3.2 Special Functions in Sales Documents: Business Data, Blocks, and Reasons for Rejection
Key Takeaways
Business data such as payment terms, Incoterms, and the pricing date is maintained in the header and copied to the items; items can carry their own business data only if the item category allows it.
Sales document types can be blocked for specific customers: an order block in the customer master takes effect for the document types assigned to that blocking reason.
Delivery blocks work at header and schedule line level and billing blocks at header and item level; defaults can come from the sales document type, the schedule line category, or the customer master.
Entering a reason for rejection gives an item the status Completed, so it is no longer delivered or billed, and the reasons can be evaluated to see why customers did not buy.
Special Functions in Sales Documents: Business Data, Blocks, and Reasons for Rejection
The S46050 course groups three functions under Configuring Special Functions in SAP S/4HANA Sales: business data at header or item level, blocks in sales documents, and reasons for rejection. They look small, but they decide whether a document can move on to delivery and billing, and they appear in everyday system tasks such as releasing a blocked order or closing an item that the customer no longer wants.
Business Data at Header and Item Level
Business data is the commercial data of a sales document: terms of payment, Incoterms, the pricing date, customer and price groups, the price list type, the order reason, and similar fields. It is entered or proposed in the header (mostly from the sold-to party's master record) and copied to all items.
Whether an item may deviate from the header depends on the Business item indicator of the item category (section 4.1):
- Indicator set: users can maintain different business data for individual items, for example 30 days net for item 10 and 60 days net for item 20. Such items keep their own business data record.
- Indicator not set: the items always use the header's business data.
Item-level business data matters downstream. Different terms of payment or Incoterms in two items are split criteria for billing, so those items end up on different invoices (section 8.2). Typical exam tasks ask you to allow item-specific payment terms for one item category or to explain why an order was billed in two invoices.
Blocks in Sales Documents
SAP S/4HANA uses several kinds of blocks. Each blocks a specific step and can be set manually or proposed automatically.
Blocking Customers for Sales Document Types
The official course describes the first case: certain sales document types are blocked for specific customers. The block takes effect if a blocking reason exists in the customer master record. In Customizing, you define the blocking reasons and assign them to sales document types. A customer with an order block can then still receive, for example, free-of-charge deliveries, while standard orders are refused. Blocks can also be set in the customer master for delivery and billing.
Delivery Blocks
- Header delivery block (field
VBAK-LIFSK): blocks the whole document for delivery. A default can be set in the sales document type, for example for document types that always need a check before shipping. - Schedule line delivery block: blocks individual schedule lines. If a delivery block is entered in the schedule line category, the system sets it automatically on every schedule line of that category (official S46050 content).
- Delivery block reasons are configured in Customizing, where you also decide for each reason which steps it stops, such as delivery creation, picking, or goods issue.
Billing Blocks
- Header billing block (
VBAK-FAKSK) and item billing block (VBAP-FAKSP) stop billing. - Defaults come from the sales document type: credit memo requests and returns in the standard system receive billing block
08(Check credit memo), so a responsible employee must release them. - Billing block reasons can be assigned to billing types to control which billing types they affect.
Credit Blocks
If credit management is active and a credit check fails, the order's overall credit status becomes blocked (VBAK-CMGST = 'B'). The order cannot be delivered until credit management releases it. Credit blocks are set by the system, not chosen by the user.
| Block | Level | Typical Source | Blocks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Order block for customer | Customer master (assigned to document types) | Blocking reason in the BP | Creating the blocked document types |
| Delivery block | Header or schedule line | Sales document type, schedule line category, customer, manual | Delivery creation and further shipping steps |
| Billing block | Header or item | Sales document type, customer, manual | Billing |
| Credit block | Header | Failed credit check | Delivery (and further processing) until release |
Reasons for Rejection
A reason for rejection is entered at item level when the customer will not take an item, for example because it is too expensive, the delivery date is too late, or an alternative from the quotation was not chosen.
What Happens When You Reject an Item
- The item receives the status Completed (official S46050 content). It is no longer relevant for delivery or billing, and it stops being open in follow-on processing.
- In quotations, rejecting an item closes it so that no more orders can reference it, for example the alternative that the customer did not choose (section 3.4).
- In credit memo requests, the reason controls whether the rejected item is copied into the credit memo with zero value or not at all (section 8.3).
- Rejection can be undone by removing the reason, as long as no follow-on document prevents it.
Configuring Reasons for Rejection
You define the reasons in Customizing (Sales and Distribution → Sales → Sales Documents → Sales Document Item → Define Reasons for Rejection). Each reason has a key and a description; a statistical setting controls whether the value of a rejected item is still shown for statistics or is excluded from the document value.
Why Reasons for Rejection Matter for Analysis
The official course emphasizes the analytical side: reasons for rejection let you find out what customers think of your products during a period. If many quotation items are rejected with "price too high", marketing can use the result as a planning tool for the next sales period. Consistent, meaningful reasons are therefore a design task, not just a technical setting.
Worked Example
A customer orders three items. Item 10 is a stock material, item 20 a second stock material, and item 30 a service.
- The sales document type proposes no blocks. The sold-to party's master record has no order block, so the order can be saved.
- The customer calls: item 20 is no longer needed because a competitor was cheaper. The sales representative enters the reason for rejection "Too expensive". Item 20 becomes completed and will not be delivered or billed, and the reason appears in the lost-business analysis.
- Item 30 must not be billed before the service report is signed, so the representative sets an item billing block. Items 10 and 30 still pass the availability check and delivery, but item 30 stays out of the billing due list until the block is removed.
- Item 10 has its own terms of payment because its item category allows item business data. When both remaining items are billed, the different terms of payment split them into two invoices.
Tip
When an item does not appear in the delivery due list or the billing due list, check three things in this order: blocks (header, schedule line, item), the incompletion log (section 9.2), and the item's status, including a reason for rejection.
How can a company prevent a specific customer from receiving standard orders while still allowing other document types for that customer?
Remove the customer from the partner determination procedure of the standard order
Enter a reason for rejection in the customer master
Set an order block in the customer master with a reason assigned to the standard order type
Set a default billing block in the standard order document type for all customers
What happens to a sales order item when a reason for rejection is entered?
The item is deleted from the database together with its document flow.
It gets status Completed and is no longer delivered or billed.
The item is automatically billed with a credit memo.
The item is moved to a new sales order with the same reason.
A delivery block should be set automatically on every schedule line of a particular kind of item. Where is this configured?
In the reason for rejection
In the output determination of the delivery type
In the copying control from sales order to billing document
In the schedule line category, by entering a delivery block there
Sections you finish are checked off in the contents.