SAP mm-overview

Editor's Notes

• #6: Logistics is concerned with ensuring a smooth flow to meet the customer's needs. Information will flow from the customer, through the enterprise, to the supplier/vendor; and materials supplied by the vendor will then flow back, being transformed by the enterprise, to the customer. Logistics has to facilitate these flows while managing the enterprise's resources as efficiently as possible. These resources include: - capital resources, from long-term investments to short term; - material resources, such as stocks of raw materials and finished goods which have to be monitored and protected to retain their value; - capacity resources, including people as well as machines and plants, which can cause bottle necks in production if their use is not carefully planned.
• #7: Components of the Materials Management are Master Data External Procurement / Purchasing Inventory Management Invoice Verification MRP (consumption based planning procedures and forecast) There are strong links to the modules FI CO PP and SD
• #8: The need to procure a material originates in a user department or in MRP. A source of supply must be identified. In RFQ processing, quotations can be solicited. Via price comparision the most reasonable vendor can be selected. Purchase orders can also be created by referencing other documents Goods Receiving can directly reference the purchase order. Information concerning material stocks can be easily obtained. A purchase order or GR document can also be directly referenced in Invoice Verification.
• #9: Objectives for the organizational structures in R/3: The flexibility to be able to represent complex group structures. Ability to take changes in group structure into account. Separation of logistics views (purchasing, sales), the internal accounting view and the accounting view. Ability to deal with intercompany processing.
• #10: Materials management is primarily concerned with the material flow in a company. For this purpose the production plants and locations with stocks of material must be represented in the system. This is done using plants and storage locations. A plant is an operating unit for production and material requirements planning or simply a grouping of one or several locations with stocks of material (storage locations) that are geographically close to one another. Stocks of a material at a storage location can be subdivided into batches.
• #11: A complex warehouse structure is represented by a warehouse number in the Warehouse Management system (MM-WM). Several physical warehouses, represented as storage types in the MM-WM system, can belong to one warehouse number. Stock types differ with regard to organizational and technical features. Storage bins are the smallest units of space accessible by the system. Storage locations in different plants can be managed under one warehouse number. No more than one storage location per plant can be allocated to a warehouse number in the MM-WM system. There can be storage locations in a plant which are not managed by the Warehouse Management system.
• #12: When a goods movement is entered, stocks are updated on the basis of quantity and value. At the same time documents are created for posting to the stock and consumption accounts in the accounting department. Using the invoice verification functions, a valuation adjustment of material stocks can be carried out. The inventory update for quantity and value takes place at valuation area level. Either each plant forms a separate valuation area or all plants in a company form one valuation area. The valuation area does not appear explicitly on the screen. Sub-stocks of the same material can be subject to separate valuation in a company code/plant. This is controlled by the valuation type. In addition, individual batches can be valued separately if you wish. The valuation category (accounting data for a material) specifies whether and by which criteria separate valuation is carried out for the material. The individual partial stocks are represented by valuation types.
• #13: When a goods movement is entered, stocks are updated on the basis of quantity and value. At the same time documents are created for posting to the stock and consumption accounts in the accounting department. Using the invoice verification functions, a valuation adjustment of material stocks can be carried out. The inventory update for quantity and value takes place at valuation area level. Either each plant forms a separate valuation area or all plants in a company form one valuation area. The valuation area does not appear explicitly on the screen. Sub-stocks of the same material can be subject to separate valuation in a company code/plant. This is controlled by the valuation type. In addition, individual batches can be valued separately if you wish. The valuation category (accounting data for a material) specifies whether and by which criteria separate valuation is carried out for the material. The individual partial stocks are represented by valuation types.
• #14: All organizational units represented in a client are subject to the same commercial control. Therefore, a client can sometimes be considered as a synonym for a group of companies. For example, the standard chart of accounts is defined at client level. A group of companies can be represented from the accounting view by the terms company code and business area. Each company code represents an independent balancing unit. Several company codes can use the same standard chart of accounts. A business area is a special economic unit for which an internal balance sheet and profit and loss statement can be created. Business areas are defined independently of company code. For each company code, it is specified whether business area processing is obligatory. When posting is carried out in materials management, the business area is usually determined automatically.
