backflush

The non-manual posting of an issue of components some time after their physical withdrawal for an order.

The goods issue posting for backflushed components is performed automatically at the time of order completion confirmation.

backlog

Past quantities scheduled for delivery of which the vendor has been notified through a scheduling agreement release but of which delivery has not yet taken place.

backlog calculation

A revaluation of past cumulative asset depreciation to take price increases into account.

It takes place in conjunction with revaluation of the asset net book value.

backorder

Sales documents whose order items cannot be confirmed due to lack of availability or material shortages.

balance

An amount resulting from the difference between the debit and credit side of an account or document.

There are the following types of balances:

• Credit balance (credit side is larger)
• Debit balance (debit side is larger)

balance audit trail

A record of all transactions posted to an account within a certain period.

The balance audit trail shows the balance at the start of a specific period and the way in which the balance of the account changed by the end of the period.

balance carried forward

The balances of all balance sheet items are carried forward, at the end of the fiscal year, from the prior year into the new year as the opening balance.

Statistical items can be carried forward if required. The carryforward of income statement items is controlled by selected items. This is particularly important for the carryforward of retained earnings, if the appropriation of retained earnings is shown at the end of the income statement. Consolidation transaction types are carried forward to their assigned carryforward transaction type.

balance carryforward

The transfer of an account balance from the previous year.

balance check

A procedure used to check whether an accounting document has been entered correctly.

To meet this requirement, the debit amount in the document must equal the credit amount.

balance confirmation

A method of correspondence listing individual amounts you want your customer or vendor to confirm.

You request your customer or vendor to confirm these amounts regardless of whether they correspond to the amounts kept in their accounting system.

balance method

An adjustment method whereby you adjust a G/L account for inflation by adjusting the balance only (See also:line-item method).

Using this method, no consideration is given to individual line items whatsoever. It is only the balance that counts.

Accordingly, the system creates one inflation adjustment document for each account.

balance notification

A method of correspondence listing individual amounts you want your customer or vendor to confirm.

You expect a reply to this letter only if your customer or vendor does not agree with the stated balance.

balance request

A method of correspondence requesting your customers or vendors to inform you of the balance of your account in their accounting system.

balance sheet account

An account on which the debit and credit entries resulting from business transactions are recorded.

The balance of a balance sheet account is carried forward at fiscal year-end.

balance sheet adjustment

The preparations made before creating a balance sheet, including:

• Valuation and adjustment posting of receivables and payables posted in foreign currency
• Adjustment posting of receivables and payables with a changed reconciliation account
• Adjustment posting for customers with a credit balance and vendors with a debit balance
• Breakdown and adjustment posting of receivables and payables according to remaining terms

balance sheet adjustment

A retroactive assignment of receivables, payables, and taxes to business areas or profit centers (or both).

Typically, this assignment is required in situations where the corresponding fields for account assignment were not specified when posting the original document.

An account assignment may be missing because the user was not able to specify just one account assignment for a particular item in an invoice. This would make it necessary to create several items out of this item (to be avoided where possible). Balance sheet adjustment is made at a specific key date during closing operations.

balance sheet asset account

A general ledger account in Financial Accounting on which asset transactions are recorded.

It is the account to which acquisition and production costs are posted, as apposed to the accumulated depreciation account.

However, both of these accounts are asset accounts.

balance sheet price

The resultant price from balance sheet valuation that can be adopted as the new material price or as a physical inventory price.

balance sheet valuation

A valuation of fixed assets and current assets on the balance sheet.

balance sheet valuation

A generic term covering the consumption sequence procedure, lowest value determination, and other valuation procedures used in creating the balance sheet.

balance sheet value per account

The balance sheet values are determined for each account in the balance sheet valuation procedure.

These reflect stock values, commercial law valuation approaches, and differences for stock accounts of the selected material.

bank chain

A chain of banks through which payment is conducted.

