Get Started

 

Solutions  Support Training Community  Developer 

Partner  About 

Community / Blogs

LE-TRA – Config Guide for

Shipment & Shipment Cost
Document – Part I
August 26, 2016 | 421 Views |

Leandro Nascimento
more by this author

LE (Logistics Execution)

Travel and Transportation | le-tra | logistics | sap for transportation &

logistics | scd | shipment | shipmentcostdocument | transportation | transportationmanagement

share
0 share
1 tweet share

Follow

I wrote this configuration guide for Logistics Execution Transportation

(LE-TRA) sometime ago for my own reference and kept updating it
while my company was changing, projects were going on, merges,
acquisitions and etc. I decided to share with this community, as it can
be a good reference if you have to start from scratch or even redesign
your process. This document is more focused on freight payments
and Shipment Cost Document, but it has a nice overview of all
configuration required until a Shipment Cost Document can be
created. This includes of course, the shipment configuration in a
higher level.

Because the SCN Blogs has a limit of 20 images and also to facilitate
the lecture, I divided this blog post in 3 parts:

I. Transportation – Shipment (this post is covering part I)

II. Transportation – Shipment Cost Document

III. Transportation – Shipment Cost Document (Cont.)

I hope you enjoy reading as much as I enjoyed writing and I hope you
find this helpful. If you like it, I appreciate you rating this blog post.

Index / Content

Part I (this post is covering part I)

1. SAP Language
2. Transportation – Shipment
3. Master Data
4. Maintain Transportation Planning Point
5. Define Routes
6. Define Modes of Transport
7. Define Shipping Type
8. Defining Transportation Connection Point
9. Defining Transportation Zones
10. Define Transportation Groups
11. Setting up Weight Groups
 12. Define Routes and Assigning Routes
13. Definition of routes
14. Maintain Stages for all Routes
15. Determining Routes
16. Route Determination in Sales Order
17. Configuration of Shipments
18. Maintain Transportation Relevance
19. Set Up Transportation Planning Points
20. Define Shipment Type

Part II

1. Transportation – Shipment Cost Document

2. Shipment Cost Document Structure
3. Define Date Rules
4. Define and Assign Tariff Zones
5. Define and Assign Activity Profile
6. Define Shipment Cost types
7. Define Item Categories:
8. Assign Shipment Cost Type and item categories
9. Maintain Shipment cost relevance and default for shipment
cost type
10. Define shipment cost relevance for shipment type
11. Pricing

Part III

1. Define and assign shipping type procedure group

2. Define and assign item procedure group
3. Define Service Agent Procedure Group for Shipment Costs
4. Maintain Price Procedure
5. Define Pricing Procedure Determination for Shipment Costs
6. Maintain Condition Type
7. Settlement
 8. Assign Purchasing Data
9. Account Determination
10. Group Together Valuation Areas
11. Define Valuation Classes
12. Automatic G/L account Determination
13. Automatic determination of CO assignments
14. Business Process Procedure
15. Create transportation condition records
16. Create Delivery Document
17. Create Shipment Document
18. Creating Shipment Cost Document & Cost Settlement
19. Effects of Shipment cost settlement and related documents
20. User-Exits
21. BADIs

SAP Language

Here are some common terms that you will see while dealing
with LE-TRA in SAP:

Forwarding Agent / Service Agent – Agent who provides the

transportation, also known as Carrier or Logistic Service Provider.
This is usually (but not always) the vendor who will be paid by the
freight service.

Routes – The route is a component of LE-SHP and plays an

important role in the Shipping process creation and planning,
determining itinerary (the leg or stage in the shipment), determines
Means of Transport, like truck, train, plane or ship and they usually
carry a departure point information (e.g. Shipping point) and
Destination Point (port of destination, customer and etc).
Handling Unit – The handling unit is the packaging in the shipment
that will contain the materials/products that are been transported. For
example, in a shipment you may have all your products packed in a
Container, then the container is your handling unit. However,
depending on the size of the shipment you may have multiple
containers and those containers are loaded in a big vessel, then
besides the containers, you will also have a vessel as a packing unit,
or a handling unit. The handling unit in a shipment can also be called
“Equipment”. The Handling Unit plays an important role in the
shipment cost calculation, they are represented as sub-items in the
SCD items.

