Collective/Single Billing and Invoice

[Former Member]

Collegues,

We have a direct customer.  They have over 700 buildings, which will be painted with our material and we'll need to ship material to each location.  Currently, we do this as any normal customer: 

1.  we receive the order,

2.  we ship the order and

3.  we bill for the order the day it ships. 

Unfortunately, the customer often returns extra material (for example, we send them 3 pallets, they only uses 2 pallets, and they want to return 1 pallet), so we provide them with a credit.  As such, on the customers side, their project manager needs to:

1.  approve the initial invoice we send them - so we can be paid, and

2.  approve the credit we send them, usually at a later date, which causing them twice the work for one building

The customer only wants to have one invoice for the material used - in this case for the 2 pallets and they don't want to deal with any additional credit/return paperwork.  As a result, what would you suggest is the best way to support this issue? 

[former_member211108 · Accepted solution]

Hello Basil,

Why don't you try the consignment sale process. With consignment process there will be complete track on your inventory, and as per stock consumption you can invoice to the customer.

Thanks and Regards,

Atulkumar Dagade

[former_member182378 · Accepted solution]

Atul,

Consignment process does not "match" the business requirement.

And there are certain disadvantages by pursuing your suggestion.

In consignment process, the goods are kept in the consignment warehouse. There is not consignment warehouse concept in the business process.

What would be reflected in inventory (MMBE)?

There would be lot of extra work - Twice sales orders, deliveries (for Consignment Fill Up and Consignment Issue) would have to be created in the system.

[former_member211108 · Accepted solution]

Hello TW,

I still feel that the Consignment could be one of the best approach to cater the said requirement.

Although there will be some additional transaction need to performed for this but that will be helpful to the business from transparency and traceability point of view.

Thanks and Regards,

Atul

[Former Member]

Thanks everyone. We think consignment will be the best fit in this case.

[Jelena]

It seems that in this case "devil is in the detail". When is the goods ownership transferred to the customer? How do you account for the inventory? How do you report sale/return?

These questions aside, I'd agree that easiest solution might be as TW suggested just to have a custom output. You'd still create an invoice and then a return in SAP but output won't go to the customer. Instead, at certain time (e.g. monthly) a "combined" output would be generated. I've seen a similar requirement before when a large customer demanded invoices to be sent in a very specific way and it was handled by a custom program that triggered a custom Smartform with a "summary" instead of multiple single invoices. It's really not difficult to do.

[former_member184065]

Dear,

I can say only thing as in your Case , Consignment Process doesnt helpful / fit to your Requirement .

Note : Do you have any distributor / dealer to sell / supply / ship the Goods to End Customer ?

If you have any doubts please let me know .

Thanks,

Naren

[Former Member]

Thanks for your answer. Look at this scenerio, is there a way to achieve this?

1. We create the sales order for the 3 Pallets

2. Create deliveries and shipment

3. Do NOT bill for this yet.

4. We create return (RE) for the 1 Pallet.

5. Create return delivery and do post goods receipts.

Now the question is can we just generate ONE invoice for all of these. This invoice will show the 3 pallets amount, the credit for the 1 pallet and the Balance the customer needs to pay.

Which means we bill it after the return and generate just ONE invoice that will show everything.

Is this possible?

[former_member184065]

Dear,

In this case , If Company agree as Moderator said , you can very well do as below .

VA01->VL01N->VF01 ( Proforma Invoice )

VA01 ( Returns Order based on Proforma Invoice ( it is proof for delivering the Goods to Customer ) ) then  VL01N and create Main Invoice .

If you have any doubts please let me know .

Thanks,

Naren

[former_member182378]

Basil,

Well explained post!

Thank you!

I think it is not possible to have one billing document with

- one line item for getting money from the customer (for Sale of goods)

- and another line item for giving money to the customer (for Return of goods)

Look in to t-code VOFA

Billing document F2 and RE

- The field SD document category is different (most important)

1. Can you explore the possibility of Invoice list? (many billing documents in one list)

2. Or else, the output (print out etc.) could contain the information of both the billing document and its return billing document. Check output determination, Form and output program.

[Former Member]

T W,

What is the invoice list? Will it be suitable for the objective here or what about the output you mentioned? Can you explain a bit more.

Thanks for your contribution.

[former_member182378]

Basil,

For more information on invoice list please search in Google.

If you have specific questions w.r.t. invoice list, please ask.

