SAP Output Management: setting custom Dunning Notice Form in SAP S/4HANA Cloud

[Alexander_Korne]

Introduction

This blog post describes the process of creation and customizing of Dunning Notice Form in SAP S/4HANA Cloud. This scenario includes following steps:

1. Search for suitable standard form


2. Adjusting of the form in Adobe LiveCycle Designer


3. Adjusting of master form in Adobe LiveCycle Designer


4. Create sender address, footers and logo.


5. Adjusting of Output Management settings for Dunning Notice


6. Setting-up Master Form


7. Review of the results in SAP S/4HANA Cloud

Search for suitable standard form

The list of all forms is available in SAP Best Practices for SAP S/4HANA (on premise)‎, in Accelerators part - Forms.

In this excel spreadsheet we need to find the name of the used for Dunning Notice Adobe Form Template (FIN_FO_DUNN_NOTE):

We will copy it then in SAP S/4HANA Cloud System and use as the basis for our custom form.

Adjusting of the form in Adobe LiveCycle Designer

Now we need to go to SAP S/4HANA Cloud System and download the selected template.

To do this we will use the App "Maintain Form Templates". Let´s go to the Pre-delivered Templates tab and search for the identified earlier FIN_FO_DUNN_NOTE Form template:

Select the template and copy it:

Go to Custom Templates tab, remove filter by Name and enter the form, we just copied:

Then we need to download the form to local machine to work with it further in Adobe LiveCycle Designer:

By downloading the form you need to select master form for it. The most commonly used master form is SOMU_FORM_MASTER_A4 - let´s use it:

Important remark: now we downloaded the main, englisch version of the form and will make changes in it. Unfortunately, if you need to change forms for other languages, this has to be done separately.

Before starting adapting the form in Adobe LiveCycle Designer, we need to download the tool from the app "Install Additional Software" and install it on local PC.

Once it is done, open the downloaded form via Adobe LiveCycle Designer:

The 4 different texts, you can see in the form, are referred to the 4 different levels of Dunning Notifications.

There are 3 main types of changes, which are the most frequently required to be implemented:

1. Changes of styles of elements. 

In case of necessity to change font, size, style, etc. of texts - this can be done via the top panel after selecting of text:

For text fields and other elements the changes available in Object tab -> Field subtab -> appearance:

And in Layout tab:

          2. Changes of elements bindings

Sometimes it is necessary not only to add element from the left area, Data View tab:

But to change values, which will be displayed in already existing fields. This can be done after selecting of the necessary field in Object -> Binding:

          3. Changes of elements bindings

Some elements can be displayed based on conditions, or their content can change dynamically. It is possible to check and change such scenarios in scripting area:

 

Adjusting of master form in Adobe LiveCycle Designer

And some changes can be done only via changes in master form. One of such examples - changing the number of footers. There are 3 footers by default in master forms and in some cases 4 are necessary. Let´s take a look, how it can be done.

Firstly we need to go back in SAP S/4HANA Cloud system, app "Maintain Form Templates".

Then we need to switch to Pre-delivered Templates again and find master form, which we used for download of the main form - SOMU_FORM_MASTER_A4, select it and copy:

Once the form is copied, let´s switch to the Custom Templates tab, remove the filtering and enter the newly copied master form:

In the next step we need to download the master form to local PC:

And open the form via Adobe LiveCycle Designer:

By default landscape view will be opened. But for sending of Dunning Notices portrait view will be used. Therefore let´s go Hierarchy tab -> Portrait_OutboundLetter -> mst1:

As you can see, now only 3 footers are available. Furthermore, usually it is quite hard to guess, whether mst1 or mst2 page will be in use, therefore we need to add 4th footer on both - mst1 and mst2.

To do so, following steps are necessary:

1. Resize evenly 3 existing footers, making them smaller.


2. Regroup existing footers, making free space for the 4th footer.


3. Copy the 3rd footer (with the text field inside), and paste it correspondingly in the Hierarchy:

       4. Rename the newly created block accordingly on Object tab, and assign corresponding data binding:

 

Repeat the operations for other pages, if necessary and save the changes.

Uploading of changed forms

After the changes are done in Adobe LiveCycle Designer, we need to upload changed main and master form to SAP S/4HANA Cloud.

In the same application, from where we downloaded the forms (Maintain Form Templates), go firstly to the main form, select Upload button and upload the changed version. Then repeat the same for the master form.

Create sender address, footers and logo

In terms of the last step of creation of our form, we need to create sender address, footers and upload logo.

Manage Texts

To create sender address and logo we use "Manage Texts" app. Click "+", once you enter it:

In the new window we have to provide name, description, type, language and then content:

Sender address is the name and address of our organization, which will be displayed in the top left corner of the most documents, we will send. Usually we need only one address item. You can specify different for different languages.

Based on our business scenario, we need 4 footers. You can create different footers for different languages.

