SAP AG Customer Service (CS)

Advance Shipment Process

Advance Shipment Process

Purpose
This Logistics process enables the dispatch of spare parts to the service technician or customer
within the framework of Call Management. The individual functions can be implemented by all
customer service organizations that have service technicians working in the field.
We recommend that you process the shipment of spare parts using a service order with a sales
order. On the one hand, this is because using a service order enables:
A service-specific earnings view from the perspective of Controlling
Improved coordination between delivery and deployment dates for the service technician.
On the other hand, using sales orders means that a customer consignment stock can be created.
This makes it possible to bill the spare parts that were actually required after the consumption
posting has been performed.
The spare parts that are to be dispatched can either be located in the warehouse, or be procured
from an external vendor using a purchase order (third-party order processing). They can be
planned in advance within the framework of call management. The service technician can send
back the spare parts that are not required.

Advance shipment with service order

This scenario differs from the standard case because the service order refers to service contract
item. As a result of this, existing pricing agreements are taken into consideration within the
framework of resource-related billing. You can use the contract as an account assignment object
during settlement.
You can specify an accounting indicator where necessary in order to override contractual
agreements.

Process Flow
1. Creating a service notification for advance shipment [Page 1036]
A customer phones you and reports that a device is defective. You enter the problem in a
service notification.
If you simply want to send the spare parts to the customer without having to plan the
deployment of a service technician, you can create directly a sales order from the service
notification.
2. Creating a service order for advance shipment [Page 1038] and releasing it.
You create a service order in order to send the spare parts to the customer, and to
deploy a service technician to install them. You can plan the spare parts that are to be
delivered as components in the service order.
You can create a sales order on the basis of the service order. You have the option of
copying spare parts that you have already planned into the sales order. You can assign
shipping conditions and accounting indicators to the individual spare parts. If the sales
order type brings about a consignment fill-up, the system creates the consignment stock.
3. Performing delivery for the sales order item

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Advance Shipment Process

After releasing the service order you create the delivery note for the sales order item and
post the goods issue for the delivery note.
The sales order type can be configured in such a way that the delivery is created
automatically (immediate order) for the sale order item when the service order is saved.
If the item type results in third-party order processing, the system does not create a
delivery note, but instead a purchase order for the third-party order processing in
Purchasing.
4. Performing completion confirmation and sending back spare parts
After the repair, the service technician performs completion confirmation for the service
order. For this, he specifies the spare parts used and the working times in the service
order. He can change the accounting indicator (for example, goodwill) when performing
completion confirmation.
The service technician sends back the spare parts that were not required and the
exchanged part where necessary. Because the sending back is not dependent on billing,
it can happen either before or after billing. These materials should be included as items
in the sales order when sent back.
5. Posting goods withdrawals from the consignment stock
The goods withdrawal from the consignment stock for material consumption must be
posted (movement type 261, special stock W) at the same time as the completion
confirmation is performed. You specify the service order as the auxiliary account
assignment in the posting document. When doing this, the consignment stock is reduced
according to the consumption.
6. Performing resource-related billing
You perform resource-related billing. This results in the confirmed materials and working
times being charged to the customer.

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Advance Shipment

Advance Shipment
Use
This function triggers the dispatch of spare parts to the customer or service technician. The
following processing scenarios are conceivable:
Dispatch of Spare Parts With Deployment of Service Technician
The spare parts and a service technician for installing the spare parts are sent to the
customer. In this case we recommend a sales order type that results in the creation of a
consignment stock. After completion confirmation and consumption posting have been
performed, the customer consignment stock is canceled and the parts that are not
required are sent back. When resource-related billing is performed, only the parts that
were actually used are charged to the customer. The revenues flow to the service order.
The parts and exchanged parts that are not required are sent back.
Dispatch of Spare Parts Without Deployment of Service Technician
The spare parts are sent to the customer who will install them himself. In this case you
should choose a customer order of the type standard order or immediate order. You can
work with or without a service order.
You can work with different sales order types for each processing scenario: The advantages and
disadvantages of the corresponding processing forms are illustrated in the following table:

Dispatch of Spare Parts With Deployment of Service Technician

Processing form Sales order type Consequences

Using service Creation of a consignment The spare parts are sent, but
notification with service stock. resource-related billing is only
order and sales order Items are not relevant for performed once the completion
billing confirmations and consumption
postings have been performed.
The service order is the cost
collector. It can be settled in the
earnings, to particular earnings or
G/L account, or using a contract
(service-specific controlling).
Without service
notification but with
service order and sales
order

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Advance Shipment

Without service order Standard or immediate The spare parts are sent and
but with service order charged to the customer. The
notification and sales Items are relevant for billing billing document is based on the
order delivery. A credit memo must be
written for the parts that are sent
back.
The costs and revenues are
transferred to cost accounting by
the sales order.

Dispatch of Spare Parts Without Deployment of Service Technician

Processing form Sales order type Consequences

Using service Standard or immediate The spare parts are sent and
notification, service order charged to the customer. The
order and sales order Items are relevant for billing billing document is based on the
delivery. A credit memo must be
written for the parts that are sent
back.
The costs and revenues are
transferred to cost accounting by
the sales order.
Without service order
but with service
notification and sales
order

Prerequisites
You have configured the necessary sales order types in Customizing for Sales and Distribution:
Consignment stock (KB)
Standard order (TA)
Immediate order (SO)
Several item categories are allowed, depending on the customer order type. These control, for
example, whether a consignment stock is created, whether an item is relevant for delivery and
billing, or whether it is just relevant for delivery. Possible characteristics of the item categories
include:
Item for consignment stock
Item for standard order
Item for immediate order
Or mixed forms
For more information on sales orders and item categories, refer to the documentation SD - Sales
[Ext.].

