Signature on POD file sent to SAP

[Former Member]

We have received a requirement from the business to provide a IOD( confirmation of delivery ) information when goods are delivered to our customers by our transportation carriers, the first scope of this project was to update the delivery document with actual delivery date and time, we have already started mapping for this requirement, now they have added a further requirement, they now need the person that signed the goods posted in SAP, now the signature but at least the name of the consignee or something

I have checked IDOC type DELVRY03 to see if there any segments that could handle this, did not find anything suitable, so the question is, can you possibly have this type of information ( name of the person that signed the goods) in the delivery document and how to go about doing this

Thanks

[moazzam_ali · Accepted solution]

so the question is, can you possibly have this type of information ( name of the person that signed the goods) in the delivery document and how to go about doing this

Name of the person that signed the goods mean the person who issued the good (PGI) or the person who received it at customer site? If it is issuer then it is already being maintained in SAP system and you can get this info from LIKP and LIPS. If it is the person who received the goods then he can give his receiving on some delivery note print which you can attach in VLPOD. I hope you have checked VLPOD in details. If not then please check this.

Thank$

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Just to let you know, we do not use the full POD functionality in SAP, they do not want billing information blocked before we receive POD and i am sure they dont want to do any manual work, they want everything to be imported via the message from the carrier ( the confirmation of delivery details  is the person who receives the goods at the customer site by the way)

[moazzam_ali · Accepted solution]

Hi

Without using POD standard functionality how could we update the information in system? I don't know about IDocs. May be some IDocs expert could help you but again information would be entered in SAP through message or manually but where? Proof of delivery is confirmed in VLPOD. Without using standard functionality there will be some ABAP solution like one I have explained in my below document.

Thank$

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

It was part of the requirement not to use the full SAP functionality for POD so this process will have to be customised, we were actually thinking of creating a new tab in the delivery document and call it POD and populate this with fields i.e actual delivery date, delivery time, name of consignee/ or who signed the goods, nothing SAP standard, so like you pointed out, another issue i just found out today was the partner sends this information via csv files and not xml as we require, so there might have to be conversions from csv to xml

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Just read your article regarding POD, this might actually be the solution to our issue, we definitely have to add a new tab in the delivery document like you did and call it POD data which will have the actual delivery date, time, probably the signature

[moazzam_ali · Accepted solution]

Hi

Yes you can add a tab in delivery order or invoice. I have mentioned the process of how to do it in invoice and there is a link which describes the step by step process for your developer. For delivery order there must be some other program/screens for this which your ABAPER can find out.

I have two concerns here. If you can't use standard POD functionality it means you create invoice before customers send you actual POD date and time etc. In this case why would you maintain actual POD in delivery order? Who not in invoice like I did. If invoice is created after actual POD then why don't you use standard POD functionality.

My 2nd concern is that how do the customer send csv file? Which medium they use to send this information and what would you do with xml file? How would you enter information in relevant fields in SAP?

Thank$

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

as it is today, we sell through a distributor which uses a carrier to deliver the goods to end customer, we have full interface with the distributor, so they use an external delivery number for our goods which we have mapped into our SAP delivery number, we send out desadv and we receive shipping confirmation from the distributor, as it is today, we do not receive any POD via the carrier / distributor but as finance have made this a requirement to receive confirmation of goods, the carrier has the possibilty to send this info via an csv file( there is a meeting tomorrow to discuss using xml rather than csv as it is easier to map through this medium, should know the outcome of the meeting tomorrow at some point)

you raised some good points about maintaining POD in the billing document rather than delivery, only reason why we want to have it in the delivery document is due to the fact i have seen some raw data of this confirmatio of delivery file sent by the carrier and it seems we can only map it via the external delivery number but at the same time, we should be able to map this to the billing document as well

[moazzam_ali · Accepted solution]

Hi Mark

Thank you for explaining this in detail. Now you have got your solution. It is not up to you whether to go for delivery order or billing document and for csv file or xml. Process is cleared and understood now.

Only one thing which you didn't tell me is that how would you enter POD data from CSV or XML file into SAP and in relevant fields?

Thank$

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

We have a PI guy that will help with the mapping, we will probably have to create some inbound idoc message based on STPPOD, probably have to customise this, some user exist as well created by our abap resource, we have already identified the fields in SAP we need populated, the idoc segment will only be header details using E1EDL20 , delivery number, external delivery number, proof of delivery date and confirmation time, also we need to find a way of attaching the signature/ name of person that received the goods, that is a requirement as well

Thanks

[moazzam_ali · Accepted solution]

Lets see if your PI guy can help in this. You can also do this with an upload program and a background schedule job. Make an upload to enter POD information in all relevant fields and schedule this upload on some specific time. System would automatically pick information from that file which you receive from customers and will update in SAP periodically. See which solution suits you best.

Thank$