Example

All payments made in US dollars by Citibank, Berlin to a bank in the USA are made through Citibank, New York.

bank challan

A letter sent from a bank to a business, confirming that the business has deposited withholding tax that it has retained on payments to its vendors.

The challan serves as proof that the withholding tax has been remitted.

bank master data

The information on a bank required to conduct business transactions with the bank.

This information is stored centrally in the SAP System. It includes the name and address of the bank and any appropriate country-specific information.

bank number

A unique identification key for a bank.

bank selling rate

The rate at which a bank offers goods, foreign currency, or securities.

banker's acceptance

An agreement on the part of an importer's bank to take on the responsibility of paying against a draft.

A banker's acceptance substitutes the importer's responsibility.

base condition type

A key that differentiates the direct costs to which overhead is applied, such as material costs or labor costs.

base date

A date entered in the header of a reservation document. The system then uses this date as the default value for the "date required" field in each item of the reservation.

base depreciation area

The depreciation area that the system takes the values from when revaluating an asset for inflation.

Example

Assume you have an asset whose net book value you record in depreciation area 01. You want to revaluate this asset on the basis of its net book value: This means that area 01 would be the base depreciation area.

base insurable value

The index series for calculating the insurance value as new is based on this value.

base object costing

A tool for planning costs and setting prices.

You enter items manually in the form of a unit cost estimate.

A base object cost estimate can be used as a component in another cost estimate and as a reference when planning other objects in the SAP System.

base object costing

A tool for planning costs and setting prices. You enter items manually in the form of a unit cost estimate.

This cost estimate can be used as a component in another cost estimate and as a reference when planning other objects in the SAP System, such as with material cost estimates without quantity structure, with production orders (CO), and with WBS elements.

base object explosion

A unit costing function that replaces base planning items with the costing items from the relevant base object cost estimates.

base object explosion

A unit costing function that replaces base planning items with the costing items from the relevant base object cost estimates.

base planning object

A reference object in unit costing that can be used as a component in other cost estimates.

You can copy a base planning object when planning other objects in the Controlling component.

base planning object

A reference object in unit costing that can be used as a component in another cost estimate.

You can copy a base planning object when planning other objects in the Controlling component, such as for material cost estimates without quantity structure, production orders (CO), and work breakdown structure elements.

base row

An object that contains an amount or quantity to which the SAP System applies overhead.

base unit of quantity

A unit that measures the quantity managed on an asset master record.

base value

The oldest of the existing receipt values.

base value

The value used as the basis for the calculation of depreciation, as specified by a given calculation method.

base year

The fiscal year in which data was first created for LIFO/FIFO valuation.

baseline date for payment

The date from which the terms of payment apply.

The baseline date for payment is the basis for the permitted cash discount amount or the due date of the invoice.

basic excise duty

The main type of excise duty in India.

It is levied on a wide range of products, for example, foodstuffs, metals, jewellery, leather goods, and machinery.

basic list

A list that includes the following information:

• The number of objects processed in the processing step
• The criteria used to select the objects
• Whether the objects were successfully processed

basic set

A set that contains individual values and ranges of values from one dimension (of a table field).

Basic sets can also contain value and formula variables, and formulas used by Report Writer.

batch selection list

A list of all batches of a material kept at one storage location or all storage locations of a plant.

The batch selection list is used at the time of a goods issue, for example, to enable the person responsible to choose the batches to be taken out of storage.

batch stock

The sum total of all storage location stocks of a batch.

beginning cumulative quantity

A cumulative quantity transferred from a legacy system to the SAP System.

beneficiary

The party to be paid under a letter of credit (exporter).

bid invitation

A listing of services to be performed (work to be done) in a request for quotations (RFQ), in response to which a bid (proposal, tender) is expected.

bid invitation specifications

A set of service specifications created by assigning a vendor (contractor) to a set of initial specifications.

