Evolution of Pricing in SAP

pranavgarud · ‎2025 Apr 16

In this blog we will discuss about pricing concept in SAP, Evolution from ECC to S/4HANA with key benefits.

ECC 16 pricing fields in detail are as follow:

Steps: Place the condition in sequence.
Counter: If there is no space between two steps to add one more condition type.
Condition type: Specifies the type of the pricing element.
Description: To describe the condition types in sales document pricing.
From: Help to determine the base value for calculating the condition type value in sales document pricing.
To: Used to cumulate the value of multiple steps that are in a sequence.
Manual: If we check manual, then the system will not determine the condition type automatically into the sales document.
Requirement: If we check required, then system will not allow to save the sales document if the condition type is missing
Statistical: If we check statistical then it will have two effects, value doesn’t have any effect on net value & not be posted into accounting.
Print: Controls whether to print the condition type into output printout or not.
Subtotal: Used to store the value of condition type in some temporary tables and fields for the purpose of further calculations.
Requirements: The system will check while determining condition type into sales document, if condition fulfilling then condition type determine into sales document.
Alternate calculation type (Formula): Use alternate calculation type, if the calculation part of condition type is not standard.
Alternate Base type (Formula): Use alternate base type when the base value of the condition type is not standard.
Account Key: It is a parameter to determine revenue G/L account while posting invoice values into accounting.
Accrual Key: Keeping some amount aside from each transaction into provisional account to meet the further requirements of rebate settlement.

Now SAP S/4HANA pricing procedure has expanded from 16 pricing field to 18 pricing field are follow:

1. Statistical and Relevant for Account Determination:

Statistical: It does not impact the net price but is recorded for reporting purposes.

Relevant for Account Determination: It still flows into financial accounting, even though it’s statistical. We can use this field indicator to define that the statistical price condition is posted to account-based Profitability Analysis (CO-PA) as journal entry to an extension ledger of Financial Accounting.

Example: Imagine you are delivering the free delivery above 200 rupees, previously this delivery cost maybe be ignored in financial posting because it has marked as Statistic.

Now, you can post it to an extension ledger in CO-PA, giving you a clear picture of how much free delivery impacts your bottom line.

Scenario: In this scenario Tax will display and post, but no impact on Net price:

Condition	Statistical	Account Relevant	Impact on Net Price	G/L Posting	Use Case
ZXYZ -Tax	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	❌ No	✅ Yes	Legal tax display + accounting

This shows the Tax ZXYX on invoice, it will be posted to a special liability GL account and will not impact the product net price (i.e., customer doesn’t pay directly).

In system:

✅ Visible on sales order and invoice as a separate line

✅ Posted to G/L account (e.g., Environmental Provisions) using Account Key ZEV

❌ Does not affect the net selling price (because it’s statistical)

2. Access level (New in 2023): Access levels is used to control the access of your business users to price elements in business documents.

Access levels consist of a four-digit number and a description, you can use all numbers from 0001 to 9999.

Default value 0000 grants full access to all users.

For example, the profit margin in a sales order can be displayed only by a sales manager.

Business Need: Can we hide certain price details (like Profit Margin or Internal Cost) from some users in sales documents or invoices?

Solution: In SAP S/4HANA, introduced Role-Based Access level to Price Elements. This controls who can view or edit specific price conditions (e.g., profit margin) in sales orders, returns, or invoices — either at header or item level. You can set access as no access, display only, or editable, based on the user’s role.

Recommendation by SAP: The higher the sensitivity, the higher is the number of the access level.

Benefit of S/4HANA Pricing:

Improved performance as pricing is stored in the single table PRCD_ELEMENTS, it leads to execution of sales order creation and billing creation.
Reduces errors by replacing multiple condition tables into one condition table.
Enhanced user experience with Fiori apps.
Supports Real-time profitability analysis.
Enhanced customization, increased range of digits, can create more Access sequences, Condition tables, Formula/Routine and Condition type counter.

Key Components of Pricing Procedure:

Condition Records: It stores the pricing information, taxes, and discounts. (e.g., prices, surcharge, taxes, discounts)
Condition Types: Define types of pricing components, such as- PR00 Basic price, K004 material discount. Each pricing type represents a particular pricing element.
Pricing Procedures: A pricing procedure is a collection of condition types arranged in a specific sequence, it defines the rules and logic for pricing that how to calculate conditions where conditions are mandatory, optional, or statistical.
Access Sequences: It searches the strategy for finding valid condition records.
Condition Tables: It specifies the combination of fields used to maintain condition records (e.g., customer and material, sales organization).
Master Data Integration: Pricing leverages data from Customer master and material master.

Difference between ECC pricing & S/4HANA pricing:

Feature	ECC Pricing	S/4HANA Pricing
Tables Used	Uses multiple tables: KONH, KONP, KONV	Merged into single table: PRCD_ELEMENTS
Pricing Execution Speed	Slower due to multiple tables joins.	Faster due to simplified data model (single table)
Pricing procedure Fields	16 fields	18 fields
Memory Consumption	Higher (due to table redundancy)	Lower (HANA in-memory capabilities)
Customer Pricing Procedure Length	1 digit	1 to 2 digits
Document Pricing Procedure Length	1 digit	1 to 2 digits
Access Sequence Capacity	Max 99 condition tables	Max 999 condition tables
Condition Table Range	Table numbers: 1–999 only	Table numbers: 1–999 + 483 additional tables
Condition Type Counter	2 digits	2 to 3 digits
Formulas/Routines	2 to 3 digits (e.g., 123)	3 to 7 digits (e.g., 1234567)

Conclusion: The evolution from ECC to S/4HANA in pricing procedure is not just as technical upgrade but it is transformation that brings greater flexibility, transparency, improved performance, time saving and error free. with the expansion from 16 to 18 pricing fields, the system now supports more accurate financial reporting and role-based access control through features like statistical posting to CO-PA and Access Levels.