CO-PA vs Billing

There are 2 type of datasources in SAP R/3 that can be extracted to BI for the sales volume figure:
1) CO-PA
2) Billing (2LIS_XXX - PO and SD)

The difference between these two extractors are the point of time the data is updated to either logistic or accounting table.

In order-to-cash business scenario, if the sales volume is required to be measured in the initial stage where the sales order is keyed into the system, then CO-PA can't be used as during that stage, no accounting document is created yet. Financial impact will only occur in good issue stage where table BKPF and BSEG are updated. The final stage of this process in logistic is invoice creation (updating table VBRK and VBRF). In accounting, the final stage would be when receivable is cleared and payment is received where another accounting document is created in BKPF and BSEG and open receivable is cleared and BSAD is updated.

In procure-to-pay scenario, the early stage (PR to PO) all the way to Good Receipt does not involve any financial process until invoice is received by other party and financial table BKPF and BSEG is updated.BSAK is updated when invoice is paid via payment run and payable is cleared.