| # Shipping Material Accounts The topic describes the packaging item registration functionality. Shipping Material Accounts Shipping Material Accounts are used to communicate with a business partner about quantities of packaging items and payments of packaging items. The shipping material account is used to group packaging items for the purpose of reporting to business partners. For details, refer to the online Help of Shipping Material Accounts (whwmd4170m000) session. Note ERP LN records the packaging item transactions only when the : Extended Packaging Item Registration check box is selected in the Master Data Parameters (whwmd0100s000) session. Accountable check box is selected in the Packaging Items (whwmd4505m000) session. Important! You can copy all items from one business partner to another business partner within the same shipping material account. Search of Shipping Material Accounts (SMA) When ERP LN records a shipping material transaction, ERP LN searches for a shipping material account (SMA) to be linked to the transaction in the following hierarchy : ERP LN searches for a SMA that has a combination of business partner, packaging item and transaction date of the transaction. The step 1 can also result in an empty SMA. This means that the item is excluded from accounting for the specific business partner. If a SMA is found in step 1, then the search action stops else step 2 is executed. ERP LN searches for a SMA that has a combination of business partner, and transaction date of the transaction. In the steps above, ERP LN searches for an entry in the shipping material account that has an effective date which is most close to the transaction date. Expiry date for the shipping material account are not defined. The expiry date of an existing entry in the shipping material account is determined by the effective date of a new entry in the accounting scheme. Packaging Item Registration ERP LN record the received and issued quantities of packaging items by date. ERP LN updates the session during the receipt and shipping process for transactions that have a packaging item. Packaging item can be linked to a handling unit, receipt line, shipment or container. The Packaging Item Transactions (whinr1115m000) session is updated even if no shipping material account is used for packaging items. You can also enter the packaging item transactions manually. Important! Transfer orders and adjustment orders are not logged in the packaging item transactions as no business partner is related to these processes. Container related shipments for sales transfer orders are not logged, because no unique link can be determined between a container and the sales order. For sales orders of type transfer, an exception is made to support a VMI scenario where goods flow through a VMI warehouse. The transfer sales orders are used for VMI scenario that deliver the goods from own warehouse to a VMI warehouse and after that the issue to the customer is carried out. The business partner is determined at the original sales order. You can select the stage in the supply process at which the packaging item related transactions are updated by ERP LN in the Update Shipping Material Account during field of Warehouses (whwmd2500m000) session (in case of a logistical service provider (LSP) scenario). The field is enabled only for VMI warehouses in which warehouse management is not carried out by own company.The packaging item related transactions can be updated by ERP LN at the following points in supply process: Shipment to VMI Warehouse: The shipping material account must be updated during shipment of (packaging) items from the normal warehouse to the VMI warehouse. Consumption by Customer: The shipping material account must be updated during shipment of (packaging) items from the VMI warehouse (Logistical Service Provider (LSP) warehouse) to the customer/OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer). Not Applicable: ERP LN assigns this value for warehouses in which the own company is doing inventory management. To record the packaging item transactions, you must select the Extended Packaging Item Registration check box in the Master Data Parameters (whwmd0100s000) session. Limitations Only logistic data is stored in the session. No financial data is stored. So invoicing is a manual action. Only receipts and shipments that are related to a business partner are updated in the packaging item transactions session. Also, the sessions that record related packaging item balances are updated only for business partner-related transactions. So warehouse transfer orders and inventory adjustments are not taken into account. For sales orders of type transfer, an exception is made to support a VMI scenario where goods flow through a VMI warehouse ( For more information, refer to Logistic Service Providers (LSP) - Packaging Item Registration). The logging of packaging item transactions at the moment of consumption by the customer is not based on consumed stock point information from the VMI / LSP warehouse. Packaging material transactions must be logged separately from the regular item consumptions and