Contracts and Billing Using SAP AOPB
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Contact Information
Erik C. Hayes, Partner
Ehayes@dassian.com
Barb McElnea, Partner
bmcelnea@dassian.com
6900 E. Camelback Rd, Suit 805
Scottsdale, Arizona 85251
www.dassian.com
(480) 922-1700
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Contracts and Billing Using SAP AOPB
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................................................... 4
GENERAL OVERVIEW ............................................................................................................................................ 5
PROCESS FLOW DIAGRAMS ................................................................................................................................. 7
Context Diagram .................................................................................................................................................. 7
Top Level Process Flow ....................................................................................................................................... 8
MASTER DATA REQUIREMENTS ......................................................................................................................... 9
The Customer Master ........................................................................................................................................... 9
Service Materials ................................................................................................................................................. 9
Dynamic Item Profile (DIP)................................................................................................................................ 10
Sets .................................................................................................................................................................... 11
Price Lists .......................................................................................................................................................... 12
Project Systems Requirements ............................................................................................................................ 12
CONTRACT MANAGEMENT ................................................................................................................................ 15
Contract Period of Performance ......................................................................................................................... 15
Billing Block ...................................................................................................................................................... 15
Voucher Numbering ........................................................................................................................................... 15
Control of Resource-Related Billing and Creation of Quotations......................................................................... 16
Contract Line Item Pricing ................................................................................................................................. 17
EXTENDING THE CONTRACT – ADVANCED ORDER PROCESSING AND BILLING ................................. 18
HEADER LEVEL CONTRACT INFORMATION.................................................................................................. 20
Header Details ................................................................................................................................................... 20
Entering Header Fund Data ............................................................................................................................... 20
Header Limits .................................................................................................................................................... 21
Modification History .......................................................................................................................................... 21
Header User Fields ............................................................................................................................................ 21
AOPB CONTRACT ITEM INFORMATION .......................................................................................................... 22
Item Detail ......................................................................................................................................................... 22
Item Fund Data .................................................................................................................................................. 22
Item Limits ......................................................................................................................................................... 23
Item Billed Values .............................................................................................................................................. 24
Item Account Assignment .................................................................................................................................... 24
Item User Fields................................................................................................................................................. 25
SAVING AND UPDATING THE CONTRACT....................................................................................................... 26
Releasing the AOPB Contract............................................................................................................................. 26
AOPB TIME OUT..................................................................................................................................................... 27
CONTRACT MODIFICATION MANAGEMENT IN AOPB ................................................................................. 28
USING PRICING CONDITIONS FOR FUNDING AND BILLING CONTROL................................................... 29
INCEPTION-TO-DATE PROJECT BILLING........................................................................................................ 31
Context Diagram: Inception-To-Date Project Billing ......................................................................................... 31
Level 1 Process Flow: Inception-To-Date Project Billing ................................................................................... 32
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AOPB Enhanced Resource-Related Billing ......................................................................................................... 32
Enhanced DMR & Billing Calculations .............................................................................................................. 36
Generate Invoice ................................................................................................................................................ 39
AOPB SIS TABLE ENTRIES ................................................................................................................................... 41
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INTRODUCTION
Purpose of this guide
This guide is designed to help intended users of AOPB to become familiar with the overall
functionality of the application. It explains what users need to know in order to work with the
Contracts and Billing solution. This guide will provide the following:
• Concepts for using the solution
• Information on pricing conditions
• Information on inception-to-date billing
• Information on SIS and reporting
• Information on SAP Advanced Order Processing and Billing (AOPB)
Who should use this guide
This guide is designed for people in the following roles:
• Contract Administrators
• Contract Billers
• Program Managers
• Consultants
• System Administrators
What you should know before using this guide
You should have some experience using SAP R/3 in the following areas:
• Project Systems Structures and types of SAP PS Objects
• Standard SAP Navigation
• SAP Controlling and how costs are posted to SAP Cost Objects
• SAP Sales & Distribution
• SAP Pricing
• Resource-Related Billing
Much of the functionality is based on the setting up of the SD sales documents and the relationship
between the sales document, the project structure and the extended contract. This relationship will be
explained to some extent in this document, but the standard (non AOPB) functionality will not be
covered in great detail.
In order to get the maximum benefit from this guide you should possess a good understanding of the
SAP Project System, SAP Sales & Distribution, and the integration of these modules with SAP
Controlling. You should also have a good understanding of your internal business processes for
Contract Management, Contract Billings, and the tracking of costs associated with your projects.
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GENERAL OVERVIEW
Historically, A&D customers using standard SAP (even with the A&D solution) have found the
functionality for government contracting and billing to be inadequate to meet their requirements.