• #16: A purchasing organization is an organizational unit which procures materials and services and agrees on terms and conditions of purchase with vendors. The purchasing organization takes external legal responsibility for all purchasing transactions. In legal terms, each purchasing organization is allocated to a company code. This company code represents the company legally responsible for all purchasing activities of the purchasing organization. Invoice verification is carried out in this legally responsible company. A purchasing organization can carry out tasks for several different plants. At present, there is the restriction that these plants must belong to the company code of the purchasing organization.
• #17: The purchasing organization negotiates the pricing conditions and outline agreements with the vendor for the plants assigned to the purchasing organization. The individual activities in purchasing are carried out by purchasing groups (groups of buyers or even individuals). A purchasing group can carry out tasks for several purchasing organizations. The purchasing group is not assigned to a purchase organisation. Specific purchasing activities are assigned to individual purchasing groups e.g. via the material master.
• #19: The material master is the central master record for logistics. For example, data for sales, production and procurement are stored in the same master record but can be related to differnt organizational units. The general data is valid for all clients (groups of companies). The description can be entered in as many languages as you wish. The sales-specific data can be entered dependent on sales organization and distribution channel. Most of the data relevant for purchasing and inventory management are related to a plant. For the Warehouse Management system, data can be entered by warehouse number as well as by storage type of a warehouse number.
• #20: Base unit of measure: Unit in which stocks are managed. All quantities which you enter in other units of measure are converted into the base unit. For units of measure which cannot be converted on a standard basis, a conversion factor must be specified during material master record maintenance. Order unit (purchasing): Unit of measure in which the material is ordered. It is defaulted, and can be changed as desired, in purchasing functions. Sales unit: Unit in which the material is sold. It is defaulted, and can be changed, in the sales order. Unit of issue: Unit of measure in which the material is issued from the warehouse or stores. Goods issue and physical inventory transactions can be entered in this unit.
• #21: Allocation of the material to a group of G/L accounts. The valuation class together with other factors determine the G/L accounts which are posted during a valuation-relevant transaction (for example, goods movement). The valuation classes allowed depend on the material type. By displaying the possible entries, you can see which valuation classes are allowed for the material type. Several valuation classes are allowed for one material type. One valuation class is allowed for several material types.
• #22: The price control indicator determines whether the stock of the material is valuated at the standard price or the moving average price. For price control S, the valuation price must be entered in the "Standard price" field on the accounting screen. For price control V it must be entered in the" Moving price" field. Depending on the material type, one of these two procedures can be defaulted or even specified as a mandatory entry.
• #25: A vendor master record is created for each business partner from whom you purchase goods and services. There are separate functions for entering information on the vendor: Maintenance of purchasing data Maintenance of accounting data There are also central maintenance options.
• #26: General data (valid for the entire group), purchasing organization data, and company code data can be maintained for each vendor. General data and purchasing organization data can be maintained by purchasing; general data and company code data can be maintained by the accounting department. The head office can maintain both purchasing and accounting data at purchasing organization and company code level. You can create list displays for vendor master records and display the changes made at the various organizational levels. You can also block vendors for purchasing or accounting.
• #27: In addition to the manually maintained data, the system updates the following data: the monthly debits and credits per posting period (and possibly business area). the special G/L transactions (for example, down payments). the dunning/reminder data.
• #28: Every vendor master is managed under an account group. In addition to the grouping function, this account group has control functions during master record maintenance. The vendor number can be assigned internally or externally; alphanumeric vendor numbers are also possible. You can use an indicator to specify that the vendor master records of an account group are one-time accounts (collective accounts for miscellaneous vendors). The permitted account groups can be determined by the R/3 System user.
• #29: The control account is the main G/L account which is updated in the course of the normal postings for a vendor (for example invoice, payment) parallel to the subsidiary account. The control account itself cannot be posted to directly. A G/L account master record must be created for the control account number specified in a vendor master. This G/L account must be marked as a control account for account type K (= vendor).
• #31: Data which describes a supply relationship is stored in an info record. A master record must be created for the vendor. If a master record has been created for the material, it is a stock material info record, otherwise it is an info record for a material group (non-stock material). Info record data is proposed when purchasing transactions are entered. Analyses such as the following can be created on the basis of purchasing info records which vendors offer a certain material? which materials does a certain vendor offer?