W.r.t. Output -

Do you want an approval from your customer on a "piece of paper" e.g.

Billing document #1 = 3EA, amount to be paid = 600USD

Billing document #2 = 1EA, amount to be paid = -200USD

Total amount to be paid = 400USD

This above information can be printed out (emailed etc.) to the customer.

The information on a form (paper), is output.

One paper would contain both documents information, thus the customer would have to approve one time (and not two times).

In SAP transaction level, two billing documents would have to be created.

One invoice and the second RE credit memo.

[Former Member]

Problem is how we want to bill it to customer.

The customer only wants to have one invoice for the material used 

My Vote is for to generate Invoice List as T W Suggested.Generate regural Invoice and return invoice.Genrate invoice list , Determine output type for invoice List having both invoice and credit memo and give print to customer.You can generate invoice list Daily/Weekly /Monthly as per customer requirement.So let say if customer want one bill for entire month,We have provision to generate only one Invoice list for entire month having list of all invoices in it.

Regards

Amit

[former_member186385]

Hi,

As suggested by Atul, please try with Consignment process

Initially create the Consignment fill-up with 3 pallets and deliver them, the stock lies with the customer consignment and till such time he uses

once you come to know that he used two pallets and he want to return one pallet, then you can create Issue order for one pallet using Consignment order and Bill only for the two and remaining one pallet, you can take to your stock using Consignment pick-up and there will be no billing after consignment pick up

hope it will suit your requirement

let me know your feedback

regards,

santosh

[Former Member]

We are trying this consignment process and I think it might work. But when we enter an order for consignment fill-up, I'm having incompletion log saying "Missing serial numbers". We don't you serial numbers for our materials except the SMTs (Machines). And what we are trying to do here is not for SMT. In fact it's showing incompletion for any materials I use.

I do I skip this serial number issue. We don't want to use serial number.

[former_member182378]

Basil,

If your business is not using serial numbers, then you can not use this functionality in SAP.

Check in Google, to know what changes you have to do (e.g. in MMR etc.) to avoid these kind of messages (during the creation of sales orders).

[Lakshmipathi]

You can generate proforma for prior approval and once it is approved, commercial invoice can be generated.

G. Lakshmipathi

[former_member182378]

G Lakshmipathi,

I donot think Proforma invoice suggestion would work.

The reason is that the requirement dictates that the quantity in the sales order should be different from the quantity in the billing document.

A proforma invoice (and the normal billing document) would populate the quantity of the sales order or of the delivery (depending upon F5 or F8)!

[Lakshmipathi]

TW

the quantity in the sales order should be different from the quantity in the billing document.

You can very well achieve via item category Billing relevance

G. Lakshmipathi

[former_member182378]

G Lakshmipathi,

Yes technically with some item categories, the quantity in the billing document could be changed.

But from your experience, could you comment / advice on - "the quantity in the sales order and the billing document are different"

(from trace-ability perspective, best practice perspective)

(This subject does not involve the concept of invoice split)

[Lakshmipathi]

TW

the quantity in the sales order and the billing document are different

Yes I came across in few manufacturing industries where the process would be order related billing and the user while creating billing document, they reduced the quantity.  Needless to mention, if it is delivery related, invariably, the order quantity and billing quantity would differ.

G. Lakshmipathi

[former_member182378]

G Lakshmipathi,

Thank you for your post!

In this particular scenario, the delivery quantity and the billing quantity is some times different.

The company has delivered 3EA but the billing document is created for 2EA.

Because 1EA has been returned.

In this case would you still recommend that the billing quantity should be "adjusted"?

In other words, the sales and return should be "combined" in to one billing document (reflected in the quantity)?

[Former Member]

T W and Lakshmipathi,

Thanks for the discussions. So are we saying this will not be possible the way I thought I should do it? Is the verdict consignment process?

How is that done?

[former_member182378]

Basil,

Is the verdict consignment process?

You (or your team) would have to take that decision.

I would suggest you read about and understand the consignment process very well.

Then check if this process fits your requirement(s).

[former_member184065]

Dear,

I am confusing on this Requirement .

Check below points .

VA01->VL01N->VT01N.VF01    ( Debit to Customer  )  3 Pallets

VF01->VA01.-VL01N->VF01    ( Credit to Customer )   1 Pallets

Please let me know your Comments on this as detail .

Thanks,

Naren