This blog post is a continuation of:

LE-TRA – Config Guide for Shipment & Shipment Cost Document – Part I

As I mentioned in this post’s Part I, I wrote this configuration guide for Logistics Execution Transportation (LE-TRA) sometime ago and I decided to share with this community. The whole post was divided in 3 Parts due to a SCN number of Images limitation (maximum 20 images per post). Between Parts I, II and III, the posts are more focused on freight payments and Shipment Cost Document.

I divided this blog post in 3 parts:

I. Transportation – Shipment

II. Transportation – Shipment Cost Document (this post is covering part II)

III. Transportation – Shipment Cost Document (Cont.)

I hope you enjoy reading as much as I enjoyed writing and I hope you find this helpful. If you like it, I appreciate you rating this blog post.

Index / Content

Part I

1. SAP Language
2. Transportation – Shipment
3. Master Data
4. Maintain Transportation Planning Point
5. Define Routes
6. Define Modes of Transport
7. Define Shipping Type
8. Defining Transportation Connection Point
9. Defining Transportation Zones
10. Define Transportation Groups
11. Setting up Weight Groups
12. Define Routes and Assigning Routes
13. Definition of routes
14. Maintain Stages for all Routes
15. Determining Routes
16. Route Determination in Sales Order
17. Configuration of Shipments
18. Maintain Transportation Relevance
19. Set Up Transportation Planning Points
20. Define Shipment Type

Part II (this post is covering part II)

1. Transportation – Shipment Cost Document
2. Shipment Cost Document Structure
3. Define Date Rules
4. Define and Assign Tariff Zones
5. Define and Assign Activity Profile
6. Define Shipment Cost types
7. Define Item Categories:
8. Assign Shipment Cost Type and item categories
9. Maintain Shipment cost relevance and default for shipment cost type
10. Define shipment cost relevance for shipment type
11. Pricing

Part III

1. Define and assign shipping type procedure group
2. Define and assign item procedure group
3. Define Service Agent Procedure Group for Shipment Costs
4. Maintain Price Procedure
5. Define Pricing Procedure Determination for Shipment Costs
6. Maintain Condition Type
7. Settlement
8. Assign Purchasing Data
9. Account Determination
10. Group Together Valuation Areas
11. Define Valuation Classes
12. Automatic G/L account Determination
13. Automatic determination of CO assignments
14. Business Process Procedure
15. Create transportation condition records
16. Create Delivery Document
17. Create Shipment Document
18. Creating Shipment Cost Document & Cost Settlement
19. Effects of Shipment cost settlement and related documents
20. User-Exits
21. BADIs

Before we move to the Shipment Cost Document (aka SCD or Shipment Cost) configuration, let’s briefly discuss the role that this document plays in Transportation.

The shipment Cost Document is created in reference to a Shipment Document where one or more stages are relevant for Shipment Costs.

When the Shipment Cost Document Item is assigned to an item category that is relevant for settlement, you can take advantage of additional features that includes freight cost calculation, accrual and invoice payments.

Usually, you have the freight rates agreed with your logistics service agents and those rates can be maintained upfront in the system and calculated using the pricing and conditions functionality. If rates are maintained in the system, they will be calculated regardless the item category been relevant for settlement or not, but with the item been relevant for settlement you can forward the shipment rates for FI/CO (GR/IR accrual, Cost elements assignments, purchase order and service entry sheet posting, Invoice verification and etc).

The reference to the shipment cost calculation is the shipment document, but the rates that are calculated based on the condition and pricing procedure are stored in the shipment cost document.

Shipment Cost Document Structure

The Shipment Cost Document is composed by: Header, Item and Sub-item.

• The header as you can imagine, contains data that is valid to the whole document and items, such as processing status, who created or changed the document, what is the document’s reference (the shipment number) and etc. The header also brings the Shipment Cost Document Type, which you can define to each type different processing rules and settlement procedures. See more below how to do that at Define Shipment Cost types section.

• The item(s) contain data required to the freight calculation like who is the service agent, the invoice presenter, the pricing date used for calculation, settlement date, item status and etc.  See more below how to configure it at Define Item Categories section. The items will refer to the header, of course, but they are also assigned to a specific Shipment’s stage. That helps for example when you have to charge certain costs that refers to the whole shipment or charges that refers only to a certain shipment leg (see section Assign Shipment Cost Type and item categories for more details).

• The sub-item(s) is where price is assigned. The sum or all sub-items will determine the total cost of the shipment. The cost is calculated via Condition Records using condition types. The condition types can vary their characteristics to cover your business needs, where you can define the calculation base per whole leg’s weight for example or based on the Handling Unit/Shipping Unit (pallets, trucks, container and etc.). You can also use scales to meet the prices agreed with your service agent.

Define Date Rules

Here you create “Date Rules”. They are used to determine what are the dates to be taken in consideration when a shipment is created, to the Pricing Date, Settlement Date. Since you may have different Shipment Item Types (Item Categories), they may have different rules to the dates, if so, you can create different rules here and assign them to the Shipment Item Type.The dates will come from Shipment’s deadlines dates (either actual or planned dates).

Define and Assign Tariff Zones

Here is where you will inform the tariff zones along with their respective postal codes areas assigning to the tariff zones for each transportation planning point. You can use the Tariff Zones in the shipment cost calculation, based on a region (defined by a set of Postal Codes) assigned to a given Freight Agent.

Define and Assign Activity Profile

The profiles are very useful to calculate shipment cost document during the sales order creation to allow have an estimated freight amount.

Profiles are assigned based on Shipment Type and you can define different profiles depending on the Shipment’s status.

Define Shipment Cost types

In many businesses situations, it is common to have different needs for settlement procedures to the shipments. To handle those different needs, you can create different Shipment Types and assign them to their respective shipment types.

