Lesson 4 of 5
Failure points and diagnosis
12 min
Cross-functional scenarios fail at the seams: where sales hands over to purchasing, where purchasing hands over to accounts payable, and where one company hands over to another. Each seam has a small number of typical failures. Knowing them shortens defect triage from days to minutes.
Third-party failure points
| Symptom | Likely cause | Where to look |
|---|---|---|
| No purchase requisition | Item category not TAS (item category group or determination) | Sales order item: item category and schedule line category |
| Requisition exists but no PO | No source of supply, or buyer did not convert | Requisition: assigned supplier, info record, buyer worklist |
| PO price differs from expected cost | Info record or contract price wrong | PO conditions vs purchasing info record |
| Customer never billed | Supplier invoice not posted, or due list run without order-related documents | PO history: invoice receipt; billing due list selection |
| Customer billed wrong quantity | Supplier invoiced a different quantity; billing follows it | PO history vs customer invoice quantity |
Third-party symptoms and causes.
Intercompany failure points
| Symptom | Likely cause | Where to look |
|---|---|---|
| Order cannot use plant 1810 | Plant not allowed for the sales area | Sales area and plant assignment settings |
| Transfer price missing or zero | No condition record for the internal price | Sales order conditions: PI01 or PI02 |
| IV invoice not created | No internal customer number for the sales org, or order type not allowed | Intercompany billing settings |
| IV invoice created, 1710 has no payable | Output or inbound processing failed | Output status of the IV invoice; inbound message monitoring |
| Tax wrong on IV invoice | Tax determination for the internal customer | Tax classification of the internal customer and product |
| Balances differ at month end | Timing: IV billed in a later period than goods issue | Billing due list for IV; posting dates |
Intercompany symptoms and causes.
Pricing, tax and timing: the big three
Pricing breaks when condition records are missing or expired: the internal price for intercompany, the purchasing info record for third-party. Missing prices often do not stop the process; they produce zero or wrong values that only finance notices. Tax breaks because these flows involve parties and locations that the normal sell-from-stock flow does not: an internal customer, a ship-from plant in another company, a supplier shipping to a customer's address. Cross-border variants add customs and different tax rules, and need tax specialist review. Timing breaks when the documents in a chain post in different periods: supplier invoices posted late delay customer billing; IV invoices billed late leave intercompany balances unequal at close.
- Did every expected document get created?Yes → check values · No → find the last document created; the failure is in the next step
- Are the prices on each document the expected ones?Yes → check tax · No → condition records or copy control
- Is tax determined as expected on each invoice?Yes → check postings · No → tax classification of partners and products
- Did each company post in the same period?Yes → check trading partner · No → billing timing or posting dates
What would you do?
Contoso's intercompany test passes in QAS client 100: all documents exist and both companies post. Dan notices that the 1810 revenue on the IV invoice is $0 for one product. Priya's tester says "process completed, no errors". How should this be classified?
- Failures cluster at the seams between sales, purchasing, payables, billing and finance.
- Third-party: item category, source of supply, info record price, supplier invoice posting, due list selection.
- Intercompany: plant assignment, internal price, internal customer number, output and inbound processing, tax, timing.
- Pricing, tax and timing defects are often silent; check values, not just document existence.
- Diagnose by finding the last document created and then checking prices, tax, periods and trading partner.
Check your understanding · not graded
Lesson check
1. The IV invoice exists but company code 1710 has no payable. Where should you look?
2. A third-party customer has not been billed. What should be checked first?
3. Why are zero transfer prices dangerous?
4. What is the first diagnostic question for any failed cross-functional flow?