Service order has many date fields which capture the timing of planning and execution. More often than not the name of field does not convey the actual meaning. Via this document I have tried to build a quick reference of Service Order date fields.
Actual Start date: It is the start date of first operation in Order. It does not get filled till we do the first confirmation on the Order. I would like to clarify that the First Operation does not mean the first operation in numerical sequence but the first operation which gets confirmed. The first Actual start date of an Operation flows is also the Actual Start date of the Order. In short this field captured the real start of work (Actual ignores scheduling and goes with confirmation off course that is why it is an Actual).
Actual Order Finish date: Similar to Actual start date the Operation finish date is populated as soon as the Operation is confirmed, only difference is in case of Order it is associated with the confirmation of the last operation. .For some reason if we choose not to record the confirmation for the Operation which has confirmation required in configuration and do the TECO, we miss the Actual Order Finish date, because Actual Order Finish date is very closely linked to confirmation of the last operation in time sequence.
Actual Release date: This is the Release date of an Order meaning when the system status of the Order has changed from Created to Release. If the order does not get released due to some issue (attains Release rejected RELR) then the value is not stored.
Available from date/Available to date: I am unable to determine the business logic behind these two fields. While trying to find its usage, I see them used in just one class "CL_EX_ES_MUL_LIST_TZ_CORE_IMPL" which appears to be more of a technical class (handling session programming) instead of having any business logic. I would like peers to comment on these two fields.
Basic Start/Finish Date: These are the most important date field on the Service order, as it contains the input required to initiate the scheduling. These dates are closely linked to Scheduling Type and used in scheduling to determine the start and end of Operations. So the key purpose of these fields to arrive at the schedule for each operation. Operation not having any duration are ignored are ignored in calculation.
Change date: This field stores an Order change date. The description of the field states “Change date for Order Master”. Order Master is AUFK and the field is updated regardless of changes done at AUFK or AFPO, RESB etc. (I have tried these three basic tables). There could be exceptions where this field is not updated despite changes done in IW32 but not to my knowledge.
Note: The label “Change data for Order Master” does not seem the best possible description of the field.
Created on: It is the date on which Order is created.
History from: It is stored on Maintenance Orders which are archived through Order archiving process. It contains the date on which the archiving was executed. This field will get the value after archiving so we can see it populated only on historical orders.
Period (Service Order Selection screen): If we take literal meaning of this field we understand it is a range. This mapping of period to a field in order Header is unclear from field label. This field acts as selection range for all the Orders which has reference date falling in the period specified. It refers to reference date on the Order. I have explained the significance of Reference date later in this document.
[I am sure we could have done better with the naming of this field as “Period” does not signify the business meaning]
Purchase Order Date: This field can contain the PO related date. At times we get the date on which Customer created and sent a PO for repair. This is one of the freely available fields which can be used to store the date if we want to store the information related to PO.As It is not linked to Purchase Order Technically and can store a value independent of Purchase order.
Reference Date: It contains two dates over the life cycle of the Order. If the Order is not completed it contains Order start date but once the Order is complete it store the technical completion date. It is also the date which gets referred in Period field on Order selection screen (T code IW73).
Scheduled Start/Finish date: It is the planned start date of first operation and the value is derived as soon as scheduling is executed. The calculation is primarily dependent on Basic dates, scheduling type and duration.
Note: Whenever an operation is dropped and scheduling is re executed the scheduled date changes.
Though I have not seen the practical usage of each field above, this is my high level understanding of date fields based on experience and search. If you have reached till this line then feel free to provide your feedback on document, I will be more than happy to incorporate any contextual missing information.
Anjan