This has led many companies in the industry to implement custom designed solutions that are not
supported by SAP. These custom designs often increase the support costs and complicate the
upgrade process when new functionality is realeased.
In response, SAP worked with A&D customers to determine common requirements and establish a
plan to add the required functionality to meet their business needs.
Advanced Order Processing and Billing (AOPB) is an enhancement to the contracts and billing
functionality that is standard with SAP. AOPB is available for SAP ECC6.0 through Enhancement
Pack 3 for the A&D Solution.
AOPB is designed to meet some basic functional requirements for A&D customers where a standard
government billing solution was not available. By providing this core functionality, SAP greatly
reduced the custom development that is required to meet complex contracting needs. In the current
release of AOPB, SAP introduced the following four functional improvements for Cost Type
Contracting:
•
•
•
•
Contract Modification Tracking
ACRN Accounting for Cost Type invoicing
Alternate Account Assignments
Inception-to-Date Invoicing
The AOPB solution also provides a new web interface to deliver this new functionality and greatly
extend the ability of users to easily record contract details. Above all, AOPB provides a solid
framework upon which custom solutions can be developed with minimal impact to the core solution.
It is also expected that additional functionality required by the A&D community will be added over
time. In addition, Dassian has developed an extension to the AOPB called DP046AOPB to leverage
this new functionality and meet many additional contracting and billing requirements.
The Dassian extensions to AOPB are designed to leverage the new capabilities and to provide much
needed functionality to the A&D contracts and billing community. By building upon the AOPB
framework, DP046AOPB provides a standardized government billing solution that is much more
supportable than a custom developed solution. Through DP046AOPB, the following functionality
has been added to enhance core SAP and AOPB:
•
•
•
•
•
Voucher Numbering
Funding Control
Ability to apply Fees, Withholds, Labor Rates, Overheads
Retroactive Rate Adjustments
Item Billing Blocks
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DP046AOPB is designed with flexible options which are configured during the installation and
initial setup. Overall billing requirements must be considered during initial configuration.
Document Scope
This document will cover the usage of standard AOPB to manage and bill Cost Type contracts. The
following broad topics will be covered; however only the usage of the new functionality will be
covered in detail:
•
•
•
•
Contract Creation
Extending Contract
AOPB Contract Setup
Resource Related Billing
This document is only intended to cover NEW functionality for SAP AOPB and its usage in a
Cost Type Contract. Please refer to the SAP documentation for information on standard
functionality.
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PROCESS FLOW DIAGRAMS
The following flow diagram illustrates the contract setup and maintenance process. It may be useful
to refer back to it while using this document to understand how the process step fits.
Contract Setup and Maintenance
Context Diagram
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Contract Setup and Maintenance
The following Top Level Process flow provides a high level, step by step illustration for the
contracts and billing process. This will be useful to better understand the timing and dependencies
of the steps described in this document.
Top Level Process Flow
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Master Data Requirements
Master data refers to the information required to create a specific contract in SAP such as customers,
materials, and prices. The following section provides an overview of the master data required to
perform contracts and billing functions. For more detailed information, refer to the SAP help.
The Customer Master
This setup is required before creating a contract in SAP. The customer master setup process can
entail setting up sold-to, ship-to, bill-to, payer or other business partners. Identify the correct
partners that will be used in this transaction.
The customer master data can be verified by using transaction: XD03.
Service Materials
Service Materials are used to represent the contract line items. Identify or setup the service
materials that will be used for the items of this contract. Ensure that the item category for the service
material reads CBVN when entered on the order. It should either default in or be a selectable option,
if not, then check the configuration and settings on the material master.
To verify service material settings in the event that the CBVN item category does not appear, follow
these steps:
Verify Item Category Group Assignment:
Transaction: MM02= Display Material (Master Data)
Select View “Basic data 1”
On the Basic data 1 tab, ensure that the correct General Item Category Group has been assigned.
Although this is configurable, it is likely that the standard category group “LEIS” will be used. If
the correct category group has been assigned, the next step is to check the configuration to see what
the default item category is for the document type. See below.
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Verify Configuration
Transaction: SPRO = IMG
Sales and Distribution_Sales_Sales Documents_Sales Document Item_Assign Item Categories
Review the default item category for your sales document type and item category group
combination:
Dynamic Item Profile (DIP)
The DIP profile is a configuration setting for a prescribed set of instructions that relate costs on a
project to how they will be billed. You will typically have different DIP profiles for each major
contract billing type (eg. Cost Type vs T&M). Further profiles may need to be developed to
differentiate how specific contracts handle some costs. If changes in a DIP profile are required to
support a new contract setup then contact your SAP IT department for new configuration settings.
