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160 CHAPTER 5 The Fulfi llment Process

Shipping involves a movement of materials that reduces the quantity of
those materials in inventory. Therefore, in addition to the reduction of inven-
tory value in the general ledger, the inventory quantity is also reduced in the
material master for the delivering plant. A material document is created to
record this movement.
Relevant sales documents, such as quotations and sales orders, are
updated with the details of the shipment. Finally, the billing due list is updated.
The billing due list is a list of deliveries for which the billing step can be exe-
cuted. We now turn our attention to billing.

Demo 5.7: Process shipment for a sales order

BILLING
The purpose of the billing step is to create a variety of documents such as
invoices for products or services as well as credit and debit memos. The billing
step is also used to cancel previously created documents. Billing can be based
either on deliveries that have been shipped to customers or on orders that have
not yet been delivered. This step utilizes organizational data, master data, and
transaction data from previous process steps. Like shipping, billing has several
outcomes, some of which impact other processes. Figure 5-38 illustrates the
elements of the billing step.

Figure 5-38: Elements of the billing step

Data

Billing, with reference to delivery documents, utilizes data from the delivery
document and the sales order, such as material number and quantities (Figure
5-39). Master data, such as customer master and pricing conditions, are the
source of pricing data and partner function (bill-to party). In addition, billing
utilizes organizational data relevant to the fulfi llment process, client, company
code, and sales area.

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