The Shipment Cost type allows define what number range is going to be used, what is the status that the shipment’s deadlines needs to reach to allow the SCD creation. It is my personal suggestion that makes more sense to define that the Shipment must be in status 6 – Shipment Started, until a Shipment Cost Document can be created. That guarantees that the Freight document (SCD) will only be created if the Goods really left the plant. This last one is controlled via Ov.stat. Shipmt indicator.

Define Item Categories

The Item Categories (shipment cost item types) contains settings for calculation and settlement of a shipment’s stage/leg.

In the box Calculation you can define the Date Rules (see more above about date rules) that will be used to pick the pricing date. You will also be able to define a partner function that the item category will be allowed to use for and the item determination group, which plays an important role in the pricing automatic determination.

In the box Settlement you will see the following:

Cost Distribution > Cost distribution CO

This is to define in what level the cost distribution of shipment costs will be allocated during account assignment and document posting.

The following levels are possible to select:

1. Shipment cost item
2. Delivery
3. Delivery item

You will be able to restrict the level of cost distribution using the field Origin of CO in this same configuration screen.

If you intend to use COPA (profitability analysis) it is important to know that the Cost distribution B (Delivery) or C (delivery item) must be selected, so the Profitability Object can pull the data from Delivery or Delivery Item, since the Shipment Cost (A) do not hold data that is used to the CO-PA Characteristics.

Account Assignment Category

The account assignment category is the cost collector that will be used (for example:cost center, Profit Segment, Account Number and etc). Note that even if you use for example the Profitability Segment, the costs will still be posted “statistically” to cost center, and it will be available to read in the cost center’s report S_ALR_87013611. The available options are:

9              Unknown

A             Asset

B             MTS prod./sales ord.

C             Sales order

D             Indiv.cust./project

E             Ind. cust. w. KD-CO

F              Order

G             MTS prod./project

K             Cost center

M            Ind. cust. w/o KD-CO

N             Network

P              Project

Q             Proj. make-to-order

T             All new aux.acc.***.

U             Unknown

X             All aux.acct.assgts.

Z             Profitability Segmen

Settlement Date

Once again, check the Date Rules explained more above. Here you will assign one of the Date Rules you have created and this is the date that will be taken in consideration for “settlement” which is the accounting posting date (to the GR/IR accrual document)

Origin of CO assignments

The options that you can select for Origin of the CO assignments are: A – General ledger account, B – Sequence: Delivery, Sales Order or C – Sequence: Delivery, order, G/L account. In case you use profitability segment, it is recommended to select “C” so you can have the Sales Order and Delivery Document information flowing to CO-PA characteristics.

Relevant for settlement

Here is where you indicate if the shipment cost item is relevant or not for “settlement” (posting the GR/IR accrual). If you want to have the system creating PO’s automatically with subsequent GR/IR accruals, Service Entry Sheet, all behind the scene, automatically, you must select X here.

Purchase Order Generation

At the time that the shipment cost is posted (transferred), SAP can create a PO (or assign an existing PO depending on the configuration). Here are the options you can select: Field in Blank – Do not generate purchase order / A – Generate purchase order for validity period of 1 day / B – Generate purchase order for validity period of 1 week / C – Generate purchase order for validity period of 1 month.

Item Categories

Create as many as you need or use the standard delivered. Here is one example of what I had to do:

YE01       Add cost Outbnd

YO01      Out Frt Truck

YO02      Out Frt Rail

YO03      Out Frt InlndWter

YO04      Out Frt Ocean

YO05      Out Frt Air Cargo

YO06      Out Frt Air Pssng

YO07      Out Frt Others

Y002       General costs

Y003       Insurance

Y004       Cleaning

Y005       Load transfer

Y006       Customs

YFOR     Forwarder Cost

YIAD      Inbound Add Csts

YINB      Inbound Frt Csts

YINT       Interco. Freight

Assign Shipment Cost Type and item categories

To each Shipment Cost Type, you need to do the proper assignments of Item Categories to specify when and how those item types will be pulled into the Shipment Cost Document. You also assign the Valuation Class, which plays an important role in the G/L account determination.

The Rec.indic. is directly tied to the stage type (in the shipment) and depending on the stage type (if it is based on Shipment Header, Shipment Leg, Load Transfer point and etc.) you assign what is the correct Item Type/Item Category to be used in the shipment cost document.

You can also select if to that shipment type, a given item category will be automatically assigned or if manual assignment is allowed, or even if the item category can shows twice in the same document.

Maintain Shipment cost relevance and default for shipment cost type

Here is where you will assign the shipment cost types to the respective shipment types:

Define shipment cost relevance for shipment type

In this configuration you will indicate in what level the shipment cost needs to be calculated.For example, if to a given shipment type you select “leg” that indicates that the shipment stage is relevant for shipment costing but not the shipment header. You can’t “post” your shipment cost document to be ready to finance if the Shipment type is not relevant for shipment cost.

Pricing

Before you create a SCD, you must have the pricing procedures assignment with their respective set of conditions and to have rates maintained for those conditions. If rates are not maintained, the document will still be created (with 0.00 amount) but not transferred/posted. The whole Shipment cost calculation is based on the SAP Condition Technique. The Picture below shows how the Condition Technique operates.

The condition technique, condition types, scales, pricing procedures and their main characteristics follows the same concept of pricing procedure for other SAP documents. We will not spend much time here on this topic as there are many other sources for that. Later I will work on some examples and explanation for this topic and update it here.

This is the end of the Part II. Transportation – Shipment Cost Document. Check here the Part I. Transportation – Shipment and here the Part III. Transportation – Shipment Cost Document (Cont.)

If you liked, please, rate this blog. Thank you.

Leandro da Pia Nascimento