Below is an example of a DIP profile for AOPB cost type billings. The service materials will be
billing items that are generated on the invoice. Notice the criteria for RRB_MATERIAL is a set of
cost elements defined as RRB_MAT. (See the next section on Sets).
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Sets
Sets (Sometimes called Set IDs) are nothing more than the defined buckets of resources that will be
billed during RRB. Examples or Set IDs are Material, Labor, ODC etc. SetIDs are used within the
DIP profile to group costs for billing purposes. There are various ways to create SetIDs for cost
groupings. It is important to understand how your Set IDs work so that they can be managed
properly. Occasionally, these IDs need to be updated to include or eliminate certain items from
billing. Sets are commonly established a couple of different ways. Basic Sets are established using
the transaction GS01. Creating Sets in this manner allows the greatest flexibility because different
criteria can be used for the grouping:
Another way to identify sets is to utilize Cost Element Groups. In this manner, the user can define a
Set ID such as “Material” as all the cost elements in a certain range. This is a very easy way to
establish Sets, but obviously only works when cost element can be used as legitimate grouping
criteria. The example DIP Profile shown earlier uses Cost Element Groups to define all of its
Material Determinants:
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If a billable resource is not picked up during RRB, it is a good idea to check the parameters of the
target Set that is feeding the material determinant. For example, if it is a new material cost elements
was created and is not showing up in billing, it may not have been added to the cost element group.
Price Lists
Price lists are setup typically to define a pricing schedule or basic ordering agreement such as a GSA
schedule or BOA.
The specific name of each price list is defined in configuration by your IT
department but the prices are setup using the VK11/VK12/VK13 transaction code according to your
system configuration parameters.
Pricing conditions are discussed in more detail in a later section of this document under the heading.
“Using Pricing Conditions for Funding and Billing Control”.
Project Systems Requirements
A Project is a method used to define and organize the total work scope and associate it with the costs
and resources required to accomplish activity. The project is comprised of individual WBS elements
arranged hierarchically that can be used for either cost collection (account assignment) or billing
purposes.
To be billable, contract line items in SAP must be assigned to a billing WBS element. This is a
special type of WBS element where the billing element indicator is set which identifies this as the
level that you will bill and post billed sales. There must not be any billing elements defined below
the level to which you want to bill because the system will not include those costs during the
resource-related billing transaction.
Process Steps to Validate WBS Setup:
Transaction CJ20N
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The project builder workbench will open with the entire structure shown in the left hand pane.
Select a WBS element to view
Select the
tab and review the information displayed in the Operative Indicators
section. If a WBS is intended to be billed against the contract, it must have the billing indicator
selected. If it is intended to collect costs then the account assignment
box must be selected.
The following example shows a WBS element that is BOTH an account assignment element (costs
can be collected to it) and a billing element (it can be assigned to a contract CLIN).
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Validate that the project structure is created and that the correct billing WBS elements is
identified. Transaction Code: CJ20N
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Contract Management
The contract is created with transaction code VA41. Identify the correct contract type which was
configured for your inception-to-date billing business scenario.
After entering the correct
organization structure and customer information, enter your item information. The billing WBS
element must be correctly assigned to the proper contract line item. All costs under this node of the
WBS structure will bill together on this CLIN (contract line item). The prices that are entered into
the contract are the value of each CLIN so that the total contract value is the sum of all of the
contract values for each item. Enter the item contract value in the itemconditions tab. All other
pricing such as funding, fees, and rates for this contract will be input into the AOPB tabs or through
pricing condition records. Once created, these can be viewed in within SAP’s pricing transactions
(VK12, VK13).
Contract Period of Performance
AOPB has enhanced functionality within the standard SAP contract related to the contract start and
end dates. The contract start and end dates are defined as the period of performance of the contract
and will automatically control which costs will be billed versus excluded during the resource-related
billing process.
Billing Block
AOPB has billing block functionality which will control the ability to prevent resource-related
billing by placing a billing block on the header or item of a contract.
Voucher Numbering
OSS Note 420831 for the A&D Industry Solution provides voucher number functionality that is
leveraged in AOPB. This must be activated within configuration for each contract type requiring
voucher numbering.
Voucher numbering is the sequential numbering of any invoice that is generated from this contract.
This voucher number can then be displayed on billing outputs which are required on the SF1034
public voucher. Voucher numbering also controls the data flow of billing. If voucher numbering is
turned on then you must cancel invoices in reverse voucher sequence or a system error will occur.