• #32: In addition to general supply relationship data, an info record contains data which can be maintained on a purchasing organization and plant basis. When you enter purchase orders, the system automatically updates the order price history.The order price history can be displayed by a separate function (purchasing menu: Master data -> Info record -> List display > Order price history).
• #33: The pricing procedure defines: which condition types are allowed in which sequence they are used for price determination which condition types are used to obtain running totals
• #34: Conditions can be maintained when quotations, info records, outline agreements and purchase orders are entered. For this purchasing data, pricing procedures are used to specify which conditions are allowed in each case and the sequence in which they are taken into account. The individual conditions are represented by condition types. Standard condition types include gross price, discounts, surcharges, freight charges, and cash discounts. An access sequence can be used to define how the value of a condition type is calculated.
• #36: Sources of supply for a material in a plant are defined in the source list. The validity of source list entries can be limited to certain periods. If a source list requirement exists, the material cannot be procured from sources of supply other than those included in the source list.A source list requirement is activated for a plant. A source of supply for a material can be blocked in the source list.
• #39: The need to procure a material originates in a user department or in MRP. The source of supply can be identified automatically using info records and source list. In RFQ processing, quotations can be solicited and vendors selected. Purchase orders can also be created by referencing other documents, such as outline agreements, purchase requisitions, or RFQs. Goods Receiving can directly reference the purchase order. Information concerning material stocks can be easily obtained. A purchase order can also be directly referenced in Invoice Verification.
• #40: Purchase requisition informs purchasing of a requirement for a material or a service. Request for quotation (RFQ)requests potential vendors to submit a quotation. Quotationcontains the vendor's terms and conditions and constitutes the basis for vendor selection. Purchase orderis the buying party's formal and binding declaration of his intention to purchase a material or service. Contractis a type of outline agreement; the contract is the buying party's binding declaration of his intention to purchase a material or service within an agreed period. Scheduling agreementis a type of outline agreement; a delivery schedule issued under a scheduling agreement contains precisely defined dates on which deliveries are to be made (schedule lines).
• #41: The document header of a purchasing document contains general information on the relevant transaction such as vendor data. The document items describe the materials or services to be procured. Some of the additional data is updated when you make certain entries for follow-on functions (goods receipt, invoice receipt).
• #42: The item category determines the type of procurement for the respective item in the purchasing document. The item category determines, among other things, whether reference to a material master is possible for the item. There are separate item categories for: procurement for a vendor consignment warehouse third party processing subcontract orders In the case of outline agreements, you can use additional item categories.
• #43: Whether procurement is for stock or direct consumption is determined for every item of a purchasing document. Item categories can be specified for items in purchase requisitions outline agreements purchase orders/release orders Items with account assignment and items without account assignment can both be contained in a purchasing document. A material master must be created for a stock material whose material type allows inventory management. A material master record can be created for a consumable material (with a material type without inventory management). If an account assignment category is specified, an additional window for entering account assignment data is displayed. You can specify several account assignments for one document item.
• #44: Procurement for stock is characterized by the fact that the material is stored after goods receipt, and the consumption of the material is entered in a separate step. If material is procured for stock, the warehouse stock level of the material is increased by entering goods receipt and reduced by entering goods issue. With each goods movement, the stock and consumption accounts are updated in financial accounting. When goods are issued, the consumption statistics are updated.
• #45: In the case of procurement for consumption, the material is regarded as consumed at the time of goods receipt. If a material is procured for consumption, the consumption purpose is defined by purchasing (an account assignment category and further specifications such as cost center or project number are entered). If material is procured directly for consumption, no warehouse stock is created when goods receipt is entered (and the stock value is not increased) but the consumption statistics (and the consumption accounts in the accounting department) are updated directly.Exception: Material type has inventory management indicator M (in the standard system: Material type UNBW=non-valuated).
• #47: The main task of requirements planning is to determine which material is required on which date and in which quantity. Requirements planning is generally carried out as net change planning (only materials whose stock/requirements situation has changed are planned).You can plan all materials again. Requirements planning is generally carried out for a specific plant. However, there are functions for requirements planning at a cross-plant and at storage location level.
