PUBLIC
Document Version: 1.0 – 2017-06-16
SAP Flexible Solution Billing
Content
1 SAP Flexible Solution Billing 1.0.................................................4
2 Changes and New Features in SAP Flexible Solution Billing 1.0..........................6
3 The Flexible Billing Process.................................................... 7
4 Grouping Documents to be Billed Together........................................ 8
4.1 Working with Invoice Groups.....................................................8
4.2 Billing Cycles................................................................11
4.3 Reference Values.............................................................12
5 Controlling the Flexible Billing Process...........................................14
5.1 Working with Invoice Proles.................................................... 14
5.2 Roles in Flexible Solution Billing.................................................. 15
6 Invoice Packages and the Parking Process........................................16
6.1 Working with Invoice Packages...................................................17
6.2 Working with Parked Invoices....................................................19
6.3 Combination of Parked Invoices..................................................20
6.4 Splitting of Parked Invoices.....................................................20
6.5 Cancellation of Parked Invoices and Items...........................................21
6.6 Manual Changes in Parked Invoices and Invoice Items.................................. 22
7 Handling External Data.......................................................24
7.1 Uploading External Data to External Due List.........................................25
7.2 Monitoring External Data ...................................................... 25
7.3 Deleting External Data ........................................................25
8 Review and Approval Process..................................................26
8.1 Automatic Blocking for Review...................................................27
8.2 Approval at Invoice Level.......................................................27
8.3 Approval at Item Level.........................................................28
8.4 Handling of Pending and Rejected Invoices and Items...................................28
8.5 Email Approval..............................................................29
9 Posting Legal Invoices.......................................................30
10 Flexible Formatting..........................................................31
10.1 Access Sequence Structure for Formatting..........................................31
10.2 Working with Format Settings................................................... 33
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SAP Flexible Solution Billing
Content
10.3 Format Settings for Optional Splitting..............................................33
10.4 Format Settings for Sorting.....................................................34
10.5 Format Settings for Print Forms..................................................35
11 Output and Additional Documents..............................................37
12 Integration with SAP Convergent Invoicing....................................... 38
12.1 Process Overview............................................................39
12.2 Single Transfer to SD Invoices....................................................41
12.3 Mass Transfer to SD Invoices....................................................41
12.4 Transfer by Invoice Group...................................................... 42
12.5 Cancellation Process..........................................................43
12.6 Partner Settlement...........................................................43
Single Transfer to Accounts Payable Document.................................... 45
Mass Transfer to Accounts Payable Document.....................................46
Accounts Payable Document Reversal...........................................47
12.7 Payment by Payment Cards.....................................................47
13 Operations Information......................................................49
13.1 Archiving..................................................................49
13.2 Application Log............................................................. 49
SAP Flexible Solution Billing
Content
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1 SAP Flexible Solution Billing 1.0
Product Information
Table 1:
Product SAP Flexible Solution Billing
Release 1.0
Based On Any one of the enhancement packages:
● SAP enhancement package 6 for SAP ERP 6.0 with SAP
NetWeaver 7.31,
● SAP enhancement package 7 for SAP ERP 6.0 with SAP
NetWeaver 7.4 or
● SAP enhancement package 8 for SAP ERP 6.0 with SAP
NetWeaver 7.5
Documentation Published June 2017
Use
SAP Flexible Solution Billing augments and extends the periodic billing process in SAP Sales and Distribution
(SD). The solution provides the means to streamline and consolidate the billing process by creating, to the
greatest extent possible, a single invoice for the data to be billed in one billing period. Internal data from SAP
SD Billing is gathered and channeled for billing in specied billing cycles. Moreover, billing data from other SAP
applications, external SAP systems, and other legacy systems can be integrated into the unied billing process
in SAP Flexible Solution Billing. Wherever possible, the solution also combines this internal billing data with
external billing data in one legal invoice.
Features
Ecient Bundling of Billing Documents
Invoice groups allow you to automatically group billing documents that are to be billed and combined together
in one billing period. Billing documents are assigned to invoice groups on the basis of customer-dened
criteria.
Controlling the Flexible Billing Process
In addition to determining which billing documents are to be billed together, you can also specify how these
documents are processed. Each invoice group has an invoice prole that controls important aspects of the
overall new billing process.
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SAP Flexible Solution Billing
SAP Flexible Solution Billing 1.0
Increased Flexibility with Invoice Parking
The solution allows you to “park” invoices before initiating the creation of legal invoices. This new intermediate
step in the billing process makes it possible to combine, as far as possible, invoice data created at dierent
times and originating from dierent applications or systems. The parking phase also allows you to modify the
content and format of invoices before legal invoices are posted. Invoices and their items can still be canceled
during this interim phase. When processing has been completed, legal invoices are created as copies of the
parked invoices.
Review and Approval Process
The new parking phase in the billing process makes it possible to establish a review or an approval process at
invoice or invoice item level or both. Processing can be halted automatically to accommodate any necessary
clarications and corrections before nal legal invoices are created. The progress of the approval process can
also be centrally monitored.
Flexible Formatting and Additional Documents
You can create format settings for splitting, sorting, and print forms and assign them exibly based on sales
organization, customer, and invoice group, as required. Invoice overviews and invoice itemizations, which are
additional, non-legal documents, are available to provide supplemental information about posted invoices.
Integration with SAP Convergent Invoicing
High-volume, aggregated consumption billing data can be transferred from SAP Convergent Invoicing (CI) for
subsequent invoice processing using standard SAP SD Billing or SAP Flexible Solution Billing which also allows
payment card processing for consumption billing data. As a result, you can utilize the pre-processing and billing
structures for consumption data that are available in SAP Accounts Receivable and Payable (FI-CA), but then
complete the invoicing in SD and the accounting process in Accounts Receivable (FI-AR).
Partner Settlement
Revenue sharing and partner settlement, or simply partner settlement solution allows you to settle the charges
with the partner for the use of its products, services, infrastructure and so on by the customer. This settlement
amount is a part of the invoice created for the customer. The aggregated consumption billing data for the
partner can be transferred from SAP Convergent Invoicing (CI) to accounts payable using SAP Flexible Solution
Billing. As a result, you can utilize the preprocessing and billing structures for consumption data that are
available in SAP Contract Accounts Receivable and Payable (FI-CA) and complete the invoicing and accounting
in Accounts Payable
SAP Flexible Solution Billing
SAP Flexible Solution Billing 1.0
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2 Changes and New Features in SAP
Flexible Solution Billing 1.0
This section of SAP Library provides an overview of the changes and new features that have been introduced in
SAP Flexible Solution Billing 1.0 and have been made available with the support packages.
Table 2: SAP Flexible Billing Solution 1.0
Change More Information Relevant Support Package
Enhancement of Creating Parked Invoi
ces functionality to allow manual selec
tion of the billable items to be parked
from the Universal Billing Due List.
Working with Parked Invoices [page
19]
Support Package 03
Enhancement of Parking of External Data
functionality to enable upload, monitor
ing and deletion of external data.
Uploading External Data to External
Due List [page 25]
Monitoring External Data [page 25]
Deleting External Data [page 25]
Support Package 03
Enhancement of Integration with SAP
Convergent Invoicing to allow payment
card processing for consumption billing
data.
Integration with SAP Convergent In
voicing [page 38]
Support Package 03
A new feature to facilitate settlement of
charges with the partner for the use of its
products, services, infrastructure and so
on.
Partner Settlement [page 43] Support Package 03
A new functionality to enable payments
using payment cards for Convergent In
voicing (CI) transactions invoiced
through Sales and Distribution (SD) bill
ing interface.
Payment by Payment Cards [page
47]
Support Package 03
A new functionality to allow manual se
lection of the output format of the in
voice, overview, or itemization.
Manual Changes in Parked Invoices
and Invoice Items [page 22]
Support Package 02
A new feature to facilitate the approver to
receive oine or online approval request
email to approve or reject the parked in
voice.
Email Approval [page 29] Support Package 02
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SAP Flexible Solution Billing
Changes and New Features in SAP Flexible Solution Billing 1.0
3 The Flexible Billing Process
The basic process implemented in SAP Flexible Solution Billing entails the creation of parked invoices on the
basis of documents to be billed. These documents can originate in SAP SD Billing, other SAP applications,
external SAP systems, or other legacy systems.
Parked invoices are collected in invoice packages that are part of invoice groups. During the parking phase,
review, approval, cancellation, and other modications of the parked invoices can be performed. The parking
phase ends on the billing run date for the respective invoice group. This is the date on which legal invoices are
created on the basis of the nal status of the parked invoices in the invoice package.
The following steps describe this general process in more detail:
1. Each document that is to be billed must receive a reference value. Using these reference values, the
documents can be assigned to invoice groups. This makes it possible to group together documents to be
processed together.
2. Once documents have been assigned to an invoice group, parked invoices are created.
3. Parked invoices are created in the current package for the invoice group. Depending upon such factors as
split criteria, a document to be billed may result in one or several parked invoices. The invoice group’s
package is open for additional parked invoices or invoice items until the billing run date for the group.
4. During the parking phase for an invoice package, the following activities can take place:
○ Creation and combination of additional parked invoices
○ Cancellation of invoices or items or both in parked invoices
○ Review of package contents by invoice group owner
○ Invoice approval or item approval, or both, as required
○ Formatting, such as the manual sorting of items in parked invoices and print form selection
○ Print preview of package content at the level of individual invoices, at package level as an overview, or
including detailed information as an itemization
5. Legal invoices are posted on the billing run date calculated for the invoice group. The invoice group receives
a new package that is ready to receive documents to be billed for the next billing cycle.
An important aspect of the process in SAP Flexible Solution Billing is the capacity to provide both automated
processing and points at which business users can step in and work directly with invoice data. The creation and
assignment of parked invoices and the posting of legal invoices can be performed for mass data using
scheduled batch jobs that run in the background. In addition to these automated processing steps, the parking
phase provides a exible interim time frame during which it is possible for business users to take a closer look
at the invoice content and evaluate it as required.
