License Type Configuration Vs. Item Category

[dean_hinson2]

Hello All,

In the License Type configuration, you can set the Check First Doc. in Document Flow. For me this setting allows the License from the sales order, scheduling agreement, etc. to flow through the transactions to the declaration.

Then there is this setting in the item category, Copy Legal Control Data from Predecessor Item. 

So, I am thinking there could be a conflict, or are these settings complimenting each other.

Any thoughts from the Community?

Regards, Dean.

[mouaz_benredjeb · Accepted solution]

Hi Dean,

To help further, I am going to make some assumptions here:

a. You have ticked "Document number" in your license type customizing (If it is not ticked, then the discussion is irrelevant)

b. You have ticked "Copy Legal Control Data from Preceding Item" (In SPRO, Activate Item Categories for Application Area)

c. Sales order (e.g. #123) is the first document checked for license. Then Outbound delivery (e.g. #789) is the second document checked for license

d. The license is already assigned to the Sales Order #123

e. Below explanation is how the system behaves when the Outbound delivery is being checked by GTS

f. All what I say below is based on my understanding of the customizing (I don't have the time nor a test system to check this)

The behaviour of the system will greatly change based on how you maintained your control settings for Legal Control (At Legal Regulation level hence) and more specifically the Transfer Legal Control Data setting (Which has 3 possible values I am going through below)

Scenario 1: You did not tick the "Check First Doc. in document flow"

1.a Transfer Legal Control Data = Do not transfer License --> Outbound delivery is blocked because the License is not transferred from the Sales Order

1.b Transfer Legal Control Data = Transfer License with Limited Checks --> Outbound delivery is not blocked because the License is transferred from the Sales Order and only minimal data is checked like date, status or quantity/value (document number is not checked/is irrelevant during the transfer)

1.c Transfer Legal Control Data = Recheck License for New Document --> Outbound delivery is blocked because when transferring the License, system checks the Document number and as SO number is not same as OBD number, license check fails

Scenario 2: You did tick the "Check First Doc. in document flow"

2.a Transfer Legal Control Data = Do not transfer License --> Outbound delivery is blocked because the License is not transferred from the Sales Order

2.b Transfer Legal Control Data = Transfer License with Limited Checks --> Outbound delivery is not blocked because the License is transferred from the Sales Order and only minimal data is checked like date, status or quantity/value (document number is not checked/is irrelevant during the transfer)

2.c Transfer Legal Control Data = Recheck License for New Document --> Outbound delivery is not blocked because when transferring the License, system uses the Sales Order number (First document in document flow) for the license determination

So the main difference is between 1.c (OBD blocked) and 2.c (OBD not blocked).

In a nutshell, the key question is: would you rather have all the subsequent documents in the document flow to be blocked in GTS and then the users manually enter all the documents in the license in GTS (Sales Order, Outbound Delivery, etc...), then go for scenario 1.

Or would rather have only the 1st document in the document flow blocked, the users enter this 1st document in the license in GTS and then users do not have to maintain the numbers of the subsequent documents in the license in GTS, then go for scenario 2.

Hope this helps.

Mouaz

[mouaz_benredjeb]

Hi Dean,

For the setting "Check of First Document in Document Flow", this is used when a document number is needed for the license determination.

Say you have Sales Order 123 and you create a license for that Order 123. License is determined accordingly using the Sales Order number and the license is found and allocated to the Sales Order.

Later, you create the Outbound Delivery 789 (delivery of Sales Order 123). Depending on your settings, the license determination might fail because in the license you have maintained document 123 and not 789. 

By ticking the option "Check of First Document in Document Flow", when the time comes to trigger the license determination for Outbound delivery 789, the system will run the license determination using Sales Order number 123.

In other words, the setting helps you not having to maintain a document number for all the documents in a document flow (e.g. Contract->Offer->Sales Order->Outbound Delivery) but only maintain the document number of the very first document in the document flow and the for the remaining documents in the document flow the system will rely on that very first document in the document flow (if you license determination uses the document number).

Hope this helps.

Mouaz

[dean_hinson2]

Hello Mouaz,

[dean_hinson2]

Hello Mouaz, Sorry about that, I wanted to go to the next line. Instead, unfinished comment was posted. Anyway, so how does the Item Category setting come into play here?