SAP SD Billing Prepaid process possible

-----Original Message-----
Subject: Prepaid process possible

I am looking for information on how we could implement a prepaid process. By "prepaid
process" I mean:
- Customer sends to us his order
- If customer is set as "prepaid", we produce an invoice for him to pay
- Once we have received his payment, we release the sales order for delivery
- no further billing document is produced.

I found information in online documentation about "down payments" (I imagine that our
prepaid process could be a 100% required down payment) but it does not seem that it
would work. From what I understood it looks like the billing plan is handled based upon the
item category, which implies the processing is "material" specific not "customer" specific.

What we do now:
- We have defined a risk category "prepaid" which is assigned to our prepaid customer.
This risk category automatically block the sales order for delivery.
- We receive the sales orders and produce a Pro Forma invoice from it, and send it to
customer
- Once we receive the payment, we release the sales order for delivery and produce the
invoices.
- We post the payment we received earlier against this last invoice.

As you see, this requires a lot of manual work and a lot of time is wasted to match all
documents together. There most be a more efficient way to handle this, anybody have any
hints?

-----Reply Message-----
Subject: RE: Prepaid process possible

Hi again!

You are right! However, if you create a new item category for the prepaid scenario, you can
select what item category (and process) to use at order entry. It is also possible to code a
user exit so that only certain customers will get the prepaid process. This can be done also
with item category groups (can be used to determine what default item category that
should appear). This would mean that you either have different materialnumbers for the
different processes or use different distribution channels in the sales order. DC 10 could be
the normal process and DC 20 the prepaid process. Then you need to create the sales
views in material master for DC 20 for all materials that should be possible to run in the
prepaid scenario, and enter the "prepaid item category group in the sales item category
group field in material master.

Here is a proposal of customizing activities to achieve this:
1. Create a new item category as a copy of the normal item category used for non-prepaid
sales. (Change the billing in the item category to order related billing with no billing plan)
2. Create a new item category group "ZXXX" or something of your choice with the
description "Prepaid" or something like that.
3. In item category assignment, add or check entries so that you have the order type used,
and item category group defaulting the new item category.
4. Check copy control from sales document to billing document for the new item category.
Also delivery copy control could be good to check.
5. Create a new distribution channel and assign it to the company structure (plant, sales
org etc)
6. Extend your material(s) with views for the new distribution channel and enter the "ZXXX"
item category group in the field for sales item category group (I think it is on sales 2 screen
but I am not sure, can't access a system right now).

Now you should be able to create a sales order with the new distribution channel where
the new item category is defaulted. Check that the sales order is completed when both
billing and goods issue for the delivery is posted. If not check the completion rule in the
new item category.