Automate Intercompany transactions using IDocs

 Introduction:

For a lot of organizations, Intercompany transactions constitute a major chunk of the overall transactions. Hence, bringing in process improvements and automation in this area can help save a lot of cost and effort.

In this blog post, i would like to highlight the automations we can bring in to have a seamless flow between MM and SD processes for intercompany transactions with minimum user interference.

I would be covering the high level process and the detailed steps required to set up each process can be found on various forums.

This is what a general intercompany cycle looks like.

IMG Source: https://blogs.sap.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/purchase_order_884189.jpg

 

Steps to be automated:

 

1. Sales Order creation in the selling company.

Once the necessary STO settings have been made, and an intercompany purchase order has            been created. The following settings need to be made to automatically create a sales order in            the selling company code.

Pre-requisites:

• Create a custom output type and set up partner profiles for each vendor with idoc type ORDERS for sales order creation using transaction code WE20.
• Use process code ORDE for inbound processing.
• We need to map the idoc fields to the Sales order creation fields for successful creation. Take ABAP help for mapping.
• Set up condition records for automatic output processing.

 

 

2. Order acknowledgement from the selling company.

Once the Sales order is created, we need to send an order acknowledgement from the selling            company to confirm the demand. Once triggered, it should show up in the PO confirmations                tab.

Pre-requisites:

• Create a custom output type and set up partner profiles for each customer with idoc type ORDERSP for sales order creation using transaction code WE20.
• Use process code ORDR for inbound processing.
• Set up condition records for automatic output processing.

PO confirmations tab:

 

3. Automatic creation of Outbound delivery w.r.t Sales order.

Once the material is available, the system should be able to automatically create a outbound             delivery with reference to the sales order.

Pre-requisites:

• Setup batch job with program RV50SBT1.

4. Automatic inbound delivery and ASN creation.

• Create a custom output type and set up partner profiles for each customer with idoc type DELVRY01/02/03 for inbound delivery creation using transaction code WE20.
• Use process code DELS for inbound processing.
• Set up condition records for automatic output processing.
• Once triggered, it should show up in the PO confirmations tab.
• Goods receipt can be posted based on this inbound delivery.

PO confirmations tab:

 

5. Automatic invoice in the receiving company based on the billing document created in selling                company code.

Pre-requisites:

• Once the requested materials have been delivered, the selling company creates a billing document.
• Create a custom output type based on standard output type RD04 and set up partner profiles for each customer with idoc type INVOIC for invoice creation using transaction code WE20.
• Use process code SD08 for inbound processing.
• Set up condition records for automatic output processing.
• Once triggered, the invoice will be automatically created and can be seen in the PO history.

 

Conclusion:

Organizations can choose to use all or some of these automations independently based on the business requirements.

This can help to reduce the number of FTEs required to post intercompany transactions, improve accuracy and reduce errors, and help reduce intercompany overdues drastically.

Please feel free to reach out to me via the comments section if you need any further information or clarification on the topic. Also, you can post your queries in the Q&A tag area here.

Source: Automate Intercompany transactions using IDocs | SAP Blogs