Defining SA Relationship Options
We use the term "SA Relationship" to describe functionality that supports the following situations:
• When companies other than your own provide a service to your customers AND you have some type of interaction with these companies. For example, in a deregulated market, customers deal with both distribution and energy supply companies. These companies typically exchange a great deal of information about their joint customers.
• When multiple rates are associated with a service (where each rate corresponds with a sub-category of service). For example, most water companies charge for both water and wastewater service using separate rates for each. While it is possible to set up water and wastewater as separate service agreements, the SA relationship functionality allows you to set up a single "master" service agreement (for the water service) and associate with it a "sub" service agreement (for the wastewater service).
• When a party representing a group of customers negotiates a contract that is applied over and above those of the individual service agreements. For example, the head office of a national chain may negotiate for additional discounts that should be calculated together or individually. The SA relationship functionality may be used to track the covered service agreements and to calculate and transfer discounts to the head office's service agreement. Refer to the special discounts section.
Warning: 
Setting up the SA relationship control tables is as challenging as your organization's business rules. If you don't have requirements similar to those described above, you don't have to set up anything. If you have these types of requirements, your setup process will be taxing as you must design and set up control tables that manage the financial and consumption interactions that take place between you, your customers, and the various service providers.
The topics in this section describe tables that control your SA relationship functionality.