Shipment – The Shipment document containing details based on

predecessor deliveries, including who are the service agents, the
routes, what are the stages, and the deadlines for planning and
execution times. This document is the pre-requisite to the Shipment
Cost Document.

Shipment Type – Shipment type contain primary settings to the

shipment document such like: the Direction (inbound or Outbound),
number range, partner information, stage determination procedure
and etc.

Shipment Cost Document – This document is created subsequent to

the Shipment, using this document as reference. The Shipment Cost
Document (SCD) contains the necessary data to pay the service
agent (agreed rates, price, invoice party and etc.) and also accounting
data (G/L Account, Cost Center and etc.) This document when
created correct will be used in most of the times to trigger an accrual
in the system.
Shipment cost type and item categories – Shipment cost types and
item categories carry settings to control the shipment cost document,
like number range, status requirements for the shipment documents,
shipment costing settings, shipment transfer/settlement settings.

Rates – Rates are loaded in the system via Condition Technique

(using condition types predefined) and they are carried over to the
SCD when the document is created. The rates can be created in more
than one condition to the same document, for example if you want
breakdown the agreed freight cost with the service agent between
what is freight service, what is toll, what is fuel surcharge and etc.

Transportation Planning Point – Aka. TPP, it is an organizational

level in Logistics that is responsible for planning and processing
shipments. They can also be represented by a group of people inside
of the organization, for example, TPP for mode Ocean, TPP for mode
Truck and etc, to segregate the Logistics Planners and also perform
sap security segregation. Each Shipment is assigned to a TPP.

Transportation – Shipment

Master Data
A. Business Partner Master Data > They are the Service-
Agents (Freight-Forwarder), Ship-to, Sold-to, Bill-to, Brokers
and Customs Agents, Carriers, Customers, Vendors and etc.
B. Material master data > You can’t have a shipment without
products (material). The material master data will define the
products that will be transported and also they represents the
handling unit (packaging material). All products and materials
transported using the transportation system (shipments) must
have a material master data.
C. Organizational master data > To the whole process flow
from Sales Order to Delivery, Shipping, Shipment Cost
 Document, Invoice Payment and etc., system will need to
have the following Organization Level created and properly
assigned: Business areas, Sales Organization, Sales Area,
Distribution Channels, Transportation Planning Points, Plants,
Routes, Shipping Points, Purchase Organization, Purchase
Group, Controlling Area and etc.

Maintain Transportation Planning Point

Transaction SPRO or SM30
Path SPRO > Enterprise Structure > Definition >
Logistics Execution > Maintain transportation
planning point
Table/View V_TTDS

Also called “TPP”, it is an organizational level in Logistics that is

responsible for planning and processing shipments. They can also be
represented by a group of people inside of the organization, for
example, TPP for mode Ocean, TPP for mode Truck and etc, to
segregate the Logistics Planners and also perform sap security
segregation. Each Shipment is assigned to a TPP.

A Transportation Planning point can be responsible for multiple

Shipping Points and the Shipment is assigned to one
transportation planning point only, which can contain multiple
deliveries assigned and those may belong to multiple shipping
points that belongs to the same transportation planning point.
In the same SPRO path, you assign the transportation planning
point to a company code, as per screenshot above. This
assignment is required to when the Shipment triggers a Shipment
Cost Document, then the freight costs calculated are posted to the
proper company code (see more below Shipment Cost Document
and Settlement details).

Define Routes

The route is a component of LE-SHP and plays an important role in

the Shipping process creation and planning, determining itinerary (the
leg or stage in the shipment), determines Means of Transport, like
truck, train, plane or ship and they usually carry a departure point
information (e.g. Shipping point) and Destination Point (port of
destination, customer and etc)..
Transaction 0VTC
Path SAP Easy Access > Logistics > Logistics
Execution > Master Data > Transportation >
Routes > Define Routes > Define Routes and
Stages
Table/View TVRO

To create the routes, you need to do the following:

• Inform the modes of transport that will be assigned to that
route
• Inform the shipping types that are allowed in that route (for
example, you will not allow ocean in a route that is from New
York 5th Avenue to New York Broadway St.)
• Inform the transportation connection points and maintain the
relevant data on the detail screen
• Inform routes and route stages

You can also maintain the route stages for several stages.

