As of SAP ERP 6.0 EHP 6, the previous solutions for settling rebate agreements in Purchasing (subsequent settlement) and Sales (SD rebate) have been joined by the new solution - condition contract settlement. In S/4HANA, rebate agreements are no longer available and have been completely replaced by condition contract settlement. This means that SAP is forcing customers who previously used subsequent settlement (MM) and/or the SD rebate to switch to condition contract settlement with the introduction of S/4HANA.
The new CCS (Condition Contract Settlement) places particular emphasis on a modern architecture, high flexibility and traceability. SAP thus provides a modern and high-performance rebate solution that can be flexibly adapted to your own processes.
The advantages of CCS can be summarized as follows:
- All contract components can be fully taken into account in an object with business partners thanks to variable customizing and a wide range of enhancement options
- Flexible data sources, business selection criteria, settlement calendars and other functions enable more efficient contract entry and contract processing
- Simplification of the settlement process for sales-based or quantity-based bonuses
- Support for a variety of billing scenarios through automated bundling, splitting and billing of different billing types
- Reduction in overall operating costs and processing effort thanks to better integration into standard processes and a higher degree of automation
In SAP S/4HANA, condition contract settlement is part of settlement management. This combines the ERP components Agency Business (LO-AB) and Remuneration Management (LO-GT-CHB) into a holistic application. Contract accounting has been and continues to be developed further over subsequent releases and now provides a wide range of functions such as royalties and commissions. However, this wealth of functions also involves complex and multi-layered customizing, which requires a certain amount of experience in order to be able to make targeted adjustments.
Migration necessary before use
But what about the problem of transferring bonus agreements into condition contracts? Experience has shown that this can be done manually for many companies, so rebate agreements are converted into condition contracts manually. However, this can also cause a time problem, as sometimes hundreds of customers have bonus agreements.
SAP migration solution only partially helpful
SAP has been offering a migration object for condition contracts since the S/4 HANA versions from 2019. With the "Direct Transfer - ERP" methodology, one could assume that SAP also offers logics for transferring its rebate agreements from ECC to condition contracts. However, a closer look at the migration cockpit reveals that only condition contracts can be migrated to other condition contracts. It is also possible to use condition contracts already in ECC with EHP 6.0. To our knowledge, SAP has not yet provided a mapping for converting rebate agreements into condition contracts.
CONSILIO recommends this procedure
We at CONSILIO have dealt intensively with this challenge, as we have customers who use a large number of bonus agreements. We recommend the following procedure for converting rebate agreements into condition contracts:
First of all, the data for the ECC rebate agreements must be extracted. In SAP ECC, this mainly concerns the KONA table and linked condition tables including possible scale values.
Please contact us and we will send you a non-binding list of the tables required for rebate agreements from the ECC.
The data must then be evaluated and a mapping developed. If necessary, logic from the ECC that is used to determine the bonus basis and may not be part of the data extraction must also be taken into account.
Experience has shown that the sales selection criteria are central to the migration to condition contracts. However, it is important to check the customizing and test sales selections in detail. The final migration can be carried out via the SAP migration cockpit. Alternatively, specially developed CONSILIO programs can be used.
When is migration worthwhile?
The number at which a migration should be preferred to manual creation must be considered on a very individual basis. In some cases, numerous sales selection criteria need to be stored, which would be very time-consuming to do manually, but can also pose challenges in terms of mappings for automated migration. One advantage of manual creation can be that users become more familiar with the handling of the WCOCO transaction. However, after a certain number of contracts, the learning effect reaches a point where it is hardly noticeable. It would therefore make little sense to allow users to create hundreds of contracts.
Summary
With the new solution, SAP enables users to map complex bonus agreements and achieve greater flexibility in the design of bonuses. However, the conversion and customizing prove to be complex and not self-explanatory. It is therefore advisable to consult an experienced partner such as CONSILIO before the changeover in order to avoid potential stumbling blocks and to exploit the full potential of condition contract accounting.