This ensures the correct values for the inception-to-date billing process.
On the contract headeradditional data B screen you will see that a voucher numbering section has
been added. The last voucher number is the last voucher number that was billed on this contract and
the next billing will add +1 to this number for proper voucher sequencing. If a value is not
populated in this field then the billing will start with voucher number 1.
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Control of Resource-Related Billing and Creation of Quotations
The Billing Form and the DIP profile field appears on the itemsales B tab of the SD Contract.
These fields appear in the section Control of Resource Related Billing and Creation of Quotations
and specifically control how resources will be billed.
Billing Form
The billing form selection controls whether you do billing based on the costs found on from
the account assigned WBS element or from a predefined fixed rate for the service. This
should always be set to Costs for cost type billings.
Enhanced DIP Profile for ITD Billing
There are AOPB enhanced configuration parameters associated with a DIP profile. One of
the AOPB configuration settings is to turn on the inception-to-date billing functionality.
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This functionality will bill all costs for every invoice and subtract the previously billed costs
to calculate the current invoice amount. There are other enhanced features associated with
the DIP profile which are explained in the Resource-Related Billing section.
Contract Line Item Pricing
Within the contract document, only the contract line item prices will be entered. These represent the
total CLIN prices and must be manually entered. The actual pricing will be determined on the debit
memo request and is a function of incurred costs and calculations from the pricing procedure.
Select the contract line item and go to the “Conditions” tab.
Enter condition type (CnTy). In the following example, the CnTy ZCON is used to store the CLIN
value.
Enter CnTy ZCON and a CLIN amount.
Press Enter
Repeat for all the contract line items. When done, the total contract price can be viewed at the
header level.
The Net value of the contract is identified at the header level of the SD contract. This is the total
CLIN value and is independent of the billed values. To see the total invoiced amount you should
look at the AOPB Header Fund Data or at the Item Billed Value tabs.
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Extending the Contract – Advanced Order Processing and Billing
TRANSACTION: VA43 or VACB
Once the SD contract data has been entered and saved, it can be extended. Extending the contract
must be performed in display mode. This is necessary because SAP will launch a web browser view
of the contract and must lock the SD contract to prevent conflict.
The “Extend Contract” button only appears when the contract is in Display mode (VA43)
Press “Ext Contract Data” button.
Once the Ext Contract Data button is pressed, a popup box will appear asking if you want to create
the contract. This is box will only appear when you first extend the contract and not afterward.
Press Yes.
Pressing “Yes”, will launch a web browser where a new view of the contract will be displayed. This
view is the Advanced Order Processing and Billing (AOPB) contract.
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Alternatively, you can launch AOPB through the transaction VACB. This transaction will launch a
web browser window and query the user for the contract number. The SD contract must not be
already open in change mode or this transaction will display an error message.
The extended contract will adopt all the line items from the SD contract and will keep the reference
between the line items. It also allows the user to expand the contract hierarchy to levels below the
SD contract line item to enter SLIN or ELIN data.
It is generally not a good idea to change the contract line numbering in the SD contract. This is
because when the line item must be canceled or rejected, a new number must be used. In the AOPB
contract, the user can type in specific contract item numbering which will be referenced back to the
SD contract. These numbers will be the actual contract line item numbers and are available for the
print program in output.
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Header Level Contract Information
Just like the SD view of the contract, the AOPB view has header level and line item level
information. At the header level, the user has the following choices:
•
•
•
•
•
Header Detail- This is general information about the contract such as DPAS rating etc
Header Fund Data – This identifies the sources of funding for the contract
Header Limits – Allows a total billing limitation to be established at the header level.
Modification History- This tab stores field changes that have occurred in the extended
contract to key fields.
Header User Fields – These are undefined text and attribute fields that can be used to assign
information that is relevant to the entire contract.
Header Details
The Header Details tab provides an area to include details about the contract that may not have been
available in the standard SD contract. Some of these fields will populate from the SD contract and
those which do not are optional. They are provided to support reporting and output requirements. If
there is additional information required on the contract that is not supported on the Header Details
screen, it can be entered on the Header User Field tab.
Entering Header Fund Data
Funding that is to be assigned to the contract line items must first be established at the header level.
Each distinct source of funding must be entered with a Funding ID a Total Funding Budget, and a
Currency. These are the only mandatory fields; however it is a good idea to fill in the rest of the data
if it is known:
• Funding ID: Two letter identifier for the funds that are to be distributed
• Version Number: The version number reflects changes that have occurred through contract
modifications. No user input is required.
• Effectivity Date: Date when the funding is available for use. This data is for information
purposes only. It does not affect or limit the assigned funding on the contract.
