SAP Pricing And Conditions Condition Tables

Use

A condition table defines the combination of fields (the key) that identifies an individual condition record. A condition record is how the system stores the specific condition data that you enter in the system as condition records. For example, when you enter the price for a product or a special discount for a good customer, you create individual condition records.

Example of a Condition Table

A sales department creates condition records for customer-specific material prices. The standard R/3 System includes condition table 005 for this purpose. The key of table 005 includes the following fields:

• Sales organization
• Distribution channel
• Customer
• Material

The first two fields identify important organizational data and the last two fields express the relationship between customers and specific materials. When the sales department creates a condition record for a material price or discount that is specific to one customer, the system automatically uses condition table 005 to define the key and store the record.

The following figure illustrates the connection between the condition table and the subsequent condition records.

Condition Tables in the Standard Version

The standard system includes predefined condition tables and specifies them for each access in each predefined access sequence.

Creating or Maintaining Condition Tables

You can change and maintain the condition tables in the standard system. You can also create new condition tables to meet the needs of your own organization. You create and maintain condition tables in Customizing.

From the initial screen of Customizing for Sales and Distribution, you reach the condition table screens by choosing Basic functions ® Pricing ® Pricing Control ® Define price dependencies (condition tables). Then select the mode you want to work with (create, change, display).

Information About Fields

The fields that you choose to make up the key are called the selected fields. The fields from which you can make your selection are called the allowed fields.

Selected Fields

The preceding figure shows the fields that make up the key for condition table 005 (the table for customer/material condition records in Sales). The selected fields show organizational data, such as Sales organization.The fields Customer and Material define the relationship between a particular customer and material.

Allowed Fields

When you select fields for the key, you must choose the fields from the list of allowed fields.

Making Changes to Condition Tables

You can make limited changes to existing condition tables. For example, you can change the name of the table or the format of the fast entry screens for the condition records. (Fast entry screens are screens where you can quickly, on a single screen, create and maintain the condition records that refer to the condition table).

Format of a Fast-Entry Screen

The screen consists of header and item lines. Each item line represents a separate condition record. The header lines include the fields that are general to all item lines. When deciding on the format of the fast-entry screen, you can determine whether each field in the key appears as a line in the header or as an item line.

Changing the Format of a Fast-Entry Screen

To change the format of the Fast-Entry screen, choose Technical View on the screen where you create or maintain a condition table.

When you determine the format, you have the following possibilities:

If you want the...	Do the following...
Field to appear as header line	Leave the Line field blank
Field to appear as an item	Mark the Line field
Text for an item line to appear	Mark the Text field

After you make changes to a condition table, choose Generate to regenerate the table.

Creating a New Condition Table

You can create new condition tables to meet the pricing needs of your organization. When you create a new condition table, you select a combination of fields from the list of allowed fields. The selected fields define the key for the subsequent condition records.

Before you select the fields for the key, there are two things to consider:

• The sequence (or hierarchy) of the fields
• Which fields you want to appear in the header and item areas of the corresponding fast-entry screens

Important Fields

In sales, the fields you should take into consideration are Sales organization and Distribution channel. The sales organization is nearly always used as a criteria in pricing, because different sales organizations often want to use their own prices, discounts, and surcharges. If you use the sales organization as a criteria in pricing, you should also use the distribution channel. If you do not want to establish different prices, discounts, and surcharges for each distribution channel, use the field anyway. In Customizing for Sales, you can use one distribution channel as a reference for all others (thereby sharing the same pricing data).

Deciding the Sequence of Fields

The order of the fields in a condition table affects the performance of the system during pricing. Two general guidelines will help you create an efficient condition table:

1. When you select fields that relate to the structure of your organization (such as Sales organization and Distribution channel, order the fields to reflect the degree of generality, working from general to specific. Place the most general field (Sales organization, for example) at the top and the most specific field at the bottom.
2. After organizational fields, place fields from the document header before those that come from the item level. (For example, Customer comes before Material)

After you have selected the fields for the key on the screen where you maintain and define condition tables, choose Generate to generate the table in the system. Generation prepares the condition table for storing condition data.