• #48: The reorder point procedure is based on a comparison of the warehouse stock with the reorder point. If the stock level has fallen below the reorder level, more stock must be procured. With the automatic reorder point procedure, the reorder level and the safety stock are adjusted by the system.
• #50: A purchase requisition is an internal notification of requirements to purchasing, by which a request can be made to purchasing to procure a material or service externally. A further type of purchase requisition requests purchasing to set up an outline agreement. A purchase requisition is stored in the SAP System as a document.It can contain several items. You can determine whether procurement should be carried out for stock or for consumption (with account assignment) in the item of a purchase requisition.
• #51: A purchase requisition can be entered manually or can result from a planning run. In addition, the MRP controller can convert a planned order into a purchase requisition. Determining the source of supply is a separate function. In such cases, the system puts forward suggestions to the buyer if, for example, fixed vendors or outline agreements are known for the material (see below). There is a separate release procedure for purchase requisitions. Depending on the value, material group, item category and plant, you can specify that a purchase requisition item may only be converted into a request for quotation or a purchase order if it has been released by certain persons in a specified sequence. There are functions for the collective release of purchase requisitions for a department, for displaying the release status of a purchase requisition and for release reminders. You can specify that a purchase requisition be resubmitted to purchasing if it was not processed within a specified time.
• #53: A vendor is requested to make a quotation by means of an RFQ. Several requests for quotation can be grouped together for analysis under a collective number. Requests for quotation can be monitored; if necessary, a reminder can be sent. When a quotation is received, prices and conditions relating to the request for quotation can be entered. A price comparison list can be created to provide a comparative analysis of the quotations entered. A rejection letter regarding an RFQ can be sent to a vendor.
• #54: In the case of an RFQ, items are entered first. After this, the vendors from whom a quotation is to be requested for these items are determined. Different delivery dates can be determined for an item in the form of delivery schedule lines.
• #55: The issuing of output for purchasing documents can be carried out using various media. This is determined in the document itself or automatically by output determination. RFQ:You either specify the output medium in the document, or have it determined automatically, depending on the vendor.
• #56: Quatations are extended RFQ documents. You need to add prices and conditions. Quotation data can be compared using a price comparison list. The price comparison list indicates the lowest quote for an individual item and for all the items taken together. Important quotation data can be stored on a long-term basis in a purchasing info record. By setting a valid info update indicator when you maintain a quotation, you can cause the info record to be generated automatically. You can set a rejection indicator to create a rejection letter.
• #58: A purchase order is a formal request to a vendor to provide certain materials or services on certain conditions (quantity, price/discounts etc. conditions, delivery date). A purchase order can include items for stock or consumable materials or services. Multiple account assignment for one item is possible. The goods receipts for this item are then entered without being valuated. Schedule lines can be used for an order item to inform the vendor of a number of different delivery dates. If you use the function Create purchase order using known vendor, you must enter the vendor on the initial screen. This function allows you to refer to a purchase requisition. You can only use the function Create purchase order using purchase requisition for purchase requisitions to which a source of supply has been assigned. Requirements are entered in the function Create purchase order using unknown vendor. Source of supply determination can be carried out. If a source of supply can be determined, a purchase requisition is created rather than a purchase order.
• #59: A contract is an outline agreement. There are quantity, value, and consignment contracts. When you create a release order for a contract, data is copied from the contract. The order quantity (quantity released) and the delivery date are specified. When release orders are created, the release order documentation for a contract is updated. There are special item categories for contract items: Material unknown Material group
• #60: A scheduling agreement is an outline agreement. Scheduling agreement items can be created for stock material or consumable material (with master record). In the schedule lines, dates are specified on which the quantities are to be delivered.
• #65: Inventory management is concerned with the flow of materials within a company. Goods movements are divided into goods receipts, goods issues, and transfer postings. When you enter a goods movement, the stock situation is updated both on a quantity and value basis . In addition, documents are created to record each transaction.
