depends on the

screen

Title bar: Description of functions available for user

Application toolbar: Is a toolbar that shows the buttons depending

on the current application (transaction)

Help functions:
F1: Field help. Would show, in the technical info the parameter ID of
a field

F4: Shows a list (or combo box) with the possible values for a field

When a field has a checkmark icon it means that is a mandatory

field

Extras/settings/Display Technical Names (shows the code of a value

in a combo box or list)

System/User Profile/Own Data/Parameter: For defining default values

for transactions
Unit 2: Enterprise Structures in Sales and
Distribution

Organizational units are legal and/or organizational structures in an

enterprise

2.1 Sales enterprise structures

Company code: Legal entity and independent accounting unit. At
company code lever are created the balance sheets required by law
and the profit and loss statement

Sales Organization: Organizational unit in Logistics which groups the

enterprise according to the requirements of sales and distribution.
Responsible for distributing goods and services, negotiating sales
conditions, product liability and rights of recourse. A sales
organization is uniquely assigned to a company code but more than
one sales organization can be assigned to the same company code
(one-to-many relationship from company code to sales
organization). It is required to have at least one sales organization.
In sales statistics the sales organization is the highest summation
level. All the sales and distribution documents are assigned to a
sales organization.

Distribution Channel: Is the mean through sales materials reach the

customer. Represents the strategies to distribute goods and/or
service to your customers, for instance wholesale trade, retail trade,
Internet trade, etc. One distribution channel can be assigned to
several sales organizations and several distribution channels can be
assigned to a sales organization (many-to-many relationship
between sales organizations and distribution channels). It is required
to have, at least, one distribution channel. This allows defining
responsibilities, carrying out flexible price structuring and
differentiating sales statistics

Division: Represents a product line, for instance motorcycles, spare

parts services and others. A division is used for grouping materials
and services. A division can be assigned to many sales organizations
and a sales organization can have several divisions.

Sales area: combination of sales organization, distribution channel

and division. Defines the distribution channel uses an organization
for selling products of a particular division. All the S & D documents
are assigned to exactly one sales area and this cannot be changed.
A sales area can belong to only one company code.

2.2 Shipping enterprise structures

Plant: Location where material stock is kept. From material

management point of view, the plant is where material stock is kept,
in production represents a manufacturing facility and in sales and
distribution represents the location from which materials and
services are distributed and corresponds to a distribution centre. It
is required to have, at least one plant. A plant can belong to only
one company code but a company code can have more than one
plant. Plant is used in the shipping point determination.

Shipping point is the highest-level organizational unit of shipping

that controls the shipping activities; each outbound delivery is
processed by exactly one shipping point. More than one shipping
point can be assigned to a plant and more than one plant can be
assigned to a shipping point

Storage location: is a location or room used for the division of

material storage
Unit 3: Overview of Sales Processes

3.1 Pre Sales Activities

The objective is establishing and maintaining customer relationships
including entering and tracking customer contacts, mailing
campaigns, answering customer telephone queries inquiries
(requests for quotation) and quotations.

Standard orders normally contain customer and material

information, price information, information about delivery dates and
delivery quantities and information about shipping processing and
billing.

Procurement: Check the availability of ordered goods (MD04

transaction) and transfer the requirements to materials planning.
Materials planning (MM) organizes and monitors the actual
procurement process including in-house-produced and/or purchased
products.

The product for an order would result from available stock, be

guaranteed by replenishment, trigger a make-to-order production,
order the outbound delivery via external suppliers, organize the
outbound delivery via another warehouse (stock transfer).

Shipping process includes the creation of outbound deliveries,

picking (by creation of transfer orders), packing and posting of
goods issue. This process begins with the creation of delivery
document that controls, supports and monitors some sub-processes
optional (picking and confirming, packing, planning and monitoring
of transport with a shipment document) and mandatory (posting the
goods issue).

Creating a delivery document copies information from sales order

such as materials and quantities onto the delivery document.
Creating a transfer order copies from the delivery document to the
transfer order for processing within the warehouse. The transfer
order defines where the goods are taken from and moved to the
warehouse.
Creating a billing document copies information from the sales order
and delivery document onto the billing document. This document
acts as the basis for creating invoices, is the data source for
financial accounting. If automatic post is defined then the system
performs a debit posting on the customers receivables account and
performs a credit posting on the revenue account.

When posted and incoming payment the system creates a debit

posting on the cash account and a credit memo on the customers
receivables account.