SAP Flexible Solution Billing
The Flexible Billing Process
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4 Grouping Documents to be Billed
Together
One of the central features of SAP Flexible Solution Billing is its capability of automatically grouping the
documents that are to be billed together within a designated time period. Invoice groups serve as containers
for gathering together a set of documents to be processed in a billing cycle. Parked invoices can be created on
the basis of internal billing documents from SAP SD Billing, billing data from other SAP applications, other SAP
systems, and other legacy systems. The billing documents are assigned to invoice groups by means of
reference values.
Related Information
Working with Invoice Groups [page 8]
Billing Cycles [page 11]
Reference Values [page 12]
Invoice Packages and the Parking Process [page 16]
4.1 Working with Invoice Groups
Invoice groups in SAP Flexible Solution Billing make it possible to organize and consolidate the documents to
be invoiced. The way in which you dene your invoice groups determines the following:
● Which documents are to be billed together, by using reference values
● How documents are processed, by using invoice proles
● When documents are invoiced, by means of billing cycles that determine the time frame and frequency of
the billing process
Reference values are used to assign documents to invoice groups. Reference values can be dened to
correspond with the criteria that your organization uses to group together billing documents. Documents to be
invoiced in SAP Flexible Solution Billing must have a reference value. The documents are assigned to invoice
groups, which in turn have a matching reference value. Using reference values, both internal SD documents
and billing data from external systems can be assigned to an invoice group and combined as far as possible to
achieve a single legal invoice at the end of processing.
Invoice proles determine important aspects of the invoice processing itself. Each invoice group has an invoice
prole. The prole determines, for example, whether or not invoice approval is required as part of the billing
process.
The billing cycle for an invoice group depends upon both the invoice group’s validity period and a date
calculation rule. These factors determine the billing run date. This is the date on which legal invoices are
created.
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Grouping Documents to be Billed Together
Finally, each valid invoice group has an invoice package. The package is where the preliminary, parked invoices
are gathered during the invoice group’s billing cycle. On the calculated billing run date, legal invoices are
created, and the invoice package is completed. Then the cycle can begin again with a new invoice package in
the invoice group for the next set of documents to be billed.
Roles in SAP Flexible Solution Billing are assigned at invoice group level. Each invoice group has at least one
invoice group owner. The creator of an invoice group is always automatically assigned as an owner. If approval
is required, approvers must also be assigned at invoice group level.
Main Parameters for Invoice Groups
The detailed view of an invoice group provides you with the following important information:
Table 3:
Invoice group number Unique identifying number that is assigned automatically
when an invoice group is created.
Invoice prole Identies the assigned invoice prole. The prole name is
shown as a link; choosing this link displays the prole set
tings.
Validity period The combination of the Valid From and Valid To elds deter
mines the time frame in which the invoice group can be used
for the billing process. If an invoice group is no longer valid,
preliminary, parked invoices can no longer be created. How
ever, direct processing without the creation of parked invoi
ces is still executed.
Consolidation currency A common currency to be used to display the net value of an
invoice package. This is relevant especially if a package con
tains parked invoices with dierent document currencies.
Note that if no value is displayed, this means that the default
setting is in eect.
Billing cycle This consists of the date calculation rule. This may also in
volve use of oset days or a factory calendar.
Invoice overview A number of elds shown under this heading are relevant
only if an invoice overview is required as part of processing.
This depends upon settings made in the invoice prole.
Reference values The Reference Values tab shows which reference values are
currently assigned to an invoice group and allows to you in
sert and delete these values.
Roles The Roles tab shows the users who are assigned to an in
voice group as owner or approver.
Notes Displays any comments or additional information added by
users; notes can also be changed and added at this level.
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Grouping Documents to be Billed Together
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Package history The Package History button opens a view of the completed
packages for the invoice group. This view also lists the legal
invoices that were created for the previous packages.
Current package Using the More button, you can choose the Display Package
option to access the current package for an invoice group.
If a package has not yet been created for the invoice group,
the More button also includes the option Create Package,
and allows you to create a new package manually for the in
voice group.
Change history Using the More button, you can choose the Display Changes
option. This view lists any modications made for an invoice
group, such as changes in role assignments, assigned refer
ence values, etc. The view also shows who changed the data
and when.
Assigned sales documents Using the More button, you can choose the Display Assigned
Sales Documents option. This displays a list of the docu
ments that have been assigned to the invoice group on the
basis of reference values.
Activities
Creating Invoice Groups
To create an invoice group, choose the Invoice Group entry point and then either the detailed view for creating
invoice groups or the main search view for invoice groups in the user interface for SAP Flexible Solution Billing.
The rst option opens a view for entering the required data directly. If you open the main search view, the New
button is also available for starting the creation sequence.
Note
You can also copy invoice groups. Reference values are not copied.
Invoice groups cannot be deleted.
Accessing Invoice Groups
To access invoice groups, choose the Invoice Group entry point and then choose the main search view for
invoice groups. The search view provides a range of criteria for ltering the available invoice groups. You can
then open a detailed view for a particular invoice group.
Note
You must be an invoice owner or have the necessary authorizations to edit invoice groups.
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Related Information
Reference Values [page 12]
Working with Invoice Proles [page 14]
Billing Cycles [page 11]
Invoice Packages and the Parking Process [page 16]
Roles in Flexible Solution Billing [page 15]
4.2 Billing Cycles
Using invoice groups, SAP Flexible Solution Billing makes it possible to establish recurring billing cycles. A
billing cycle consists of the assignment of reference documents to invoice groups using reference values, the
creation of parked invoices in a group’s current invoice package, release of the parked invoices for billing, and
the nal creation of legal invoices as copies of the nal versions of the parked invoices.
Billing cycles for invoice groups depend on three main parameters: the validity period of the invoice group, date
calculation rules, and the billing date for documents assigned to the group. Using the validity period and a date
calculation rule, the system calculates the next billing run date for the invoice group’s invoice package. All
billing documents with a billing date that is either earlier than or the same as the package’s billing run date are
assigned to the package. The billing run date is the date on which legal invoices are created.
Validity Periods for Invoice Groups
When creating a new invoice group, you must specify a time period within which the group is valid. When this
time period has expired, no invoice package can be created for the invoice group.
Date Calculation Rules
As part of Customizing, a set of date calculation rules is congured for use in invoice groups. A date calculation
rule denes a recurring cycle for calculating the invoice group’s billing run date. When creating a new invoice
group, you must specify a date calculation rule. This determines the interval with which legal invoices should be
created within the invoice group’s validity period.
Example
For example, for a particular invoice group that is valid for the entire current year, you could decide that the
billing run date should always be the last day of the month. In the time period up to the billing run date,
parked invoices can be assigned to the invoice group. These preliminary invoices can be modied until the
billing run date; this is the date on which legal invoices are created. This cycle repeats for each month for the
entire year.
Billing Document Dates
The billing dates for SD documents or external documents assigned to invoice groups also play a role in the
billing cycle. If the billing date for a reference document is not on or before the billing run date for an invoice
group, the parked invoice is assigned to the group, but not to the group’s current invoice package. After the
billing run has completed, the parked invoice is assigned to the next package created for the group.
You can use the report /SOIN/R_ASSIGN_PI_TO_PACK (transaction/SOIN/ASSIGN_PI) to deal with such
parked invoices and assign them to the appropriate invoice package once it is available in the invoice group.
SAP Flexible Solution Billing
Grouping Documents to be Billed Together
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Prerequisites
You have made settings in Customizing for SAP Flexible Solution Billing under Basic Conguration Create
Date Calculation Rules
.
4.3 Reference Values
SAP Flexible Solution Billing uses reference values to assign reference documents to invoice groups. Reference
documents can be internal SAP SD documents or documents originating in external SAP applications, SAP
systems, or legacy systems. Reference documents that are to be processed using SAP Flexible Solution Billing
must have reference values, and the respective reference values must be assigned to an invoice group.
A standard user exit is used to ensure that each reference document receives a reference value. This user exit
(USEREXIT_SAVE_DOCUMENT_PREPARE) is part of the User Exits in Sales Document Processing Customizing
activity. The activity is available in standard Customizing for Sales and Distribution under System
Modications
User Exits User Exits in Sales . In the case of external applications and systems, the
reference value is transferred explicitly. In SAP Flexible Solution Billing itself, the reference values must be
assigned manually to the appropriate invoice groups.
Dening Reference Values
Reference values can be up to 40 characters long and can consist of a single eld value or of concatenated eld
values, for example, sales organization and sold-to party. You can also establish various types of reference
values that are composed of dierent eld value combinations, for example, depending on dierent sales
document categories. However, you should make sure that the resulting reference values are unique.
Reference values can be assigned to invoice groups exibly. Dening separate reference values does not
necessarily mean that they must be assigned to dierent invoice groups.
For example, assume that you have dened your reference values to consist of the combination of sales
organization and sold-to party. You may decide that the reference value resulting for the sales organization 001
and the sold-to party BUYER 01 are to be assigned to invoice group A. The reference value resulting for the
sales organization 002 and the same sold-to party, BUYER 02, could be assigned to invoice group B.
On the other hand, you could also decide to assign both of these reference values to the same invoice group.
This allows you to take cross-sales organization into account for your billing process. This approach also allows
you to decide for which customers you would like to use processing with SAP Flexible Solution Billing.
Note
You can also exclude certain sales document categories from the assignment of reference values, such as
credit memos, for example. As a result, such sales documents are not processed by SAP Flexible Solution
Billing.
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Grouping Documents to be Billed Together
Implementing Reference Values
The reference values must be lled in the header of the sales documents that are to be processed using SAP
Flexible Solution Billing. The user exit runs when a sales document is saved, and automatically lls in the
required reference value. Then the document can be assigned to an invoice group. Parked invoices will then be
created in the group’s current invoice package for the assigned sales documents.
SAP Flexible Solution Billing
Grouping Documents to be Billed Together
P U B L I C 13
5 Controlling the Flexible Billing Process
Invoice groups gather reference documents that are to be billed together at a specied point in time according
to their assigned reference values. This covers what is to be billed and when, but still leaves open the question
of how the billing process should run. You control this aspect of the exible billing process using invoice
proles.
