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Feature Package 2608 brings several new assistants and management apps to the SAP Business One Web Client. They concern purchase quotations, dunning, picking, pricing, material requirements planning and inventory revaluation. This article describes what changes for users in their daily work.

What's new for sales/procurement & warehouse/logistics industry

Feature Package 2608 relocates several previously manual processes as dedicated apps into the Web Client. These include assistants for purchasing quotes and dunning, new apps for picking and inventory revaluation, as well as revised pricing apps. In addition, there is a new background processing function that allows tasks to be scheduled on a time-controlled basis.

This also applies to sales/purchasing, warehouse/logistics, pricing and material requirements planning in the Web Client. It is based on a single product video for FP 2608 and does not claim to cover the complete release.

The specific names of apps, menus and fields in the actual user interface may differ from the descriptions used here.

Purchasing: Send multiple requests for quotation simultaneously

The purchase quotation generation assistant creates multiple purchase quotations simultaneously, based on current inventory requirements. Users can send identical requests for quotation to several potential suppliers at the same time, instead of creating each request individually.

During setup, the user defines what is included:

• Article section
• item groups
• required delivery dates

The user selects the recipients using supplier groups. Document lines can be added or duplicated in order to obtain targeted competing quotes.

The assistant can be run immediately or scheduled for a later time. If status tracking for assistants is enabled in the notification settings, the user will see the progress in the notification area. Once complete, the assistant provides a summary report.

For purchasing, this replaces time-consuming manual correspondence with individual suppliers with a streamlined process.

Dunning in Feature Package 2608: Guided workflow for overdue invoices

The Reminder Assistant app is now available in the Web Client and within the Sales module. It manages the creation and dispatch of reminder letters to customers with overdue payments.

The wizard guides the user through the following steps:

• Determination of Dunning level and Dunning condition
• Customer selection and filters for booking and due dates
• Inclusion of additional document types
• Checking overdue invoices and charging interest and fees, with the option of automatic posting
• Review and selection of proposed Service documents

Furthermore, the user can save the parameters or execute the dunning run directly. Here too, a summary report is available at the end. For sales and accounts receivable creates a guided dunning process instead of individual manual steps, including automatic interest and fee posting.

Warehousing and order picking: Paperless from order to delivery note

Two new apps are available for order picking: the Order Picking, Packing and Production Manager and the Order Picking Lists app. Both can be found in the stock transactions section of the Web Client.

With these apps, the user can create Pick lists, picks items and generates target documents. The process: Open document lines, such as from sales orders, are selected and handed over to the picking assistant. The user then defines grouping criteria for the picking list, for example grouping by business partner. An advanced view also shows the picking list in detail. Furthermore, a command allows all items on the list to be marked as picked all at once.

The destination document can be generated directly from the app, for example as a manually created delivery note. For the warehouse, this means a closer integration of physical picking and digital document creation, without any media disruption between warehouse work and document creation.

Pricing in Feature Package 2608: Dynamic discount groups and one-click updating

The pricing apps serve to maintain price lists, Discount groups and Special offers for customers and suppliers.

For the price list, the user assigns a name, sets a conversion factor, and also selects a base price list as the calculation basis. An option makes it possible to manually override the automated factor-based pricing for individual cases.

For the discount groups, the fields adapt dynamically to the selected discount type. The user defines a validity period and sets discounts for item groups, product characteristics or manufacturers. Percentage discounts or volume discounts are possible, for example along the lines of „Buy X, get Y free“.

Special prices can be stored per business partner or supplier group. If the discount changes, the system automatically recalculates the reduced price. Special prices can be copied to other business partners. With a single click, the user can update manually maintained prices.

For control purposes, two dedicated pricing reports are available.

Material Requirements Planning: Planning Horizon and Automatic Order Recommendations

For material requirements planning, there is a new area with feature package 2608 for MRP, which provides a work schedule from which purchase recommendations can be generated. Users run MRP scenarios, check purchase recommendations and create forecasts.

When creating a scenario, the user specifies:

• the planning horizon
• the selection of items, all items or a specific selection
• the data source for the Stock
• the period under consideration
• the source documents to be included

The process can run in the background using the new background processing function, including scheduling with a start date and time for a later date. The result is a lead-time-based work plan containing inventory, sales, purchasing and production order data for the selected planning horizon. Based on the recommendations and the selected document type, the user generates the relevant documents.

For Keyuser For planners, this means a time-controlled demand planning process that runs in the background, whilst work can continue in parallel.

Inventory revaluation: Automatic journal entry after saving

There are two new apps for stock revaluation: an overview app for existing revaluation documents and an app for creating new ones.

When creating a new entry, the user selects the appropriate revaluation method. The remaining fields are then updated automatically. For FIFOThere are separate tabs for items as well as for series and batch items. For items with standard or moving average valuation, the user enters the new price.

After saving, the system automatically generates a journal entry. In addition, there is a new search bar in the Web Client as well as an additional filter option for series and batch-produced item during inventory revaluation.

Background processing and task monitoring

Several of the new wizards make use of this new feature, which allows runs to be scheduled to run in the background. This also applies to MRP scenarios, which can be scheduled for a later date and time, including a start date and time.

If status tracking for assistants is enabled in the notification settings, the user can see the execution status in the notification area. This applies equally to the MRP run, the purchase quotation assistant and the dunning assistant. The user therefore no longer has to wait for a run to finish, but can continue working in parallel and check the status if required.

The biggest changes in everyday life

The most significant change concerns warehouse and purchasing. In the warehouse, the picking and packing app links physical order picking directly with digital document creation: picked goods lead straight to the finished delivery note. In purchasing, the purchase quotation assistant automates the previously manual, time-consuming correspondence with multiple suppliers.

Overall, the most significant change lies in the shift of complex mass processes and assistants to the web client, combined with the new background processing. Users can schedule routines timed and, furthermore, continue working on other tasks in the meantime instead of waiting for a run to finish.

This article is based on a single source: an SAP feature presentation on FP 2608 in the form of a transcript, not an official SAP release document. Detailed information such as exact service layer field names, specific menu paths and prerequisites for the upgrade must therefore be checked against official SAP documentation prior to productive use.