How to Avoid Plant Error During Billing Document Request Creation

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Symptom

When you create a billing document request (BDR) for a released service contract in the Schedule Billing Document Request Creation app, an error message appears saying “Plant segment missing for material & in plant &”.

Service Contract Introduction

Then you would ask: How is Plant information used in a typical service contract through the end-to-end process of that contract?

Here is an overview.

Step 1: Create and Release a Service Contract via the SOAP API Service Contract - Create, Update (Asynchronous) or in the Manage Service Contracts App

Note: Pay attention to the Sale Organization in the following screenshot. We use 1710 as an example. Sales Organization belongs to a unique Company Code which has an attribute of Country in your configuration. This country information is relevant to plant assignment and is to be checked in Step2.

Step 2: Create a Billing Document Request via the Schedule Billing Document Request Creation App

Plant and material are checked in order to generate a BDR.

Step 3: Create an Invoice with the BDR via the Manage Billing Documents App.

Current Plant Determination and Material Checking Logic

1. The system firstly gets the plant from that is assigned to the Service Employee and Country in your configuration
2. If the system cannot find a plant from Step a, it tries to get a plant from that is assigned to Country in your configuration. Normally, a plant can be found in this step.
3. After the plant is found, the system checks whether the material master data has been extended to the plant. If not, the system stops BDR creation and gives the error message “Plant segment missing for material& in plant&.” If yes, the system creates a BDR.

Configure Your Plant Assignment

a. Go to the Configuration Your Solution app and find the Employee Service Location item.

Although the recommended step is Assign Plant to Service Employee and Country, it is not necessary for service contracts.

b. Select Assign Plant to Country and assign your plant to the country same as the one in your company code.

c. If Step b is done, check the plant in the material SRV_01_PRODUCT, which is the product used in the service contract. Go to your Fiori Launchpad and use the Display Material feature of the Manage Product Master Data app. (You may need the role PRODMASTER_SPECIALIST for your user.)

The screenshot below shows the 1710 plant does not been extended for material SRV_01_PRODUCT. Problem is found!

Solution: Extend Material to Plant

We provide an example here to demonstrate the solution.

Extend the material SRV_01_PRODUCT to the plant 1710 in the Manage Product Master Data App

a. Search for the product

b. Go to the Plants tab and click the Create button

1710 is extended and you can find it in the list.

c. Now you can run the BDR create job again in the Schedule Billing Document Request Creation app and the BDR is created successfully.