Virtual Plant for Imports - Pros n Cons

[Former Member]

Hi All Gurus, I have a requirement from business for Exports and Imports. Now for Imports, potential solution that was discussed includes creating a virtual plant for imports. I need to know the pros and cons for the same from the Sales point of view.

[jignesh_mehta3]

Hello Ameet,

Virtual Plant is a good solution for Imports, specially in India, where Goods are lying at Port (Customs Bonded Warehouse) but you can  take delivery only when you pay Import Duties & Taxes.

We have implemented this at a Client site & it is working well. The biggest plus point is the the Stock of Material is visible in system (because without Vitual Plant the situation is you have already paid for the material, but the stock value is not visible in system).

Another plus point you can see Imported Stock lying at your Plant & at Port (Customs Warehouse) in your system clearly. The Import duties paid by you will be accounted for in Stock Transfer Order from Virtual Plant to normal Plant & so it will be loaded to Material cost.

Thanks,

JIgnesh Mehta

[Former Member]

Hi Jignesh

I have a similar requirement where I am considering the of virtual plants.  The business is now looking to only recognise revenue at the point determined by the incoterm on the delivery.  This means that in the normal sales flow when we PGI we must not account for the sale until we know the ownership has passed to the buyer.  We can do this on the FI side, however the plant needs to be able to see the goods 'in transit' even though they have left the warehouse.

We need to PGI but still see the stock as company owned stock.  The inventory needs to be moved from finished goods shipping area to stock in transit.  I thought a virtual plant scenario would work here but haven't figured out how to configure this.

Any Ideas?

Mark

[Former Member]

, could you please brief the steps in the Virtual Plant. Upon receiving goods in Port what entries were made in system and what steps for sending to main plant.

Sorry for opening an outdated post.

[Former Member]

Ameet,

Creating a Virtual Plant can be done. You can take delivery of goods physically at a Real Plant/Customer Location... and in SAP you can show the cycle as import at the virtual Plant and then sales / STO from this location to the plant/customer location.

the Biggest thing that needs to be of concern in this scenario is of Physical Goods Audit i.e. the business / Operations teams needs to maintain ZERO Stock at the Virtual Plant at end of each month. So that if the Monthly/ Half yearly audit happens, there should not be a situation where in SAP goods are being shown and in reality there is no such location present... Wrong representation of Goods and inventory.

[Former Member]

Ameet,

Yes you can create a virtual plant and sell the materials, as you can do from a actual plant.

Only thing is you need to purchase the materials to be sold to customers or need to do intercompany transfers if it is from a different company code.

thanks,

Venkat Cheedalla