SAP Flexible Solution Billing also provides roles that make it possible to monitor and control the billing process.
Related Information
Working with Invoice Proles [page 14]
Roles in Flexible Solution Billing [page 15]
5.1 Working with Invoice Proles
Invoice proles specify parameters that control the billing process in SAP Flexible Solution Billing. When
creating a new invoice group, you must also assign an invoice prole. If you want to change the controlling
parameters in eect for the group, you can also assign a dierent invoice prole to the invoice group at a later
point in time.
Invoice proles determine the following aspects of processing in SAP Flexible Solution Billing:
● Activation of an automatic processing block. You can use an automatic block if you want to ensure that an
initial review takes place before further processing, such as approval, continues for an invoice package.
● Whether approval is required, and if so, whether at invoice level or invoice item level, or both.
● The procedure for dealing with invoices and invoice items that have been rejected or that are still awaiting
approval when legal invoices must be created on the billing run date for an invoice package.
● Whether additional documents are necessary as part of processing. This can include an invoice overview,
an invoice itemization, or both.
When you display an invoice group in the user interface, a link provides direct access to detailed information
about the assigned invoice prole. Choosing this link, which is displayed as the name of the prole, opens a
dialog window that shows the current prole settings.
Prerequisites
Invoice proles must be created and maintained as part of Customizing under SAP Flexible Solution Billing
Create Invoice Proles
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Controlling the Flexible Billing Process
Related Information
Review and Approval Process [page 26]
Output and Additional Documents [page 37]
5.2 Roles in Flexible Solution Billing
The following roles are available for use in SAP Flexible Solution Billing:
● Invoice group owner
The invoice group owner is responsible for maintaining the group and for monitoring the packages and
parked invoices assigned to it. The creator of an invoice group is automatically an owner for the group.
Additional owners can also be assigned.
Invoice group owners are assigned at invoice group level and are displayed on the Roles tab in the user
interface.
● Approver
An approver must be specied for an invoice group if approval is required as part of the billing process for
parked invoices. Settings in the assigned invoice prole determine whether invoice approval is required for
a group. More than one approver can be assigned to an invoice group. Users who are approvers have work
lists that display only the parked invoices for which they are responsible.
Approvers are assigned at invoice group level and are displayed on the Roles tab in the user interface.
● Item approver
Item approval may also be required as part of the billing process for parked invoice items. Item approvers
are determined using a designated business partner function. This setting is part of Customizing for SAP
Flexible Solution Billing under
Basic Conguration Congure Basic Settings .
Users who are item approvers have work lists that display only the parked invoice items for which they are
responsible.
Note that unlike the roles of invoice group owner and approver, the assigned item approvers are only visible
in the Roles tab available at invoice package level.
An e-mail address is included as part of the user information for each role. The address is displayed as a link
and can be used to access the respective mail system directly in order to create an e-mail message if issues
require clarication.
Related Information
Review and Approval Process [page 26]
SAP Flexible Solution Billing
Controlling the Flexible Billing Process
P U B L I C 15
6 Invoice Packages and the Parking Process
Invoice packages are a key feature of the billing process provided by SAP Flexible Solution Billing. As part of
invoice groups, packages make it possible to group together parked invoices that have been created, but not
yet posted as legal invoices in the current billing run for an invoice group. In addition, during the time period up
to the billing run date, it is possible to combine additional items with the parked invoices in a package.
Invoice packages contain parked invoices. The function of parking provides a exible, interim step in the billing
process that precedes the posting of legal invoices. During this intermediate stage in the billing process, it is
possible to review and modify the parked invoices. Parked invoices are created on the basis of reference
documents from SAP SD Billing (sales orders, deliveries, debit memo requests, etc.) and reference documents
from external systems, which can be other SAP applications, SAP systems, or legacy systems. Parked invoices
in the invoice package are combined automatically to the greatest extent possible.
Features
● Each valid invoice group has an active invoice package that is ready to receive the parked invoices created
on the basis of the documents that have been assigned to the invoice group using reference values.
● Invoice packages go through a lifecycle that is delineated by the following status sequence: In Process,
Released for Billing, and Completed.
Once a package has been completed, it is added to the invoice group’s package history, which also shows
all legal invoices that were posted for the package.
● Processing for an invoice package can be blocked manually as long as the package has not been released
or completed.
● Combination of parked invoices is performed in invoice packages that are in processing.
● Parked invoices and invoice items can be cancelled in invoice packages that are in processing.
● Processing for invoice packages can be blocked automatically and manually, and can also require a manual
release for processing by the invoice group owner.
● If approval is required, parked invoices and invoice items can be approved or rejected in the invoice
package before legal invoices are created.
● Manual formatting of some aspects is possible in invoice packages, such as the manual sorting of invoice
items and the selection of print forms.
Related Information
Working with Invoice Packages [page 17]
Working with Parked Invoices [page 19]
Combination of Parked Invoices [page 20]
Cancellation of Parked Invoices and Items [page 21]
Manual Changes in Parked Invoices and Invoice Items [page 22]
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Invoice Packages and the Parking Process
Review and Approval Process [page 26]
6.1 Working with Invoice Packages
Each invoice package belongs to a particular invoice group, but when actually working on the parked invoices to
be processed, the package is the main point of administration.
The user interface for SAP Flexible Solution Billing allows you to search across all existing invoice packages,
independent of their respective invoice group. A tracking indicator in the main overview screens for invoice
packages serves as an alert function for the current status of the package in the billing process. A green trac
light indicates that processing is on track, yellow means that processing of the package is blocked, and red
means that the billing run date for the package’s invoice group has already passed, and no legal invoices have
been created. This function allows invoice owners to monitor the progress of the invoice packages for which
they are responsible.
Main Parameters for Invoice Packages
The detailed view of an invoice package provides you with the following important information:
Table 4:
Invoice package number Identies a package uniquely.
Status Shows whether a package is currently In Process, Released
for Billing, or Completed.
Processing block Indicates whether processing of a package has been blocked.
This may be a manual block triggered by the invoice owner or
an automatic block triggered upon creation of the package.
A processing block prevents further processing of the parked
invoices in a package, such as approval, if this is required by
the invoice group’s prole. Note that parked invoices can still
be created for an invoice package if a processing block is in
eect.
Billing run date Species the date on which legal invoices shall be created.
The billing run date is determined by the invoice group. The
billing run date is calculated automatically for the current in
voice package based on the date calculation rule for the in
voice group.
Net value Shows the net value of all the parked invoices in a package. If
a consolidation currency has been specied for the pack
age’s invoice group or in Basic Settings as part of Customiz
ing, this currency is used to show the net value. This provides
a consolidated view of the invoice package amount if invoices
on the package have diering document currencies.
SAP Flexible Solution Billing
Invoice Packages and the Parking Process
P U B L I C 17
Parked invoices The Parked Invoices tab lists all parked invoices included in
the package and provides additional information at invoice
level. The number of each parked invoice is also a link that
leads you to additional detailed information about the in
voice, such as partners, prices, and notes.
Additional actions can also be performed at this level, such
as cancellation of an invoice, preview of print output (invoice,
and if applicable, overview or itemization, or both), and split
analysis.
You can also access the document ow for each parked in
voice. This gives you more information about previous proc
essing of the invoice.
Parked invoice items The Parked Invoice Items tab lists the items included in one
parked invoice and provides additional information at item
level.
Additional actions can also be performed at this level, such
as cancellation of items and the manual sorting of items.
You can also access the corresponding document ow from
this level.
Roles The Roles tab shows the relevant roles specied for the pack
age’s invoice group. This identies the invoice group owner,
approver, and item approver, if approval at invoice or item
level or both is required.
Notes Displays any comments or additional information created at
invoice group level and allows users to add additional notes
while working on a package.
Activities
Creating Invoice Packages
Packages can be created manually for an invoice group in the user interface for SAP Flexible Billing Solution or
as a batch job using the report /SOIN/R_CREATE_INV_PACK (transaction /SOIN/PACK01). In the user
interface, the Create Package command is available as an option for the More button in the detailed view for an
invoice group. After a package has been created, this option is no longer available.
Once a package has been created, parked invoices that have a billing date on or before the billing run date for
the package invoice group can be assigned to the package. This can also be done manually or in batch
processing.
Accessing Invoice Packages
To access invoice packages, choose the Invoice Package entry point. You can then access any of the main views
for invoice packages. There is a general search view, and a power list that automatically displays all of the
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invoice packages for which you are a designated invoice group owner. This allows you to make sure that
processing for your packages is proceeding on schedule.
Related Information
Working with Parked Invoices [page 19]
6.2 Working with Parked Invoices
Once invoice groups have been created with reference values, the reference values are used to assign
documents to the groups. After sales documents have been assigned to a group, the next step in the SAP
Flexible Solution Billing process is the creation of parked invoices. Parked invoices are created in the current
invoice package for an invoice group.
With parked invoices, the solution introduces a type of preliminary invoice that exists only until the creation of
legal invoices. Legal invoices are created as copies of the parked invoices on the billing run date that is in eect
for their package.
Note the following important aspects of parked invoices:
● Parked invoices are non-legal documents and can be canceled without requiring complex additional
processing.
● Parked invoices are not relevant for auditing purposes.
● A separate number range exists for parked invoices; this number range is independent of the legal invoices.
Nevertheless, it must be ensured that the number ranges do not overlap.
● When a parked invoice is created in SAP Flexible Solution Billing on the basis of an SD document, the
reference document is marked as invoiced. The relationship between the reference document and the
parked invoice is shown in the corresponding document ow.
● Parked invoice data is stored in separate tables in the database.
● The parking process can be performed as often as necessary within the current billing cycle for an invoice
group.
Activities
Creating Parked Invoices
Parked invoices can be created manually in the user interface for SAP Flexible Solution Billing using the Park
button for an active package. This process can also be completed as a batch job using the report /SOIN/
R_CREATE_PARKED_INV (transaction /SOIN/PARK01).