• #66: A material document and any relevant accounting documents are automatically created for a goods movement. The material document describes goods movement from the stores or warehouse view. All items in the material document refer to the same period, the same chart of accounts, and the same local currency; however, they can relate to different company codes (for example, in the case of transfer postings). You can specify whether a material document may be printed for individual types of goods movements. If printing is allowed, a material document can be printed at the time a goods movement is entered or later using a separate function. There are several print versions to choose from. The accounting document describes the goods movement from the accounting view. An accounting document always relates to a company code. For a goods movement, either no accounting document is issued or one or more documents are issued. You can branch to the display of the accounting document from the display of a material document .
• #67: Valuation area = company code:price control and price of a material are uniform for all plants within a company code. Valuation area = plant:price control and price of a material are plant-specific.
• #68: Stock and stock values for materials with split valuation are managed on valuation area level. It is necessary that a material managed on valuation area level has price control V, since the moving average price applies to the whole valuation area. In addition, a valuation record with specific valuation data is created for each valuation type.
• #69: Stock fields are managed at storage location level for the current and previous periods. The debits and credits of G/L accounts for each period can also be managed separately by business area. When assets accounting is active in the SAP System, assets can also be updated directly. This also applies to other objects in internal accounting (for example, cost centers, orders).
• #70: The movement type is a key for differentiating material movements. It can control the entering and updating of a material movement. You can select the movement type from the menu or create a list of the movement types allocated to a particular transaction using F4. The individual items of a material document can be entered with different movement types.
• #71: Analyses for inventory management purposes can be created from the inventory management menu (Environment and Inventory control options). You can influence the scope and layout of analyses by making the appropriate selections. You will find further analyses in inventory control.
• #73: Entering a goods receipt with reference to a purchase order has the following advantages: data is proposed from the purchase order it is possible to check whether delivery is carried out correctly purchase order history is updated invoice verification is possible the material is valuated at the purchase order price There are similar advantages when goods receipt is entered with reference to a production order. The open order quantity can be determined via general statistics. In the purchase order history, all goods movements are recorded for the order item.
• #74: You can search for the relevant movement type by pressing F4 on the input field or using the menu bar. If you select the function Goods receipt  For purchase order from the menu on the initial screen, or if you press F8 on this screen, you can a) enter several purchase order numbers or b) search for the purchase orders for a vendor or a material in one window. You can distinguish between cancellation of goods receipt for a purchase order and a returns delivery.
• #75: On goods receipt, a material can be placed in the unrestricted, valuated warehouse stock, in the blocked, valuated warehouse stock, into stock in quality inspection, or into GR blocked stock. If QM is active, you can specify that a material can be stored as stock in quality inspection. Stock in quality inspection is valuated but not as part of the unrestricted-use stock. GR blocked stock is neither valuated nor unrestricted. A goods receipt can, for example, be posted into GR blocked stock if you only accept the delivery with certain reservations.Goods receipts into GR blocked stock are displayed in the statistics for the order item. Transfer postings between these different stock types are possible as are returns deliveries to the vendor. If QM is active, transfer postings can be initiated by the usage decision. In case of consumption the item needs an account assignment object such as order or cost center.
• #76: On goods receipt the stock account is debited and the goods/invoice receipt clearing account is credited. The item in the goods/invoice receipt clearing account is cleared by the invoice receipt. In addition, provisions can be made for freight charges or customs duty, for example, if delivery costs are planned in advance in the order item.
• #78: Even if you are not using the Purchasing component, you can plan goods receipts via reservations, post goods receipts without referring to a purchase order (for example, data transfer).
• #80: Stock transfers involve a physical movement of goods. In the case of other transfer postings, as a rule there is no physical goods movement, but only a change in the stock type or the material number. In the case of stock transfers between two plants, the plants can be allocated to different company codes. In the case of stock transfers involving unrestricted stock, removal from and placement into storage can be carried out by a one or two step procedure. You can process a stock transfer using a stock transport order. You can use the SD interface to do this.
• #81: Stock transfer valuation only if change of-valuation area-valuation type-material number Material issue posting is always carried out at the value of the issuing stock. GR posting is always carried out according to the price control of the stock received.
• #83: Goods issues can be both planned and unplanned. The data to be entered depends on the type of goods issue.
• #85: You can define in Customizing whether the consumption account can/must be entered manually.