Sales activities and promotions are documents for sales

support within presales
Sales documents are entered during presales and sales order
processing. Inquiries, quotations, sales activities, scheduling
agreements and standard orders are examples of sales
document types
Outbound deliveries, transfer requests and transfers are
documents within shipping processing
Goods issue document contains changes involving stock and
is the basis for the relevant accounting documents
Billing document is a document in invoicing area and is the
basis of the relevant accounting documents
3.2 Sales Processing

A sales document is always created within a sales area. One or

more inquiries or quotations can be reference documents for an
order; also a quotation can lead to several sales orders (an
inquiry not as, after the creation of first order will change is
status to totally referenced).

A sales document is divided into three levels:

Header: Data in the header is valid for the entire document,

such as customer related data
Items: Each item has separate data such as materials and
quantities ordered. A sales document can contain several
items and each one can be controlled differently. Examples are
material, service, free-of-charge or text items
Schedule lines for line items: contains the delivery quantities
and delivery dates. A group of schedule lines belong to an
item. Every item that is to include an outbound delivery in the
further sales and distribution process must possess, at least, a
schedule line. One item can have several schedule lines, for
example when a quantity ordered is to be delivered in several
partial deliveries at different times

3.3 Shipping Processing

Outbound deliveries are created for orders that are ready to be
shipped. The system copies relevant data from the order to
outbound delivery. If the shipping point, delivery date and ship-to
party are the same the system would consolidate several orders in
the same outbound delivery document. It is also possible to create
more than one outbound delivery from an order.

The delivery document is composed of header and item:

Delivery document header: Contains information valid for the entire

document such as ship-to party and deadlines for shipping
processing

Delivery document item: Each item contains its own data, data
about materials, for instance, quantities, weights as well as stock
information. The items can be controlled differently, for instance
material items, free-of-charge and text items. One schedule line
would become an item in a delivery note as delivery notes do not
has schedule lines.

3.4 Picking

For performing the picking a transfer order is generated for a

warehouse number. The system can combine more than one
outbound delivery in a group of transfer orders as long as the same
warehouse number is used. A picking list that contains materials
from different outbound deliveries can be generated for
optimization.

When the goods issue is posted, all of this happens automatically:

Quantity in inventory management and delivery requirements

in materials planning are updated
Value change in balance sheet accounts for inventory
accounting is posted
Creates further docs for financial accounting
Billing due list is generated
Status in all relevant sales docs is updated (doc flow)

3.5 Billing Document

An invoice can be created for a single delivery or sales order.

However the system can combine different outbound deliveries in
one billing document if they have the same characteristics such as
payer, billing date and destination country.

The invoice in the header contains data valid for the entire
document such as the payer and billing date and in the items other
data that is specific as material, billing quantities and net values for
items.

When the billing document is generated the system generates al the

required documents for accounting that are the subsequent postings
in financial accounting for controlling components and profitability
analysis. Also updates the status of related sales, deliveries and
billing documents, update of sales statistics in the sales information
system and consumption of customers credit limit
Unit 4: Master Data in Sales and Distribution

Sources of data includes:

Customer master data

Material master data
Condition master data: this data is maintained for automatic
pricing, would include material prices or discounts, for
instance
Output is information that is exchanged between business
partners (customer, for instance) via various media (mail, EDI,
fax, etc.) and would include order confirmation, invoices,
quotations, etc.
Control table: those tables are maintained in customizing (SPRO)

A previous sales document can be a source of data for another

sales document

4.1 Customer Master Data

General data is relevant for sales and distribution and for
accounting. It is stored centrally (client-specific). It is valid for all
organizational units within a client. In the general data it is included:

Address
Control data
Payment transactions
Marketing
Unloading points
Export data
Contact persons

Sales area data is relevant for sales and distribution. It is valid for
the respective sales area (sales organization, distribution channel
and division):

Sales
Shipping
Billing document
Partner functions:
o Sold-to party: places the order
o Ship-to party: receives goods or services
o Bill-to party: receives the invoice for goods or services
o Payer: responsible for paying the invoice
o Other partner functions such as contact or forwarding
agent but are not required for sales order processing

Company code data is relevant for accounting; it is relevant for the

respective company code:

Account management
Payment transactions
 Correspondence
Insurance

When the documents are created all the required data is copied
from the master data into it, therefore, any changes performed in
the master data after the document creation will not have any
impact on the document. The only exception is the address in the
customer master as it is not copied but just a reference to it is
included in the documents

4.2 Material Master Data

Basic data is relevant for all areas and is valid for all organizational
units within a client.

Sales organization data is relevant for sales and distribution. It is

valid for the respective sales organization and the distribution
channel.

Sales data: plant data is also relevant for sales and distribution. Is
valid for the respective delivering plant.