are processed during the processing of (sales) consumptions. Shipping Material Accounting Scheme ERP LN link business partners and packaging items combinations to shipping material account (SMA). The business partner and item combination identify the shipping material account for a packaging item transaction. The Shipping Material Accounting Scheme (whwmd4171m000) session is used to find the correct shipping material account for a packaging item transactions. The business partner and item link to shipping material account is based on effective dates. You can also specify a future effective date to make a new set of shipping material accounts available for the future. If you do not specify an item, it indicates that an SMA is linked to a BP for all items. If you do not specify a SMA , it indicates that an item is not accountable. The following are the important characteristics of the shipping material accounting scheme : Business Partner/Item This is the most detailed level tracking of packaging item transactions. The accounts are defined for a business partner and a specific item. Business Partner This is a more global level which can be defined by keeping the item field empty. This level can be used in case you want to combine all items for a (group of) business partner(s) in one account. When linking accounts to transactions, ERP LN first tries to retrieve an account at the business partner/item combination level. If business partner/item combination account is not found, ERP LN falls back to the more general business partner level and tries to find an account to link to the transaction. In case shipping material accounting schemes are defined at business partner level, all items for a (group of) business partner(s) are linked to one account. Following options are available in case you want to exclude specific packaging items from detailed transaction logging : You can mark the item as not accountable. You must clear the Accountable check box for a item in the Packaging Items (whwmd4505m000) session. As a result, the item is not be available at all for shipping material accounting. You can define an entry in the shipping material accounting scheme in which you keep the Shipping Material Account field empty. You can define a dummy shipping material account and create entries for this dummy account in the shipping material accounting scheme. When searching for a shipping material account (SMA) for a transaction, ERP LN searches for an entry in the shipping material accounting scheme that has an effective date which is most close to the transaction date. Expiry dates are not defined. The expiry date of an existing entry in the shipping material accounting scheme is determined by the effective date of a new entry in the accounting scheme. Multiple business partners can be linked to the same shipping material accounting scheme. The following are the possible scenarios : Scenario 1 : All packaging items linked to one SMA. This scenario can be achieved by defining an entry in the accounting scheme in which : You specify the business partner You do not specify the item
Business Partner | Item | Effective Date | SMA
VW1 |  |  | SMA_VW_GLOBAL
VW2 |  |  | SMA_VW_GLOBAL
Scenario 2 : All possible packaging items are linked to one SMA , with the possibility to exclude specific items for accounting. You can achieve this scenario by defining an entry in the accounting scheme in which you specify the business partner and but do not specify the item. In addition to this, the user must defined an entry in the accounting scheme in which both the business partner and item are specified but the shipping material account is not specified.
Business Partner | Item | Effective Date | SMA
VW1 |  |  | SMA_VW_GLOBAL
VW1 | Foil |  |
VW2 |  |  | SMA_VW_GLOBAL
VW2 | Foil |  |
Scenario 3 : Linking a specified subset of the packaging items to a SMA. Only the selected items are linked to the SMA. You can achieve this scenario by defining a set of entries in the accounting scheme in which both the business partner and item are specified, one entry for every single item.
Business Partner | Item | Effective Date | SMA
VW1 | KLT345 |  | SMA_VW_SPEC
VW1 | KLT521 |  | SMA_VW_SPEC
VW1 | KLT978 |  | SMA_VW_SPEC
VW2 | KLT345 |  | SMA_VW_SPEC
VW2 | KLT521 |  | SMA_VW_SPEC
VW2 | KLT978 |  | SMA_VW_SPEC
Scenario 4 : The majority of packaging items must be linked to one account, a small subset of the packaging items must be linked to a different account. You can achieve this scenario by setting up two accounts. In the accounting scheme one entry is created in which the business partner is specified but the item is not specified. Other entries are created having both the item and business partner filled.
Business Partner | Item | Effective Date | SMA
VW1 |  |  | SMA_VW_GLOBAL
VW1 | KLT345 |  | SMA_VW_SPEC
VW1 | KLT521 |  | SMA_VW_SPEC
VW1 | KLT978 |  | SMA_VW_SPEC
VW2 |  |  | SMA_VW_GLOBAL
VW2 | KLT345 |  | SMA_VW_SPEC
VW2 | KLT521 |  | SMA_VW_SPEC
VW2 | KLT978 |  | SMA_VW_SPEC
Related topics Logistic Service Providers (LSP) - Packaging Item Registration Vendor managed inventory Overview of VMI business scenarios |