Custom Fields during Creation of External Billing Document Requests via Spreadsheet Import
Business Example
Business Role: Billing Clerk (SAP_BR_BILLING_CLERK)
John is a billing clerk who often uses the Manage Billing Document Requests app to create external billing document requests (EBDRs) by importing billable data from Microsoft Excel (*.xlsx) files. He later bills these EBDRs to create customer invoices.
At John's company, it's common practice to send a copy of the customer invoice to an additional external stakeholder (for example, the project lead). This is achieved by passing the e-mail address of this additional recipient in a custom field (YY1_EXT_SH_EMAIL_BDH) at billing document header level and using a dedicated BAdI implementation to automatically deliver the e-mail (containing the PDF invoice copy) during output processing.
Therefore, in the case of invoices created with reference to EBDRs, John needs a method for already filling the custom field in his EBDRs with the target e-mail address, so that the system can copy the e-mail address to the subsequent invoice.
As of SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2408, he can easily achieve this by enabling his custom field YY1_EXT_SH_EMAIL_BDH for the spreadsheet import of the Manage Billing Document Requests app. He can then provide the target e-mail addresses along with the other billing data, directly within the Microsoft Excel file that he imports to create the EBDRs.
When the data is imported, the e-mail address is added to the resulting EBDR at header level and passed to the subsequent invoice. During output processing, the output BAdI can then read the e-mail address and send an additional copy of the invoice to the external stakeholder.
In past releases, billing clerks could use the Create function in the Manage Billing Document Requests app to create EBDRs by importing billing data from Microsoft Excel files. However, it was not possible to import values for custom header and item fields that were added to EBDRs via the extensibility business contexts Sales: Billing Document and Sales: Billing Document Item.
As of SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2408, any custom field that has been enabled for the abovementioned business contexts (and is therefore included in all EBDRs at header or item level) can be filled via the import of billing data from Microsoft Excel files during EBDR creation. This is made possible by the custom fields being added as additional columns in the template file that is imported.
A key user who is assigned a business role containing the business catalogExtensibility - Custom Fields(SAP_CORE_BC_EXT_FLD) has created the custom fields that you want to fill during import of the Microsoft Excel file.
Hint
Key users can create and publish fields in theCustom Fieldsapp. For more information, see
Custom Fieldson SAP Help Portal.
The custom fields must have been created in one of the following business contexts, depending on whether the custom fields should be at the header or item level of the EBDR:
- Sales: Billing Document (header level)
- Sales: Billing Document Item (item level)
- In theCustom Fieldsapp, on the User Interfaces tab, a key user has enabled usage of the custom fields forMicrosoft Excel Import for Creation of External Billing Document Requests and subsequently published them.
- After performing the above steps, you have downloaded the Microsoft Excel template for importing billing data into the system to create EBDRs. You can do this after choosing the Create button in theManage Billing Document Requestsapp.
After the prerequisites on the previous slide are fulfilled and the field is published, proceed as follows to create new EBDRs that include your custom field values:
1. In the template file, when you enter the standard field data as described underCreating External Billing Document Requests via Spreadsheet Import on SAP Help Portal, also enter the values for your custom fields into the appropriate columns.
2. After you have finished entering all required data, use the import function of the Manage Billing Document Requests app to import the template file. After checking the preview, choose the Create button.
3. The system now creates one or more EBDRs containing the custom field values that you have provided. The next screen tells you the document numbers of the newly created EBDRs.
You can now view these new EBDRs in the Manage Billing Document Requests app and create billing documents for them in the Create Billing Documents app, where they have been added to the billing due list.
4. You can see that the custom field values have been successfully imported on, for example, the Custom Fields header tab of the Display Billing Document Requests app.
Hint
To see the field in this and other apps, the field must have been enabled and published for each app.
5. After creating the invoices, you can also see that the custom field values have been transferred to the invoice header (for example, in the Manage Billing Documents app).
For more information about creating EBDRs by importing billing data from Microsoft Excel files, refer to the following resources on SAP Help Portal:
How to Fill Custom Fields When Using the Spreadsheet Import
Manage Billing Document Requests (app)