• #92: Periodic Inventory In a periodic inventory, all stocks of the company are physically counted on the balance sheet key date. In this case, every material must be counted. During counting, the entire warehouse must be blocked for material movements. Continuous Inventory In the continuous inventory procedure, stocks are counted continuously during the entire fiscal year. In this case, it is important to ensure that every material is physically counted at least once during the year. Cycle Counting Cycle counting is a method of physical inventory where inventory is counted at regular intervals within a fiscal year. These intervals (or cycles) depend on the cycle counting indicator set for the materials. Inventory Sampling Randomly selected stocks of the company are physically counted on the balance sheet key date. If the variances between the result of the count and the book inventory balance are small enough, it is presumed that the book inventory balances for the other stocks are correct.
• #94: The physical inventory document contains information specifying which materials are to be counted on a certain date and at a certain storage location. If a blocking indicator is set, no goods movements can be entered for the material. A blocking indicator is automatically cancelled when the physical inventory count is entered. If a recount is arranged, a new physical inventory document is created. In addition, the physical inventory history is updated for the material involved. The book inventory balances are adjusted when the inventory differences are posted. In addition, postings are carried out in the financial accounting system.
• #96: In the case of order-based invoice verification, the items in a purchase order are settled. A prerequisite for this is that goods receipt has not yet been entered for the quantity invoiced when invoice verification is carried out. Items from different purchase orders can be settled together. With invoice verification based on goods receipt, each goods receipt is settled individually. The goods receipt must already have been entered for the quantity invoiced. Different goods receipts can be settled together. GR-based invoice verification must be specified in the order item. In the case of invoices which do not refer to an order, you can post directly to a material, G/L or fixed asset account.
• #97: In invoice verification incoming invoices and credit memos are entered invoices are checked (factual accuracy, correct prices) The resulting account movements are posted miscellaneous data is updated in the SAP system (for example,purchase order history, material prices...) Invoice verification accesses data from other application areas. An invoice document is created for each incoming invoice.
• #98: Posting an invoice has the following effects: a document is created. postings are made to the G/L accounts of the individual document items . the material master is updated the purchase order history is updated further accounting data (for example, cost centers, assets) is updated.
• #99: The system checks each invoice for variances. You can set tolerance limits for variances in MM Customizing (Invoice verification). if the invoice is outside the tolerance limits, the system issues an appropriate message if a tolerance upper limit is exceeded, the invoice is blocked for payment A blocked invoice must be released in a separate step before it can be paid.
• #100: The input tax amount is determined during invoice verification. The system carries out the appropriate postings automatically. The input tax amount can be entered in the tax field of the vendor screen field. If * is entered, the input tax amount is determined by the program. The control indicator contains a key for the tax type and percentage rate of tax. Input tax specifications are checked automatically to make sure they have been calculated correctly. If the invoice items have different input tax rates, they must be entered on the individual item screens.
• #101: If a goods receipt has already been entered for the quantity invoiced, the resulting open item is cleared in the GR/IR clearing account. Otherwise, an open item is created in the GR/IR clearing account which is cleared by a subsequent GR. There is a separate function for maintaining the GR/IR clearing account (Invoice verification menu -> Further processing -> Maintain GR/IR account). On goods receipt, the incoming material is valuated. Price differences can occur if a invoice is entered subsequently. In the case of a material subject to moving average price control and for which there are adequate stocks on hand, these differences are debited or credited to the material stock account. Otherwise, they are posted to a price difference account.
• #102: A receipt posting to the stock account is usually made with the standard price. The difference between the purchase order price and standard price is posted to the 'Expense/revenue: price difference' account (2). The difference between invoice and purchase order price is posted to the 'Expense/revenue: price difference' account (3). In the material master for a material with price control S, the 'Moving average price' is also displayed so you can determine the difference between the acquisition price and the standard price.
• #103: Receipts are posted to the stock account with the receipt value Quantity * Purchase order price. The moving average price is recalculated after every transaction to correspond to the acquisition price (2)/(4). The difference between the invoice and purchase order price is posted to the stock account as a credit since the invoiced quantity is in stock (3). The difference between the invoice and purchase order price is posted to the stock account for the 50 pieces still in stock. The difference posting for the 50 pieces no longer in stock is made to the 'Expense/revenue: price difference' account (6).
