Lesson 5 of 6
Monitoring
10 min
Orders do not complain when they are stuck. An incomplete field, a forgotten block or an unconfirmed schedule line simply leaves the order waiting while the customer waits too. Monitoring means looking for those orders every day, before the customer calls.
The monitoring tools
| Tool | What it shows | Typical use at Contoso |
|---|---|---|
| Sales order fulfillment monitoring apps | Orders with issues such as incompletion, blocks, credit or availability problems, with drill-down to resolve | Maria's daily worklist |
| Manage Sales Orders | Order list with filters on status, dates, customer, blocks | Ad hoc searches, for example all open orders for Great Lakes Fleet Services |
| VA05 (list of sales orders) | SAP GUI order list by customer or product | Users who prefer SAP GUI |
| V.02 (incomplete documents) | Incomplete sales documents | Weekly incompletion sweep |
| V23 (blocked for billing) | Documents with billing blocks | Weekly aged-block review |
| Delivery due list | Orders due for delivery by shipping point and date | Shipping's view of what should ship |
Order monitoring tools. App names vary by release; your launchpad may group them differently.
SAP's sales order fulfillment monitoring is designed around exactly this problem: it groups orders by the issue that prevents fulfillment and links to the place to fix it. In some releases you find it under a name such as Sales Order Fulfillment Issues; check your launchpad's sales monitoring group.
The common issues and their fixes
| Issue | Symptom | Usual fix | Owner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Incomplete | Not in delivery due list; completeness status incomplete | Fill the missing data or fix the master data | Inside sales |
| Credit block | Credit status blocked | Review and release, or ask the customer to pay overdue items | Credit controller |
| Delivery block | Header or schedule line block reason set | Clear the reason's condition, then remove the block | Reason owner |
| Not confirmed | Confirmed quantity zero or later than promised | Expedite supply, offer alternatives, or reschedule | Inside sales with supply planning |
| Billing block | Delivered but not billed | Complete the review, then release | Pricing or billing |
| Delivery not issued | Delivery exists without goods issue | Complete picking and post goods issue | Shipping |
A daily routine
- Start with the fulfillment monitoring app: count orders by issue type and compare with yesterday.
- Work the urgent quadrant first: high value, due soon.
- For each order, open the document flow and statuses; confirm the issue before acting.
- Fix the source when the cause is master data, and tell the master data owner.
- Add a note to orders you hand to another team, so the next person knows the history.
- Once a week, sweep V.02 and V23 for anything the daily view missed or that has aged.
- FindThe fulfillment app lists order 1000512 as blocked for delivery
- ConfirmDocument flow and header show delivery block 'address check', set five days ago
- ActMaria confirms the new address with the customer and updates the ship-to master data
- ReleaseShe removes the block; she is authorized for this reason
- VerifyThe order appears in the delivery due list for its date
Some orders cannot be fixed by order-to-cash at all. A shortage that supply planning cannot close, or a credit hold on a customer with seriously overdue invoices, needs a business decision. Maria escalates these to the sales manager with the facts from the order: value, requested date, confirmed date and the issue. The customer then hears one consistent message from Contoso instead of several guesses.
What would you do?
Maria's worklist shows 40 orders 'not confirmed' this morning, up from 5 yesterday. All are for CMC-ALT-100 in plant 1710. What should she do first?
- Stuck orders are silent; monitor them daily with the fulfillment monitoring apps and order lists.
- Common issues: incompletion, credit block, delivery block, not confirmed, billing block, delivery not issued.
- Prioritize by value and time to the requested date.
- Confirm the cause in document flow and statuses before acting; fix master data at the source.
- Track the backlog by issue type to find process problems.
Check your understanding · not graded
Lesson check
1. Which tool groups orders by the issue preventing fulfillment?
2. An order is delivered but not billed and shows a billing block. Who usually owns it?
3. Forty orders for one product become unconfirmed overnight. What is the likely cause?
4. Why track the count of stuck orders by issue type?