CO PY RI GH TE D MA TE RI Introduction to Sales and Distribution AL Chapter 1
Chapter 1 W elcome to the world of SAP Sales and Distribution! In this chapter, we will start with the basics about the SAP ERP system. We will discuss the various application areas and how they are structured. You will see that there are different menus offered to end users (who have to run transactions) and administrators (who configure or set up the system). We will introduce some basic transactions that you will need to know before you proceed with the rest of the book.
First Steps in SAP Next we’ll cover the first steps in accessing SAP. As we go through the application in this book, we will discuss each step in further detail. First Steps in SAP We’ll now discuss some of the basic menus, screens, and transactions that you need to know when you log on to SAP. As we go along, we will also discuss the various features and applications that appear on each screen and how they relate to each other. This will help you understand the concepts better.
C h a p t e r 1 • I n t r o d u c t i o n t o Sa l e s a n d D i s t r i b u t i o n SAP ERP offers several business applications. As you can see, the major application areas in this menu are Accounting, Human Resources, and Logistics: Accounting If you drill down this menu, you will find diverse applications listed. Some of them are for financial accounting/controlling (FI/CO), financial supply chain management, and Project Systems (PS).
First Steps in SAP N O T E A transaction code is a shortcut to a specific transaction in SAP. The menu path described would also lead you to the same destination. Whenever a transaction code is available, we will mention it alongside the path. You will also find a list of important transaction codes in the appendix. This transaction code leads you to the Display IMG screen, as shown in Figure 1.2. You will find a menu with the various applications listed.
C h a p t e r 1 • I n t r o d u c t i o n t o Sa l e s a n d D i s t r i b u t i o n The focus of this book is the Sales and Distribution application. However, to complete the configuration steps, we will also touch upon some of the other topics, listed in IMG, under the nodes: ff Enterprise Structure ff Logistics – General ff Logistics Execution In this book, we cover all the important settings that an SD expert should know.
First Steps in SAP F i g u r e 1. 3 Creating a sales order F i g u r e 1. 4 Create Standard Order: Overview screen The sales document consists of header, item, and schedule line data. At the header level, you specify the details that are applicable to the entire document, such as the customer number (sold-to party) and the purchase order reference number. At the item level, you enter the products ordered.
C h a p t e r 1 • I n t r o d u c t i o n t o Sa l e s a n d D i s t r i b u t i o n quantity, and item price, and so on, will be different on each line. The schedule line data pertains to delivery-related details such as delivery dates and delivery quantities. You’ll use master data at every step of the transaction. Data about your regular customers or the products and services offered are examples of master data. You have to maintain the repository of master data before using it in transactions.
First Steps in SAP Another screen is the Texts tab, which appears at the header and item levels. The menu path is either Goto ➢ Header ➢ Text or Goto ➢ Item ➢ Text. Here you store all the text messages and instructions (as shown in Figure 1.6) that you want to flow with the order. F i g u r e 1. 6 Sales order: Header Data, Texts tab You can customize the setup for partners, texts, and outputs as per your requirements.
C h a p t e r 1 • I n t r o d u c t i o n t o Sa l e s a n d D i s t r i b u t i o n To see how the exact price has been computed for a sales item, select Goto ➢ Item ➢ Conditions. As shown in Figure 1.7, the pricing schema gives you the details of the various pricing conditions in it. Pricing conditions are things such as base prices, discounts, freight conditions, or taxes. Certain pricing conditions can apply to the entire order (such as total freight charges).
First Steps in SAP F i g u r e 1. 8 Availability Control F i g u r e 1. 9 Sales order: Schedule Lines tab We have now covered some of the major screens in a sales order. Other sales documents may also need to be configured to meet different business processes. For example, you may have separate sales documents for returns or for presales such as inquiries and quotations. Chapter 7, “Sales,” will discuss the setup of sales documents for various business scenarios.
C h a p t e r 1 • I n t r o d u c t i o n t o Sa l e s a n d D i s t r i b u t i o n Creating a Delivery To create a delivery, use the menu path SAP Menu ➢ Logistics ➢ Logistics Execution ➢ Outbound Process ➢ Goods Issue For Outbound Delivery ➢ Outbound Delivery ➢ Create ➢ Single Document ➢ With Reference to Sales Order (VL01N). On this screen, you specify the shipping point (which is another organizational unit related to your plant), as shown in Figure 1.10. F i g u r e 1.
