| # Sales schedules Sales schedules are used to support long-term sales projects with frequent deliveries. They represent schedules for specific goods that are used between trade partners. Sales schedules are used instead of standard sales orders in cases where full visibility and time phasing of material requirement information is required, for example, in a JIT environment. Sales schedules provide a more detailed way to specify the delivery dates and times for an item. In Sales, you can create and maintain sales schedules. A sales schedule can be referenced or non-referenced. After approval, a sales schedule is a legal obligation to deliver items according to the agreed terms and conditions, including specific prices and discounts. Sales schedule procedure The main sales schedule procedure includes the creation and processing of sales releases to sales schedules, calculation of schedule authorizations and cumulatives, approval, release to warehousing, release to invoicing, and processing of sales schedules. Sales releases Sales releases are used to group, by release type, a customer's sales schedule requirements. Sales releases are usually received by electronic data interchange (EDI), but can also be manually specified, received by a Business Object Document (BOD), and so on. Sales releases or separate release lines can be processed and converted to sales schedules. A sales release represents the external customer view for schedule requirements, while the sales schedule represents the internal supplier view. Referenced sales schedules On referenced sales schedules, schedule requirements are communicated based on (shipment) references. A reference is used to identify specific requirements that your business partner needs in a specific sequence at a specific line station of the assembly line. A shipment reference is used to identify the shipment, and, if you use pick-up sheets, to identify the pick-up sheet to which the sales schedule line is linked. Pick-up sheets A pick-up sheet is a list of items that a carrier must pick-up at the supplier’s site for transport in one shipment to the customer on a specific day. A pick-up sheet is identified by a specific reference number, called the shipment reference, which originates from the customer. This shipment reference is used to identify pick-up sheets, shipments, and payments. Usually, the shipment exactly covers the pick-up sheet requirements, but the required goods on the pick-up sheet are spread among different sales schedules. Additional information fields You can use additional information fields to specify additional information on sales schedules. Their contents are transferred from the sales schedule via the warehouse order to the shipment in Warehousing. Sales schedule revisions Sales schedule revision numbers are used to uniquely identify the revision of the sales schedule. They indicate the sales schedule updates that are sent by your business partner. Requirement types A requirement type represents a requirement in time, used for scheduling. On a sales schedule line, the following requirement types can be communicated: planned requirements, firm requirements, and immediate requirements. Planned warehouse orders You can use planned warehouse orders to decouple schedule updates and revisions from warehouse orders and to consolidate sales schedule lines by quantity and by date. Required quantity of zero You can receive sales schedule lines with a required quantity of zero. It can also occur that the required quantity of a sales schedule line becomes zero when the sales schedule procedure is carried out. When a sales schedule receives a required quantity of zero, ERP Enterprise will try to cancel the sales schedule line or the planned warehouse order. Sales schedule authorizations Sales schedule items are shipped based on the requirement type. The Firm requirement type, however, can deviate from the earlier received Planned requirement type. If you use authorizations, before the Firm requirement type is communicated your sold-to business partner gives you permission to fabricate goods or to buy raw materials up to a certain quantity level. The essence of an authorization is that sold-to business partners bear the risk if they do not need the goods. In other words, they must pay for the fabrication and/or raw materials, whether or not the goods are actually called-off. Sales schedule cumulatives Cumulatives (CUMs) are the year-to-date totals for quantities shipped, received, and invoiced. You can use cumulatives as schedule statistics to track if its status is ahead or behind schedule compared to the demand. Adjusting sales schedules Before a non-referenced sales schedule is approved, the sales schedule can be checked and adjusted for under-delivery and over-delivery. Approving sales schedules To process sales schedules, the sales schedules with the Created or Adjusted status must be approved. After approval, the sales schedule has the Approved status. It depends on the type of schedule how you can approve sales schedules. Reconciling sales schedules Material releases and shipping schedules with non-referenced items can be reconciled, which means that your business partner's Received CUM is matched with your Cumulative Shipped Quantity. If the cumulatives (CUMs) do not match, disputes are generated that must be solved. Sales schedules and Enterprise Planning When a sales schedule is approved, planned requirements are calculated and planned supply is generated in Enterprise Planning based on the sales schedule's planned and firm requirements. Sales schedules and Warehousing After the items that are ordered with the sales schedule line are approved, you can ship them. To ship the items, you must release the sales schedule to Warehousing. Sales schedules and Central Invoicing After the items that are ordered with the sales schedule line are (partially) delivered, you can invoice the delivered goods. To send the invoice, you must release the sales schedule to Invoicing. Processing and deleting sales schedules After the invoice for a sales schedule line is sent, the sales schedule line has the Invoiced status. You can process and delete sales schedules whose lines have the Invoiced status. Terminating sales schedules If the relation with a business partner for an item has come to an end or if you want to change the sold-to business partner specific item data, you can terminate the sales schedule. The status of the linked planned warehouse orders or sales schedule lines can influence the termination process. Sales order/schedule history You can use sales schedule history to track the creation and modification of sales schedules. You can keep certain information long after the original schedule is completed. |