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Advance Shipment

Activities
Creating a Service Notification for Advance Shipment [Page 1036]
Creating a Service Order for Advance Shipment [Page 1038]

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Creating a Service Notification for Advance Shipment

Creating a Service Notification for Advance Shipment

Prerequisites
If you want a particular type of sales order to be proposed when creating a service notification,
you can define this as a default value in Customizing for service notifications.

Procedure
1. Choose Logistics Service management Service processing and then Notification
Create (special) <Notification type>.
The notification header is displayed.
2. Complete the necessary data such as sold-to party, equipment, problem description, and
tasks that the service technician may have to perform.
If you enter a piece of equipment as a reference object, the data for the sold-to party is
entered automatically. Later, you will also be able to use the structure list to select the
spare parts to be shipped, and copy them to the sales order.
3. You must create a service order to be able to send a service technician to install the
spare parts at the customers. To do this, choose Service notification Service order
Create for notification (see Creating a Service Order for Advance Shipment [Page
1038]).
You must create a sales order to be able to send spare parts that the customer is to
install himself.
If you choose Service notification Create sales order Standard order type, the
system copies the sales order type that is preassigned in Customizing, and branches
directly to the sales order.
If you choose Service notification Create sales order Advance shipment, you
go straight to the dialog box where you enter the advance shipment parameters.
You can overwrite the sales order type. Enter a shipping condition and an accounting
indicator where necessary. Choose Continue.
Confirm the following dialog box with Continue.
If you have entered a piece of equipment as a reference object, the structure list is
displayed. Here, you can select the materials that you want to ship as spare parts.
Choose Select to copy the selected parts to the sales order.
4. In the sales order, enter the spare parts or check the parts that were selected using the
structure list.
5. Complete any data required and choose Back to return to the service notification.
6. Save the service notification.

Result
The system saves the sales order together with the service notification. You can use document
flow [Page 1401] to see the assignment of a service notification to the sales order.

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Creating a Service Notification for Advance Shipment

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Creating a Service Order for Advance Shipment

Creating a Service Order for Advance Shipment

Prerequisites
If you want a particular type of sales order to be proposed when you create a service order, you
can enter this in the user master record under the set/get parameter VORAB_AUART.
To be able to send the spare parts to a service technician (instead of to a customer) when
creating a consignment stock, a customer master record must be created for the service
technician.

Procedure
1. Depending on where you are, choose one of the following procedures:
You are Choose
In notification processing Service notification Service order Create for
notification
Not in notification processing Logistics Customer service Service processing
and then:
With reference to a notification
Order Service order Create (special) For
notification
Without reference to a notification
Order Service order Create (general)
A dialog box or the initial screen for creating a service order is displayed.
2. Enter the service order type SM02 and enter the required data.
If the service order makes reference to a service contract, enter SM01.
3. Choose Continue.
The order header is displayed.
4. Enter the service technician who is to perform the installation of the spare parts and the
repair in the field Main work center.
If you do not specify a piece of equipment as the reference object in the notification or
order, you must enter the sales organization and the distribution channel by choosing
Extras Sales data. If you do not do this, the sales data is copied from the reference
object.
If you want to send the spare parts to a service technician, enter the service technician
as the sold-to party and the goods recipient. (Otherwise enter the customer as the sold-
to party and the goods recipient).
5. In order to plan the spare parts that you want to send in advance to the customer, choose
Components.
The component overview is displayed.

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Creating a Service Order for Advance Shipment

6. Enter the spare parts, the quantities and the bill of material item category (for example, stock
material). Material master records with sales data must be created and have prices
maintained for the spare parts.
If you have entered a reference object in the order header, you can select the spare
parts to be sent by clicking on the icon Structure list, and copying them into the
component overview.
7. Select the spare parts that you want to ship in advance and click on the icon Advance
shipment.
The dialog box for entering the advance shipment parameters is displayed.
8. You can overwrite the sales order type. Enter a shipping condition and an accounting
indicator where necessary and choose Continue.
In the next dialog box that is displayed, you can:
Perform an availability check
Perform a completeness check
Make changes to the items proposed from the service order (these changes are not
copied to the service order)
9. Choose Back to return to the service order, and save it.

Result
The system saves the sales order together with the service order. You can use the document
flow [Page 1401] function to see the assignment of a service order to the sales order.
Both the service order and the individual spare parts are assigned the system status Advance
shipment made. This means that you can use this status to search for service orders and
components.
The current delivery status [Page 1040] is also recorded for the spare parts. This means that you
can display the current delivery status of the sales order in the service order.
The system also sets automatically the indicator Non-MRP-relevant for the spare parts. This is
because the materials are copied into the sales order and are planned there.

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Status: Advance Shipment

Status: Advance Shipment

Use
You use this function to obtain the current status overview of the sales order. You see all system
and user statuses of the sales order at a glance. This enables you to display the required status
information from the service order without having to call up the sales order or the delivery note.
Furthermore, the current delivery status of the individual components is also recorded here. This
means you can use this function to track the delivery dates of the spare parts with the
deployment date of the service technician.

Activities
Choose Advance shipment status in the component overview or detail screen in the service
order.

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