• Funding Description: Short description about the funding source.
• Total Funding Budget: Total amount of funds available for distribution to line items.
• Already Assigned Funding: Displays how much of the funds have already been distributed
to the contract line items. This is a summary of the Item Fund Data tab.
• Currency: Currency of the total funding budget
• Billed Value: Total amount of funding used in billing the contract line items. Once the
billed value reaches the total budget, new funding sources will need to be secured before
billing can continue.
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Header Limits
Header limits are a method of setting billing controls for the contract. Once a header limit is
established, the total billings will not be able to exceed that defined amount for the contract. It is
also possible to establish a limitation for a specific material determinant such as RRB_MATERIAL.
This example would limit the total value of materials to be billed.
Process: (At the Header Level)
o Select “Header Limits”
o Select “Insert New Line”
Enter Data
o Condition Type: Populates automatically with ACRL. This condition will be used
within the price procedure.
o Material: If the limitation is intended to only affect a specific material determinant,
then this is entered. The limitation will then be applied to those items when
appearing on the Debit Memo Request (DMR).
Note that the above example Material refers to the Material Determinant described at the
beginning of this document. See DIP Profile and Set sections for more information.
Modification History
Modification History displays all changes that have occurred to key fields in the extended contract.
Each change is recorded against a Modification ID that provides tracebility and authorization. By
selecting the Modification ID, the user can drill down to all the changes that occurred under that ID.
This allows the user to record contract modification changes under the same ID even if entered at
different times.
Header User Fields
This tab contains freely definable fields that can be used to record further information about the
contract.
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AOPB Contract Item Information
The item level information applies only to the contract line item that you are viewing. At the
contract item level, the user will assign funding and cost objects. Information can only be entered at
the CLIN level (line item level coming from the SD Contract). Sub items entered in AOPB (SLINs
or ELINs) do not have item detail.
Item Detail
The Item Detail tab displays information specific about the particular contract item. Just like the
Header Detail tab, the information on this tab is optional and some of it is prepopulated for the user.
If additional information is about the CLIN is desired, but undefined at on this tab, it can be
populated on the Item User Fields tab.
Unless a particular field is being used in the print program for output documents, this tab is not
mandatory for AOPB.
Item Fund Data
On this tab, you will assign the funding sources to the contract line items. Each funding source is
entered one at a time and must exist first at the header level before it can be selected. This tab is
required and a minimum funding source must be established unless the pricing procedure is modified
so as not to look for funding.
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Process:
o
o
o
o
Select Contract Line Item
Select “Item Fund Data” tab
Select “Insert New Line”
Choose desired Funding ID and hit “OK”
Enter Data:
o Funding ID: Automatically Input
o Material: Only required if the funding ID is to apply solely to a particular service
material during billing (eg. Labor only).
o Priority: Determines the order in which the funding sources will be user (enter
numeric order). If no priority is entered, the sources are used equally.
o Valid From: Date when the funding source can be used
o Valid To: Date when funding source expires and can no longer be used.
o Amount: The percentage of the source that is being assigned. This field can be input
or calculated based on the input in the “Budget” field.
o Budget: The total funding that is assigned to the contract line item from the funding
source. This can be input manually or automatically calculated based on the
percentage input in the “Amount” field.
o Already Billed Value: Displays the total billings against the funding source.
This is automatically populated.
The Funding IDs created in this tab will create pricing conditions in SAP and show up in pricing.
These conditions can be viewed using Transaction VK12 or VK13.
Item Limits
Item limits are a way to limit billing for the contract line item. Setting a limit in this way will limit
how much the contract line item can be billed for. This can be set for the entire contract line or for a
specific service material that will be billed during RRB.
Process:
o Select Contract Line Item
o Select “Item Limits”
o Select “Insert New Line”
Enter Data
o Condition Type: This will populate automatically. This is the condition that will
appear in the pricing procedure during billing.
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o Material (Optional): Used if only a specific service material is to have a limitation
for the line item.
o Valid From: Used to assign the validity period of the Condition.
o Valid To: Used to assign the validity period of the Condition.
o MaxConditValue: Total value limit that will be set for the condition. This is the total
amount that will be billable for the line item or service material.
Item Billed Values
This tab contains a history of all the billing that has occurred for the contract line item. The display
will show all of the service materials that were generated during billing along with the quantity,
amount and the budget that was consumed. This is a handy reference to reconcile budget usage;
however a more detailed record can be viewed in the SIS structure S600: Transaction MCSI.