Additional data relevant for different organizational units is available

for various other areas

4.2.1 Division specific and cross division sales

In cross division sales in the same sales order (that is assigned to a

particular sales area and, therefore, a particular division) materials
with various divisions. According with the sales document type it is
possible to control:
 Whether it is possible to enter multiple materials with various
divisions
The way the system is to respond (displaying or not a warning
or error)
Whether the division on item level is copied from material
master record or copied from the order header to the items

In division specific sales the sales document type is configured for

not allowing having materials with divisions different from the
header division

4.3 Customer-Material Info Record

The customer-material info record is used for storing customer-

specific material data. If a customer-material info record has been
defined for a customer and a material, the default values take
priority over the values in the customer or material master when a
document is processed. Those records can be used for cross-
reference from customers material number and description to
supplier number and also for saving specific shipping information for
customer and material such as delivery tolerances, if customer
accepts partial deliveries or the default delivering plant

4.4 Condition Master Data for Pricing

Condition master data includes prices, surcharges, freights and

taxes. Condition records can be defined to depend on various data.
The conditions can be dependent on any document fields.
Frequently occurring cases have already been set in the standard
system.

The condition type defines multiple uses of a condition. It is possible

maintaining values within a condition record according to a scale
and there is no limit to the number of scale levels.
Prices, surcharges, discounts, freights and taxes for a business
transaction can be found using the automatic pricing function.
Those conditions can be changed manually. Pricing is carried out
using the condition technique.

4.5 Additional Master Data

4.5.1 Output

Information exchanged between business partners (customer, for

instance) via various media such as mail, EDI or fax. Examples
include quotations, order confirmations via EDI or invoices. For this
it is used the condition technique and the output type defines the
partner function, the transmission medium, the time and the
language of output. A form in SAPscript or SmartForms defines the
layout of an output. The form is assigned to an output type.

4.5.2 Incompleteness Check

All the sales and distribution documents contain data required for
the document and for further processing. The system determines
the information that should appear in the incompletion log, if the
used does not complete them during sales order processing.

4.5.3 Common Master Data

When no need for differentiation on master data (customer/material
and condition master data) between channels exists then a
representative distribution channel should be defined. For all the
other distribution channels that have this channel configured as
reference its master data will be the one defined for the
representative distribution channel. By doing this the information
will be maintained only for the representative distribution channel
and the changes will be immediately reflected for the other
channels.

In the same way if there is no need for differentiate master data

(customer or condition master data) between some divisions then a
reference division can be configured for other divisions and the
master data maintained for it will be valid for the other divisions too.
Material master data can be configured for reference between
distribution channels but not between divisions.
Unit 5: Sales and Distribution Processes
Data Determination and Collective
Processing

5.1 Function of the Sales Document Type

Some sales document types existing in the SAP standard:

Standard Order
Contract
Cash Sales (immediate delivery)
Rush Order
Free of charge delivery (ex: Donation)
Returns
Consignment order
Credit/debit memo request

Different business processes can be identified and controlled by

means of the sales document type. In the same way the outbound
delivery type can be used to control the shipping documents and
the billing type can be used to control the billing documents.

Those are some of the functions of sales documents:

Delivery scheduling
Transfer of requirements
Pricing
Sales information system
Credit Check
Messages
Texts
Availability check

5.2 Plant, Shipping Point and Route Determination

5.2.1 Plant Determination

In sales the plant is the delivering plant. For determining it follows
those steps:

1. Checks if the delivery plant is specified in a customer-material

info record
2. Checks if the delivery plant is specified in a customer master
record of the ship-to party partner
3. Checks if the specification exists in the material master record

If no delivery plant can be identified then no plant is set in the sales

document item. Without a plant, an item cannot normally be
processed further.

5.2.2 Shipping Point Determination

Shipping point is the organizational unit in the system responsible

for processing the shipping. The shipping point is normally
determined automatically for each item in the sales document; this
value can be changed manually.

The item tries to determine a shipping point for every item to be

delivered. Those are the three keys it uses for the automatic
shipping point determination:

Shipping condition from the sold-to party

Loading group in the sales-specific material data
Delivering plant as defined in the 5.2.1 Plant Determination
section
5.2.3 Route Determination

The route is the path a delivery follows from the delivering plant to
the ship-to party. It can comprise more than one section and has a
start and an end point. The route can be used to refine the actual
transit time (length of time for which goods are on the road) and
the lead time for transportation planning.

The system tries to determine a route for every item to be delivered

considering the four fields displayed in the previous graphic for the
automatic route determination.

