Billing plan and billing status

Question

Hello Friends,
I would like to clarify if my understanding is correct before I configure a billing plan:
1. Billing status is not seen in billing doc but in preceding doc like a DO.
2. For a Billing Plan, there can be 1 billing plan at item level for a set of settlement dates.
If the plan is defined at header level, only 1 billing plan is for all items.
3. Contract is a sales doc type  and contract data is only at header level.
Is this considered an Order-related billing when invoice is printed at each billing date?
Is the contract considered as the reference doc for the billing doc sent to customer? I believe so. please confirm.
4. There is no such thing as master billing plan that item level billing plans need to be linked to.
5. date category : this is at billing date level and cannot be changed?
regards
Pascal

Answer 1

Hello,
Milestone billing means distributing the total amount to be billed over multiple billing
dates in the billing plan.
As each milestone is successfully reached, the customer is billed either a percentage of
the entire project cost or simply a pre-defined amount.
During sales order processing, the system determines from the item category whether a
billing plan is required and, if so, which type of plan
The type of billing plan that is determined at this point is set up in Customizing and
cannot be changed in the sales document.
Billing plans for periodic billing and milestone billing plans for project-related milestone
billing have different overview screens so that you can enter data relevant to your
processing.
For example, for milestone billing, you must be able to enter data to identify the
individual milestones.
Thanks,
venkataswamy.y
IMG configuration requires :-
1. Maintain billing plan types for milestone billing in OVBO.
2. Define date description in SM30 - V_TVTB.
3. Maintain Date Category for Billing Plan Type IN OVBJ.
4. Allocate date category in SM30 - V_TFPLA_TY.
5. Maintain date proposal for Billing Plan Type in OVBM.
6. Assign Billing Plan Type to Sales Documents Type in OVBP.
7. Assign Billing Plan Type to Item Categories in OVBR.
8. Define rules for determining the date in OVBS.
Milestone billing is typically used for billing projects, such as plant engineering and
construction projects. Such projects often include a series of milestones that mark the
completion of different stages of the work. In the SAP R/3 System, milestones are defined
in a network along with planned and actual dates for the completion of work. The milestones
are also assigned to the billing dates in the billing plan.
Each milestone-related billing date is blocked for processing until the Project System
confirms that the milestone is completed.
Delivery-relevant order items for which a milestone billing plan applies are billed on the
basis of the requested delivery quantity and not on the total of the confirmed quantities.
The connection between the project and the sales document item is made in the individual
schedule lines of the item. Each schedule item can be assigned to a network in a project.
To display the project-related data for a schedule line, proceed as follows:
In one of the overview screens of the sales document, select
1. Item -> Schedule lines.
2. Mark the schedule line and select Procurement details.
The following figure shows an example of milestone billing where only the Contract have
been billed :
Order Item Turbine 100,000
Billing Plan
Billing date Description % Value Billing Block Milestone Billing Status
01-10-94 Contract 10 10,000 - x x
01-03-95 Assembly 30 30,000 x x
01-04-95 Maintenance 30 30,000 x x
01-05-95 Acceptance 30 30,000 x x
01-06-95 Final invoice .. .. x
Network/Activities
Milestone Estimate Actual
Assembly 01-03-95 01-03-95
Maintenance 01-04-95
Acceptance 01-05-95
For each billing date in a milestone billing plan, you can specify whether the billing
date is:
1. fixed
2. always updated with the actual date of the milestone
3. updated with the actual date of the milestone, if the date is earlier than the
planned billing date for the date
Comments
the article was great it explained about billng milestone very well