Item Account Assignment
This tab is used to reference the contract line item to the sources of cost. This feature is unique to
AOPB in that it allows a multi to multi relationship between the CLINs and the cost objects (WBS
Elements). In standard SAP, only a single source of cost can be assigned to the contract line item.
In AOPB, several WBS elements can be assigned to the CLIN and the same WBS element can be
assigned to multiple CLINS (Up to 100% of the available costs).
In the above example, two separate WBS elements have been assigned to the same CLIN. During
billing, costs will be pulled from each of these sources based upon the rules assigned. Additionally,
if these WBS elements are assigned for less than 100%, they can be referenced again on another
CLIN:
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Process to Extend the Contract in AOPB:
o Select Contract Line Item
o Select “Item Account Assignment”
o Select “Insert New Line”
o Enter WBS Element and press “OK”
Enter Data
o WBS Element: This is the WBS element that has been assigned as a source of cost to
the contract line item. Multiple WBSs can be assigned to the line item.
o Effectivity Date: Starting date for the WBS to be valid for billing
o End Date: Date when the WBS is no longer eligible to be a source of cost for the line
item.
o Percentage: The percentage of the WBS costs that are considered billable for this line
item. Up to 100% of the WBS costs can be assigned. This can be assigned to
multiple contract line items.
Only “Billable” WBS elements are capable of being assigned. Check the project
(Transaction CJ20N-Basic Data tab) to ensure that it is a billing element if a problem occurs.
A WBS can be classified as a planning, account assignment or billing element (or all 3).
Planning elements allow planned values to be entered and viewable in reporting. Acct
Assignment elements allow costs to accumulate at that WBS level. A Billing element is the
only element that can be assigned to a WBS for billing purposes.
Item User Fields
This tab contains some additional text fields for recording information about the contract line item.
This tab is not required unless the print program will utilize some data recorded here during
reporting etc.
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Saving and Updating the Contract
The extended contract must be released before it can be billed. Up until the time it is released,
changes can easily be made to the extended contract. Once it is released, the modification
management function becomes active for the contract.
Releasing the AOPB Contract
In order to release the contract, simply make sure that all the required entries have been made and
saved, then press the Release Contract button at the top of the AOPB web view.
By releasing the contract, AOPB will remove the billing block on the SD Contract and allow billing.
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AOPB Time Out
Occasionally, the AOPB web-view will timeout. This will happen if the web screen takes a long
time to load or if the application is left open without any action for a sustained period of time. If
AOPB does timeout, you must relaunch it from the contract VA43 or from transaction VACB.
If the connection between is broken between SAP and the AOPB web view, a message like the
one above will be displayed. This occurs because AOPB has timed out. All unsaved entries will be
lost. It is therefore it is a good idea to save frequently.
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Contract Modification Management in AOPB
Any changes made to the extended contract after saving will be subject to modification tracking.
This requires that a Modification ID be entered along with information about the modification. This
data once recorded will be available to track the all the changes that have occurred against each ID.
After you enter the modification in for the first time, AOPB allows you to reuse the ID at a later
date so that all related changes can be grouped together even if entered at a later time.
Through the Modification History tab, a record of the updates is available. Although not a lot of
detail is displayed here, there is enough to get a general idea of the modifications that have occurred.
A detailed internal record of the changes is kept however. For more detailed information, it may be
necessary to have a custom report written.
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Using Pricing Conditions for Funding and Billing Control
Earlier in this document, we looked at the Contract Pricing. This price was simply the total CLIN
value for the contract and represented a maximum. A second price procedure is used for the debit
memo requests (DMR) generated during resource related billing (RRB). The DMR price procedure
will have the pricing conditions for all the calculated prices and fees. Additionally, price conditions
can be used to further limit funding usage below the CLIN level. Dassian offers AOPB extensions
that automate this process in DP046AOPB Contracts and Billing Extensions; however SAP pricing
functionality can be configured to provide similar funding control.
Shown below is a screenshot of an example DMR pricing procedure and shows have pricing
conditions can be used to impact price, fees and funding control. These conditions must be manually
maintained in SAP pricing.
Setting Up Price Condition Records
Transaction: VK11,VK12 Create/Change Price Condition Records
Enter Price Condition
Press Enter
A box will popup requesting a key combination. This key combination determines at what level the
pricing condition is relevant. In the following example for ZFEE, a different fee can be established
for a specific service material if desired. For example, a 10% fee may apply to all items on the
invoice except for outside service labor which would only get 5%.
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Select Key Combination
Press Enter
Enter Data
All Pricing Conditions must have validity information. This will control when the condition
becomes relevant in pricing. If the condition is not showing up during pricing it may be because the
document pricing date is before the condition validity date.