Define Modes of Transport

Transaction 0VTB
 Path SPRO > Logistics Execution > Transportation >
Basic Transportation Functions > Routes > Define
Routes > Define Modes of Transport
Table/View V_TVTR_COM

1. Define which modes of transport are relevant to your

process
2. Assign the mode of transport to a mode-of-transport type.
The mode-of-transport type is responsible for
classification of modes of transport in DG management.

Define Shipping Type

Here you will inform what are the shipping types and their mode
of transport. See below in the screenshot some example of
Shipping Types. They are suggestions only. Create them
according to your business requirements

Transaction 0VTA
Path SPRO > Logistics Execution > Transportation >
Basic Transportation Functions > Routes > Define
Routes > Define Shipping types
Table/View V_T173_COM

To create The Shipping Types you have to do the following steps:

 1. Define the shipping types
2. Assign one or more modes of transport to each shipping
type
3. Assign the shipping types to a shipping type group. (This
is important to automatically determine the freight pricing
procedure that will calculate the freight costs and freight
rates, see more below in the Shipment Cost Document
Section).

Defining Transportation Connection Point

TCP is the place where goods are received, issued, re-shipped or

processed. Those processes can include activities like customs
clearance or railway car cleaning, railway station for example. For
each TCP, you can define the type (for example: load transfer
point, airport or border), who is the responsible customs office,
calendar and stopover time. You can also refer it to a plant or
shipping point, a customer or vendor or to an address.

Transaction 0VTD

Path SPRO > Logistics Execution > Transportation >

Basic Transportation Functions > Routes > Define
Routes > Define Transportation Connection Point
Table/View V_TVKN_COM
Defining Transportation Zones

It is where you will specify all the regions that you plan to cover
with your routes. The routes will be from a departure zone to a
destination zone.

There are three kinds of transportation zones:

• Direct zone > Can be allocated to explicit locations

• Postal code zone > Contains all locations corresponding to the
valid postal code areas of a particular country
• Region zone > is defined by entering a country and region, and
contains all locations in that region

You can also have a mixed zone which is a combination of the

types above.

Transaction OVR1

Path SPRO > Logistics Execution > Shipping > Basic

Shipping Functions > Routes > Route
Determination > Define Transportation Zones
Table/View V_TZONE
The zones you set up here will be used in the master data. The
location of each customer and vendor will be identified using
the Transportation Zone field on the Address tab in the
customer (or vendor) master record.

You can also specify the zones for each of your shipping points
here:

Transaction OVL7

Path SPRO > Logistics Execution > Shipping > Basic

Shipping Functions > Routes > Route
Determination > Maintain Country and
Transportation Zone for Shipping Point
Table/View V_TVST_RF

Select the shipping point, and specify the country and

transportation zone.
Define Transportation Groups
The transportation group specify the materials that will have
similar requirements for transportation. For example, you can
group products that are bulk or non-bulk, Pallet or Box and etc.
You assign those groups in Material Master Records.

Transaction OVSY

Path SPRO > Logistics Execution > Shipping > Basic

Shipping Functions > Routes > Route
Determination > Define Transportation Groups
Table/View V_TTGR

Setting up Weight Groups

If the weight of the delivery plays a role in route determination, you

can set up weight strategy here.
 Transaction OVS8

Path SPRO > Logistics Execution > Shipping > Basic

Shipping Functions > Routes > Route
Determination > Define Weight Groups
Table/View VC_TVLG

• First you need to Maintain Weight Group, creating a new

weight group with the corresponding description.

• Then you need to maintain details for Weight Group

where you will specify the maximum weight that is allowed
in each weight group and then when the delivery is
created, SAP will take the weight in consideration and
determine the right route based on the rules you created.
If you decided not to use this feature, the route
determination will take place in the sales order and be
copied into the deliveries.

Define Routes and Assigning Routes

Here is where you will define routes, route stages and maintain the
transportation connection point, all them required for shipment
stages strategies.