When the parking process is triggered for an invoice package, all documents that have been assigned by means
of reference values to the package’s invoice group are entered into the package at once as parked invoices. You
can manually select the billable items to be parked from the Universal Billing Due List in the user interface for
SAP Flexible Solution Billing.
SAP Flexible Solution Billing
Invoice Packages and the Parking Process
P U B L I C 19
Creating Parked Invoices Selectively
In the invoice package screen, all the documents relevant for billing for a particular invoice package are
selected and displayed in the Universal Billing Due List pane. This list consists of documents from standard SD,
Convergent Invoicing and the ones uploaded to the SAP system.
You can choose one or more items from the list and create parked invoices.
Note the following important aspects of selective parking:
● Selective parking can be done through the dialog process only.
● The entire document is parked; item level parking is not supported.
● Rejected documents do not appear in the due list.
Deleting Parked Invoices After Billing
You can determine whether parked invoices should be automatically deleted in the database after the billing
process has been completed, and legal invoices have been created. This setting can be made in Customizing
for SAP Flexible Solution Billing under
Basic Conguration Congure Basic Settings .
6.3 Combination of Parked Invoices
The combination of parked invoices is performed during the parking phase in SAP Flexible Solution Billing, The
system combines and consolidates parked invoices to the greatest extent possible. When a new parked invoice
is assigned to an invoice package, it is either combined with an existing one or added as a separate parked
invoice to the invoice package.
SAP Flexible Solution Billing adds another dimension to the standard combination functionality available in
SAP SD Billing. The solution can combine billing items originating internally from SD with billing items
originating from external systems, and consolidate them in one invoice.
Note
This does not aect or overrule restrictions to combination resulting from standard split criteria existing in
SAP SD Billing. Mandatory split criteria still apply.
As long as the current invoice package for an invoice group is in processing, any new parked invoices can be
combined with the existing ones in the package. There is one possible restriction to this: If approval is required
for an invoice package according to the settings in the invoice group’s prole, it is possible to prevent the
combination of invoice items after approval has been given. This setting is made in Customizing for SAP
Flexible Solution Billing under Create Invoice Proles . If the Add Items After Approval checkbox is not
selected, new parked invoices are created for any late-coming items. They are not combined with existing
parked invoices that have already been approved.
6.4 Splitting of Parked Invoices
Standard splitting criteria may make it necessary to split billing items contained in one sales document into
several invoices. These criteria also apply for parked invoices created in SAP Flexible Solution Billing. In some
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cases, you may also want to implement additional, optional splitting criteria for invoices. The splitting types are
described below.
Mandatory Splitting Criteria
The standard mandatory splitting criteria based on header elds and diering header partners also apply for
sales documents processed in SAP Flexible Solution Billing.
Optional Splitting Criteria
SAP Flexible Solution Billing also makes it possible to specify optional splitting criteria for parked invoices. The
allowed optional split elds are dened by means of the customer include CI_SOIN_VBRK_SPLIT. Once in
place, these optional split elds can be selected as part of format settings in the solution. You can also specify
value restrictions for the optional split elds. The format settings take eect according to a pre-congured
access sequence and corresponding combinations of the parameters sales organization, customer, and invoice
group.
Split Analysis
If a split, either mandatory or optional, has been performed for parked invoices in an invoice package, you can
nd out which eld caused the split. The package detail view in the user interface provides a Split Analysis
button. When available, selecting this option displays a dialog window with detailed information about the
reason for the split.
Related Information
Format Settings for Optional Splitting [page 33]
6.5 Cancellation of Parked Invoices and Items
As parked invoices in an invoice package have not yet been posted as legal invoices, invoices and invoice items
can be easily canceled, if necessary. Parked invoices and items can be canceled manually in invoice packages
or automatically when legal invoices are to be posted and approval is required. When invoices or items are
canceled, they are removed from the package. As a result, the corresponding items can receive a billing block.
This prevents the canceled items from entering the SAP Flexible Solution Billing process again until the issue
has been claried, and the billing block has been removed.
Note
Billing blocks can only be set for internal SD documents. This setting is made in Customizing for SAP
Flexible Solution Billing under Basic Conguration Congure Basic Settings . Billing blocks cannot be
set for documents originating from external sources.
SAP Flexible Solution Billing
Invoice Packages and the Parking Process
P U B L I C 21
Manual Cancellation
When switching to edit mode in an invoice package, the Cancel Invoice and Cancel Item buttons are available in
the corresponding list views of parked invoices and parked invoice items.
Automatic Cancellation
If approval is involved in the billing process it is possible that parked invoices and items may still have an
unresolved status when the billing run date for an invoice package comes is due. Parked invoices or items may
have been rejected, or they may still be awaiting approval. These issues must be resolved before legal invoices
can be created.
Settings in invoice proles determine how the system should handle such cases. One option is the automatic
cancellation of parked invoices or items that have been rejected or are still awaiting approval when the billing
run date for the invoice package comes around. For more information, see Handling of Pending and Rejected
Invoices and Items [page 28].
6.6 Manual Changes in Parked Invoices and Invoice Items
You can make manual changes in parked invoices and invoice items in SAP Flexible Solution Billing. During the
parking phase, it is possible to change certain texts, perform manual sorting for parked invoice items, and
determine the print form to be used for invoice, overview, and itemization. Before making manual changes, you
select either the list of parked invoices or the corresponding list of parked invoice items and switch to edit
mode in the detailed package view.
Changing Texts Manually
You can change the item description text and invoice header text.
Manual Sorting of Parked Invoice Items
You can modify the order of the items in a parked invoice manually. For example, you may want an item that is
currently listed last in the parked invoice to be positioned as the rst item.
To perform manual sorting of parked invoice items, you must switch to editing mode in an invoice package.
When you have selected the list of parked invoice items for a particular parked invoice, you can use the Move
Up and Move Down buttons to place an item at the desired position in the list. Once you are satised with the
sorting order, choose the Apply Sorting button to make your modications eective. The invoice items are re-
numbered accordingly.
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Note
If additional items are added to the parked invoice after you have performed manual sorting, these new
parked invoice items are appended to the list. The previous manual sorting remains unchanged.
Note also that manual sorting is not aected by any automatic format settings for sorting. The manual
sorting order takes precedence.
Setting Print Forms Manually
You can manually select the print form to be used for invoice, overview, or itemization using the Set Print Form
button. This button is available when displaying the list of parked invoices in an invoice package in edit mode.
Only the document types that are relevant for the package according to the invoice group’s prole settings are
available. You can also use the Preview button to check the appearance of an invoice, overview, or itemization
before nalizing your choice.
Note
Selecting a print form for a document type in this way changes the format setting for all future packages for
this invoice group (and for the sales organization or customer, or both, if these parameters are also part of
the format setting).
Output Determination
You can manually select the output format of the invoice, overview, or itemization using the Output button. This
button is available when displaying the list of parked invoices in an invoice package in edit mode. You can also
use the Preview button to check the output types before nalizing your choice.
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Invoice Packages and the Parking Process
P U B L I C 23
7 Handling External Data
In SAP Flexible Solution Billing, you can also process external business transactions if an appropriate reference
value is provided. As a result, parked invoices are created using this data and, if possible, combined with SD
internal data. This makes it possible to integrate billing data from other SAP applications (such as SAP
Convergent Invoicing), external SAP systems, and other legacy systems into a unied billing process using SAP
Flexible Solution Billing.
To create parked invoices for data originating from an external system, the data must rst be prepared in a
sequential le of a specied format, or a direct connection to the external system must be established.
The external data can be uploaded to the External Due List, monitored and deleted.
Preparing Sequential Files
The sample report /SOIN/R_UPLOAD_SD_BILL_AS supplies the communication structures for the general
data, the conditions, and optional texts with data from a sequential le stored on the application server. The
report also initiates the parking process. For more information about the le structure, see the documentation
for the General Billing Interface as part of SD Billing on SAP Help Portal. In SAP Flexible Solution Billing, the
only dierence is that you must provide a reference value as an additional eld for each general data record.
Combining External Data with Internal Data
If you want to combine parked invoice items created from external data with parked invoice items originating
from SD transactions, note the following:
1. Use an appropriate billing type. Do not use the FX billing type for external transactions, as this would lead
to a split. The external transactions must have an internal billing category.
2. Make sure that an appropriate document procedure has been assigned the billing type. This is necessary
for determining the pricing procedure. For example, no standard pricing procedure exists which allows the
combination of sales and service transactions.
3. Make sure that no other mandatory split criteria apply.
Related Information
Uploading External Data to External Due List [page 25]
Monitoring External Data [page 25]
Deleting External Data [page 25]
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7.1 Uploading External Data to External Due List
In SAP Flexible Solution Billing, external data can be uploaded into the due list tables through the transaction /
SOIN/UPLOAD_EXT_AS.
Before uploading, the source data needs to be prepared in a sequential le of a specied format. The sample
report /SOIN/R_UPLOAD_EXT_SD_BILL_AS provides the communication structures for the general data, the
conditions, and optional texts with data from a sequential le stored on the application server.
Related Information
Handling External Data [page 24]
7.2 Monitoring External Data
The uploaded external data can be monitored through the transaction /SOIN/EXT_DUE_LIST.
You can reject the incorrect records so that they are not included in the billing process. For this purpose, you
must implement the Business Add-In (BAdI) Billing Status Sync for External Documents on Rejection (/SOIN/
BD_EXT_DAT_BILLSTAT_SYNC).
The rejected records can be re-uploaded after correction in the source system.
7.3 Deleting External Data
Old or redundant external records can be deleted using the transaction /SOIN/DEL_EX_DUE_LIST.
Deletion is governed by the following rules:
● Unbilled documents cannot be deleted.
● Rejected documents can be directly deleted.
● Billed documents can only be deleted if the corresponding parked invoices no longer exist in the system.
SAP Flexible Solution Billing
Handling External Data
P U B L I C 25
8 Review and Approval Process
The intermediate step of parking invoices in SAP Flexible Solution Billing makes it possible to review and
approve parked invoices and items before they are posted as legal invoices. The optional review and approval
processes can be used together or separately.