Later, when we will adjust customizing for our forms, in the "Related Master Forms" column we will see number of master forms, which use the footers and the address. By clicking the number you will see the forms´ names.

Manage Logos

And now we need to switch to the "Manage Logos" app and upload the logo of our company:

Adjusting of Output Management settings for Dunning Notice

After changes in Adobe LiveCycle Designer are done, footers, sender address and logos are created, we need to set customizing in SAP S/4HANA Cloud system.

Assign Form Template

We will start with "Assign Form Template" SSCUI. This customizing item available either in "Configure your solution" app -> search for " Assign Form Template" -> enter the 2nd item:

Or, if your system is connected to CBC, go to the Configuration Activities, search for "Assign Form Template" and click "Go to Activity":

Once you entered the customizing activity, you will see list of Application Object Types with Form Templates, assigned to them by default, including dunning items:

Click "New Entries" in the top left corner:

Search for FFO_DUNN as Object Type and select it:

As email type select the following option:

And enter the name of your custom form in Form Template ID:

Now, once you save the setting, go one screen back and search for the Dunning Letter, you will see, that your Form Template is assigned to the Object type, as well, as the standard form.

There is no issue in such double assignment, as we will define in "Output Parameter Determination" app, which Form Template will be used for our scenario.

Define Rules for Determination of Master Form Template

In the next step we need SSCUI "Define Rules for Determination of Master Form Template" - you can find it either in "Configure your solution" app or in CBC:

In this activity, you can define rules that determine the master form template. Every time a document is printed/emailed by the end user in an application, these rules identify the master form template to be used.

Once you enter the customizing item, table with the rules is available. The higher number of a rule, the higher priority it has:

Click "New Entries" in the top left corner. On the new screen, provide the meaningful Rule ID and Number. Then select your earlier created Form Template name and the earlier created Master Form Template Name:

You can use other fields to restrict in which business-scenarios the forms will be used.

Furthermore we need to specify Sender Address, Footers and Logos we created earlier and save the rule:

Output Parameter Determination

Now we will switch to the application "Output Parameter Determination". And we will work with Dunning there:

Firstly we check customizing for Output Type, which should look following:

Default customizing for Receiver also fits our case:

Default setting for Channel should look like this:

Printer Settings:

Email and Email Recipients settings can be left empty for the scenario.

And in Form Template setting you need to specify via direct input name of your custom Form Template, you created earlier:

You can also specify here different forms for different languages (last column).

And we can leave default setting for Output Relevance:

Review of the results in SAP S/4HANA Cloud

There are two ways to check, how the final result is look like. The one is described in this blog post. If this way does not work for you, or you need to check results for different items, you can use the way, described further.

Manage Customer Line Items

First of all it is worse to mention, that you can use this method only in Starter or Q system, or on test data in P system.

To review the resulting form, we need to implement several preparation steps.

We start with "Manage Customer Line Items" app. Click "Go" and display all available items:

Select test item, click on Journal Entry number, and then "Manage Journal Entry":

Enter edit mode on the new screen. Go to test Posing View Item and click the 2nd item (Credit):

On the new screen remove values from "Last Dunned" and "Dunning Level" fields:

Click "Back to Journal Entry" in the bottom right corner. And click "Save" at the "Journal Entry - Entry View" Screen.

Maintain Business Partner

Further we need to go to the app "Maintain Business Partner" and select the Business Partner, for which we update the Journal Entry:

Double-click on the Partner, switch between display and change (use button in the header) and select "Customer (Fin.Accounting)" in "Display in BP role" field:

Then click Company Code:

And then General Data:

Further, we need to go to the "Customer: Correspondence" tab and remove values from "Last Dunning Notice" and "Dunning Level", if there are any. Save the changes.

Create Dunning Notices

And the last application, which we will use is "Create Dunning Notices" app.

Enter current date in the "Run on" field and any identification in the 2nd field:

Go to Parameter tab and enter the current data in the "Dunning Date" and "Docmnts posted up to" fields. Then enter Company Code and Customer numbers, which you used for the earlier customizing. Save the changes:

Go one step back and click Schedule:

Select LP01 as an output device and click continue:

Check "Start immediately" and click dispatch then in the next window:

Once it is done, the following status will be available:

Then you can click "Refresh" in the bottom right corner and see the following status:

In status messages you can also see the number of dunning letters, which will or were dispatched.

Finally, you can use Sample printout button to display the generated notification:

Select the same output device, as earlier and click "Display" in the window:

Great job, now you can see your custom Dunning Notification Form.

Conclusion

In this blog post we described end-to-end process of form creation and settings´ customizing for Dunning Notification. The closer you will keep to SAP standard forms and settings, the less efforts in Output Management are needed and many of these steps can be skip. Therefore it is always necessary to evaluate before starting forms´ creation, which business requirements are critical for different forms.