Intercompany feature
A purchase order in one company becomes the sales order in the other
Intercompany records the matching document in the other company for you, so trade inside your group is typed once, checked once and stays in step.
- Every trade document
- Accept or reject
- From $240 per user a year
VendorGroup GmbH
Lines6
Total€18,900
CustomerGroup Pte Ltd
Lines6
StatusCreated
| Sender | Receiver | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Delivery 2207 | Goods receipt PO 918 | Done |
| A/R invoice 5521 | A/P invoice 3310 | Awaiting approval |
| Goods return 77 | Return 145 | Done |
The problem
Trade inside the group, typed twice
When one company in your group buys from another, both must record the deal: a purchase order on one side, a sales order on the other, then the delivery, the goods receipt, the invoices, returns and credit memos. Typed by two teams in two databases, the documents drift apart, and month-end becomes a search for differences.
- Two teams type the same deal into two databases.
- Quantities, prices and tax drift apart.
- Month-end becomes a search for differences.
How it works
One document, two companies
Company A adds a purchase order to buy from company B. Intercompany creates the sales order in company B, with the same items, quantities and prices, and links the two. Each next step follows the same way: B's delivery becomes A's goods receipt, B's invoice becomes A's supplier invoice, and a return or credit memo on one side appears on the other. Company B can accept or reject what arrives, and company A is told.
Added by a personCreated by Intercompany
Each arrow is created by Intercompany. The person adds only the first document.
Benefits
Why groups use it
Details
Everything intercompany trade covers
From the first quotation to the last credit memo, in every company of the group.
Each company has a vendor and a customer record for every sister company, marked with a shared branch partner code. When a user adds a document to one of them, Intercompany creates the counterpart in the other company, normally as a draft, and links the two. Down payment invoices and credit memos raised on the A/R side came in version 51, return requests in version 53.
On the Russian localisation, A/R correction invoices and their reversals create draft A/P correction invoices and reversals in the sister company. On the Chilean, Costa Rican, Guatemalan and Mexican localisations, an A/R debit memo creates a draft A/P debit memo. Totals are compared on the receiving side, as for other pairs.
On a service-type document, the sender can pick a G/L account of the receiving company in "Receiver Account Code". Without one, the receiver uses its account for the same "Balance Sheet" or "Profit and Loss" class, or else its default expense account. The list of receiver accounts is refreshed on a daily or weekly schedule, or on demand.
Serial and batch numbers picked on the sender's document are carried to the document created in the other company. The item properties for serial and batch management replicate with the item master, and a step of Copy Intercompany Setups copies the serial and batch settings between companies.
Cancelling a document closes the partner draft in the other company, or cancels the partner if it is already firm. Rejecting a draft in the receiving company creates a cancellation of the sender's document. Purchase and sales orders can be closed only as whole documents, and closing one side closes the other.
With the block switched on, which is the default, the sender cannot copy a delivery to an A/R invoice until the other company has posted its goods receipt PO. The same check covers the reserve invoice and correction invoice paths. The "Confirmed" box on the sender's document shows when the block lifts.
Incoming documents arrive as drafts with a status of Pending, Accept or Reject, and a document can be added only once it is set to Accept. Rejecting closes the draft and cancels the sender's document. Each company chooses the starting status for incoming documents in its general settings.
Each company chooses per feature whether it gets system alerts, emails for successful transactions and emails for failed ones. A failure email carries the failed message, and a trade email can carry the sender's document. Since version 54 the alert subject names the status, the sending branch and both document numbers.
When the receiver adds the created document, its total is compared with the sender's and any gap is reported. In Brazilian companies the tax amounts and details are compared too, and certain row fields must be shown in Form Settings for that check.
With the setting ticked, the sender's tax code is set on the receiver's document only when the receiving company has the same code at the same rate. Otherwise no code is assigned automatically. This came in version 47.
Incoming documents are drafts unless direct creation as firm documents is switched on in the general settings. Since version 48 you pick the pairs one by one; a firm document is made only when both totals match and the receiver has a tax code. Firm sales quotations and return requests came in version 53.
Videos
See it in SAP Business One
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