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INCEPTIONNCEPTION-TOTO-DATE PROJECT BILLING
Inception to Date Billing (ITD) refers to the process of viewing the total incurred costs against the
CLIN and rebilling them at the current rates. AOPB allows provides this functionality.
The following diagrams illustrate the ITD process and will be helpful in understanding the next few
sections:
Context Diagram: Inception-To-Date Project Billing
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Level 1 Process Flow: Inception-To-Date Project Billing
AOPB Enhanced Resource-Related Billing
Resource-related billing (RRB) is a transaction which extracts costs from a project, summarizes
them according to the configuration of the DIP profile specified in the contract item, and places them
in a pre-bill called a debit memo request. The following transaction codes can be used to execute
RRB: DP90, DP91, DP96. DP99A, DP99B and DP99C show the document flow of the billings.
AOPB has enhanced this transaction in the following ways:
1. The first enhancement is to change the RRB transaction into an inception-to-date billing
process. This means that RRB will not recognize any previously billed costs in the manual
billing selection screen. All costs will be reopen for billing always. Further in the process
during the pricing of the debit memo request, the previously billed costs will be subtracted to
arrive at the correct amount to bill. An ITD based billing process is desirable when the
billings are cumulative, have total billing funding control, and require retroactive rate
adjustments. These billing requirements are common with government contracts.
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2. The second enhancement is to use the posting through date (Posting Date To field in DP91)
as a date instead of fiscal period. In standard SAP, when a user enters a posting thru date on
the screen for Resource-Related Billing, the system will use it as a real date only when the
DIP profile uses a source that reads the CO items table. If the DIP profile is using a source
that reads the CO totals table (which is often done for better performance) then the system
converts the entered posting through date to a posting period and will bill all costs in this
period despite the date entered. This can be an issue if you want to cutoff the billing on a
static bill through date. AOPB has enhanced the CO totals source selection to only extract
costs through the entered posting through date during Resource-Related Billing. This means
that a user can run a billing and cutoff the cost selection on any given day of the period.
Then cancel that billing if needed and rebill using the same cost through date yielding the
exact same cost extraction.
3. The third enhancement is that the DMR pricing date is changed to be the cost posting date, or
the last day of the fiscal month of the cost posting date depending on the DIP profile settings.
This will allow the dmr to price the cost line item correctly based on a cost posting date.
As previously mentioned in the Setup Contract & Maintenance section, AOPB uses the contract start
and end dates (Period of Performance) to restrict the costs that are billable during resource-related
billing. In addition, a billing block placed on the header or item of the contract will prevent the
billing of that document/item during resource-related billing.
Resource Related Billing Process Steps:
Transaction DP91: RRB Request
o Enter Contract Number and Posting Date To. The pricing date is optional unless the
user wants to direct a specific pricing date.
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o Press the Sales Price button. This will display the billing items.
The items displayed are the proposed billing items that have been determined
from the DIP profile based on the costs that it found.
o Press the Budget Messages button. This button will display the budget usage for all
the proposed billing items.
In the above example, the proposed line items will consume a total of 51% of the
available budget. This is the second billing. The first billing consumed 20% of the available
budget.
o Press the Billing Request Button – This button will create the Debit Memo Request.
The DMR is simply a pre billing sales document and provides an opportunity for a
final review of the billing items.
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o If you would like to see what the document would look like without actually creating
it, you can select the Simulate Sales Document from the Goto menu.
o The final step of resource-related billing results in the generation of a debit memo
request. The DMR can be thought of as a pre-bill. It has line items which represent
costs that are extracted via RRB using the rules defined in the assigned DIP profile.
The DMR document show the items that will be invoiced. It will automatically open
in change mode and once reviewed can be invoiced from this screen or from the
VF01 transaction.
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Enhanced DMR & Billing Calculations
The enhancements in AOPB are most evident within the pricing procedure of the DMR. Each line
item corresponds to a line item from the DIP profile and applies the pricing rules from the pricing
procedure.
Each line item has an associated pricing date which was enhanced by AOPB to be the cost posting
date or the last day of the fiscal month of the cost posting date.
SAP uses this pricing date to
determine which prices from the previously entered AOPB pricing condition transactions to bring
into the DMR.
The basic concept of pricing is that each line item has pricing conditions found on the
itemconditions tab. The pricing procedure begins with pricing condition type EK01 which is the
amount of the cost associated with the item. Then any condition records that have been configured
for the solution will rate up these costs, apply withholds, funding control (cost in excess of funding),
fees then finally subtract the previously billed amount to arrive at the net value for this item.
