Project-based-services and Billing of different types of cost/expense

[eric_hassenberg]

Hi,

We are currently engaged in the implementation of S/4HANA in an engineering & project context. We need to be able to bill different activities to our customers:

• Time via timesheets
• Expenses (recorded via Concur)
• materials based on delivery & goods issue to customers
• procurement of external goods & services
• other costs
•  ...

--> We can post the costs towards the WBS (work packages) but as far as we can see, we can only bill hours (fixed price, time & material....)

In a classic SAP environment this would be covered via resource related billing BUT this does not exist to that extend in S/4 Cloud - so my big questions are:

• How can we bill any costs associated with Work packages (WBS) towards customers in a flexible way?
• How does S/4 determine which costs are "billing relevant"?
• How can we influence this or did anyone use a work around?

kind regards

Eric H.

[former_member133392 · Accepted solution]

Hello Experts,

Even though it's an old thread I'm running into a similar scenario where we want to bill customers based on actual expenditures incurred, for ex - Purchase Orders, travel expenses, time etc.

I've configured 'Assign G/L Account to Expense Product' for expense billing and 'Assign Activity Type to Service Product' for time billing. I'm able to bill time without any issues but while running 'release billing proposal' app, for expenses (Journal entry posted for travel), system says 'no expenditure item found'. I have checked billing dates, made sure JE is posted but still not able to resolve the issue.

Any insight?

Thank you,

Bikram Rataul

[ana_goncalves · Accepted solution]

Hi Bikram,

“Assign G/L Account to Expense Product” and “Assign Activity Type to Service Product” are configuration steps related to Service Management (see related scope item here: https://rapid.sap.com/bp/scopeitems/3D2). For project-based services (question raised in original thread), you need to map the relevant G/L accounts to the different expense types via configuration step "Define Resources".

As for the error you're getting, have you assigned the G/L account used in your supplier invoice to a cost element group? For each expense material, there is a cost element group in which the cost allocation to a G/L account is defined. These cost element groups have the naming convention YBPS_E001 – E040 and you can edit them via app "Edit Cost Element Groups". Also, make sure to include the WBS element when posting the supplier invoice.

For more information on non-time related materials for project services, please take a look at the blog written by our colleague tobschmi74: https://blogs.sap.com/2018/12/18/non-time-related-materials-for-project-services/

Kind regards,

Ana

[former_member605142]

If expenses are not planned on a project can these still be billed? Also, can 3rd party expenses be billed to a client? , I have tried to bill for expenses booked to a project but the error which appears is "No expenditure items found".

The expense GL's have been maintained in the COE

[Andrew]

Hi Tamlyn,

These should be possible. Scope item J13 runs you through all the steps needed to test with this.

Re 'No expenditure Items found' - sometimes this happens if you don't have any free Billing Plan Definition items available to put the charge on. I.e. In 'Billing' tab - you create various Billing Items. Within that, you anticipate invoice dates with the billing plan definition. If you only have one of those for example with a date of October 5th, and you have already created an invoice - you will get no expenditure items found error. Create another billing plan definition line and try posting again - this is where I've run into and resolved this error before.

Regards,

[eric_hassenberg]

thanks for the tip but not really helpful - i still do not know how to bill other project related costs

[former_member132042]

Hi ‎@Eric Hassenberg, you may find answers here: https://help.sap.com/viewer/29cf986299714386847f4d4c9bb86994/1805.500/en-US/21218854c46ee75ee1000000...

Hope it helps

[Enda]

Hi Eric

Thank you for your question . im checking the issue and il get back to you

Enda

[Anna_Rafter]

Hi Enda,

Thanks for your reply. I also created a new 'question' in 'Project Services'. It has further details of the steps we follow there: 'Usage-based Services - No expenditure items found'.

Thank you in advance for any information you can share with us.

Best Regards,

Anna

[Enda]

Hi Ana

il checked if there is an configuration need for 'Usage-based billing'.

Il let you know when i find out

Enda

[Anna_Rafter]

Hi Eric, Hi Enda,

We are facing the same issue here.

We can see that when defining the billing plan for a commercial project we can choose between:

Contract type Item Usage Data that is copied

Fixed Price Note

Amount

Time and Expenses Time and Expenses -

Payment on account Amount

Periodic Service Periodic Services Amount

Service start date

Service end date

Usage-based billing -

Is there any configuration needed in order to use the item 'Usage-based billing'? We have tried by notifying expenses, services, etc, but not sure if further configuration should be perform.

Thank you in advance.

Kind Regards,

Anna

[Enda]

Hi Eric

il try to answer your questions

1) There is no restriction to specific cost types only. Various different costs will be picked up for billing (not only hours). However, if new cost elements were created they need to get added to the relevant customizing (There is a set in the DIP profile that contains selection criteria for which cost elements are picked up; newly created cost elements won’t be in that list).

This customizing to be done by SAP and not through SSCUI

2) The determination of costs to be billed works the same way as in ERP. There is a DIP profile in the system that controls which costs are being picked up from ACDOCA and which service materials are determined for these.

3) There is no way to influence the DIP profile.

I hope the information is of help

Enda

[eric_hassenberg]

Enda,

thanks for the answer - that was indeed my hope that it still works like that. Can you please share with me:

* which accounts/cost elements are currently part of the SET so that i can try to use these accounts for testing in the starter system

Can you confirm that SAP will indeed change the range of cost elements as being part of the project since i cannot find it back in the list expert configuration?

kind regards

Eric

[Former Member]

The cost element groups are available in the BP document 'Master data CO' and the cost element groups can be edited with the app 'Edit cost element groups'. Be Carefull! ;-).