Pricing is the most intricate area of SD configuration and the most consequential. SAP determines prices through the condition technique, a general mechanism that also drives output determination, text determination and more.
How a price is arrived at
An item price is not a stored value. It is built by stacking conditions โ base price, discounts, surcharges, freight, tax.
| Step | Condition type | Description | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | PR00 | Base price | 1,000 |
| 20 | K007 | Customer discount 5% | -50 |
| 30 | K005 | Customer/material discount | -20 |
| โ | Net value | 930 | |
| 40 | KF00 | Freight | +30 |
| 50 | MWST | Output tax 10% | +96 |
| โ | Invoice amount | 1,056 |
Four elements of the condition technique
| Element | Role |
|---|---|
| Pricing procedure | Which condition types apply, in what order, and how they calculate |
| Condition type | An individual price element โ base price, discount, freight |
| Access sequence | The order in which condition records are searched for |
| Condition table | The key combination a condition record is stored under |
What an access sequence does
The same discount may be specified at different levels of precision: 10% for this customer and this material, 5% for this customer, 3% otherwise.
The access sequence searches from the most specific to the most general, taking the first record it finds.
| Order | Condition table key | If found |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Customer + material | Use it โ most specific |
| 2 | Customer + material group | Used if 1 finds nothing |
| 3 | Price group + material | Used if 2 finds nothing |
| 4 | Material | The general fallback |
Condition records
Actual prices and discount rates are stored as condition records: create with VK11, change with VK12, display with VK13.
Records carry validity dates, which is how a price change effective from a future date is handled โ several records with the same key and different periods, which also preserves price history.
Key condition type settings
| Setting | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Calculation type | Fixed amount, percentage, quantity-based, weight-based |
| Condition class | Price, discount or surcharge, or tax |
| Manual entry | Whether it can be typed on the document |
| Changeable | Whether a determined amount can be overwritten |
| Item or header condition | Applied per item or across the document |
| Statistical | Whether it affects the net value or is displayed only |
Choosing the pricing procedure
Which pricing procedure applies is determined by sales area, customer pricing procedure and document pricing procedure together โ the mechanism for applying different pricing logic to different customers or document types.