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In the above example shows that our second invoice on this program has found $1400 of
total costs on this line item. ($1540 with Fees). This includes any adjustments due to rate
change. However; $400 of charges and $40 of fee was previously billed and therefore
subtracted from the current billing (See conditions ITD2 and ITD5). The final billing price
for this item is therefore $1100.
Although the pricing procedure configuration may vary a bit depending upon requirements,
the following is an explanation of the conditions of a typical installation:
CnTy
Name
EK01
Gross costs
ZCFN
ZGST
ZGMX
ZGCI
ZFFE
ZINF
ITD2 thru X
Explanation
These are the raw costs found on the project and processed
through the DIP Profile and mapped to this billing item
(labor in this case).
Cost
The percentage of costs to be funded. This comes from the
Funding –
entered value on the AOPB Extended Contract and is saved
AOPB
as a pricing condition (Transaction VK13)
CLIN Cost
Total Cost for the CLIN. You will see the same value on
each billing line (labor, COM, Material etc) which map to
the same contract item.
CLIN Cost
Total funding available for costs. This comes from the
Funding
entered value on the AOPB Extended Contract and is saved
as a pricing condition (Transaction VK13)
CLIN CIEF Cost In Excess of Funding. These are the costs which
exceed the available funding amount.
Fixed Fee % Calculated fee as a percent. A fee flat value is also possible,
but not shown here.
Incentive
Calculated incentive fee.
Fee Amount
Net Value 1 Shows the total current billing with current rates. Previously
billed values are included in this total.
Prev Billed The ITD condition types show the amount that was
previously billed for each calculation. These were stored in
an SIS structure.
Net Value 2 This is the net billing to the customer after subtracting the
previously billed items.
The remaining lines in the price procedure show how the budget ACRNs were applied to this item
and how much is available for future billings.
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ACRN
ACRB
ACRR
Budget X%
Amount of each Funding ACRN consumed for this billing
Item. The Funding ACRN was established in the AOPB
Extended contract and is also visible as a condition in
transaction VK13.
ACRN
The total ACRN funding used to date for the Contract Line
Consumption Item.
ACRN Delta In cases where the CLIN has insufficient funding to cover
the CLIN, this condition will hold the excess to be billed
when additional funding is available.
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Generate Invoice
The debit memo request is used to generate the invoice and release to accounting which performs the
financial postings. There is usually a posting block between the generation of the invoice and the
posting to accounting to allow for a final review of the invoice output before the financial postings
are created.
If voucher numbering is being used, the voucher number will be increased during the invoicing step
and can be seen on the header of the billing document.
Voucher Number on Billing Document Header
The invoice creation process will also update the last voucher number consumed on the
contract on the headeradditional data B screen.
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Last Voucher Number on HeaderAdditional Data B of Contract
Once the invoice document is saved the invoice output is usually printed and reviewed. AOPB
however does not come with a standard government billing forms. These must be developed to meet
your own specifications.
After the invoice is reviewed and approved then the invoice needs to be released to accounting.
This can be accomplished with transaction code VF02 or VFX3. The accounting postings are
created at this time. The summarization of the data for the accounting postings can be configured in
transaction code OBCY during the configuration and setup of AOPB and it is recommended to
summarize such that each pricing condition does not make an entry in FI.
To view the accounting entry, press the Accounting tab and double click the Accounting document
number.
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AOPB SIS Table Entries
Transaction Code: MCSI
AOPB depends upon SIS structures to track the previously billed values on the contract in order to
perform ITD billings. During billing, the SIS tables will be updated with the current billing values
down to the billing element.
The SIS structure is configured specific to the billing requirements and the contents of the SIS
structure can be viewed with transaction code MCSI. Each individual pricing condition (cost, fee,
cost in excess, withhold etc) will be tracked against different levels of the contract (characteristics)
such as contract number/item/material determinant/activity type/pricing date. SIS is also the data
repository where AOPB derives the previously billed values. SIS can be used to perform some
analysis on all resource-related billing contracts such as showing the sales against a price list (GSA
schedule) or how much is in Cost in Excess of funding.
Contract Totals:
First Drill Down (By Contract): Line Item Totals
Second Drill Down (By CLIN): Billing Components
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For further information, questions about this Solution Document, or any other Dassian products,
please use the following contact information:
US Office
By Email
6900 E Camelback Rd
Suite 805
For further information about
Dassian and how we may be able
to help you, contact us on:
Scottsdale, AZ 85251
Office: 1-480-922-1700
info@dassian.com
For support enquires existing
customers should use their
dedicated logon to the support
portal. Alternatively:
support@dassian.com
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