Lesson 1 of 5
Why documents link
7 min
An SAP business process is not one document. It is a chain. A sales order leads to an outbound delivery, the delivery leads to a goods issue, and the goods issue and the order together lead to a billing document, which posts a journal entry. Each document in that chain knows which document it came from and which documents came after it. SAP calls this the document flow.
Two words describe the relationship. The predecessor (or preceding document) is the one you started from. The successor (or subsequent document) is the one created with reference to it. Contoso Motor Co.'s sales order is the predecessor of its outbound delivery; the delivery is a successor of the order and a predecessor of the billing document.
- PredecessorSales order 1000457 for 50 alternators CMC-ALT-100
- CopyCustomer, product, quantity, prices and dates are copied forward
- SuccessorOutbound delivery 80001234 created with reference to the order
- Link recordedThe flow is stored, and the order's status updates to show delivery progress
Copy control in plain terms
When a successor is created "with reference", SAP does not ask the user to retype everything. Rules called copy control decide which data is copied, which is re-determined, and whether the step is allowed at all. In sales, copy control is configured per pair of document types: sales document to sales document, sales document to delivery, sales document or delivery to billing. Consultants know these settings by transactions such as VTAA, VTLA, VTFA and VTFL. As a business user you do not need to maintain them, but you should know they exist, because they explain a lot of behavior.
| Question copy control answers | Contoso example |
|---|---|
| Is this successor allowed from this predecessor? | A standard order may be delivered; a quotation may not be delivered directly, only converted into an order. |
| Which data is copied? | The delivery copies the ship-to party and product from the order. |
| Is pricing copied or re-determined? | Billing may keep the order price or recalculate it, depending on the pricing type. |
| Which quantity is used? | Billing for delivery-related items uses the delivered quantity, not the ordered quantity. |
| Does the predecessor's status update? | The order shows "partially delivered" after 30 of 50 units ship. |
What copy control decides at each step.
Purchasing works on the same principle with a different mechanism: a purchase order is created with reference to a requisition, and the goods receipt and supplier invoice are posted with reference to the purchase order. The reference is what lets SAP compare ordered, received and invoiced quantities later.
Why errors travel downstream
Copying is efficient, and it is also how mistakes spread. If the sales order carries the wrong ship-to address, the delivery copies it, the shipping label prints it and the invoice goes to the wrong place. If the order holds the wrong price and billing copies prices, the invoice is wrong too. The defect is seen at billing but caused at order entry, or earlier, in master data.
Where the flow is stored
SAP stores sales document flow in a dedicated table, and in SAP S/4HANA the status of each document is held directly on the document itself (the separate ECC status tables were removed). Purchasing keeps a purchase order history for each PO item. Finance keeps a reference on each journal entry back to the source document. You do not need the table names to use any of this. What matters is that every serious SAP screen gives you a way to see the chain.
What would you do?
A Contoso customer complains that invoice 90001877 shows 50 alternators, but only 30 arrived. The billing team says "the invoice is just what the system produced." Where should you look first?
- Documents in a process are linked as predecessors and successors.
- Copy control decides what is copied, what is re-determined and which follow-on steps are allowed.
- Because data is copied forward, a defect seen late in the chain is often caused early.
- Walk the document flow backwards to find where a wrong value first appeared.
Check your understanding · not graded
Lesson check
1. In Contoso's chain, what is the outbound delivery to the sales order?
2. What does copy control decide?
3. An invoice shows the wrong ship-to address. Where was the error most likely introduced?
4. For delivery-related billing, which quantity is normally billed?