These processes are also associated with the corresponding roles provided in SAP Flexible Solution Billing. The
review process is typically the task of invoice group owners, as they are responsible for the content and
processing of the invoice packages in their invoice groups. To control this process, it is possible to establish an
automatic block of processing that occurs before approval or any other processing for an invoice package takes
place. For more information, see Automatic Blocking for Review. [page 27]
The approval process is available in two modes that can be used either together or separately. Settings made in
the invoice prole for an invoice group determine whether approval is required for the parked invoices in the
group’s invoice package. This means that an approval process can be set up selectively for certain invoice
groups.
The two modes are the following:
● Invoice approval
Designated approvers who are assigned at invoice group level approve parked invoices as a whole.
● Item approval
Designated item approvers approve single parked invoice items. Item approvers are assigned at sales
document level using the appropriate business partner function.
Note that these two approval modes are independent of each other. If the parked invoices in a package require
both invoice approval and item approval, these approvals must be provided separately. That is, even if invoice
approval has been provided, the approval process is not entirely complete until the required item approval has
also been provided.
Prerequisites
To use the approval processes for invoice packages, the following must be in place:
● Invoice proles must be congured as part of Customizing for SAP Flexible Solution Billing under Create
Invoice Proles . Here you determine whether an invoice prole entails approval at invoice level, item level,
or both.
● For item approval, the appropriate business partner function must be entered in Customizing under
Basic Conguration Congure Basic Settings .
● When setting up an approval process, you must also decide how the system should deal with parked
invoices and items that are still awaiting approval or that have been rejected and not yet claried when the
billing run date is due.
For more information about the options available, see Handling of Pending and Rejected Invoices and Items
[page 28].
● You can also choose the channel of approval as Oine Mail Approval or Notication
For more information about the options available, see Email Approval [page 29].
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● If using the approval process, you must also decide how the system should handle parked invoices and
items that are assigned to an invoice package after approval has already been given. This setting is made in
Customizing for SAP Flexible Solution Billing under Create Invoice Proles . If the Add Items After
Approval checkbox is not selected, new parked invoices are created for any late-coming items. They are not
combined with existing parked invoices that have already been approved.
8.1 Automatic Blocking for Review
Independent of the invoice and item approval processes, SAP Flexible Solution Billing allows you to block
processing automatically for invoice packages. This makes it possible for an invoice group owner to review the
parked invoices in an invoice package before processing continues, in particular approval, if required. When a
package is blocked, parked invoices can be created in the package, but no further processing occurs.
This type of processing block is triggered automatically after the package is created, but the block must be
released manually by the responsible invoice group owner. If a package is blocked for processing, this status is
clearly visible in the Tracking eld displayed in the overview screens for invoice packages in the user interface
for SAP Flexible Solution Billing. A yellow trac light is shown, indicating that processing has been halted. SAP
Flexible Solution Billing also provides a power list showing all invoice packages for which an invoice owner is
responsible.
As with invoice approval and item approval, the setting for activating an automatic process block is part of
invoice prole conguration in Customizing for SAP Flexible Solution Billing. This also means that by assigning
the appropriate invoice prole, you can determine for which invoice groups automatic blocking should be
performed.
Prerequisites
● You must congure a prole that includes an automatic processing block in Customizing for SAP Flexible
Solution Billing under Create Invoice Proles .
8.2 Approval at Invoice Level
Users who are designated as invoice approvers in SAP Flexible Solution Billing have their own work lists
showing the parked invoices for which they are responsible. Approvers are assigned at invoice group level, and
must approve all parked invoices in the group’s current invoice package. The work list shows all parked invoices
awaiting approval in all invoice packages.
The approvers can access the package, detailed views of the parked invoices and items, and also open a print
preview of the invoice, and, if applicable, of the overview or itemization or both.
Settings in the invoice prole assigned to an invoice group determine what happens with rejected invoices that
are unresolved and parked invoices that have not yet been approved when the billing run date for an invoice
package arrives. For more information, see Handling of Pending and Rejected Invoices and Items [page 28].
SAP Flexible Solution Billing
Review and Approval Process
P U B L I C 27
8.3 Approval at Item Level
Users who are designated as item approvers in SAP Flexible Solution Billing have their own work lists showing
the invoice items for which they are responsible. The work list shows all parked invoice items awaiting approval
in all invoice packages for which the user is the designated item approver. The item approvers can access
detailed views of the parked invoices and items.
Note
Item approvers are assigned at sales document level using the appropriate business partner function. For
more about this, see Roles in Flexible Solution Billing [page 15].
Settings in the invoice prole assigned to an invoice group determine what happens with rejected invoice items
that are unresolved and parked items that have not yet been approved when the billing run date for an invoice
package arrives. For more information, see Handling of Pending and Rejected Invoices and Items [page 28].
8.4 Handling of Pending and Rejected Invoices and Items
When the billing run date for an invoice package becomes due, all pending and unresolved issues concerning
the parked invoices must be claried before legal invoices can be posted. If you are using an invoice and or item
approval process, part of setting up this process is deciding what should occur if such issues are still open
when legal invoices must be created. These settings are made in invoice proles, which can then be assigned to
invoice groups.
For pending invoices and items that are still awaiting approval, the following options are available:
● Block Processing
Processing of the package stops until the issues concerning the invoices and/or items that are awaiting
approval have been resolved.
● Ignore Required Approval
Processing continues on the billing run date. Legal invoices are created without the required approval of the
invoices and/or items.
● Cancel Automatically
The invoices and/or items that are awaiting approval are canceled automatically. They are removed from
the invoice package. Legal invoices are created for the remaining invoices in the package.
For invoices and items that have been rejected, the following options are available:
● Block Processing
Processing of the package stops until the rejected invoice or invoice item has been claried. That is, it must
either be removed from the package, or the rejection must be reversed before processing can continue.
● Cancel Automatically
The rejected invoices and/or items are canceled automatically. They are removed from the invoice
package. Legal invoices are created for the remaining invoices in the package.
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Note
These processing parameters are only relevant if you are using invoice or item approval as part of your
invoice proles in SAP Flexible Solution Billing. The triggering of these mechanisms constitutes a
preparatory step before the posting of legal invoices.
The step can be performed manually for an invoice package using the Prepare button in the user interface, or
performed in batch using the report /SOIN/R_PREPARE_BILLING (transaction /SOIN/PREP01).
Activities
You decide about these parameters when conguring the invoice proles in Customizing for SAP Flexible
Solution Billing under
Create Invoice Proles .
8.5 Email Approval
Users who are designated as invoice approvers in SAP Flexible Solution Billing receive oine or online approval
request email to approve or reject the parked invoice.
In the oine request, the approver can approve or reject the invoice and also add a comment in the email itself.
The comment is visible in the invoice package screen.
In the online request or notication, the approver can approve or reject the parked invoice in the invoice
approval screen.
Note
The approver has to login to the application, using the link received in the email to take an action.
Activities
You set the Approval Channel when conguring the invoice proles in Customizing for SAP Flexible Solution
Billing under Create Invoice Proles
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Review and Approval Process
P U B L I C 29
9 Posting Legal Invoices
Legal invoices are created as copies of the parked invoices in an invoice package. The legal invoices are due to
be posted on the billing run date for the package.
Preparing for Posting
If approval is required for the invoice package at invoice level or item level, or both, a preliminary step is
necessary before legal invoices can be created. In a preparatory step, a check is made for any invoices and
invoice items that are either still awaiting approval or that have been rejected. The system deals with these
issues according to settings made in the prole assigned at invoice group level.
This preparatory step can be performed manually in the user interface for SAP Flexible Solution Billing using
the Prepare button for an active package. This process can also be completed as a batch job using the report /
SOIN/R_PREPARE_BILLING (transaction /SOIN/PREP01).
Creating Legal Invoices
Legal invoices can be created manually in the user interface for SAP Flexible Solution Billing using the Post
button for an active package. This process can also be completed as a batch job using the report /SOIN/
R_CREATE_LEGAL_INV (transaction /SOIN/BILL01).
Viewing Legal Invoices
Once the legal invoices have been created, you can access them directly from the user interface for SAP
Flexible Solution Billing by opening the package history. This view lists the created legal invoices and provides
links to open the documents.
You can display this information using the Package History button in the detailed view of an invoice group or in
the detailed view of the package itself.
Related Information
Handling of Pending and Rejected Invoices and Items [page 28]
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10 Flexible Formatting
The nal documents of the billing process – the legal invoices – often also require customer-specic formatting
with respect to splitting, sorting, and print forms. For example, you may need to use dierent print formats for
legal invoices depending upon who is to receive the invoice. SAP Flexible Solution Billing provides new functions
for both pre-congured formatting of invoices on a system-wide basis and for certain formatting adjustments
that can be performed manually for individual parked invoices and items.
Any manual changes in formatting are made on parked invoices and items in an invoice package before the
posting of legal invoices has occurred. A preview function is always provided, allowing you to check your
formatting choices before nalizing them.
Features
● Pre-congured formatting options are available for invoice splitting, automatic sorting of invoice items, and
print form selection.
● These exible formatting options are congured and applied according to the following parameters: sales
organization, customer, and invoice group.
● The automatic application of format settings is controlled by an access sequence structure. Once
established, this structure ensures that format settings are applied consistently system-wide, and also
provides the exibility to congure format settings as generally or as specically as necessary.
● Conguration of the format settings is performed in a user interface intended for expert maintenance.
● Manual changes in formatting can be made in addition to the pre-congured format settings applied on the
basis of the access sequence structure. For example, even though pre-congured settings for sorting are in
place, you can still manually sort the items in a single parked invoice before the posting of legal invoices.
Related Information
Access Sequence Structure for Formatting [page 31]
Working with Format Settings [page 33]
Format Settings for Optional Splitting [page 33]
Format Settings for Sorting [page 34]
Format Settings for Print Forms [page 35]
10.1 Access Sequence Structure for Formatting
An underlying access sequence structure governs the automatic application of all three types of format
settings available in SAP Flexible Solution Billing: splitting, sorting, and the assignment of print forms. This
SAP Flexible Solution Billing
Flexible Formatting
P U B L I C 31
access structure is established in Customizing for SAP Flexible Solution Billing under Formatting Congure
Access Sequence .