First Steps in SAP F i g u r e 1.11 Delivery Overview screen Creating a Billing Document The last step in the sales cycle is to bill the customer for the goods delivered or the service rendered. To create a billing document, the path is as follows: SAP Menu ➢ Logistics ➢ Sales And Distribution ➢ Billing ➢ Billing Document ➢ Create (VF01). A billing document is created with reference to either a sales order or a delivery.
C h a p t e r 1 • I n t r o d u c t i o n t o Sa l e s a n d D i s t r i b u t i o n Again, you will observe that all the critical data is copied over from the reference document. We mentioned the areas of pricing, outputs, and text in the context of sales documents. These also appear in the subsequent documents such as deliveries and billing documents. Chapter 9, “Billing,” focuses exclusively on billing documents. After a billing document is created, it is released to accounting.
Da t a b a s e Ta b l e s F i g u r e 1.13 Using Help Clicking the Technical Information button at the bottom of the Help screen gives you more technical data about this field, such as the table name (VBAK) and field name (NETWR) where the data in this field is stored. We will discuss the technical topics such as database tables in the next section of this chapter. SAP Help is also available on the Web at http://help.sap.com.
C h a p t e r 1 • I n t r o d u c t i o n t o Sa l e s a n d D i s t r i b u t i o n The first step is to know the important table names—at least the names of the tables commonly used in the SD application. Table 1.1 lists some of the most important tables. Once again, for convenience of understanding, we have tried to arrange them according to the transactions in the basic sales cycle. The appendix contains a list of all the important tables related to SD.
Da t a b a s e Ta b l e s can carry out a search based on any of the parameters listed. For example, you may want to find all the sales orders created on a specific date. F i g u r e 1.14 Data Browser: Selection Screen After entering the selection criteria, click the Execute button . SAP will fetch the database record and display it on the screen.
C h a p t e r 1 • I n t r o d u c t i o n t o Sa l e s a n d D i s t r i b u t i o n F i g u r e 1.15 Data Browser: record display On the selection screen, you can change or add more selection parameters if the standard list does not meet your requirements. From the menu on the top of the screen, select Settings ➢ Fields For Selection. Then, from the list of fields, select the ones you need to be displayed as selection criteria.
Da t a b a s e Ta b l e s F i g u r e 1.16 User-Specific Settings for the Data Browser F i g u r e 1.
C h a p t e r 1 • I n t r o d u c t i o n t o Sa l e s a n d D i s t r i b u t i o n You will need to be familiar with field names to communicate effectively with your technical team. Furthermore, as we will discuss in Chapter 14, if you ever need to create a custom enhancement in SAP, you will need all the technical information, such as table and field names. T I P Note that there is new version of the standard data browser (SE16), called SE16N.
M a n ag i n g C u s t o m i z at i o n C h a n g e s ABAP Dictionary While we are on the subject of tables and fields, we’ll talk about another transaction code that you should know about. It is technical in nature, but it will help you understand the underlying structure of the tables we discussed earlier. To access this transaction, the path is as follows: SAP Menu ➢ Tools ➢ ABAP Workbench ➢ Development ➢ ABAP Dictionary (SE11). Figure 1.18 shows the Dictionary: Display Table view for VBAK.
C h a p t e r 1 • I n t r o d u c t i o n t o Sa l e s a n d D i s t r i b u t i o n The System Landscape The system landscape is the arrangement of the various servers. A generic system landscape consists of a production system (the one in which all the operations of the organization are carried out) plus other systems such as development and quality assurance systems.
M a n ag i n g C u s t o m i z at i o n C h a n g e s F i g u r e 1.19 System landscape example DEV QAS PRD F i g u r e 1. 2 0 Transport request number The data related to the change is stored in the transport request. This helps in controlling and tracking the change. The transport request can be moved from one system to another so that the same change is carried out in other systems.
C h a p t e r 1 • I n t r o d u c t i o n t o Sa l e s a n d D i s t r i b u t i o n Case Study Overview: Galaxy Musical Instruments Throughout this book, we will use a case study of a fictitious company, called Galaxy Musical Instruments, which is a trading company that deals in musical instruments as well as related media and accessories. Galaxy has operations in the United States and Mexico.
S u mma r y F i g u r e 1. 2 2 Transport Organizer screen Summary This chapter offered an overview of the SAP ERP system and the various applications contained in it. We covered the basic menu used to access transactions and the Customizing menu used to configure the system. We also covered the basic sales cycle in SAP and other important transaction codes that will be needed throughout the SD application area.