5.3 Shipment Scheduling

It is possible to define the time confirmed for delivery (confirmed

delivery date), for the calculation of this time different lead times
are considered:

Preparation time
Loading time
Transportation lead time
Transit time

In shipment scheduling this data is considered:

Order date: Date when the order is placed

Material availability date: Date by which a sufficient quantity
of goods must be available for picking and packing
Loading date: Date on which the goods picking and packing
process is completed (and the mode of transport is available)
for beginning the loading
 Goods issue date: When the goods must leave the delivering
plant for being received by the customer on time
Delivery date: When the goods arrive at the customer:
o Requested delivery date: Date desired by the customer
o Confirmed delivery date: Date confirmed for the
customer

In the delivery date determination those times can be

considered:

Transit time: Time required for transporting the goods to the

customer
Transportation lead time: Time required for preparing the
goods for transportation

For backwards scheduling, the customers requested delivery

date is used to calculate the material availability date and the
transportation lead time. The delivery must be created on the
earlier of the two dates (selection date for outbound delivery)

If both dates are after the order date and the material is
available on the material availability date, the customers
requested delivery date can be confirmed. A schedule line is
created for the sales document item. In the schedule line the
date will be the confirmed delivery date that will be the same
as the requested delivery date
If any of the two dates is before the order date, the requested
delivery date cannot be confirmed for delivery. In this situation
the system attempts to determine the next possible date by
forward scheduling (this calculation can be disabled, the
backward scheduling cannot)
 Forward scheduling takes into consideration the time parallels
of the workflows for transportation planning and
picking/packing of materials. The longer of the two periods is
relevant for scheduling. The selection date of the outbound
delivery is the earlier of the material availability or the
transportation planning date.
The earliest date at which the material is available in the
warehouse is the new material availability date

In this situation two schedule lines are generated for the sales
line item:

The date of the first schedule line corresponds to the

customers required delivery date and has no confirmed
quantity
The date f the second schedule line shows the confirmed
delivery date and the confirmed amount

5.4 Collective Processing in Sales and Distribution

5.4.1 Delivery Creation
To make shipping faster and easier is possible to use the delivery
due list for creating more than one outbound delivery
simultaneously. The system automatically combines the items in the
selected sales orders to minimize the number of outbound
deliveries. This function would perform an online processing of the
delivery due list or create a background job to be executed during
off-peak hours

The shipping point, the picking date and other criteria can be used
in the selection of orders. The system will display a list of orders that
meet the selection criteria, in this list further filtering and sorting
can be performed. From this list is possible to create outbound
deliveries online or in the background.

For a customer is possible to define if it requires complete

delivery, in this situation it is defined that an order should be
delivered in one single delivery. All the items should be
delivered at the same time. If the customer requires complete
 delivery if all the order items cannot be shipped with the full
order quantity the system displays a warning.
If the customer does not require complete delivery it is
possible to define a partial delivery
If the customer allows orders to be combined then the system
does it when creating the Delivery Due list. For doing this
combination it is require that the items have several common
characteristics:
o Shipping point
o Date that delivery is due
o Ship-to party
o Route (same method of transport and route)
o Incoterms

5.4.2 Picking
The system can be configured so picking be required for an item in
an outbound delivery. Picking is carried out when transfer orders for
triggering and monitoring stock movements are generated. The
items in the transfer orders contain the materials and quantities to
be picked, corresponding to the delivery quantities. At the same
time, the delivery quantities are used as pick quantities in the
outbound delivery. From the transfer order is possible printing the
pick list for use in warehouse. Picking can be confirmed
automatically or in a separate processing step.

It is possible to perform collective processing in picking. For this it is

required to select a worklist from all the outbound deliveries ready
for picking and create several transfer orders at the same time. The
system automatically combines the outbound delivery items into as
few transfer orders as possible. The processing can be either online
or in a background job to be executed during off-peak hours.

As with the selection of orders for creation of Outbound Deliveries it

is possible to select several Outbound Deliveries, using different
criteria, including the shipping point and the picking date, for
collective processing. The user receives a list of deliveries meeting
the selection criteria and is possible to perform further sorting and
filtering for making it more precise.
From the transfer order is possible to print the picking list(s) for use
in the warehouse. This step can be configured to happen
automatically. Instead of printing the picking list it can be
transferred to an external WMS (Warehouse Management System).
It is also possible to monitor picking by entering the picked
quantities manually. It is also possible confirm variances in
quantities and specify the cause of these by setting a difference
indicator.

When the total quantity cannot be picked is possible:

Picking the open quantities by means of another transfer order

Reduce the delivery quantities in the outbound delivery by
copying the picked quantities