The access sequence structure consists of any number of entries containing an access number and one or
more of the following parameters: sales organization, customer, and invoice group. The access number
determines in what sequence the system searches for existing format settings, and the parameter
combinations determine how specic the format setting is. The lowest access number takes eect rst. If no
settings are found that meet the expected denition for the rst access number, the system moves on to the
next access number, and so on, until a format setting is found.
This technique allows you to adjust the scope of your format settings exibly. Your scope may be very general
(a setting at sales organization level alone, for example) or very specic (a setting that applies only for one
specic sales organization in combination with a specic customer and a specic invoice group). The access
sequence structure applies for all three available format setting types.
Example
One possible approach is to structure the access sequences beginning with the most specic combination
of parameters. In this case, your access structure in Customizing might look as follows:
Table 5:
Access Number Sales Org Customer Inv Group
10 X X X
20 X - -
30 - - X
40 - - -
When you begin creating format settings, you create them according to this structure. Following the sample
structure above, the system rst looks for a format setting that species a sales organization, customer, and
invoice group. As a result, if you create a format setting for Sales Organization 100, Customer B, and Invoice
Group 7, the format setting takes eect only for this combination of parameters. In addition, as a result of
the access sequence structure, when you create the format setting, it automatically receives the
corresponding, lowest access number as specied in the structure. In the above sample structure, the
default setting would be system-wide as no sales organization, customer, or invoice group is used in the
access key.
For example, if you have a special sorting order that applies only to invoices that have this particular sales
organization, customer, and invoice group, you can create the appropriate format setting according to the
structure. The setting will take eect only for this combination of the three parameters. The sorting that you
have specied in the format setting does not take eect for Invoice Group 8, although sales organization and
customer may be the same as for Invoice Group 7. You could continue creating formatting settings as
required, from most specic to least specic. This ensures that special requirements are met, while at the
same time still allowing you to specify more general format settings at sales organization or customer level.
You can establish system-wide settings if you do not specify any values for sales organization, customer, or
invoice group.
The formatting settings themselves are created in a separate user interface; however, you can display the
access structure maintained in Customizing under Menu Goto Access Sequence . To view, create, and
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edit all format setting types, you use the transaction /SOIN/FORMAT_MAINT to access the SAP GUI view of the
elds, or you can choose the corresponding entry point in the Web-based interface for SAP Flexible Solution
Billing.
10.2 Working with Format Settings
The user interface provided for creating pre-congured settings is intended for expert maintenance. You use
the transaction /SOIN/FORMAT_MAINT to access the SAP GUI view of the elds, or you can choose the
corresponding entry point in the Web-based user interface for SAP Flexible Solution Billing.
This overall view displays areas for working with format settings for splitting, sorting, and print forms. Before
you begin creating new format settings or editing existing ones, you must rst execute a search. If you enter no
specic values for the elds Sales Organization, Customer, and Invoice Group, the system displays all format
settings that are currently in use. The settings in use are listed with a corresponding access number, as
congured in the access sequence as part of Customizing for SAP Flexible Solution Billing. This indicates in
what order the settings take eect.
Creating and Editing Format Settings
After you have executed an initial search to display any settings that are already in eect, an additional entry
area is shown that allows you to create and edit format settings. Note that when you create new settings, you
must keep in mind the access structure that controls the allowed combinations. You can display the access
structure under
Menu Goto Access Sequence . Your new or modied format settings must be aligned
with these pre-congured access keys.
Note that when you have entered the parameters for your new or modied format setting, choosing the Submit
button opens a corresponding dialog box in which you can make the actual settings. You can also open an
existing setting for editing by double-clicking an entry in the list.
The Status eld provides an overview of all of the changes that you have made in one session before saving.
This eld indicates whether a format setting is new, modied, or marked for deletion. The changes for each
setting can be reset individually before saving.
10.3 Format Settings for Optional Splitting
You can create additional, optional split criteria for invoices in SAP Flexible Solution Billing. These split criteria
take eect in addition to the standard mandatory split criteria that exist in SAP SD Billing. As with all format
settings, you create format settings for invoice splitting in accordance with the access sequence structure that
is in place for your system as part of Customizing. On the basis of this access structure, you determine how
specic or general your format setting for splitting is to be, based on the allowed combinations of sales
organization, customer, and invoice group.
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P U B L I C 33
A single format setting can have several splitting elds. As part of your setting, you can also enter a value
restriction for a eld. For example, assume that you can select the eld Material Group as a split criterion for
invoices. By entering a value restriction for the eld, you determine that the split occurs only if the eld in the
invoices has the specied value.
The split takes eect when parked invoices are created in their assigned invoice package for an invoice group.
At package level, the Analyze Split button makes it possible to see which elds caused the split.
Accessing Format Settings for Splitting
To display the elds used for working with format settings for invoice splits, you can use the transaction /
SOIN/FORMAT_MAINT or the transaction /SOIN/FORMAT_SPLIT. The rst transaction allows you to work with
all available format setting types in one view; the second shows only those for splitting.
Prerequisites
As part of Customizing, the elds that are allowed for use in invoice splits must be specied in the customer
include CI_SOIN_VBRK_SPLIT in the invoice header.
Related Information
Working with Format Settings [page 33]
Access Sequence Structure for Formatting [page 31]
10.4 Format Settings for Sorting
This type of format setting allows you to determine which elds you would like to use for sorting the items in
one invoice. Format settings for sorting can be created for the following document types in SAP Flexible
Solution Billing:
● Invoice
● Overview
● Itemization
For example, you may want to group together all invoice items that refer to a particular service type together on
invoices, overviews and/or itemizations. If required, you can also specify intermediate sums for sorting elds
and determine the order in which they are to be sorted: ascending or descending.
Note that sorting for the invoice takes eect for the document on the database, while sorting of the overview
and itemization is only performed for the output.
As with all format settings, you create format settings for invoice sorting in accordance with the access
sequence structure that is in place for your system as part of Customizing. On the basis of this access
structure, you determine how specic or general your format setting for sorting is to be, based on the allowed
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combinations of sales organization, customer, and invoice group. Within a particular access key, it would also
be possible to specify dierent sorting orders for dierent document types.
Accessing Format Settings for Sorting
To display the elds used for working with format settings for sorting, you can use the transaction /SOIN/
FORMAT_MAINT or the transaction /SOIN/FORMAT_SORT. The rst transaction allows you to work with all
available format setting types in one view; the second shows only those for sorting.
Prerequisites
The allowed elds for sorting must be specied as part of Customizing for SAP Flexible Solution Billing under
Formatting Specify Allowed Sort Fields .
Related Information
Working with Format Settings [page 33]
Access Sequence Structure for Formatting [page 31]
10.5 Format Settings for Print Forms
This type of format setting allows you to determine a smart form or Adobe form to be used. Format settings for
print forms can be created for the following document types in SAP Flexible Solution Billing:
● Invoice
● Overview
● Itemization
For example, you may need to use a dierent smart form or Adobe form with special characteristics for
particular customers.
As with all format settings, you create format settings for print forms in accordance with the access sequence
structure that is in place for your system as part of Customizing. On the basis of this access structure, you
determine how specic or general your format setting for assigning print forms is to be, based on the allowed
combinations of sales organization, customer, and invoice group. Within a particular access key, it would also
be possible to specify dierent print forms for dierent document types.
Accessing Format Settings for Print Forms
To display the elds used for working with format settings for assigning print forms, you can use the
transaction /SOIN/FORMAT_MAINT or the transaction /SOIN/FORMAT_FORM. The rst transaction allows you
to work with all available format setting types in one view; the second shows only those for assigning print
forms.
You can also use the Set Print Form button for invoice packages in the Web-based user interface. The button is
available when displaying the list of parked invoices in an invoice package in edit mode. You can set a print form
SAP Flexible Solution Billing
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P U B L I C 35
for invoice, overview, or itemization. Only the document types that are relevant for the package according to
the invoice group’s prole settings are available. Note that selecting a print form for a document type in this
way changes the format setting for all future packages for this invoice group (and for the sales organization or
customer, or both if these parameters are also part of the format setting).
Prerequisites
The allowed print forms must be specied as part of Customizing for SAP Flexible Solution Billing under
Formatting Specify Allowed Print Forms .
Related Information
Working with Format Settings [page 33]
Access Sequence Structure for Formatting [page 31]
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11 Output and Additional Documents
SAP Flexible Solution Billing provides formatting options for output and additional documents that can be
provided as supplements to legal invoices. Using the basic functionality for Output Control in SAP Sales and
Distribution, SAP Flexible Solution Billing also allows you to determine print forms for output that are applied
automatically according to the format settings for sales organization, customer, and invoice group.
As part of the available formatting options, you can create format settings that determine sorting rules and
print forms for the following three document types:
● Invoice
● Overview
● Itemization
Note that the sorting of an invoice is performed for the invoice business object itself. In the case of invoice
overview and itemization, sorting aects only the output.
Invoice overviews and itemizations are additional documents that can be provided as necessary. Prole
settings for invoice groups determine which of these documents are required, meaning that you can decide
individually for each invoice group whether any of these documents should be used as part of the invoicing
process.
You can preview invoices, and if applicable, an overview and itemizations using the Preview button in the
detailed view for an invoice package in the user interface for SAP Flexible Solution Billing.
Invoice Overview
An overview is a non-legal document that lists data for all invoices assigned to an invoice package. If an
overview is required in the prole assigned to an invoice group, you must specify a receiver for the overview.
You can also specify a currency for the overview. This may be helpful if the receiver needs to see invoice data in
a currency that diers from the original document currency.
Invoice Itemization
An itemization is an additional document providing detailed information about the items in an invoice. This is
especially relevant for consumption-based information originating from SAP Resource Related Billing or SAP
Convergent Invoicing. From the detailed package view, you can also transfer the itemization data to a
spreadsheet. To do this, choose the Export Itemization button.
