SD Sales Documents Part 3: Referencing, Document Flow and Completion

📌 KEY POINTS
✅ Creating with reference copies header, item and partner data from a preceding document and records the link in document flow (VBFA).
✅ What is copied and whether copying is allowed is controlled by copy control (VTAA, VTLA, VTFL) — covered in detail in the Copy Control topic.
✅ The item category's completion rule decides when a quotation or contract item is "complete" (e.g. fully referenced quantity).
✅ Reason for rejection closes items that will never be referenced (lost quotation items), and feeds lost-sales analysis.
⚠️ Open quotation or contract items without rejection or completion stay open forever and distort pipeline and open-order reports.

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▶ WHERE WE ARE
Part 2 configured the document type. Now we connect documents to each other.

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▶ 1. CREATE WITH REFERENCE

• VA01 > Create with Reference: choose quotation/contract/order, select items and quantities.
• Header and item data, partners and (depending on copy control) pricing are copied.
• Reference mandatory in VOV8 forces this path.

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▶ 2. DOCUMENT FLOW

• VBFA stores predecessor → successor links with quantities.
• Display: VA03 > Display Document Flow — shows quotation → order → delivery → goods issue → invoice → accounting.
• First place to look when "the invoice is missing".

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▶ 3. REFERENCE STATUS AND COMPLETION

• Referenced quantity reduces the open quantity of the predecessor.
• Completion rule (item category): e.g. completed when full quantity referenced, or on first reference.
• Reference status / overall status visible in the document (in S/4HANA stored in VBAK/VBAP).

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▶ 4. REJECTION REASONS

• Set on items that will not be processed (price too high, lost to competitor).
• Rejected items are closed and excluded from requirements and follow-on documents.
• Reasons can be configured to be billing-relevant or not.

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▶ 5. COPY CONTROL PREVIEW

• Header level: document type → document type; item level: item category rules; schedule line level.
• Routines check copying requirements (e.g. same sold-to) and transfer data.
• Detailed configuration: Copy Control topic.

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▶ STEP BY STEP

1. Create a quotation with two items.
2. Create an order with reference, taking only one item partially.
3. Check quotation status and document flow.
4. Set a rejection reason on the second quotation item.

✅ CHECKPOINT: the quotation shows partial reference on item 1 and is completed after rejecting item 2 and referencing the rest.

A distributor's sales pipeline report showed 12 million EUR of open quotations, most older than a year. Sales managers made capacity decisions on this number. Analysis showed that won quotations were often converted to orders without reference (typed manually) and lost quotations never received a rejection reason. The fix: reference made mandatory for the main order type from quotations, a monthly job flagging expired quotations with a rejection reason, and a pipeline report based on document flow. The open pipeline dropped to 2.3 million EUR — the real figure.

• Creating orders without reference so quotations/contracts stay open.
• Not using rejection reasons for lost items.
• Looking only at the order when troubleshooting instead of the document flow.
• Expecting follow-on documents to update when the predecessor changes later.
• Confusing completion rule (item category) with copy control.

• Use reference mandatory where process discipline is needed.
• Maintain meaningful rejection reasons and report on them.
• Start every "missing document" investigation with document flow.
• Close expired quotations with a periodic job.
• Keep copy control changes documented and tested (Copy Control topic).

Questions: "What is document flow?", "How do you close quotation items that were lost?", "What is a completion rule?"
Strong answer: VBFA links predecessor and successor with quantities, shown in VA03 document flow; creating with reference copies data per copy control and reduces open quantities; completion rules in the item category decide when quotation/contract items are complete; rejection reasons close lost items and support lost-sales analysis.