To use Freight Management for direct deliveries

To use Freight to plan or cluster direct deliveries, freight orders are generated from purchase orders that are linked to direct delivery sales orders or service orders.

Since the goods are directly transported from the buy-from business partner to the sold-to business partner in direct deliveries, the warehouses defined in LN are not involved. Therefore, the freight orders, clusters, loads, and shipments are not updated from Warehousing, but only from the direct delivery sales order and related purchase order in Order Management.

Freight orders

For a freight order used for direct deliveries the originating order is a purchase order, and the related order is a sales order or a service order.

Because warehouses are not involved in direct deliveries, the shipping office is selected by means of a shipping office matrix definition without a warehouse.

Freight related data is copied from the purchase order line or the related sales order or service order line to the freight order (line).

For example, the buy-from business partner information and the planned unload date is copied from the purchase order, and the sold-to business partner information and the planned load date is copied from the direct delivery sales order. If the purchase order is initiated from a service order, data such as the buy-from business partner, planned unload date, and required quantity is defaulted from the service order.

The carrier, carrier binding setting, service level, and route is defaulted from sales order or the service order, because agreements made with the customer should never be ignored. If this information is not present on the sales order or service order, this information is taken from the purchase order.

For further details on the data that is copied from the purchase order line or the related sales order line to the freight order (line), refer to the field help of the Freight Orders (fmfoc2100m000) session, the Freight Order (fmfoc2100m100) session, and the Freight Order Lines (fmfoc2101m000) session.

Note: If for a sales order the Delivery Type was set to Direct Delivery after a freight order was generated, this freight order is deleted. A new freight order is generated after the purchase order generated from the direct delivery sales order is approved.

The direct delivery sales order - Freight Management procedure

After a sales order of type direct delivery is created and approved, a purchase order or a purchase order advice is generated, the latter is determined by parameter settings.

Approving the purchase order causes a freight order to be generated. The freight order includes data copied from the purchase order and the related sales order.

Next, a load plan or, as the case may be, a freight order cluster is created and actualized based on the freight order. Optionally, the delivery is confirmed in Freight after a notification from the supplier that the goods are ready for shipment.

The following activity will be recording the receipt of the goods at the customer’s, which automatically registers the completion of the transport. Next, the freight invoicing procedure and financial processing are executed, which enables the freight order to be closed. Finally, the loads or freight order clusters are closed.

Note: If no actual plan, loads, and shipments exist and no carrier is known yet, a carrier must be defined when the purchase receipts are created. This is primarily done for freight cost calculation purposes.

The following diagram outlines the direct delivery sales order - Freight Management procedure:

The direct delivery service order - Freight Management procedure

After a service order of type direct delivery is created and approved, a purchase order or a purchase order advice is generated, the latter is determined by parameter settings.

Approving the purchase order causes a freight order to be generated. The setting that determines that a freight order is generated is defaulted from the service order. The freight order includes data copied from the purchase order and the related sales order.

Next, a load plan or, as the case may be, a freight order cluster is created and actualized based on the freight order. Optionally, the delivery is confirmed in Freight after a notification from the supplier that the goods are ready for shipment.

The following activity will be recording the receipt of the goods at the customer’s, which automatically registers the completion of the transport. Next, the freight invoicing procedure and financial processing are executed, which enables the freight order to be closed. Finally, the loads or freight order clusters are closed.

Note: If no actual plan, loads, and shipments exist and no carrier is known yet, a carrier must be defined when the purchase receipts are created. This is primarily done for freight cost calculation purposes.

The following diagram outlines the direct delivery service order - Freight Management procedure:

Advance Shipment Notice (ASN)

The use of incoming ASNs has some impact on the direct delivery procedure. If an ASN from the supplier with status Scheduled Manually, which indicates that the goods are ready for shipment, is recorded in LN, the freight order status is updated from Actual to Shipped.

In the Shipment Notices (whinh3100m000) session, you use the ASN to register the receipt of the goods at the customer's by means of the Receive Direct Delivery Lines option. This causes the next freight order status update, from Shipped to Completed.

Freight invoicing for direct deliveries

If a direct delivery is initiated from a service order, freight invoicing is either handled by Freight or Service. If a direct delivery is initiated from sales, freight invoicing is performed as described in The invoicing process

Freight invoicing can take place both internally and externally.

External invoicing

You can invoice the sold-to business partner, that is, the customer who receives the goods, or the buy-from business partner for the transportation of the goods.

Invoice buy-from business partner
To determine that the bill for the freight services must go to the supplier, the Invoice External Business Partner check box must be selected in the Purchase Orders (tdpur4100m000) session.
Invoice sold-to business partner
To determine that the freight services related to the direct delivery are invoiced to the customer, the Invoice for Freight check box must be selected in the Sales Order Lines (tdsls4101m000) session if sales initiated the direct delivery, or, if the direct delivery is initiated by the service office, By Service or By Freight Management must be selected in the Invoice for Freight field of the Service Order Estimated Material Costs (tssoc2120m000) session.

Internal invoicing

The shipping office can invoice the sales office responsible for handling and processing the sales order, the purchase office responsible for the purchase order, or the service office that initiated the service order.

In the Intercompany Trade module, you can set up the following relationships:

Order invoice relation
This is the invoice relation between the purchase office and the service office or the purchase office and the sales office. For this relationship, in the Internal Freight Responsibilities (tcitr2130m000) session, you can determine the party that is to pay for the freight costs. Defining this relation is not mandatory. If you do not define this relationship, by default, for direct deliveries, the purchase office is to pay for the freight costs.
Internal freight invoicing relation
This relationship defined in the Intercompany Trade Relationship (tcitr2600m000) session. It defines the invoicing relation between the shipping office and the party that is to pay the freight costs according to the previous relation, or the default party, that is, the purchase office, if the previous relation is not defined.