Mass Output of Documents
You can also use a report to create all of the related documents for one or many invoice packages at once. You
can use the report /SOIN/R_MASS_OUT_INV_PACK in dialog or schedule it as a batch job to run in the
background. You can also start the report directly using the transaction /SOIN/MASS_OUTPUT.
Related Information
Flexible Formatting [page 31]
SAP Flexible Solution Billing
Output and Additional Documents
P U B L I C 37
12 Integration with SAP Convergent
Invoicing
In SAP Flexible Solution Billing, it is also possible to process consumption billing data originating from SAP
Convergent Invoicing (CI) and it also allows payment card processing for consumption billing data. As a result
of this integration, you can create single, combined invoices for sales, service, and consumption in Billing in
SAP Sales and Distribution (SD) and post the revenue in Accounts Receivable (FI-AR).
Additionally, in the cases where partner settlement is involved; it is possible to invoice and post the revenue in
Accounts Payable
This integrative approach uses the BIT (billable item) management and pre-billing processes available in Billing
in Contract Accounts Receivable and Payable (FI-CA-BI). You can decide whether further invoice processing
should continue in standard SD Billing or in SAP Flexible Solution Billing. The mode involving standard
processing in SD Billing creates legal invoices directly. The mode involving SAP Flexible Solution Billing allows
you to use invoice parking, review and approval, and exible format settings for splitting, sorting, and print
forms.
This comprehensive invoice integration enables you to implement your business process from the priced
consumption of a service, through billing, up to the nal dispatching of invoices to customers.
Features
● Invoicing for aggregated consumption data using SD Billing
● Optimization for mass and parallel processing
● Creation of collective invoices for consumption, service, and sales using SAP Flexible Solution Billing
Activities
Before you can use the integration of SD Billing with SAP Convergent Invoicing, you must activate the business
function /SOIN/CI_SD. As a prerequisite, the business function set FICAX must also be activated.
Before you can perform invoicing of consumption data with SD, you must complete the Customizing activities
under Integration with Convergent Invoicing in Customizing for SAP Flexible Solution Billing. In particular, as
part of Customizing, you must decide which mode of integration you want to use: standard SD Billing or SAP
Flexible Solution Billing. If you want to use SAP Flexible Solution Billing, then you must also complete the
Customizing activities associated with this mode.
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Constraints
Some constraints apply for the integration of Convergent Invoicing. For more details, see the Master Guide for
SAP Flexible Solution Billing.
Related Information
Process Overview [page 39]
Single Transfer to SD Invoices [page 41]
Mass Transfer to SD Invoices [page 41]
Transfer by Invoice Group [page 42]
Cancellation Process [page 43]
Partner Settlement [page 43]
12.1 Process Overview
The basic process for integrating SAP Convergent Invoicing (CI) with SAP Sales and Distribution (SD) entails
the transfer of pre-billing documents in CI into invoices in SD and the performance of additional data mapping
and enrichment.
Note
Integration of CI billing data with SD billing data and the related features in SAP Flexible Solution Billing are
dependent on the features which are part of SAP Solution Sales and Billing.When working in an integrated
scenario with SAP Solution Sales and Billing, you must do the following:
● Activate the CI SD Integration and related features via business function /SOIN/CI_SD which is available
in SAP Solution Sales and Billing.
● Set up your SAP ERP, SAP CRM, and SAP Convergent Charging systems in such a way that provider
contracts are successfully replicated from your CRM system to your ERP system and to Convergent
Charging.
● Make sure that master data such as products, business partners or customers, and contract accounts
are replicated consistently among all systems.
These features are only available for SAP Hybris Billing or SAP S/4HANA for Subscription Billing, Sales and
Distribution Option customers.
SAP Flexible Solution Billing
Integration with SAP Convergent Invoicing
P U B L I C 39
Process
As a prerequisite for starting the invoicing process, invoicing orders must exist. Invoicing orders are created
when a billing document is created. They are used for billing documents that have not yet been processed. The
related invoicing order is deleted when a billing document is invoiced successfully.
The process steps for transferring data from CI to SD are as follows:
1. Data selection
○ When you select the invoicing orders for the invoice integration process, all invoicing orders created
until that point in time are taken into account.
○ Billing documents are selected from the invoicing orders in CI. These billing documents in CI contain
the aggregated rated consumption data in the Billing component in Contract Accounts Receivable and
Payable (FI-CA-BI). These billing documents are source documents for the integration with SD Billing
using SAP Flexible Solution Billing.
2. Data mapping
○ Billing document items originating in CI are mapped to the communication structure for the SD billing
interface for external data.
Depending on settings made in Customizing, CI billing documents may contain only one item or
multiple items. If billing documents contain multiple items, a single CI billing document containing
aggregated data is mapped as one main item and its corresponding subitems in SD. For more details,
see the Make Default Settings for Data Mapping activity in Customizing for SAP Flexible Solution Billing
under Integration with Convergent Invoicing.
○ If processing is to continue using SAP Flexible Solution Billing, you must use reference values in order
to assign billing documents to invoice groups for further processing. When working in an integrated
scenario with SAP Solution Sales and Billing, a reference value can be specied directly in the provider
contract. For this purpose, you must implement the Business Add-In (BAdI) Adjust Contract Data
During Contract Replication (FICA_CONTRACT_COL_MAINTAIN). If reference values shall not be stored
in the provider contract for any reason, then the BAdI Integration of CI with SD (/SOIN/
BD_CI_SD_INTERFACE_EXT) can be used at this point to set reference values for the billing
documents.
3. Creation of invoices in SD Billing
Depending upon the integration mode selected, either legal invoices in SD Billing are created directly or
parked invoices are created in SAP Flexible Solution Billing. This depends on settings made in Customizing
for SAP Flexible Solution Billing under Integration with Convergent Invoicing Specify Mode for
Integrating CI with SD Billing
.
4. Update
The system writes the created invoices to the database, deletes invoicing orders, and creates document
ow entries.
You can perform invoice creation in SD for single CI billing documents, for mass data, or by assigned invoice
group.
Related Information
Single Transfer to SD Invoices [page 41]
Mass Transfer to SD Invoices [page 41]
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Transfer by Invoice Group [page 42]
12.2 Single Transfer to SD Invoices
Using the transaction /SOIN/CI_SD_SINGLE, you can create an SD invoice for one individual billing document
originating from SAP Convergent Invoicing (CI).
You can analyze invoicing orders before running the transaction. To do this in the SAP Easy Access screen
under Contract Accounts Receivable and Payable, choose Invoicing Monitoring Invoicing Orders .
Activities
To transfer a single billing document from CI to SD Billing, proceed as follows:
1. Use the transaction /SOIN/CI_SD_SINGLE.
2. Enter a CI billing document number.
3. Run the program.
4. An application log is displayed showing all of the messages that occurred during the transfer.
Depending upon the integration mode selected as part of Customizing for SAP Flexible Solution Billing under
Integration with Convergent Invoicing Specify Mode for Integration CI with SD Billing , this either results
directly in a legal invoice in SD Billing or in a parked invoice as part of SAP Flexible Solution Billing. In the case
of a parked invoice, additional processing such as review and approval may occur before the nal legal invoice
is created in SD Billing.
You can also run the SD invoice creation for a single CI billing document in simulation mode. To do this, select
the Simulation Mode checkbox.
12.3 Mass Transfer to SD Invoices
Using the transaction /SOIN/CI_SD_TRANS_MA, you can create SD invoices for mass amounts of billing
documents originating from SAP Convergent Invoicing (CI) in a parallel run. Parallel processing is always
possible. The invoice creation run uses the mass activity functionality available in FI-CA to reduce the
processing time.
You can analyze invoicing orders before running the transaction. To do this in the SAP Easy Access screen
under Contract Accounts Receivable and Payable, choose Invoicing Monitoring Invoicing Orders .
SAP Flexible Solution Billing
Integration with SAP Convergent Invoicing
P U B L I C 41
Activities
To transfer billing documents from CI to SD Billing, proceed as follows:
1. Use the transaction /SOIN/CI_SD_TRANS_MA.
2. Enter a date and identication. If required, you can maintain a variant in technical settings for
parallelization settings.
3. Select the desired business partners (optional).
4. Save the mass run.
5. Run the program.
6. An application log is displayed showing all of the messages that occurred during the transfer.
Depending upon the mode selected as part of Customizing for SAP Flexible Solution Billing under Integration
with Convergent Invoicing Specify Mode for Integration CI with SD Billing , the invoice creation run either
results directly in legal invoices in SD Billing or parked invoices as part of SAP Flexible Solution Billing. In the
case of parked invoices, additional processing such as review and approval may occur before the nal legal
invoice is created in SD Billing.
You can also run the invoice creation for mass transfer of documents in simulation mode. To do this, select the
Simulation Mode checkbox.
For more general information, see the relevant documentation about data processing in mass runs for Contract
Accounts Payable and Receivable (FI-CA) on SAP Help Portal.
12.4 Transfer by Invoice Group
Using the transaction /SOIN/CI_SD_GROUP, you can create parked invoices for all billing documents
originating from SAP Convergent Invoicing (CI) that are assigned to a particular invoice group.
Prerequisites
This function is only relevant if the following prerequisites are met:
● You must be using SAP Flexible Solution Billing to integrate CI with SD Billing.
This setting is made in the Specify Mode for Integrating CI with SD Billing Customizing activity.
● The reference values used to assign billing documents to invoice groups must be stored in provider
contracts.
This setting is made in the Make Default Settings for Data Mapping Customizing activity.
The relevant activities are all part of Customizing for SAP Flexible Solution Billing under Integration with
Convergent Invoicing .
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Activities
To transfer billing documents from CI to SD Billing, proceed as follows:
1. Use the transaction /SOIN/CI_SD_GROUP.
2. Enter the identier for an invoice group.
3. Run the program.
4. An application log is displayed showing all messages that occurred during the transfer.
The creation of invoices results in parked invoices as part of SAP Flexible Solution Billing. Additional processing
such as review or approval may take place before the nal legal invoice is created in SD Billing.