Definition of routes
First you need to define the routes, doing the following steps:
• List the routes that are relevant to your process/company.
• Create the routes
• If necessary/required, inform additional data to the route,
which can be:
• Shipping type > You can assign a shipping type to the
route, to the preliminary leg, and to the subsequent
leg.
• Transportation service agent
• Transit time
• Transit planning lead time
• Factory calendar, work time
• Driving time (transit time minus breaks, distance)
• You can assign a mode of transport to the routes for
processing export activities.

Transaction 0VTC
Path SPRO > Logistics Execution > Shipping > Basic
Shipping Functions > Routes > Define Routes >
Define Routes And Stages
Table/View V_TVRO_COM

Identification: The identification is the description of the route and

the Route ID, which is a complement to the description. If not
required, I recommend repeating the description here.
Processing: If the route is managed by a specific vendor, you can
inform the Service Agent here. By doing this, when the shipment is
created to that route, the vendor (service agent) will be
automatically proposed, saving some time from logistics planner,
who will not need to inform it manually. You can also inform the
Shipping Type field here. Another very important field here is the
“Rel.transport”, which will determine if that route when used in a
delivery document can be used to create a Shipment.
Scheduling: Most important fields in this section are:
• Transit Time: Transit Time is the total time that the
products will take to arrive at the customer following that
 route. This time is taken into consideration to planning and
determining the date on which the product will reach the
customer (and also when it needs to leave the plant in order
to meet the customer’s requested delivery date). It is
represented in calendar days, 2 decimals.
• Trav.dur: Travel Duration is represented here in
hours and minutes, is a subset of the total transit
time seen above. It is the time taken for the actual
travel along the route. This time is not used for
delivery scheduling purposes.
• TransLdTm. Transportation Lead Time is the time
needed for planning and arranging transportation
considering

Maintain Stages for all Routes

You can process stages for several routes at the same time. So,
instead doing it one by one, use the transaction or path below to
maintain it in a more efficient way.

Transaction 0VTE
Path SPRO > Logistics Execution > Shipping > Basic
Shipping Functions > Routes > Define Routes >
Maintain Stages for all Routes
 Table/View
In the example below, I selected 3 route stages (selecting the
checkbox) and I click in the “change” icon (the pencil). SAP pops-
up the “attribute proposal for selected route stages” and whatever
you maintain in there, it is going to be maintained to all the
selected stages, lights will change from red to yellow. Then you
need to “Save” and the lights will change from yellow to Green to
confirm the modification.

Determining Routes
To the route be automatically determined, the following parameters
are taken in consideration:
• Country and departure zone (Shipping Point address)
• Country and destination zone (ship-to party address)
• Shipping condition (It is informed in the Sales Order and
carried over to the subsequent documents)
• Transportation group (from the material master)

In the deliveries routes determination, you can also add weight

groups to the list of controlling factors, if you are using weight as a
criteria for routes determination, which is optional as explained
more above.
 Transaction 0VRF

Path SPRO > Logistics Execution > Shipping > Basic

Shipping Functions > Routes > Route
Determination > Maintain Route Determination
Table/View VC_TROLZ

If you are using weight as a criteria to determine the route (as

explained more above) here is where you will enter the weight
group that you created, so to this combination of 4 elements
explained above + the weight of the delivery, the route will be
determined automatically.

Route Determination in Sales Order

The route is automatically pulled to the Sales document according

to the combination below:

1. Departure zone or country of the shipping plant

2. Destination zone or country of the Ship-to-Party/Customer.
3. Shipping condition from Customer master.
4. Transportation Group from Material master.
5. Weight Group (if in use)

The route can also be manually entered or overwritten when you

create or change a Sales Order document and also it can be re-
determined in the Delivery document based on weight (weight
group) if you are using the weight as a criteria (explained more
above).

Scheduling and Delivery dates takes into account the following

times: Transit Time / Loading Time / Pick/Pack Time /
Transportation Lead/Planning Time.

Configuration of Shipments
See below what is required to configure the Shipment.

Maintain Transportation Relevance

Before configuring shipment documents, it is necessary to select
the relevance to transportation.

Transaction 0VTR

Path SPRO > Logistics Execution > Transportation >

Shipments > Maintain Transportation Relevance
Table/View V_TVLK_TR / V_TVLP_TL / V_TVRO

• Delivery Type (V_TVLK_TR)

• Delivery Item Type (V_TVLP_TL)

• Route (V_TVRO)
Set Up Transportation Planning Points
Once the transportation relevance is defined, you will need to
configure the organizational structure that will run after
transportation, for example, the shipment documents are created
using the transportation planning point (which is tied to other
organizational elements, such as shipping points, plants and etc.)

