SAP Business One

Specifics of SAP B1

Introduction

Sana Commerce is the e-commerce solution for Microsoft Dynamics and SAP. The ERP systems have much in common, but at the same time there are many distinctions. For example, in Microsoft Dynamics NAV and Microsoft Dynamics AX you can create product variants which are not available in the standard SAP systems and vice versa, there are features in other ERP systems, for example in SAP, which are not available in Microsoft Dynamics NAV and AX.

While developing the Sana add-ons for Microsoft Dynamics and SAP we try to make them as similar as possible in functionality and stick to the ERP coding conventions and best practices, but of course there are some differences depending on the ERP system Sana connects to.

From this article you will learn about Sana features which are not supported by SAP Business One.

Return orders (RMA)

A Sana web store integrated with SAP Business One does not support return orders. It will be supported in one of the future releases of the Sana add-on for SAP Business One.

Sana delivers an easy and personalized return experience to build trust relationship between shop owners and their customers. The return process is completely automated and integrated with the sales order processing in the ERP systems.

For a customer, requesting RMA (Return Merchandise Authorization) in Sana is straightforward. All you have to do is:

• Choose one or several products and define quantity to return
• Select return reason
• Optionally enter comments and attach files, for example a photo, to provide shop admin with more details

Product images from ERP

Sana does not support product images from SAP, like in Microsoft Dynamics.

We are constantly extending Sana to use data which is already present in the ERP system. Sana can equally use product images from the file system and those images which are already present in your ERP system.

Product and sales document attachments

Sana does not support product and sales document attachments from SAP Business One, like in Microsoft Dynamics. But you can still add product and sales document attachments to the file system of Sana and show them in the Sana web store.

You can use document management in your ERP system to attach files and add URLs to the records. For example, you can attach PDF, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel or Microsoft PowerPoint files, or images to products. For example, you are selling electronics or some complex equipment, and you need to provide some manuals to your customers online.

You can also attach files and add URLs to the sales documents in the ERP system, if you need to provide your business customers with some additional documentation, for example a waybill or a copy of some extra documents.

Files and URLs added to the products and sales documents in your ERP system are shown in the Sana web store. 

Sales reports

Sana does not support sales reports from SAP Business One, like in Microsoft Dynamics. But you can still add sales reports to the file system of Sana and show them in the Sana web store.

Sales reports can be key in keeping the sales process and the cash flow movement. The ERP systems already have the ability to generate sales reports for sales orders, shipments, invoices, sales quotes and other sales documents which can be printed by a sales manager.

Sales reports play a critical role in helping sales managers check the situation in the company and its sales dynamics.

Sana enables customers to download printable reports (PDF file) generated by the ERP system directly from the web store. Often not all employees have access to the ERP system, or there is no easy way to access the ERP system from outside the company, or in some cases it might not even be desirable to give sales people or employees full access to the ERP system. In this case business customers and sales people or any other employees can place orders directly into the ERP system from the Sana web store and download the printable reports generated by ERP without having access to it.

Sales reports can be downloaded from the Sana web store for all sales document types.

Modify sales order

In an SAP Business One web store, it is not possible for a customer to go into their order history and edit their past orders. This is due to a limitation within the integration infrastructure, specifically the DI server. We aim to support this feature in the future when we have developed an alternative method of integration.

Product variants

There is no product variants functionality in the standard SAP Business One system. Therefore, product variants are not supported by Sana integrated with SAP Business One.

There are third-party product variant management solutions (add-ons) for SAP Business One designed for companies that sell products which have different attributes, like size, color or style.

Prepacks

A prepack is a package assembled by a manufacturer, distributor or retailer which contains a specific number of items or a specific assortment of sizes, colors, etc. of a product. Prepacks is a feature of the Pebblestone Fashion add-on for Microsoft Dynamics NAV. Thus, prepacks are not available in other ERP systems and will not be supported by SAP Business One.

Order processing strategy optimized for large orders

This order processing strategy allows placing large orders, for example an order that consists of more than 100 order lines.

When this order processing strategy is used an empty order is created in ERP at the moment a customer logs in the web store. Each time when a customer adds an item to the basket, removes items or edits the basket the related order is updated and recalculated in the ERP system, triggering all business logic available in ERP.

At the moment, this order processing strategy is not available for Sana integrated with SAP Business One. It will be supported in one of the future releases of the Sana add-on for SAP Business One.

Quantity rounding

It is not common for SAP Business One to order products in quantity which contains decimal value, for example 1,5 of a kilogram. Therefore, quantity rounding is not supported for Sana integrated with SAP Business One, but it is in our roadmap as a "nice to have" feature.

Prepayments

Prepayments is the standard functionality of Microsoft Dynamics NAV which allows customers to pay a certain prepayment amount before final invoicing. Prepayments were also implemented in the Sana add-on for SAP ERP, but it is not available in the standard SAP ERP system.

Prepayments are not available in SAP Business One and will not be supported by the Sana add-on for SAP B1.

Invoice discounts and service charges

In SAP Business One you can set up list prices, customer-specific prices, tier pricing, discounts, but there are no invoice discounts and service charges like in Microsoft Dynamics. Therefore, Sana integrated with SAP Business One does not support invoice discounts and service charges.

Item groups

The ERP systems use the same approach to classify products. This is done by assigning a product to a certain product group or category which describes the nature of a product, for example "Electronics". The only difference is that in different ERP systems you can create either one level of product groups/categories or multiple levels. For example, in Microsoft Dynamics AX you can create a category hierarchy with the unlimited number of levels, while in SAP ERP a product hierarchy supports 3 levels by default.

Unlike other ERP systems, SAP Business One supports item groups of a single level. However, you can import item groups from SAP to Sana and manage web store navigation from Sana Admin the way you need.

Retail offers

There are different editions of the ERP systems which help retailers better manage every aspect of their daily retail operations. For example, there are Microsoft Dynamics AX for Retail, the LS Retail add-on for Microsoft Dynamics NAV, SAP for Retail. Sana provides integration with Microsoft Dynamics AX for Retail and LS Retail for Microsoft Dynamics NAV out-of-the-box. This integration allows to use the diverse retail business logic of Microsoft Dynamics to create different retail offers, discounts and price adjustments.

SAP Business One does not have a special edition for retailers. Therefore, the Sana add-on for SAP Business One does not support retail functionality. There are add-ons for SAP Business One, like LS Retail for Microsoft Dynamics NAV, which are designed to meet the specific needs of the retail business.