Lesson 2 of 5
Order-to-cash document flow
7 min
Contoso Motor Co. sells 50 alternators CMC-ALT-100 to a fleet customer through sales area 1710 / 10 / 00, shipped from plant 1710 in Detroit. Here is the chain of documents the process creates, and what each one tells you.
- Sales orderCommitment to the customer: product, quantity, price, dates
- Outbound deliveryInstruction to the warehouse to pick, pack and ship
- Goods issueMaterial document reduces stock; journal entry posts cost of goods sold
- Billing documentInvoice to the customer; journal entry posts receivable and revenue
- Incoming paymentCash received; journal entry clears the open receivable
Displaying the flow
In SAP GUI, display the order with VA03 and choose the Display Document Flow function (in the menu under Environment, or from the toolbar). You can do the same from the delivery (VL03N) or the billing document (VF03). The result is a tree: the document you started from is highlighted, predecessors appear above it and successors below it, each with its number, date and status.
In the Fiori launchpad, the Display Document Flow app shows the same chain graphically, and object pages such as Manage Sales Orders and Display Billing Documents offer a process flow or related-documents view. Use whichever your project has standardized on; the information is the same.
| Document | Contoso number | Status to read | What "done" looks like |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sales order | 1000457 | Overall status; delivery status; billing status | Completed: fully delivered and fully billed |
| Outbound delivery | 80001234 | Picking status; goods movement status; billing status | Picked, goods issue posted, billed |
| Goods issue (material document) | 4900007731 | Posted, with an accounting document | Stock reduced in plant 1710; cost of goods sold posted |
| Billing document | 90001877 | Posting status (accounting) | Accounting document created; no posting block |
| Journal entry for billing | 9400000231 | Cleared or open | Open until the customer pays; cleared afterwards |
Order-to-cash documents and the statuses that matter. Numbers are fictional.
Reading status at each step
Status is the system's own opinion of how far each document has progressed. A sales order item that is Being processed or Partially processed still has work outstanding: something is not delivered or not billed. A delivery whose goods movement status is not complete has been created but not shipped from the system's point of view, even if the truck has left. A billing document with an accounting status other than posted has not reached finance; this often means a posting block or an error such as a missing account.
Partial flows
Real processes are rarely one-to-one. Contoso might ship 30 alternators this week and 20 next week, giving one order with two deliveries, two goods issues and possibly two invoices. The document flow shows all of them, and the order's delivery status stays partially delivered until the last 20 ship. A tester who only looks at the first delivery will think the process is complete when it is not.
- Does the order have a delivery for every item?Yes → check goods issue · No → order is not fully delivered; check delivery status and schedule lines
- Is goods issue posted for each delivery?Yes → check billing · No → the goods have not left stock in SAP
- Does every delivery have a billing document?Yes → check accounting · No → billing due list or billing block
- Does each billing document have a journal entry?Yes → the order-to-cash chain is complete up to payment · No → accounting release or determination error
What would you do?
A Contoso tester's order-to-cash script ends with "create billing document: success message shown – PASS". The process owner asks you to review the result. The document flow shows the billing document, but no journal entry beneath it. What do you do?
- The sell-from-stock chain is sales order, outbound delivery, goods issue, billing document, journal entry, incoming payment.
- Display the flow with VA03/VL03N/VF03 or the Display Document Flow app.
- Read statuses: overall, delivery, goods movement and accounting posting status.
- Partial deliveries and invoices are normal; check every branch before calling a process complete.
- A billing document without a journal entry is not finished.
Check your understanding · not graded
Lesson check
1. Which document follows the outbound delivery in sell-from-stock?
2. Which SAP GUI transaction displays a sales order, from where you can open its document flow?
3. A delivery's goods movement status is not complete. What does that mean?
4. Which Fiori app shows the document chain graphically?