It consists of vendor-specific header data and references the scope of work or services defined in the relevant initial specifications and for which bids are invited.

bill of exchange

A promise to pay in the form of an abstract payment paper detached from the original legal transaction.

bill of exchange collection

A special usage of a bill of exchange, whereby a bank undertakes to present a bill to the drawee at the end of its term.

If a bank undertakes the collection of a bill of exchange, it levies a collection charge on the customer.

bill of exchange list

A journal in which all bills of exchange receivable are entered.

Specifications made in it include:

• Due date
• Bill of exchange amount
• Name and address of the drawer
• Name and address of the previous drawee
• Payment location
• Name and address of the drawee
• Bill of exchange usage

bill of exchange payment request

A request issued to a customer to pay his or her debts by bill of exchange.

This procedure is common in Spain, Italy and France.

Requests for payment by bill of exchange are posted in the SAP System as noted items.

bill of exchange receivable

A bill of exchange as viewed from the perspective of the creditor (drawer).

bill of exchange usage

The presenting of a bill of exchange to a third party for purposes of refinancing.

Bills of exchange can be used in the SAP System as follows:

• Presentation for discounting
• Presentation for collection
• Forfaiting (export business)

bill-back processing

A reverse billing process used to settle disputes between a cardholder and merchant.

The cardholder disputes the charges and petitions the clearing house for reimbursement of the charges paid. If the cardholder's claims are valid, the clearing house reimburses the cardholder and reverses the payment in the cardholder's favor. This occurs weeks or months after the initial payment.

billing block

A block that prevents the release of billing documents to financial accounting.

Billing documents can be blocked in the following circumstances:

• If billing types are used for which an automatic block is set when a billing document is created. The block is defined in a table
• If errors occur during account determination
• If a billing document is incomplete because, for example, the customer master record of the payer has not been updated for financial accounting

Block billing documents can be released manually after they have been checked.

billing category

A summary of billing document types.

A billing category categorizes the use of billing documents and transactions in business processes.

For example, a billing category in Sales and Distribution is a down payment request.

billing date

On the vendor's side, the date on which billing is carried out and posted to financial accounting.

billing document

A generic term for invoices, credit memos, debit memos, pro forma invoices, and cancellation documents.

A billing document is made up of a header, and a number of items. The header contains data that applies to the whole document.

billing element

A work breakdown structure element that can be billed.

Revenue can be planned and posted on a billing element.

billing plan

A schedule of billing data for an item in a sales document.

The billing plan determines when a specific amount or percentage rate will be billed.

billing plan type

The basic criteria for drawing up the billing plan.

For example, you can use billing plan types to determine billing dates. You can use rules or, in CRM, you can use financial mathematics to generate billing request items (used mainly for Lease contracts).

billing request

A billing request is a document in which the expenses to be billed are contained as items.

You can create billing requests for:

• Sales orders
• Customer projects
• Service orders that are not linked to a sales order

The hierarchical structure for the objects evaluated with the sales order item form the billing structure. Sales order items can be internal and service orders for sales orders, and WBS elements, activities, internal, and service orders for customer projects.

billing schedule

A calendar that determines the dates on which to bill the customer.

If the customer requests a collective invoice, for example, you can define the billing schedule in a calendar in the system. During billing the system proposes the corresponding date from the calendar.

billing type

A control for the processing of invoices, credit memos, debit memos and cancellation documents.

bill-to party

A person or company that receives the invoice for a delivery or service.

The bill-to party may not necessarily be the payer of the bill.

blanket purchase order

A purchase order with a validity period and limits for the simplified procurement of materials or services.

A longer-term blanket purchase order enables you to procure different materials or services from a vendor up to a specified maximum value. The nature of the materials or services is such that the cost and administrative effort involved in processing individual purchase orders are too high in relation to their value.

A blanket purchase order contains only a short text and a validity period. It does not contain specific materials or services.

Blanket purchase orders have the item category B and document type FO.

You do not need to know the account assignment for the individual materials or services required at the time of ordering. You can enter it during the invoice verification process. If you entered account assignment data in the purchase order, you can change it at the time of invoice verification. (For example, you can change single account assignment to multiple account assignment.)

