Outbound Processing of PRICAT Messages

Purpose

We can use the EANCOM standard message PRICAT to provide our business partners
(customers) with up-to-date master data and price information. To do this we first create a
price catalog in SAP R/3 for a specific assortment and/or partner and then send it in IDoc
format to the appropriate partners.

We can also generate change versions (delta versions) manually or automatically when
the data changes. We set this up as a batch job to run in the background.

Function module GN_INVOICE_CREATE is used to determine prices. This simulates

billing for the customers and materials involved.

Integration

Functions in SAP R/3

 Material master data maintenance

 Customer master data maintenance

 Pricing/conditions maintenance

 Assortment planning

 IDoc creation

Functions in External System

 Conversion of IDocs to the desired EDI message format (PRICAT, ANSI X12 or
another standard, for example, XML)

Data Flow

Creating the Price Catalog

First We create the price catalog in SAP R/3. We can further process the price catalog
after it has been generated and before it is transmitted:

 Select which customers get which articles by assigning materials and customers to
the assortments.

 Maintain the required customer settings so that the IDoc can be sent (partner number,
for example).

 Enter data for optional fields (EANCOM fields that are not stored in SAP R/3).

 In the BAdIs, complete the user-defined fields that our added in Customizing.

 Execute the change management selected in Customizing.

 If the system produces error messages, remedy the errors in the master data.

 Execute the change management again.

We can set up the change management program to run in the background on a regular
basis. If there are changes to the data in the price catalog, then we can have the system:

 automatically send the updated price catalog information to customers (assuming the
system detected no errors). This is the recommended procedure.
 Send a workflow message to the person responsible for checking/processing the
price catalog data, indicating that new PRICAT messages need to be created and, if
necessary, errors need to be fixed.

Generating the IDocs

1. IDocs are created from price catalog data in SAP R/3.

2. The IDocs are then exported to the converter.

3. The converter reads the IDocs and converts them to PRICAT format.

4. The PRICAT files are then sent to the recipient, which may be a customer or a
database. If the recipient is a database, then multiple users can access the price
catalog information.

Price Catalogs on the Internet

When we create a price catalog, we can choose whether or not the catalog can be
displayed on the internet. If so, we can limit which customers have permission to view
the catalog. In any case, customers cannot place orders directly from the price catalog.

In addition, if we have an SAP Business Connection (SBC), then:

 The price catalog recipients who also have an SBC can either download and process
the data as an XML file or post the price catalog directly to their own SAP R/3.

 The price catalog recipients who do not have an SBC can only download the data as
an XML file.

In either case, customers can browse through the catalog and select the sections that are
of interest to them, or download the entire catalog.

Prerequisites

 SAP does not supply the IDoc-to-PRICAT converter itself. We can either obtain a
converter from a third-party supplier or else arrange to have one programmed to our
specifications.

 If the message recipient is an external database, then the database server must be
entered as a customer in SAP R/3.

 In order to make price catalogs available on the internet for download or posting as
XML files, we must install a SAP Business Connection (SBC).

If our customers want to be able to post our price catalog data to their own SAP
systems (or to other external systems), then they must also install an SBC.
Use transaction VPRICAT to create Our price catalog in SAP. From this transaction We can generate IDOC type PRICAT02 with message

type PRICAT to send via EDI. VPRICAT has a system called Engineering Change Management that allows We to update prices in Our

catalog automatically when a price has changed.

Before using Vpricat transaction there are additional set ups to be done

 Maintain EAN/PUC number in material master for the materials, with this EAN number only
catalog is identified in IDOC.
 Maintain external material group in material master
 Create assortment
 Create assortment module
 Assign assortment to assortment module
 Create requirement profile per plant
 Then create price catalog using vpricat transaction

Creating Price Catalogs

Use

This procedure allows you to manually trigger PRICAT messages (price catalog). This
corresponds to the process: Business Process: Outbound Processing of PRICAT Messages

Prerequisites

1. You have assigned materials to one or more assortment modules, and one or more
assortment modules to one or more assortments. You can also assign one or more
message recipients (e.g., customers) to one or more assortments. In doing so, you
determine which materials are to be included in the message and which recipients are
to receive the message.

2. You have defined a requirements profile (that is, the structure and content of the
message) in Customizing. Within the requirements profile you specify:

a. A site (for site-specific material data to be included in the message). The site is
also used to determine the valid units of measure for the materials.

b. A sales order type, which affects price determination for billing.

 c. Condition types and subtotals for the pricing calculation schema, which
determines how the gross purchase price, net purchase price, and consumer retail
price are handled in the message.

d. Which conditions are to be included in addition to the prices. You can enter four
condition types.

e. Up to three condition types to be used for taxes (one of the three condition types
can be marked for use as the value-added tax).

f. In order to determine bills of material, you must also enter a plant and a bill of
material usage.

