Contents

Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 2
Configuration ................................................................................................................................................ 2
Set POD relevance for delivery item category .......................................................................................... 2
Define Reasons for Quantity Differences ................................................................................................. 4
Activate POD for the ship to party ............................................................................................................ 5
System Demo ................................................................................................................................................ 5
Execute POD for a delivery note ............................................................................................................... 9
Additional Notes for POD process in SAP AFS ............................................................................................ 12


Introduction
Proof of Delivery (POD) is a business process used by some businesses which a customer invoice is
created only after the customer confirmation received on the delivery receipt at their warehouse. In
addition to that; system allows recording the POD Date, time and the actual quantity of goods that has
been arrived. If there is a difference between quantity of goods issued and quantity of goods arrived,
then possible reason for that difference. Some practical world reasons for above mentioned stock
shortage can be theft, stock shrinkage, transportation damage, etc. This is very useful when negotiating
with the forwarding agent as all possible deviations is reflected within SAP.
Based on the customer confirmed quantity (Received quantity at customers warehouse), now it is
possible to create an accurate invoice in SAP.
Configuration
You need to carry out below configuration steps to enable the POD process in SAP.
Set POD relevance for delivery item category
IMG Path:

It is recommended to define all delivery relevant item categories as POD relevant as the POD process
activation can be done at the ship to party master data level.

Mark "X" under "POD-relevant" column to activate POD for the delivery item category.
Mark "V" under "POD-relevant" column to copy the POD relevance from a preceding document
(such as an SD scheduling agreement) into inbound deliveries. In this case, as the preceding
document is being processed, the system already knows whether verification for an item should
be expected.
Define Reasons for Quantity Differences

Under above IMG path you have to define possible reasons for quantity differences that can occur.
Together with the reason, you need to define the "+" or "-" effect it has on the delivered quantity. Based
on "+" or "-" sign, over delivery, under delivery quantities will be added or subtracted from the delivery
quantity.

Activate POD for the ship to party
Activation of POD process can be done at the ship to party level. In order to do that, go in to the
customer master in the change mode.
Transaction: XD02 / VD02
Go to Sales area data / Shipping tab
Mark the field " Relevant for POD "

Once "Relevant for POD" field is marked, you need to execute POD step, before creating customer
invoice.
"POD timeframe" field is used to specify number of days which you expect to receive verification from
the ship to party for POD. Once this time limit has passed, outbound deliveries can be confirmed using
the Automatic Confirmation functionality.
Now if I create a sales order with the ship to party "A300", it is mandatory to execute POD before
invoice creation.
System Demo
Create a sales order with ship to party "A300". In the sales document / Item / Shipping tab, you
should be able to see "POD relevant" field is flagged. This is coming from the ship to party.

But if you create the order with a ship to party which has no "Relevant for POD" flag, you do not get this
in the sales order / item / shipping tab. See below;

Now you need to post goods issue the delivery document to represent actual goods issued from
your warehouse. (I have issued quantity 10 in the delivery note)
In the delivery note header "Processing" tab, you can see the "POD Status" is flagged as
relevant.

When you look at the status of the delivery note (Delivery note / Item / Status Overview), you
should be able to see the "POD status" is marked as "relevant"

Now let's try to create the invoice for this delivery without executing POD step
Transaction: VF01
You cannot create the billing document due to below error

Therefore you have to execute the step of POD.

Execute POD for a delivery note
Under below transaction you can enter the POD.
Transaction: VLPOD
Easy Access Menu Path:

Execute the transaction with the delivery document number

You should be able to see "POD Status" field is marked as "A - Relevant"

Use button to view the batch level data and enter the customer confirmed difference with
the relevant reason code
For example let's say customer confirms only 8 out of my 10 delivered, and then I should enter 2
under the field "QtyDiffinSalesUn" with the relevant reason in the field "Reason"

Now you should be able to see the "POD quantity" field was automatically adjusted based on
the "+" or "-" value in the reason code configuration (In this case it became 8)
In order to confirm the "POD" manually, you have to press the button

Once you press that button, system will automatically get the POD date as today's date. Else you can
manually enter a date in that field as well. Now you should be able to see the "POD status" field was
changed to "C - confirmed"

Save the transaction
Now if you go to delivery document / Item / Status overview tab, you should be able to see that
the "POD Status" has been changed to "C"

Now you can create the billing document for this delivery note without any issue. The billed
quantity will be the POD quantity not the delivered quantity. (In this example it is 8 not 10)

Additional Notes for POD process in SAP AFS
Symptom:
When you try to create a billing document with POD processed delivery document, below error message
appears in the billing log:
Message No: 8W 451
Message Text: Inconsistencies found in billing quantity (Standard <-> AFS)

Apply below OSS note;
1115536 - Error in billing if POD qty is different from Delivery qty
This should correct the above issue.

Author: Anupa Wijesinghe
E-Mail: anupaw@gmail.com / anupaw@learnsaptips.com
Website: www.learnsaptips.com
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