Changes in Sales & Distribution (SD) in SAP S/4HANA w.r.t ECC

‘Order to cash’ process is the backbone for most of the industries. Many a time, we face the questions from the existing SAP ECC customers ‘Why to migrate to S/4HANA’ when there is no change in Sales order type or item category or Fiori app for creation of sales order etc in S/4HANA. We, as a consultant should be aware of the changes in Sales & distribution (SD) in S/4HANA w.r.t SAP ECC and the corresponding business benefits to the customers for migration to S/4HANA.

Change in Data model

SAP introduced new data model in S/4HANA as depicted in below image (Copied from SAP document as of 1610 release).

Following are the major changes for Sales & distribution (SD) with benefits like,

• Reduced footprint (Database size and memory) with increased performance
• Elimination of Index tables
• Document index tables VAKPA, VAPMA, VLKPA, VLPMA, VRKPA, VRPMA
• Rebate index table VBOX
• LIS tables S066, S067
• Elimination of status tables (VBUK, VBUP)
• Status information moved from VBUK to VBAK , VBUP to VBAP for Sales order, to LIKP & LIPS for delivery, to VBRK for billing documents
• Selection of document header data and document header status requires one SELECT statement (VBAK) instead of two SELECT statements (VBAK and VBUK). Similarly for the item tables.
• Simplified document flow
• Extension of Sales document category (Data element VBTYP) from Char1 to Char4
• Only direct relationships are stored, not indirect relationship (STUFE) in initial release of S/4HANA
• Indirect relationship with STUFE (Level of the document flow record) restored for the purpose of Archiving in later release of /4HANA
• Fewer aggregate table

There is a new database table PRCD_ELEMENTS for pricing conditions to replace earlier cluster table KONV of SAP ECC. New table is a transparent table, hence can be accessed directly and has several extensions in its data elements and fields as shown in below image (copied from SAP note 2220005).

Extension of data elements and fields allow

◉ More flexible pricing procedure determination

◉ possible number of customer condition table has been roughly doubled

◉ Possible accesses in access sequence table has been enhanced from 99 to 999

◉ The key of condition table (A Tables) can now be 255 characters long (previously 100)

Business partner

Business partner (BP) is the single point of entry for creation, change and display of customer (as well as vendor) in S/4HANA. BP is a strategic object model in S/4HANA as shown in below image.  Conversion of customer (and vendor) to BP is mandatory for conversion from ECC to S/4HANA. Refer SAP note 2265093 for more details on BP, its benefits and the recommended approach for conversion through Customer vendor integration (CVI).

Below image shows the data model for BP in S/4HANA. When a BP is created for a customer (or vendor) for General data, Sales organization and company code in S/4HANA , then those data also get stored in those old tables like KNA1 , KNVV and KNB1 respectively along with BP tables like BUT000 etc.

Availability-to-promise (ATP)

S/4HANA has the same ‘Available-to-promise (ATP)’ functionality as in ECC. However, SAP has provided ‘Advanced Available-to-promise’ functionality in S/4HANA which will be a successor of SAP APO Global ATP(GATP) as stated in SAP note 2456834.

This Advanced ATP provides very simple set up with fiori apps for advanced functionalities for Product allocation (PAL), Alternative based confirmation (ABC), Backorder processing (BOP) and Release for Delivery (RFD) as in below image.

As Advanced ATP is being built from scratch in S/4HANA, it is evolving in every release of S/4HANA.

Credit management with FSCM

SAP had two system solutions for credit management – one is credit management (FI-AR-CR) with Sales & Distribution and another with Financial supply chain management (FIN-FSCM-CR) which has more advanced functionalities. In S/4HANA, FIN-FSCM-CR is mandatory to be used for credit management as stated in note 2270544.

Sales order blocked for credit can not be approved with ECC transaction code like VKM3. A case with ‘Documented credit decision’ DCD is created in S/4HANA which needs to be reviewed and approved by a Credit analyst

Sales rebate with condition contract and settlement

Solution for Sales rebate has been simplified in S/4HANA with Condition contract & settlement.

Output management

SAP introduced new Output management (OM) in S/4HANA. Pros & cons of ne OM has been depicted in below image.

As of S/4HANA 1909 release, both (new output management and traditional NAST output of ECC) are available i.e New Output management is optional, not mandatory to be used in S/4HANA. Refer SAP notes 2228611, 2470711 for more details.

Fiori apps

Discussion on S/4HANA is never complete without Fiori apps. SAP has provided fiori  apps like ‘Sales order fullfilment‘ which will help the ‘Order management’ persons to analyse the issues with sales orders with easier navigation to process flows with issues in a sales order as in below image.

Many customers complain that there is no native fiori app for ‘Creation of sales order’ as of 1909 release of S/4HANA. It is in SAP’s roadmap , hope to get that app in upcoming release. Understand from SAP that it is quite complex to combine various SAP standard Sales order types in a single fiori app and that is the reason for the delay.

Foreign trade

SAP has deprecated ECC’s Foreign trade (SD-FT) functionality. Hence, the Tables like EIKP and EIPO are redundant in S/4HANA as shown in first image of this blog. SAP recommended to use SAP’s application Global trade services (GTS) to be used for foreign trade functionalities. However, SAP later introduced ‘International trade’ which can be used for Intra-stat and most of the export –import functionalities. Refer SAP notes 2223144, 2267310, 2839197 for more details.

SAP’s GTS can also be interfaced for advanced functionalities like Preferential  management, Free trade agreement etc with S/4HANA as in below image. As of 1909 release, SAP does not have any plan to embed GTS within S/4HANA.