New Features in SAP Subscription Billing (2021-02-...
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Welcome to our blog series about SAP Subscription Billing’s new features!
This week, we have an exceptionallylarge number of new features that made it in into our delivery. And we’reespecially excited to introduce a brand-new integration scenario on which we’ve been working for the past months.
Let’s do a deep dive together:
Integration with Solution Order Management and Sales Billing in SAP S/4HANA Cloud
SAP Subscription Billing can now be integrated with SAP S/4HANA Cloud to enable the sale of solutions that combine subscription-based services with tangible goods and services. As part of this new integration scenario, but also available without the use of solution orders, integration with SAP S/4HANA Cloud Sales Billing is now possible with broader integration into accounting processes.
To support this integration, new settings are provided in the Business Configuration app of SAP Subscription Billing:
ID upper case conversion and validation for master data
Expected term for products and subscriptions
Subscription profiles including integration-relevant settings
Define an expected term for products and subscriptions
You can now define an expected term for products and subscriptions. The expected term determines the projected duration of the subscription and helps you to assess the contract value of the subscription.
Configure subscriptions via subscription profiles
You can now configure your subscriptions via subscription profiles. In a subscription profile you specify a series of settings, such as a prefix for the subscription document ID, to distinguish different kinds of subscriptions.
You now activate the management of payment details with contract accounts in SAP S/4HANA Cloud in the subscription profile. Previously this setting was in the Business Configuration app, under Integration Settings. If you already use contract accounts, you need to create a profile with this setting activated for the subscriptions that require a contract account.
You first create the subscription profiles in the Business Configuration app, under Subscription Settings and then assign profiles to subscriptions via the Subscriptions API.
Subscription profiles
Language-dependent texts for products and rate elements
You can now enter language-dependent texts for products and rate elements. You activate this feature and define the default language in the Business Configuration app under Language Settings.
For products (Products app), when you click the Translate button on the product detail page the default language is preselected in the pop-up window, and you can enter the product name and description in other languages.
For rate elements (Business Configuration app, under Rate Elements), when you click the Translate button on the rate elements detail page the default language is preselected in the pop-up window, and you can enter the label and description in other languages.
Language settings
Enhanced data events for subscriptions
Previously, the events associated with subscription changes only contained the subscription ID and a description of what had changed. From this release on, the events will contain the full subscription data. This way, the consumers of the event do not need to proactively call the Subscriptions API anymore to get the current and updated data.
Pricing simulation in the Subscription API
The attribute priceDetails has been added to the subscription item in the response of the following endpoints:
/subscriptions (POST)
/subscriptions/{id} (GET)
You can use this attribute to see the pricing structure of a subscription item, including the effective and list prices.
To display this attribute in the payload, you must add the query parameter expand with the following value to the request. :
snapshots.items.priceDetails
Enhanced simulation for rate plans
The following attributes have been added to the endpoint /simulations (POST):
timeZone: You can now use this attribute to specify the time zone for the simulation of rate plans.
simulationPeriod: You can use this attributeto extend the simulation to more than one period. The periods are prorated even if the simulation period does not cover complete billing cycles.
pricingElements: This attribute returns the result of the price calculation.
ratingPeriod: The time frame that is the basis for the calculation of a rated item. For usage charges, this also determines which usage records are considered in the rated item.
Simplified ID-handling in the Subscriptions API
The value subscriptionDocumentId has been added to the response of all endpoints that return the entire subscription. For example:
As attribute, to all endpoints that return the entire subscription. For example:
/subscriptions (GET)
/subscriptions/{id} (GET)
As query parameter, in all endpoints for which you need to provide the subscription in the request payload. For example:
/subscriptions/{id} (GET)
/subscriptions/{id} (PUT)
/subscriptions/{id}/completion (POST)
The attribute subscriptionDocumentId is the human-readable ID of the subscription. You can use this value to identify the subscription to work on, instead of using the UUID (subscriptionId). The attribute is also used to enable integration with other systems, for example, to fit the subscription ID into the number range for object IDs in SAP S/4HANA Cloud.
Simplified ID handling in the Allowances API
The value mainSubscriptionDocumentId has been added to the following endpoints:
As attribute, to /allowances (POST)
As query parameter, to allowances (GET)
You can use this value to identify the subscription to which the allowance applies by providing the document ID of the subscription, instead of the UUID (subscriptionID), like before.
The value allowanceDocumentId has been added to the following endpoints:
As attribute, to the response of all endpoints that return the allowance. For example:
/allowances (GET)
/allowances/{id} (GET)
As query parameter, in all endpoints for which you need to provide the allowance in the request payload. For example:
/allowances/{id} (GET)
/allowances/{id}/extension (POST)
/allowances/{id}/eventlog (GET)
The value allowanceDocumentId is the human-readable ID of the allowance. You can use this value to identify the allowance to work on, instead of using the UUID (allowanceId).
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