The output type for EDI.

[Former Member]

Dear guys

I have a question about the output type.

Regarding to below screenshot (in VV31) we have an option 2 - Send with job, with addintional time specification.

Does any one know where to set the time specification, and how it works? My aim is to setup batch output for customer once a week.

Thank you !

Kenny

[Jelena]

Kenny, I've been trying to explain that this "option 2" is not going to work for your requirements, but it feels like we're going in circles here. The reason it is not going to work is that you want this to be "set it and forget it" (i.e. schedule a job and be done with it), but, as I've explained, this option requires the job date/time to be specified in the documents. The job date/time can't be specified in advance in the condition record and certainly not in the customer master.

Your requirement may only be fulfilled if you find a way to schedule RSNAST00 in a background job and to set the parameters in such a way that it can tell the output for this "special customer" from all the other customers. But, as you see, there are only a few parameters available and none of them is for the customer (although not sure why because customer # is part of the key in NAST table).

Why don't you just create a new output type and use it just for this "special customer"? To make sure that the other output is not generated for this customer, a requirement routine will need to be added to that output (just a small piece of code).

Or you can create a copy of RSNAST00 program and add Customer as a parameter, for example.

Once in a very complex output scenario I actually had to write a small "wrapper" program that determined the document numbers based on complex criteria and then triggered RSNAST00 by document number. I wouldn't recommend this, but it is a possibility (the users actually liked the program).

As you see, all of these options require ABAP, but I don't think there is any way around this with your requirements. If you had background processing just for the "special customer" and immediate process for the rest, then it could be achieved by condition records. But if you need background processing on two different schedules then it's not feasible with the same output type/medium and without any enhancements.

[Jelena]

If you hit F1 (Help) button on this field, there is some explanation:

The individual possibilites are:
Time 1: The message is processed through report program RSNAST00. This report program can be scheduled periodically or started manually.
Time 2: As in time 1, but the message contains an earliest processing date and a requested processing time. The message is ignored by report program RSNAST00 before the requested date.

I've never actually used '2', but it seems that date/time will have to be specified in the invoice, which is not very efficient.

If you need to send EDI output separately from the print output, use '1' and then schedule a background job (SM36) with RSNAST00 and in the variant specify EDI medium. If this is just for one customer then it's more tricky though.

[Former Member]

Hi, Jelena

The problem is we have thousands of customers. Only some of them would like to receive Invoice once a week. If we change the method to '1' and set the background job, it will influence the default setting for all customers.

Don't know whether we can actually have the time specified for output '2'.

Kenny

[former_member1115366]

Consider adding a new key combination to the access sequence for condition records to your output type.

You would need at least two key combinations: 10 = Billing Type/Customer and  20 = Billing type.  Put access number 10 first in the sequence, marked as exclusive.

Create the condition records access number 10 with the customers that want billed weekly, and make the Date/Time field = “1 Send with periodically scheduled job”.  Create record for access 20 with Date/Time = 4 Send immediately.

Schedule your weekly job to generate the output from access number 10.

Regards,

Ken

[Jelena]

The standard access sequence 0005 already has these key combinations. If it fits business requirement to have scheduled processing only for these "weekly" customers and immediate output for the rest then using conditions will be sufficient. But this piece:

Schedule your weekly job to generate the output from access number 10.

is where it might get complicated. There is no parameter for RSNAST00 to process just the output "from access number 10". This program does not know how the output was created. (Also I should mention that output is actually "generated" when the invoice is created, condition records only drive the further processing - immediate or delayed).

So if the goal is to have scheduled job processing, but on a different schedule (e.g. weekly for some customers and daily for others - this is my guess based on the fact that OP was looking into using option 2) then additional effort will be needed to "signal" to RSNAST00 what to process when.

"Sort" field may be used to further separate output processing, but it requires additional development (that's why I mentioned it's "tricky").

To OP - when I choose option 2 in the invoice output, the job date/time must be specified there. I'm not sure this is suitable for mass processing.

[Former Member]

Hi Jelena

Your answer is quite close to my requirement.

In your screen I can see it's the output status for a single invoice. So how can we set the dispatch time in SAP? Actually when I do it in VV31 there's not input field for time.

I need this set for a specified customer(by customer code), and for specified duration.

Do you know where to set it?

Kenny

[former_member184701]

dear,

run VD02 for your customer, go to 'Documents' tab, find out your output type

and set up a Dispatch time

regards,

[Former Member]

Dear Mr. PPIO

I try VD02 and cannot find Documents tag.

Do you mean Extras->Documents?

Seems in this screen I cannot find the relevent type. Can you advise how to do?

Thanks!

Kenny

[Jelena]

I am also not finding anything like that in VD02...

[former_member800456]

Hi Kenny,

For your requirement, you may consider using SD70AV3A (Transaction VF31) and schedule periodic job for the Customer.

Hope this helps.

Regards,

Sridhar

[Former Member]

Hi Sridhar

Thanks. Can this implement to single customer or a small group of customer? The access right iscontrolled strickly in my company that I need to further check the solution before submit the testing request to our consultants.

Kenny