SAP RE-FX | Freely Definable Service Charges

[Former Member]

Hello RE-FX experts,

I have a requirement to freely define an amount to be apportioned to Rental Objects as Service Charges.

For example:

At the beginning of the year, the client forecasts they’ll spend £1,000,000 on Building 100. As per agreement with its tenant, this figure will be apportioned to each occupied Rental Object within that building. As per the configuration of the Settlement Unit- this figure will be apportioned for instance monthly and calculated by the measurement of each Rental Object.

I am struggling to understand how a freely definable figure can be apportioned through the use of Settlement Units (using Participation Groups) within SAP RE-FX.

One potential method would be to configure a new Settlement Key, in config and prepopulate its value as per Sq mt- although I believe there must be a superior approach?

Many thanks,

Saul

[amarendar · Accepted solution]

Hi Saul John,

You have two options to achieve it. Both part of standard REFX solution

1. Service Charge Settlement configuration

2. CAM Expense Recovery

I will suggest to go for CAM Expense Recovery solution, it is more flexible and has more functionalities over SCS and going forward SAP is planning to discontinue service charge.

Once you have decided with the options, you may put specific doubts, I will be glad to assist.

Regards,

Amar

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hello Amar,

Many thanks for your initial reply it is much appreciated. I have read up on CAM Expense Recovery and have the following two questions:

1. I cannot find CAM Expense Recovery in SPRO or its transactions? We are on EHP7 for SAP ERP 6.0, is it part of an add-on?

2. Furthermore we have a requirement to bill tenants a set amount per Square Metre for Cleaning. I had planned to create Condition in each tenant’s contract for Cleaning, with a set amount defined by object measurement- however was also experimenting with SCS due to the flexibility of Participation Groups (as there are a lot of tenants). What would you suggest in this scenario- can CAM be utilised instead of SCS, or should Contract Conditions be used?

Kind regards,

Saul

[amarendar · Accepted solution]

Hi Saul,

For the 1st point I will get back to you.

For the second point, yes CAM is meant to take care of such scenarios. You will be separately send an invoice to tenant for the cleaning amount. And yes, based on area of the RO (specific measurement type) you will be able to divide the total cleaning expense among he tenants falling in a particular participation group.

Regards

Amar

[Former Member]

Any update Amar?

Thanks,

Saul

[amarendar]

Hi Saul,

I do not find anything specific for CAM recovery activation.

In my system it is available and below Business function are activated, request you to ensure that these business functions are also activated in your system.

[Former Member]

Hello Amar,

I have used SCS functionality before, but only to apportion a fixed amount per object measurement. What are the steps to apportion a specified amount in a Settlement Unit?

Many thanks again,

Saul John

[amarendar]

Hi Saul,

I was on vacation, that's why delay in reply.

Request you to give an example of your requirement.

Regards,

Amar

[Former Member]

Hello Amar,

Example to be solved via SCS:

At the beginning of the year, Person A forecasts they’ll spend £10,000,000 on Building A. As per agreement with its tenant, this figure will be apportioned to each occupied Rental Object within that building as per their measurement.

We need to periodically bill tenants and at year reconcile actuals against the initial forecast if required. 

Many thanks,

Saul

[amarendar]

Hi Saul,

Ideally the process of SCS works as:

1. Collection of advance from each tenant based on budget value. This will be done by adding SCS condition in the contract.

2. Creation of SC key, participation group and adding all RO in participation group.

3. Booking of actual expense with respect to SC key in FI.

4. At the year end, execute the service charge settlement, this will consider the advance collected and the actuals spent for each RO and eventually creating an invoice or credit memo in the system.

Regards

Amar

P.S. - CAM gives you an advantage that you can run the settlement for an individual contract in the event of contract termination.

[Former Member]

My client is in a position where they want to bill Service Charges periodically and do not take advances, for example at £20 per sq mt- on a quarterly basis.

Is there a way to set up a Condition on the Rental Object- and if it’s occupied pass on to tenant from contract, if not post against Cost Centre?

Can this be achieved?

Also can the above be achieved without advances?

Many thanks,

Saul

[amarendar]

Hi Saul,

You are mixing two things, vacancy posting and common area maintenance.

For the vacant RO, you may use the vacancy posting concept and set up the condition value to take care of common area maintenance value.

But if you do this, it will have no link to the actual maintenance expenses (posted from FI)

Now coming to setting a condition in contract, you may be able to do a periodic posting and invoicing but it will have no link or connection to the actual expense postings.

I suggested earlier, go for CAM, your requirement can be achieved using CAM & Vacancy postings.

CAM is introduced to overcome issues with SCS.

Regards,

Amar

[Former Member]

Hello Amar,

I really appreciate your help so far, to be clear CAM doesn’t seem to feasible I spoke to my Basis team and

SAP and they can’t assist- so that’s off the table (for now)

Furthermore it is not of paramount importance to have an actual link to FI- we will record actuals against a specified cost centre and reconcile manually at contract end.

Taking the above into consideration (no CAM and manual reconcile), what would you recommend when setting up a freely definable Service Charge to be apportioned to tenants when occupied or Cost Centres when vacant- without taking advances (treated as periodic processing)

Much appreciated,

Saul

[amarendar]

Hi Saul,

Give me some time a day or two, I will propose something to suit this scenario.

Regards,

Amar