2/15/2018 Overview of Vendor Confirmations - ERP SCM - SCN Wiki

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Overview of Vendor Confirmations

Created by Sanjeev Shrivastava, last modified by Diana Dai on Dec 07, 2015

Purpose
The purpose of this wiki is to provide an overview of Vendor Confirmation in Purchasing.

Overview
Introduction
Type of confirmations
Important to know
Prerequisites
Business Process

Introduction
In Purchasing, Confirmation covers various kinds of information provided by a vendor to a customer, in response of a purchasing document, with regard to ordered goods.

You can enter confirmations either manually, EDI etc. In a confirmation you provide schedule of supply of material or details of milestones achieved.
Working with confirmations has the advantage that Materials Planning does not have to depend solely on the delivery dates and quantities set out in purchase orders or the delivery schedules of
scheduling agreements.

Confirmations enable you to plan more exactly, since during the time-span between the order date and the desired delivery date you receive increasingly more reliable information from the vendor
regarding the anticipated delivery.

Furthermore, you can monitor all confirmations and issue expediters in respect of outstanding order acknowledgments.

Type of confirmations
Possible types of confirmation include the following:

Order acknowledgments
Loading or transport confirmations
Shipping notifications. (Note that shipping notifications may also be referred to by a number of other names, including "advice (note)", "advice of dispatch", "ship notice", and "advance(d) shipping
notice" ("ASN").)

A further form of confirmation frequently used in Purchasing is the Inbound Delivery, which is created on the basis of an incoming shipping notification. The shipping notification represents a vendor’s
confirmation to a purchasing organization of a delivery date for a certain quantity of ordered materials (or the date of performance of ordered services).

Important to know
You can specify whether each confirmation category is relevant to materials planning in Customizing. If a confirmation is MRP-relevant, the data on quantities and delivery dates appears in the current
Stock/ Requirement list. One or more confirmation categories can be MRP-relevant, but the last confirmation that is expected must be GR-relevant.

When you post a goods receipt, the stock/requirements list is updated. That is to say, the quantities and delivery dates from MRP- and GR-relevant confirmations are deleted from the list at this time. If you
wish to post a goods receipt with reference to vendor confirmations, you should set the GR assignment indicator for the desired confirmation category in Customizing for Purchasing.

Assignment to previously received confirmations at the time of goods receipt (GR) means that the default GR quantity is taken from the associated confirmation and that the GR reduces or cancels out
exactly the associated confirmation in the stock/requirements list.

Please note that you can only post a goods receipt if a confirmation (e.g. in the form of an inbound delivery) has previously been entered.

If the goods receipt occurs before the inbound delivery, you will not be able to post the GR. This is because in that case there is no inbound delivery to which the latter can be assigned.

Only one OA can be updated per item via Idoc. So if one OA over a partial order quantity is received and then a second OA relating to the remaining quantity, the first partial quantity is also expected in the
second OA, because old OAs are completely overwritten.

Prerequisites
In order to be able to receive confirmations from your vendors, you must maintain the confirmation control facility in Customizing for Purchasing (Confirmations ® Confirmation control):

You must define in Customizing for Purchasing the categories of confirmation that you wish to receive from your vendors and enter manually. (Confirmations ® Confirmation control ® External
confirmation categories.)
You can only receive via EDI and automatically process order acknowledgments and shipping notifications.
In the standard system, the relevant internal confirmation categories are already assigned to the external confirmation categories for order acknowledgment and shipping notification. (Customizing for
Purchasing: Confirmations ® Confirmation Control ® Internal Confirmation Categories.)
Note : If you do not assign any internal confirmation categories, you will not be able to receive vendor confirmations via EDI.

For each confirmation category, you can specify in Customizing whether the information is to be made available to Purchasing only, or also to Materials Planning and Inventory Management. Under
Confirmation sequence, select the MRP-relevant and GR-relevant indicators for the confirmation categories concerned.
You can also specify in Customizing the sequence in which you expect to receive various confirmations.

In some cases, confirmations may flow in the other direction. You can specify, for example, that your vendor is to receive an acknowledgment of receipt from you upon entry of a goods receipt from the
vendor with reference to an inbound delivery. For your vendor, this serves as a proof of delivery (POD). In this case, you must use a confirmation control key that a) provides for inbound deliveries and
b) is POD-relevant in the purchase order or scheduling agreement.

Just to re-emphasize, you should have following

1. Material with Material Master.

https://wiki.scn.sap.com/wiki/display/ERPSCM/Overview+of+Vendor+Confirmations 1/2
2/15/2018 Overview of Vendor Confirmations - ERP SCM - SCN Wiki

2. Confirmation control key on item detail screen

3. Optional: Acknowledgement required flag

Business Process
Business Process

Example:

A purchase order (PO) is sent to vendor.

Vendor initially sends an order acknowledgement (OA) referencing the PO.

He may then follow this up e.g. with a shipping notification referencing the PO.

Please note that there is no direct link between an order acknowledgment X and a shipping notification Y. Design assumes that the information provided by the latter is firmer, more precise, more up-to-
date.

The GR can be posted with reference to the purchase order (PO) or with reference to the shipping notification. When a confirmation category is entered, the MRP element BS-EIN is replaced by BS-AVI in
the stock/requirements list (transaction: MD04). When the GR is entered, the MRP element BS-AVI disappears. This is how we ensure that only not received quantity (quantity for which GR is not done)
appears in MD04. That too with most recently received scheduled.
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