This chapter is a sample excerpt from The Ultimate SAP Pricing Guide by 20-year SAP Pricing expert Matthias Liebich, which is now available on Amazon.com. For more info, check out SAP Pricing Guide reviews on Amazon.

So far I showed you how to get information about a specific Condition Type that applied on a Sales Order. Yet another tool to gather even more information on how and why pricing conditions applied (or didn't apply) is the "Analysis" tool. The Pricing Analysis can only be accessed from the "Item Conditions" screen, since the automatic pricing via the Condition Technique only occurs for line item pricing.

The goal of the Pricing Analysis is a complete analysis of the Condition Access on a Sales Document.

By pressing the "Analysis" button (see Figure 3.1.4), the system simulates the re-pricing of the item with pricing rule "B" without changing any "real" pricing on the Sales Order line item. Therefore, information that is seen on the "Analysis" screen can be different than what actually applied on the Sales Order line item. The Analysis does a real-time pricing check, regardless of what applied on the line item. It is not necessary to have a Condition Type selected in order to access the "Analysis" screen.

Looking at the "Pricing Analysis" screen in Figure 3.2.1, you will see the screen is divided into three sections.

Figure 3.2.1: Pricing Analysis Pricing Procedure Window
The left column (the "Procedure" window) displays all Condition Types and subtotals of the determined Pricing Procedure, the name of which is displayed on the top of the column. Contrary to the "Item Conditions" screen, every Condition Type of the Pricing Procedure is displayed here, regardless if it applied or not.

The window on the top right side of the screen displays details for a Pricing Procedure, a Condition Type or a Condition Table, depending on what information was selected in the "Procedure" window. Based on the different information it displays, its Header description changes as well. In future references, I will call it the "Details" window. It gives information about every Condition Table in the Access Sequence of a selected Condition Type (see how everything comes back together?).

The lower "Information" window on the right side of the screen displays even more information based on what was selected on the "Details" window above.

So how does all this information help us?

First, select the Pricing Procedure in the "Procedure" window (in our example, "ZMLI01"). The "Details" window then displays every Condition Type and subtotal, and indicates if a valid Condition Record was found or if one is missing. If a Condition Record was found in Analysis but did not apply on the Sales Order line item (remember, Analysis does a real-time check), it indicates that a record was found but removed. This would be the case if a Condition Record was created after the Sales Order. As you can also see in Figure 3.2.1 for Condition Type "R100", no record was found because the attached pricing requirement was not fulfilled. This is related to the pricing requirement that is attached to the Condition Type in the Pricing Procedure. An example for a requirement would be "002", which checks if the item category of the line item is relevant for pricing.

Let's take a look which pricing Condition Records applied on the Sales Order line item. If the Condition Type in the Pricing Procedure is determined by a Condition Record, a little arrow is displayed in front of it. Manual Condition Types do not have this arrow, like "ZG04" in Figure 3.2.2. Before clicking on this arrow, click on the "ZCUS" Condition Type, and the information displayed in the "Details" screen changes to the "Details" view of that Condition Type, as shown in Figure 3.2.2.

 
Figure 3.2.2: Pricing Analysis Condition Type View
The "Details" window shows a message if a Condition Record for the selected Condition Type has been found or not. (There are more possible messages, which we will review later.) Below that information, under the "Access" section, the Condition Tables of the Access Sequence for the selected Condition Type are displayed with their respective status, depending on whether a Condition Record was found or not. The message "Access not made (initialized field)" will occur when one or more of the Condition Table fields is not populated. This can be caused by either missing master data or, in the case of a custom Condition Table field, by incorrectly populating the custom field (see how to do this in Chapter 5.2).

A message stating, "Requirement xxx not fulfilled" indicates that the checks in the piece of code attached to the Condition Table in the Access Sequence (see Chapter 1.2) are not successfully fulfilled.

To see the detail for one particular Condition Table, now select the arrow in front of the Condition Type in the "Procedure" window. This will open another menu level and display the individual Condition Tables of the Access Sequence. Clicking on one of the Condition Tables without clicking on the arrow in front of it will again change the view in the "Details" window to the Access Sequence details. It now shows the Access Sequence Condition Table with the respective message if the Condition Record was found or not (see Figure 3.2.3).

In the "Access" section, the individual fields of the Condition Table are displayed with the respective values populated for them in the Sales Order. This information and the dis-played Pricing Date provide the data to look for a Condition Record with "VK13" or "VK33". It is possible that a Condition Record exists but not for the determined Pricing Date on the Sales Order. In the case of the "Access not made (initialized field)" message, this view will also show the field of the Condition Table that was not filled. The field value is then marked with an exclamation point.

The "Information" window on the lower right displays an extended message, stating that no Condition Record was found with the data on the Sales Document.

If a Condition Record was found, the Condition Table in the "Procedure" window will have an arrow in front of it. Click on it to open another menu level. Clicking on that new level, pre-fixed with a green button, branches into the actual pricing Condition Record display. From there, the green back arrow will return you to the "Analysis" screen.

Special pricing conditions were mentioned in the previous chapter. As discussed, these conditions are determined without Condition Records. The "Analysis" describes how the values for these Condition Types were found in Figure 3.2.4 for Condition Types "SKTO" and "VPRS".

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This chapter is a sample excerpt from The Ultimate SAP Pricing Guide by 20-year SAP Pricing expert Matthias Liebich, which is now available on Amazon.com. For more info, check out SAP Pricing Guide reviews on Amazon. You can also check out Jon Reed's video interviews with Matthias on SAP Pricing careers and his podcast on how to use the Ultimate SAP Pricing Guide to become a successful SAP Pricing consultant.