If there is more than one bill of material, the system always selects the first alternative.

3. In Customizing, you have defined the change management that you want to use. You
have also defined whether you want to permit planned changes or not.

4. In Customizing you have defined which price catalog types exist and have added
user-defined fields to these catalog types.

You can extend the structure of catalogs as required using this catalog type, by
assigning the required number of dictionary structures to a price catalog table.

Ensure that the key fields (without the field MANDT) from the corresponding
table are included at the beginning of the structures. In this way, they are assigned to
the table like an append. This assignment is checked in Customizing before saving
and stored in the field structure category (structure category 1 to 9).

The tables that you can extend on an individual customer basis are:

 PRICAT_K001: Catalog header

 PRICAT_K002: Catalog item product groups

 PRICAT_K003: Catalog basic data

 PRICAT_K004: Catalog item units of measure, measurements and

weights

 PRICAT_K005: Catalog item texts

  PRICAT_K006: Catalog item characteristics

 PRICAT_K007: Catalog item bills of material

 PRICAT_K008C: Catalog item price/taxes per customer

 PRICAT_K003C: Pricing scale per customer

Procedure

1. Call the transaction VPRICAT by choosing Logistics ® Sales and Distribution ®

Master Data ® Rebate Agreements ® Catalogs ® Pricing catalog ® Pricing
catalog maintenance.

2. To create the price catalog, choose Pricing catalog ® Create and enter your
selection data. Enter at least the basic data and price determination information.

a. Basic data

You assign a name to the price catalog and the validity period for the catalog. Also
specify the ILN (international location number) which will then be copied into the
message. You can also assign the catalog a catalog category to add the customer-
defined fields to the catalog.
Enter either an assortment or a customer. By entering an assortment you
determine the materials to be included in the message. If you don’t enter a specific
recipient, then the message will go to all customers assigned to the assortment. If
you enter a recipient but no assortment, then the materials will be determined
from all assortments assigned to the recipient.

b. Price determination

You specify the sales organization, distribution channel, and division for which
the message is to be generated. If you don’t want to carry out price determination
for each message recipient individually, you can specify a template to be used for
customer price determination.
You can specify a date for price determination. This date can lie either within or
outside the catalog validity period you defined above. You can also enter a
calculation schema that differs from the standard calculation used for billing. It is
possible to turn off tax and price determination entirely.

3. Close the dialog box. The system creates the pricing catalog. Alongside each
customer in the list is a pushbutton in one of the following colors:

 Green signifies that all pricing catalog data for this customer have been
copied.
  Yellow signifies that some of the items for this customer have still to be
copied.

 Red signifies that at least one of the items in the pricing catalog is
inaccurate.

You can view the error log.

4. If warnings or error messages appear, go to the catalog from the error log. Double-
click on one of the materials that show problems. This takes you straight to the
material master data, where you can view the errors. Remedy the errors in the
material master so that they do not appear in the next change management.

Now you can make the following settings:

 Sender information

You enter the currency used by the catalog plus syntax identifiers.
 EC Management
Here you specify parameters for the automatic change management and
parameters for importing planned changes. You can specify how often
you want the change version program to run. You can determine whether
or not price catalogs updates that are generated without errors should be
automatically sent to customers, or whether they should be approved
and/or post-processed first. If the box is not checked, then a workflow
item is automatically sent to the person responsible for post-processing
whenever price catalog updates are generated.
You define:
 Whether or not historical data should be deleted,
 Which valid-from date should be used (if at all), and
 Under Catalog Change Management, in which cycle (days) change
management should be run and the catalog sent.
Under Planned Changes you define how many weeks from the valid-from
date planned changes should be read. This is also where you define the cycle
(weeks) and on which weekdays the planned changes are determined.
 Internet
If you plan to make your price catalog available to customers over the internet,
you can choose an internet release strategy:
 No release (no one can view it, perhaps because it is still under
development),
  Release only for known customers (for which there is a customer master
record),
 Release only for customers you have assigned to the catalog
 Release for all customers who might want to access it.
You can also assign a customer template to the catalog.

Customer Information
In the middle input area are the customer settings, where customers can
maintain the partner number.

5. Now carry out one of the following transactions:

a) Select Send Pricing Catalog to transfer the data to your customers.
Only the open items (status “yellow”) are copied.
b) If you want to transfer a complete version of the pricing catalog,
choose Send Complete Version.

Result

If the process is successful, the system creates one IDoc for each recipient.

To see the contents of the IDocs, you can use transaction WEDI and then choose IDoc ®
Display IDoc.