Dear friends of TM,

When a sales order is created, it may well happen that some items are already provided completely, but for some other items still some data is missing. The sales order therefore offers the option to save the document already in a so-called ‘incomplete’ state. This means that the document is created but error messages e.g. for missing data are persisted along with the document. The document can then be completed at a later point in time. Thereby, it’s even possible to customize which messages to be considered for this incompleteness check.

In logistics integration so far, we have been very strict regarding incomplete sales orders. As long as there are some messages on header level or on any of the items, no freight units have been built for any of the items.

We learned from our customers, that this behavior is too strict in some use cases. Customers might already want to start transport planning for those items of a sales order which are complete.

And therefore we have adjusted the behavior in logistics integration with SAP S/4HANA 2023 as shown in the following figure:

• Old behavior: As item 20 of the sales order is incomplete no freight unit is built, not even for item 10 which is complete. Only after item 20 has been completed (means missing data has been added or errors in the data have been resolved), freight unit(s) for both items are created.
• New behavior: Already in the first case, when item 20 is incomplete, a freight unit is created for item 10. When then item 20 is also complete, another freight unit is built or the first freight unit is extended.

It has to be mentioned that the complete delivery indicator on header level of the sales order is still considered. With this indicator, the customer requests all items to be transported together. And in that case it of course still holds true that freight units for sales order items are only built as long the document is complete on header and item level.

Another remark regarding the update of items…if a complete item becomes incomplete for whatever reason, the freight unit is not deleted to retain a possible transport planning on the freight unit.

This feature of SAP S/4HANA 2023 surely adds a useful option for transport planning for the delivery of sales order items.

I appreciate your feedback!

Best regards,

Michael