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gabor_villas
Explorer
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In SAP Supply Network Collaboration you can synchronize and automate the flow of information between your company and your suppliers, such as Advanced Shipping Notifications (ASNs). The Advanced shipping notifications are key documents in the collaboration between suppliers and customers. A supplier uses an ASN to inform a customer that he or she has sent the customer a delivery. The ASN informs the customer which products and quantities are in transit and the expected arrival time of the delivery. But when do you need to cancel, and when do you close an ASN?

Cancel ASN

The ASN document triggers the document flow after the supplier set the status to Published. In some cases, it is possible that the information in the ASN is wrong, or the shipment is cancelled by some reason. If you cannot change the ASN because it is not allowed, or you want to start over again, use the "Cancel ASN" function button on the Supplier's view ASN Details screen. With this action, the status of the ASN will be "Cancelled" and SNC won't consider this ASN in planning or other functions like Purchase Order/Replenishment Order open quantity calculation and Scheduling Agreement Release due quantity calculation. As a result, if the reference document was a Purchase Order, the Supplier will be able again to create a new ASN for the specific PO with the same item quantity.
This function can be performed by the Supplier, there is no need to involve the system administrator.

Close ASN

Closing the ASNs is a different function. This can be performed via report /SCA/DLV_CLOSE, and you need to have system administration authorization for the SAP SNC system, therefore it is not a Supplier activity. This report can close ASNs with the header status Published or Partially Delivered. If you close an ASN, the item quantity is still considered in the refence document, for example in a Purchase Order. That means if the Supplier tries to create a new ASN for the Purchase Order, he or she can only do it with the open quantity, assuming that the open quantity is not zero and the validation settings does not allow overdelivery.

In both situation, you can also delete the ASNs from SNC, but remember that the main difference between cancel and close ASN is that the open quantity will only change back to the original when you use the Cancel ASN function. If you delete a Closed ASN, the Purchase Order item open quantity will remain the same to prevent inconsistency.

Application Help documentation:
Cancel ASN
Closing ASNs in System Administration