SAP Sales and Distribution

The business application software vendor called SAP relies on its sales and distribution (SD) function, to interact with its customer base. This integration process involves providing price quotes, taking telephone, online and Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) purchase orders, shipping goods and billing customers. SAP delivers scalable solutions that help customers respond to dynamic market conditions and maintain competitive advantages.

Sales Organizational Structure

SAP boasts a high-level sales structure, responsible for the sale and distribution of goods and services. The sales organization may sell products on behalf of multiple plants, offering distribution channels for wholesalers, distributors, and retailers, in order to help companies of all types increase sales, capture greater market share and cut down on costs.

Sales Documents

SAP offers copious documents that track the many elements of the sales and distribution process. These may include customer inquiries, price quotes, sales orders, credit memos and return data. For example, a sales order document specifies the items to be delivered, the quantities, and delivery dates. A sales scheduling agreement is similar to a sales order, but adopts a more holistic, long-term view of items to be delivered over greater periods of time.

Customer occasionally return items, due to a number or reasons. Depending on the return policy, a company may require customer to obtain a return merchandise authorization (RMA) number. When returns are processed, a credit is then issued to customers in the form of a "credit memo", which can me applied to future purchases. Contrarily, "debit memo" may be created if a sales department inadvertently undercharges a customer for items on the sales order.