You can also run this transaction in simulation mode. To do this, select the Simulation Mode checkbox.
12.5 Cancellation Process
You can also cancel SD invoices that have been created as part of the integration of SAP Convergent Invoicing
(CI) with SD Billing.
When you cancel invoices or invoice items that originated from billing documents in CI, the following steps are
performed:
1. All invoice items related to a single billing document in CI are canceled together.
2. New invoicing orders are re-created for the relevant CI billing documents.
The CI billing documents can then be included in the next transfer of data from CI to SD Billing for invoice
creation.
3. The document ow between the CI billing document and the SD billing document is deleted.
The cancellation process is the same for preliminary parked invoices and items in SAP Flexible Solution Billing
and for legal invoices created directly in SD Billing without parking.
The cancellation process described here does not aect the standard reversal process for Billing in Convergent
Invoicing.
12.6 Partner Settlement
The basic process for integrating SAP Convergent Invoicing (CI) with Accounts Payable (AP) entails the
transfer of pre-billing documents for partner in CI into invoicing and accounting in Accounts Payable and the
performance of additional data mapping and enrichment.
You can view the accounting document in the SAP Easy Access screen, for this, choose Accounting
Financial Accounting Accounts Payable Document Display
SAP Flexible Solution Billing
Integration with SAP Convergent Invoicing
P U B L I C 43
Note
When working in an integrated scenario with SAP Solution Sales and Billing, you must do the following:
● Set up your SAP ERP, SAP CRM, and SAP Convergent Charging systems in such a way that provider
contracts are successfully replicated from your CRM system to your ERP system and to Convergent
Charging.
● Make sure that master data such as products, business partners or customers, and contract accounts
are replicated consistently among all.
Process
As a prerequisite for starting the invoicing process, invoicing orders must exist. Invoicing orders are created
when a billing document is created. They are used for billing documents that have not yet been processed. The
related invoicing order is deleted when a billing document is invoiced successfully.
The billing document must have a partner agreement as the predecessor for the integration of CI with AP to
work.
The process steps for transferring data from CI to AP are as follows:
1. Data Selection
○ When you select the invoicing orders for the invoice integration process, all invoicing orders created
until that point in time are taken into account.
○ Billing documents are selected from the invoicing orders in CI. These billing documents in CI contain
the aggregated rated consumption data in the Billing component in Contract Accounts Receivable and
Payable (FI-CA-BI). These billing documents are source documents for the integration with AP using
SAP Flexible Solution Billing.
○ Only those billing documents which have the related contract category as partner agreement will be
transferred to Accounts Payable
2. Data Mapping
○ Billing document items originating in CI are mapped to the communication structure for the
Accounting interface for external data. If the billing documents contain multiple items, the total
amount from the CI billing document items is calculated and the vendor line item is created. There will
be multiple GL line items which will correspond to a one to one mapping with the CI billing document
items. The CI billing document and the related AP document created will have one to one mapping.
The accounting document type is determined based on the billing process and sub process.
○ The GL account is determined based on the company code, billing process, sub process, invoice item
type which can be maintained in Customizing for SAP Flexible Solution Billing under Integration with
Convergent Invoicing Assign Subprocesses at Item Level for AP
3. Creation of accounting document
Depending upon the accounting document type maintained, the accounting document is created in
Accounts Payable.
4. Update
The system writes the created invoices to the database, deletes invoicing orders, and creates document
ow entries.
5. Navigation to the source CI billing document.
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6. You can see the source CI billing document for the AP document using the Original document option
7. Invoicing History
You can view the corresponding accounting document created for the partner CI billing document in the
Invoicing History tab of partner CI billing document. You can also navigate to the accounting document
displayed in the invoicing history tab.
You can perform accounting document creation for single CI billing documents and for multiple CI billing
documents using mass activity.
Related Information
Single Transfer to Accounts Payable Document [page 45]
Mass Transfer to Accounts Payable Document [page 46]
Accounts Payable Document Reversal [page 47]
12.6.1 Single Transfer to Accounts Payable Document
Using the transaction/SOIN/CI_SD_SINGLE, you can create an Accounts Payable document for one individual
partner billing document originating from SAP Convergent Invoicing (CI).
Context
You can analyze invoicing orders before running the transaction. To do this in the SAP Easy Access screen
under
Contract Accounts Receivable and Payable, choose Invoicing Monitoring Invoicing Orders
Procedure
To transfer a single billing document from CI to AP, proceed as follows:
1. Use the transaction /SOIN/CI_SD_SINGLE.
2. Enter a partner CI billing document number.
3. Run the program.
4. An application log is displayed showing all of the messages that occurred during the CI-AP transfer.
For the partner CI billing document entered, a single AP document is created with reference transaction
as/SOIN.
You can also run the SD invoice creation for a single CI billing document in simulation mode. To do this,
choose the Simulation Mode checkbox.
SAP Flexible Solution Billing
Integration with SAP Convergent Invoicing
P U B L I C 45
12.6.2 Mass Transfer to Accounts Payable Document
Using the transaction /SOIN/CI_SD_TRANS_MA, you can create an Accounts Payable document for mass
amounts of partner billing documents originating from SAP Convergent Invoicing (CI) in a parallel run. Parallel
processing is always possible. The AP document creation run uses the mass activity functionality available in
FI-CA to reduce the processing time.
Context
You can analyze invoicing orders before running the transaction. To do this in the SAP Easy Access screen
under Contract Accounts Receivable and Payable, choose Invoicing Monitoring Invoicing Orders
Procedure
To transfer billing documents from CI to AP, proceed as follows:
1. Use the transaction /SOIN/CI_SD_TRANS_MA.
2. Enter a date and identication. If required, you can maintain a variant in technical settings for
parallelization settings.
3. Select the desired business partners (optional).
4. Choose the Custom Selection button and choose the desired billing process, sub process, contract, Invoice
From, in case if you further wish to lter the CI billing document selection. It is not mandatory to choose
the values for these options available.
5. Save the mass run.
6. Run the program.
7. An application log is displayed showing all of the messages that occurred during the transfer.
For each partner CI billing document, a follow up AP document is created.
You can also run the invoice creation for mass transfer of documents in simulation mode. To do this, select
theSimulation Mode checkbox.
For more general information, see the relevant documentation about data processing in mass runs for
Contract Accounts Payable and Receivable (FI-CA) on SAP Help Portal.
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12.6.3 Accounts Payable Document Reversal
You can reverse Accounts Payable document that has been created as part of the integration of SAP
Convergent Invoicing (CI) with Accounts Payable.
Context
When you reverse AP document that originated from the partner billing document in CI, the following steps are
performed:
1. The whole AP document is reversed and a reverse AP document is also created.
2. New invoicing orders are re-created for the relevant CI billing documents.
The CI billing documents can then be included in the next transfer of data from CI to AP.
3. The document ow between the CI billing document and the AP document is deleted.
Caution
AP documents with reference transaction /SOIN, which are created using SAP Flexible Solution Billing
cannot be reversed using the standard transaction FB08
Similarly, you cannot reverse the AP Documents created using standard transaction using SAP Flexible
Solution Billing.
Procedure
The cancellation process described here does not aect the standard reversal process for Billing in Convergent
Invoicing
1. Use transaction /SOIN/CI_AP_REVERSE
2. Enter the AP document number, scal year, company code and the reason for reversal.
3. Run the program.
4. An application log is displayed showing all messages that occurred during the reversal.
12.7 Payment by Payment Cards
In SAP Flexible Solution Billing, payments using payment cards is enabled for Convergent Invoicing (CI)
transactions invoiced through Sales and Distribution (SD) billing interface.
Payment cards assigned to a business partner can be used to process payments for subscription or
consumption related data coming from Convergent Invoicing being invoiced with SD Billing. In an integrated
scenario with CRM, the payment card can be assigned to the corresponding order or solution quote. During the
SAP Flexible Solution Billing
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P U B L I C 47
invoicing process in ERP, the payment information is assigned to the SD invoice including an authorization
process so that the card data can be taken into account during the settlement process.
For an end to end scenario on payment cards, refer to Extended Payment Cards Functions.
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13 Operations Information
13.1 Archiving
To reduce the load of your database, you can archive data that you no longer need operatively. SAP Flexible
Solution Billing supports the archiving of invoice groups and invoice packages. As part of the integration of SAP
Convergent Invoicing (CI) with Billing in SAP Sales and Distribution (SD), you can also archive the document
ow between CI billing documents and invoices. Archiving in SAP Flexible Solution Billing is based on SAP Data
Archiving (CA-ARC).
Archiving takes place using the following archiving objects:
● /SOIN/GRP
Allows you to archive invoice groups. Note that you can only archive invoice groups that are no longer valid.
In addition, the last invoice package for the group must have reached the status Completed.
● /SOIN/PACK
Allows you to archive invoice packages. Note that only invoice packages with the status Completed can be
archived.
● /SOIN/CISD
Allows you to archive the document ow relating to the integration of CI with SD Billing. Note that as a
prerequisite for archiving, the billing document must already be archived and deleted from the database.
You archive (and also delete) using the SAP standard tool for archiving, the Archive Development Kit. You can
use archive administration (transaction SARA).
Note the following constraints for archiving in SAP Flexible Solution Billing:
● Residence times are not used.
● Information Lifecycle Management (ILM) is enabled for archiving objects /SOIN/GRP and SOIN/PACK.
13.2 Application Log
In SAP Flexible Solution Billing, you can display the created application logs directly together with the
corresponding environment information.
Application logs for the reports used in SAP Flexible Solution Billing are only created if the reports have run in
background. You can determine the scope of the application logs displayed by selecting a particular process
step, such as the creation of parked invoices and by entering dates to specify a time period.
You can access this function directly using the transaction /SOIN/SLG1.
SAP Flexible Solution Billing
Operations Information
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Important Disclaimers and Legal Information
SAP Flexible Solution Billing
Important Disclaimers and Legal Information
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