Architecture is helpful in guarding the essentials of the business, while still allowing for maximal flexibility and adaptability.

Learning from your own experiences is priceless. We’ve all made our share of blunders, myself included. While sharing tales of our missteps might provide some comic relief, the real value lies in the lessons learned. You don’t forget a mistake when you’ve had to deal with its consequences.

Speaking from firsthand observation, it’s not uncommon for developers to roll out code live, often hastily, to meet pressing business deadlines. The urgency tends to outweigh any considerations for the potential havoc it could wreak on a production environment. These situations occur more often than you might think.

SALES & DISTRIBUTION#

(SD)#

Table of Contents#

1. Definition of Sales & Distribution. 2
2. Enterprise Structure. 3
   1. Client 5
   2. Company. 5
   3. Company Code. 6
      1. Create a Fiscal Year Variant 7
      2. Maintain Fiscal Year Variant 7
      3. Assign Company Code to Fiscal Year Variant 8
      4. Posting Periods. 9
      5. Define Variants for Open Posting Periods. 9
      6. Open and Close Posting Periods. 9
      7. Assign Variants to Company Code. 10
      8. Define Document Number Ranges. 10
      9. Define Document Types. 11
      10. Define Tolerance Groups for Employees. 12
      11. Assign User/Tolerance Group. 13
   4. Plant 13
      1. Assign plant to Company Code. 14
   5. Location. 14
   6. Division. 15
   7. Sales Organization. 15
      1. Assign Sales Organization to Company Code. 16
   8. Distribution Channel 16
      1. Assign Distribution Channel to Sales Organization. 17
      2. Set up Sales Area. 18
      3. Assign sales organization - distribution channel – plant 19
   9. Define Shipping Points. 20
      1. Assign Shipping point to plant 20
      2. Shipping point and goods receiving point determination:
         • Assign Shipping Point 3. Customer Master
   • Creation of Customer Account Group.
   • Create Number Ranges for Customer Accounts.
   • Assign Number Ranges to Customer Account Groups.
   • Define Incompleteness Procedures.
   • Define Order Type.
   • Define Item Category.

Definition of Sales & Distribution#

For the representation of your company structures in the SAP System, different organizational units are available for the areas of sales, shipping and billing. First analyze the structure and process organization in your company and then compare them with the SAP structures. In the standard version, different organizational elements are defined as examples. In general, these elements are not sufficient for individual demands. Extend the elements accordingly.