A goods receipt or the entry and acceptance of services performed are not necessary in the case of blanket purchase orders. Provided that the value limit is not exceeded, invoices can be posted directly with reference to the PO.

block indicator

An indicator in the asset master record you can select to block an asset for acquisition postings.

blocked stock

The valuated stock of a material that cannot be used and cannot be classed as "unrestricted."

For the availability check, blocked stock is "not available."

The stock type "blocked stock" is not the stock type "goods receipt blocked stock."

blocked stock returns

The stock of materials returned by customers subject to conditional acceptance by the receiving enterprise.

Blocked returns are not valuated or part of "unrestricted-use" stock.

blocking reason

A factor that blocks document processing of documents.

Blocking reasons in sales and distribution processing include:

• For delivery blocks:
• Credit limit
• Political reasons
• Bottleneck material
• For billing documents:
• Prices missing
• Calculation missing

boleto

A common method of payment by bank transfer in Brazil.

A vendor sends its customer a boleto (bank payment slip), which serves as an invoice. The customer pays the boleto at a local bank, and this bank then sends the payment to the vendor's designated house bank.

BOM factor

A factor used in the processing of full products to specify how many parts of a full-product material fit into an "empties" material.

Example

An empty crate of mineral water (the "empties" material) can accommodate 12 bottles of water (the full product). The BOM factor for an empty crate is 12.

bonded stock

Merchandise that has been admitted provisionally into a customs territory without payment of duties and under customs supervision for storage in a bonded warehouse or for shipment to another point.

bonded warehouse

A building or other secured area in which dutiable goods can be stored, manipulated, or undergo manufacturing operations without payment of duty.

Such goods can be in transit or awaiting payment of customs duties.

bonded warehouse entry

A customs entry permitting goods to enter a bonded warehouse.

Duty is not paid until the goods leave the warehouse.

book depreciation

Set of laws relating to business and financial activities.

This set of laws includes laws for book depreciation of fixed assets, that is, the valuation of fixed assets for the balance sheet.

book inventory

The current stock of a material according to accounting records.

The figure is continually updated following all inward and outward stock movements.

The book inventory figure must be compared with actual stock on hand at least once a year through the performance of a physical inventory. Any differences found as a result must then be corrected.

book value method

A variant of consolidation of investments.

When the book value method is applied to the proportional or purchase methods of consolidation, the method eliminates hidden reserves (fair value adjustments) only up to the value that pertains to the corporate group.

The alternative to the book value method is the revaluation method.

When the book value method is applied to the equity method of consolidation, the investment item of the immediate parent company remains unchanged during first consolidation. Typically, the differential is then stated in the notes to the financial statements.

Boolean class

A definition that determines the following:

• The fields that can be used in a validation, substitution, or rule definition
• Message ID for validation messages

The Boolean class is dependent on the application area and callup point.

Boolean statement

A linguistic, logical structure that can be true or false.

Statements can be linked using operators (such as AND, OR) to create complex statements.

boycott list

A directory of individuals and companies with which US companies must not trade or with which they can trade in a limited way.

The list must be observed by all exporters of US goods.

branch account

An account that is used to represent the head office or branch relationshipof a customer or vendor in the SAP System.

Purchase orders, deliveries or invoices entered for branch accounts are posted to the head office account. Each branch account must be linked to a head office account.

breakdown list

A type of list that provides an overview of the stocks at a chosen organizational level and the next level down in accordance with the selection criteria.

budget

An approved cost structure for an action or project in a particular period of time.

Budgeting differs from cost planning in that it is binding. While you must estimate costs as accurately as possible during the planning phase, it is in the approval phase that you prescribe your funds, in the form of a budget.

budget profile

A grouping of settings relevant to budget planning under a name of your choice:

• Budget planning horizon
• Planning period
• Distribution keys for the planned values
• Display of the planned values

budgeted balance sheet

A balance sheet derived on a certain key date from the partial plans:

• Sales plan
• Production schedule
• Investment plan
• Human resources plan
• Financial budget

bundling group

An object that enables the SAP System to perform the consolidation steps for a consolidation group as a bundle, when a bundling group is specified.

