A debit memo request is a sales document created to correct an undercharge to a customer. In SAP S/4HANA Sales, this process requires a reference to a preceding document to ensure data consistency and traceability. The most common and standard preceding documents are the billing document (invoice), if the undercharge was discovered after invoicing, or the original sales order, if the pricing error is identified before or after billing but needs to be linked to the initial transaction. Referencing these documents allows the system to copy relevant data, such as the customer, materials, and original quantities, simplifying the correction process.

B. Delivery document: A delivery document is primarily concerned with logistics and goods movement, not the financial values or pricing that a debit memo request corrects.

C. Quantity contract: A quantity contract is a long-term outline agreement. A debit memo request corrects a specific transaction, not the master agreement itself.

1. SAP S/4HANA Cloud

Public Edition - Product Assistance: In the section on Debit Memo Processing

the standard procedure is described. The process flow typically starts with creating a debit memo request with reference to a billing document.

Source: SAP Help Portal

S/4HANA Cloud

Public Edition > Sales > Order and Contract Management > Sales Billing > Debit Memo Processing. The process flow diagram for scope item BDG explicitly shows "Create Debit Memo Request" referencing a "Billing Document".

2. SAP S/4HANA - Product Assistance: The functionality for creating sales documents with reference is governed by copy control settings. Standard SAP configuration allows for the creation of a debit memo request (e.g.

document type DR) from both a standard sales order (e.g.

OR) and a billing document (e.g.

F2).

Source: SAP Help Portal

S/4HANA > Sales > Sales and Distribution (SD) > Sales (SD-SLS) > Sales Document Processing > Copying Control for Sales Documents. This section explains the concept that allows

for example

transaction VTAF (copy control: billing document to sales document) and VTAA (copy control: sales document to sales document) to be configured for this purpose.

3. SAP Best Practices for SAP S/4HANA: The scope item for Debit Memo Processing (BDG) outlines the standard business process.

Source: SAP Best Practices Explorer

Scope Item BDG (for S/4HANA). The test script and process flow for this scope item detail the creation of a debit memo request with reference to a preceding invoice (billing document). While this is the primary example

referencing a sales order is also a standard

configurable capability.