Shipment Costing - The dark side of SAP

[Former Member]

We can have multiple PO's with multiple deliveries on a shipment.

These deliveries are booked in over a period of time, not all at once.

We have a fixed cost for th shipment.

If we find differences then we change the inbound delivery to reflect what we have actually received.

THe problem we have is that the shipment costing does not then stick with the fixed amount.

If I have a shipment cost document for two deliveries (each with a container of the same product) is 1000 USD then when I book these in i would expect it to charge me the same amount for each container if the contents are the same.

If I book in the first container and its as expected then the cost of 500 USD is charged.

If I book the second container and find that the content is short or excess then I would still like the cost to be 500 USD because this is the balance left on the cost document.

What is happening is the cost goes up or down depending on a shortage or excess.

We distribute the cost to the moving average price and this is then also wrong and the knock of effect of all this is a mess.

Should it work this way or can this be managed via config?

Thanks in advance for your assistance.

[Former Member]

The problem is that I always have a fixed cost of the container.

In order to distribute the cost to the content of the container we do this by the weight.

BUT in the real world if the cost of the container is 1000 USD then that is a fixed cost.

If it is to be distributed based on weight and I an advised that I will get 1000kg container full of different products then the assumption is that I will add 1USD for each Kg to my moving average price for the freight cost.

What happens if, when we open the container there is only 900Kg and not 1000kg because some of the product is short! The cost is still the same but the distribution is not incorrect and I have 100 usd to account for.

The only thing that you can really do is book in what you planned and then return to vendor the shortage as a seperate transaction. Not a good solution.

[Former Member]

I'm not sure I am following entirely, but one thing I have come across is that a condition type configured as B for fixed value will change depending on the quantity (or based on configuration).

So if I place order for 1000, but delivery 900 and I wanted a flat rate of $100, the system would redetermine the cost to $90 because it is a ratio.

If this is what you are referring to, a user exit is required to trick the system into keeping the rate as a 'flat' rate and not a fixed rate. This is SAP standard and their recommendation is using the user exit.

[Former Member]

Almost everything can be fixed by a user exit but as a real world requirement SAP should offer this as a standard function. The reason be that this happen so frequently in international trade and shipping in particular.

[JuergenPitz]

Hi,

sorry, but I don't understand it either.

What is the calculation base in the condition type for the freight calculation? I would think that if it is C - Handling Unit, this should not happen.

Best regards

Juergen

[Former Member]

Hello

question is interesting..!!

when you say your cost is based on the shipment.is it based on the volume occupied or the weight of the shipment ..? correct me if my understanding is wrong and clarify.

if the cost is based on volume or weight yes of course system will calculate cost based on excess or shortage quantity in your shipment...

...lets exagarate..if found solution pls share..

-Venkat

[Former Member]

No feedback so I have closed