We'd like to set tolerances or limits for suppliers changes on the delivery date in their ship notices to our company in the Business Network. How can we do this?

How to set the delivery-date tolerance for ship notices?

The SAP Business Network allows buyers to set how many days early or late a ship notice delivery date can be from the delivery date requested in an order or release. If during ship-notice validation the system identifies a delivery date that is outside the allowed tolerance, it prevents submission of the ship notice. You can configure these tolerances for all their suppliers or for supplier groups.

In order to configure this tolerance for all your suppliers, follow the steps below in your Business Network account:

1. Choose Administration > Configuration > Default Transaction Rules
2. Scroll to the Order Confirmation and Ship Notice Rules section to find transaction rule Apply delivery-date tolerances to ship-notice line items
3. Enter in one or both of the rule's fields the number of days' difference to allow: Days (Maximum before the requested delivery date.) and/or Days (Maximum after the requested delivery date.)
4. Click Save

If you'd like to configure this for specific supplier groups, the same tolerance settings are available under Supplier Enablement > Supplier Groups > Supplier Group Transaction Rules. Ensure you have the option Enter supplier group specific transaction rules selected, for the specific supplier groups' rules to be applied instead of the Default Transaction Rules.

Note that if the tolerances are left empty, no tolerance check is performed for that field. A value of '0' for the tolerance fields above means that the supplier cannot deviate from the requested delivery date.

See also this feature's page in What's new in SAP Ariba 2105 (Q2 2021) to learn more.

SAP Business Network for Procurement & Supply Chain > SAP Ariba Supply Chain Collaboration
SAP Business Network for Procurement & Supply Chain > Transaction Documents > Transaction (Purchase Orders, Ship Notices & Goods Receipts)