Every sales and purchasing document, mirrored

From quotation to credit memo, each document in one company creates its partner in the other.

Find a partner Back to Intercompany trade

What it does

Lists every pair (as §2 Details) with what triggers it and what is created: a draft or a firm document, linked to its base document. Quotations, orders, reserve invoices, deliveries, invoices, down payments, debit memos, correction invoices, returns, return requests and credit memos.

When you need it: A sales company orders from the factory every week: each order, delivery and invoice is typed once.

How it works

In every company, a vendor record and a customer record stand for each sister company. Both are marked as branch partners and carry the same "Branch Partner Code".
A user adds the first document in the normal way, for example a purchase order to the vendor that stands for company B. Its "Intercompany" tab fills in the branch code and the partner code used on the other side.
Intercompany creates the counterpart in company B, normally a draft sales order, and links the two. The order number of each side then shows on the other side's tab.
A user in company B checks the draft and adds it. Every later step repeats the pattern: B's delivery gives A a goods receipt PO, B's A/R invoice gives A an A/P invoice, A's goods return gives B a return.
Each side can read the other side's document total and document owner on its own "Intercompany" tab.

Set it up

Create the branch partners under Business Partners › Business Partner Master Data: tick "Branch Partner Code" and pick the code that the landscape set-up gave to that company. Create them all in one company, such as the head office, and Intercompany copies them to the rest. In the Administration Console, Setup › Company Template lists each business cycle with "Send" and "Receive" boxes, so you decide per company which pairs it sends and which it takes in. Every company also needs a warehouse for drop-ship trade; Intercompany creates one (code IC_DShip) and shows it in Administration › Setup › Intercompany › General Settings.

Since: Version 51 (February 2024) added down payment invoices and credit memos raised on the A/R side; version 53 (November 2024) added goods return requests, which arrive as return requests.

Good to know

Drafts made by Intercompany belong to the B1i user. To see them, pick that user in the "Draft Documents" window.
A single line of an intercompany purchase or sales order cannot be closed. Closing the whole order is supported and closes its partner in the other company.
Pick one direction for credit memos, either A/P to A/R or A/R to A/P; mixing both can cause errors in that cycle.
Drop-ship trade is covered: a sister company can deliver straight to an outside customer, or an outside vendor can deliver straight to the sister company that ordered.