Define Shipment Type

The shipment types are related to the different ways of transporting
and processing products, either from sales or stock transfer orders
and etc. There are even situations where a Shipment Type for
“Inbound” processing is required, for goods coming in.

There are 3 distinct transportation categories::

• The Individual shipment when one or more delivery
documents are assigned and transported by a single
transport mode from a departure point to a destination point.
• The Collective shipment where one or multiple deliveries are
transported by one single transport mode from one or more
departure points to one or more destination points.
 • The Multi-modal shipment when deliveries are transported
by several different transport modes between one or more
departure points and one or more destination points.

Transaction OVTK

Path SPRO > Logistics Execution > Transportation >

Shipments > Define Shipment Types
Table/View V_TVTK

Here I will discuss some of the main fields:

Number Systems: It is where you maintain internal or external

number range assignment that will be used when documents
are created.

Document Content: This section is where the core of the

Shipment Type’s configuration is. It is like the Shipment’s
identity. See below some of the fields and what they mean.
• Shipment Completion Type: Identify the type of the shipment,
if this is an inbound or outbound shipment, if it is loaded or
empty.
• Shipping Type: This identifies if the shipment is road, air,
ocean, rail or any other means of transport you have created
in your system.
• Process Control: Identifies how the shipment type will be
performed, if it is individual shipment or collective shipment,
single mode of transport or multiple mode.
• Leg Indicator: The leg or stage is the representation of two
transportation connection points or a single connection point
where a transportation is performed (for example customs
borders, loading transfer point). To each leg in a route it is
possible to define the section type that this leg belongs, that
can be a transportation, load transfer point or customs
borders. It is also possible to identify if the leg is primary leg,
main leg, subsequent, direct or a return leg. In a direct leg
shipment type for example, the process will be performed in
a single shipment but if it is a primary leg, main leg or
subsequent leg, it will have more than one shipment
connected to the delivery and the shipments will be linked to
each other. And that’s where you can use the
ShTypePrelimLeg and SubseqLegShType to indicate the
shipping type to those preliminary or subsequent legs.

• Determine Legs: A rule to assign the legs in a shipment

can be defined here. Let’s say you pick 1: Legs Determined
according To Departure Point & Itinerary in a collective
shipment. Then the leg determination will be pulled to the
shipment based on departures and destinations sequence
This is the end of the Part I. Transportation – Shipment. Check
here the Part II. Transportation – Shipment Cost Document and
here the Part III. Transportation – Shipment Cost Document (Cont.)

If you liked, please, rate this blog. Thank you.

Leandro da Pia Nascimento

Alert Moderator
 6 Comments
You must be Logged on to comment or reply to a post.

My Le Ngoc

August 26, 2016 at 1:42 am

Nice document. Thanks a lot.

Valdimir Putin

August 31, 2016 at 4:59 am

Wonder full document .

Thankyou a lot

Leandro Nascimento Post author

August 31, 2016 at 12:28 pm

Thanks.. I knew there were no documentation with this

level of details and organization in this community. I am
glad you liked. If you have chance, please, rate this blog
picking from 1 to 5 starts.
I hope you checked parts II and III too… I am going to
release some updates later… I want to explore more the
Condition Technique and Pricing configuration.
Take care
 Pavan Kumar Talari

September 10, 2016 at 2:58 pm

its a really very helpfull document, just coz of your document i have
learned le-tra i request you to prepare STO and some of important
topics in SAP SD thank you so much

Leandro Nascimento Post author

September 11, 2016 at 2:48 pm

Thanks for your feedback. Glad to hear that helps you. I

will post a full configuration guide for STO soon. Thansk
for rating this blog and the others 5 starts, it means a lot to
me. Take care.

Subha Indu

September 12, 2016 at 1:48 pm

Great document. Thanks for sharing the knowledge. This is the

greatness of SCN. Looking forward for your next post.
Subha

Share & Follow

Privacy Terms of Use Legal Disclosure Copyright Trademark Sitemap Newsletter