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152 CHAPTER 5 The Fulfi llment Process

Figure 5-26: Structure of a sales order

include one or more sales document items, which contain data about each
item included in the sales order. Examples of item data are material number,
description, and quantity. Each item can be associated with a different item
category, such as standard item, text item, and free-of-charge item, which
determines how the item is handled with regard to pricing, billing, and ship-
ping. For example, there is no charge for free-of-charge items. Finally, each
document item can include one or more schedule lines, which specify deliv-
ery quantities and dates.
Some of the data in our example are illustrated on the right side of Figure
5-26. For example, the fi gure shows the PO date and PO number for RMB’s
order. It also indicates two partner functions, sold-to party and ship-to party.
RMB is the sold-to party, and the racing location where the materials are to
be shipped is the ship-to party. The order consists of two items, one for the
40 bikes and one for the 100 t-shirts. The bikes have two schedule lines, one
for 30 bikes to be delivered by May 10 and the other for 10 bikes to be deliv-
ered by June 10. In contrast, the shirts have one schedule line because RMB
requested that GBI deliver all 100 shirts by May 10.

Outcomes
A sales order is the only transaction document generated by this step. No
material or accounting documents are created. If a contract is associated with
the sales order, then it is updated to include the quantity or amount of the sale.
There are four additional consequences—availability check, delivery schedul-
ing, and transfer of requirements—which we consider next.
Availability check is a procedure to determine whether the required mate-
rials are available or will be available in time for the desired delivery date (per
the schedule lines). Further, if the materials are not available, the availability

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