You can allocate multiple consolidation steps to a single bundling group in Customizing.

business area

An organizational unit of financial accounting that represents a separate area of operations or responsibilities within an organization and to which value changes recorded in Financial Accounting can be allocated.

You can create financial statements for business areas, and you can use these statements for various internal reporting purposes.

business area consolidation

A grouping based on consolidation units, which each consist of one company and one consolidation business area.

Its objective is to generate the closing statements for a business area, in which the internal relationships between its consolidation units are eliminated.

business combination

The combining of two or more legal entities to a single legal and economical entity (unit).

business data

The data at header or item level of a sales document that is relevant for sales, shipping and billing.

business organization

An economic system (or unit) that has as its purpose the extraction, production, or distribution of goods or services.

Its internal structures can vary greatly, depending on the requirements placed by accounting, logistics, and human resource management.

Outwardly, a business organization can take the form of a single legal entity (a company) or as a group of several legal entities (corporate group).

business partner

A natural or legal person or a group of natural or legal persons, not part of the business organization but with whom a business interest exists.

business place

An organizational unit below company code level that is primarily used for reporting taxes on sales/purchases.

In some countries, the business place is also used to assign official document numbers to outgoing documents.

Example

In Thailand, the business place is the basic organizational unit used for tax reporting and for assigning official document numbers.

business process

A business procedure within an enterprise that uses resources and can involve activities from a number of different cost centers in a controlling area.

When executing a business process, activities can be utilized for several cost centers of a controlling area.

business process attribute

An unique determinant of a business process, aiding in its classification.

You can define corresponding values for the following business process attributes:

• Value added (external)
• Value added (internal)
• Business process category
• Allocation category

business process category

A classification of business processes by assignment to a specific organizational area.

Example

You can define categories based on the organizational structure of an enterprise, such as:

• Development
• Production
• Administration
• Sales

You can define categories narrowly or broadly, or use other organizational criteria.

business process price

The total cost of performing a business process once.

business process quantity

A quantity output by a business process in planning, confirmation (actual), or allocation (plan or actual) to receivers such as cost objects, profitability segments, business processes, or cost centers/activity types.

business process type

The classification of business processes by assignment to a specific organizational area.

For example, you can define types based on the organizational structure:

• Development
• Production
• Administration
• Sales

You can define types narrowly or broadly, or use other organizational criteria.

business scenario

An application that uses certain R/3 Controlling (CO) functions for the cost accounting of its objects.

The business scenario defines the characteristics provided to R/3 Controlling by the application, to analyze costs and revenues. In addition, the business scenario is used to determine technical settings, which control the interaction between the application and R/3 Controlling.

Example

• CRM Service
• CRM Sales

business transaction

The following are examples of business transactions:

• Cost planning
• Invoice posting
• Overhead calculation

business transaction group

A group of business transactions contained in the system.

Transaction groups can be used to define both the allowed and the disallowed transactions.

business trip

A change of location, including trips to and from a place more than 20- km away from an employee´s home and regular place of work, because of a temporary professional task performed by the employee.

business volume comparison and agreement

Reconciliation of the business volume figures recorded by a customer and a vendor relating to a certain period of time.

This can involve adjusting one or both sets of figures. The purpose is to facilitate the subsequent settlement of amounts due under an end-of-period, volume-based rebate arrangement.

buyer's negotiation sheet

A summary of key vendor and material data that provides a buyer with information for use in contract negotiations. The data provided can include:

• Past and current volumes of the material ordered from the vendor
• The vendor's current prices and conditions
• Internal statistics on consumption or usage of the material
• Total value of purchases from this vendor to date

buying rate

The rate at which goods, foreign currency or securities are purchased.