12/20/2017 Official Document Numbering - SAP Documentation

Official Document Numbering

In some countries, you are legally required to adhere to specific rules determined by the legal authorities when you number certain
documents issued by your company.
The official document number is used for documents such as invoices that are issued to end customers and also presented to the tax
authorities. These official numbers are usually in a format defined explicitly by the respective governments or controlling authorities and can
consist of numbers and letters.
Official document numbering (ODN) in Contract Accounts Receivable and Payable (FI-CA) allows you to do the following:

Be legally compliant in a certain country with regards to the numbering of documents

Use document numbering that is more flexible than document numbering in the standard system
For example, this is beneficial if you have multiple company codes and you therefore need to maintain gapless document numbering
within each company code.

Features
There are two available methods for official document numbering:

ODN using number ranges with number groups

This method can be used only in the following application areas and countries:
Telecommunications (T) and Extended FI-CA (S) in selected countries (for example, Portugal and France). Note
that you can check the exact list of countries in table TFK_ODN_LAND (transaction SE16).

Utility company (R) in Slovenia only.

ODN using number ranges without number groups

This method is valid for all other application areas.

For some countries, such as Argentina, Brazil, and Italy, there are specific instructions for using official document numbering. For more
information, see the relevant country sections.

ODN Using Number Ranges with Number Groups

This method offers a flexible way to define your official document numbers by combining different parameters, such as the following:

Document classes
For each country, you can define a document class for each type of document that you need to number in a certain way. You can
define, for example, separate document classes for invoices and for accounting documents that you have created manually.
Number range objects
The system offers you a list of number range objects with different lengths of the sequential number from 6 to 16 digits, with or
without number groups (number range subobject), and with or without fiscal year dependency. The number range objects can be
shared by different countries.
Number range interval
You use the number range object parameters to determine the number range interval of the official document number to be
generated for documents belonging to a certain company code and certain document class. You can define the format of the official
document number of each number range interval by using prefixes and suffixes along with the sequential number.

Enhancements for Convergent Invoicing

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In the standard system, official document numbering with number groups is activated for selected countries, and the standard logic is used
to create the official document numbers. For Convergent Invoicing in Extended FI-CA (S), Telecommunications (T), Media (M), and Public
Sector (P), you can use the following additional features to adapt ODN with number groups to your requirements:

In the Customizing activity Assign Customer-Specific Classes to Countries , you can assign a customer-specific class to a
country for which ODN is already activated. You can also activate ODN with number groups for additional countries by entering the
country and the corresponding customer-specific class. In the customer-specific class, you can define that the business place is also
used to determine the relevant number range.
In the Customizing activity Define Sub-IDs for Document Class Determination , you can define sub-IDs that allow you to control
document class determination at a very detailed level based on the values of certain document attributes.

To use these additional features, you must activate the corresponding business function for the application area, as follows:

Extended FI-CA: Country-Specific Functions, 01 (FICAX_LOC_1)

Telecommunications: Country-Specific Functions, 01 (TEL_CA_LOC_1)

Media: Country-Specific Functions, 01 (MED_CA_LOC_1)

Public Sector: Country-Specific Functions, 01 (PSCD_CA_LOC_1)

ODN Using Number Ranges without Number Groups

In this case, official document numbers are generated using document number ranges with a fixed length (12 digits) and without number
range subobjects.

Activities
The system automatically generates and assigns the official document number to the relevant documents based on generic Customizing
settings and, if required, country-specific Customizing settings.
For more information about the generic Customizing settings, see Customizing for Contract Accounts Receivable and Payable under
Basic Functions Postings and Documents Document Official Document Numbers General Specification
for Official Document Numbers Configuration of Official Document Numbering .

Caution
The configuration of official document numbering depends on the relevant application area and country. We strongly recommend that
you read the overview of the generic Customizing settings before you make the settings in the system.

Country-Specific Customizing Settings

To meet special legal requirements in the following countries, you must perform country-specific Customizing settings and in some cases
also the generic settings for ODN:

Country Required Settings More Information

Argentina Country-specific settings Official Document Numbering (Argentina)

Brazil Country-specific settings Official Document Numbering for IS-U

Note: Only valid for SAP Utilities (IS-U) and (Brazil)
if you have activated the business function
set Industry Solution for Utilities
(UTILITIES).

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Country Required Settings More Information

Generic settings for ODN with number Convergent Invoicing for Service Nota Fiscal
groups (Brazil)
Note: Only valid for Convergent Invoicing for
Service Nota Fiscal for Extended FI-CA (S),
Telecommunications (T), and Media (M).
To use the functions, you must activate the
respective business function for the
application area: Country-Specific
Functions, 01 (FICAX_LOC_1),
Country-Specific Functions, 01
(TEL_CA_LOC_1), or Country-Specific
Functions, 01 (MED_CA_LOC_1).

Italy Country-specific settings Official Document Numbering (Italy)

Portugal Country-specific settings and generic Official Document Numbering (Portugal)

settings

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