• #106: Account determination is required if the system is to fulfil its integration promise and post financial transactions at the same time as the relevant operational transaction. Accounts are determined differently, depending on which functional area you are using: MM: The process of account determination varies depending on whether the transaction involved has a movement type such as inventory management or whether there is no movement type such as invoice verification and valuation. Account determination in SD uses the condition technique. This chapter looks at the account determination of MM transactions w. and w/o movement type only. You can do most of the settings relevant for the account assignments for MM transactions either in the configuration menu for "valuation/account assignment" (settings for MM transactions w. movement type) or in the configuration menu for "invoice verification" (settings for MM transactions w/o movement type). You will get to the same tables but there are different simulation functions. It is also possible to access these tables via the configuration menu for accounting.
• #107: The valuation area is the level at which material valuations are carried out. In the MM application transactions, the valuation area is hidden. In customizing, you can choose whether the valuation area equals the company code or the plant. This setting must be carried out before creating materials and before entering transactions in MM inventory management. If PP is active the valuation area must be on plant level ! Grouping of organizational entities The allocation of a company code to a chart of accounts is carried out in the FI customizing. The chart of accounts to be used is determined for each company code. The valuation grouping code facilitates the allocation of G/L accounts with as little effort as possible. Valuation areas to be treated equally in terms of account assignment must be defined with the same valuation grouping code. Valuation grouping codes either serve as a means of fine differentiation within a chart of accounts or they correspond to a chart of accounts. When making the basic settings for valuation, you can specify whether the valuation grouping code is active.
• #108: Grouping of material master entities Account category reference is the grouping term for account determination depending on the material type. Several valuation classes can be allocated to one account category reference. Each material type is allocated to one account category reference. When maintaining the accounting data of a material of this material type, you can select one of the valuation classes that are defined for the corresponding account category reference. The G/L account determination for a material is carried out according to the settings for this valuation class.
• #109: Via the Account category reference You can define the same G/L account determination for all materials of one or even several material types. But you can also specify that different G/L accounts are determined for different materials of a material type.
• #110: The G/L accounts affected by a particular transaction are specified in a posting record. The debit postings are always specified first. In the SAP System, it is pre-defined which MM transactions have accounting significance (i.e. affect the FI module). As individual SAP users have different charts of accounts, generalized posting records are allocated to each transaction (these are called value strings). Value strings contain processing keys (also called transaction or transaction/event keys) for the relevant posting transaction. You can (but it is not recommended) change the processing keys contained within a value string but you cannot change the processing keys themselves (nor can you create/delete them). You can determine which G/L accounts are assigned to the processing keys. Therefore: The value string is a set of processing keys (see table T156W) required to fulfil the account postings for a certain movement type/material type or transaction type/material type combination. A processing key is used to determine the accounts and posting keys for line items which are created automatically by the system. The main difference between movement type-based/non-movement type -based MM transactions in terms of customizing is the allocation procedure for the value string and processing keys.
• #111: Each processing key in the value string determines the following information for its posting the FI posting key to be used for debit and credit the rules (see next page) and whether account modifications are to be taken into account together with the rule and the chart of account the G/L account "The account modification is a key which has a different meaning depending on the procedure which is used to differentiate the account determination. The meaning is predefined in the system and cannot be changed." [SAP Help on the field] It is possible to include a extra key (account modification key) for a processing key within a particular value string / movement type combination (see Customizing "new movement types"). If an account modification key is added to a processing key it is only active within that particular value string and "type of movement" (different settings for one movement type e.g. 101: GR w. reference to a purchase order and GR with reference to a production order, see "new movement types", view posting control). Example: In the MM all offsetting entries for inventory postings are grouped under the processing key GBB. In fact there are (or may be) different offsetting entries e.g. for GR from production (MType 101) or GI for cost center (MType 201). In that case the account modification is used to determine the relevant account number using the account modification AUF and VBR. The account modification key itself seems to be a hard coded processing key (e.g. AUF).
• #112: Account allocation depends on the chart of accounts and on the transaction (processing key).You can set further account determination keys in the rule definition. The rules specify whether there can be different G/L accounts for credit and debit postings and whether the valuation class and/or the valuation grouping code and/or account modification should be used when determining the G/L account. If account modification is active, a new processing key is found and used to determine the relevant rules. In the MM Rel. 2.2 only the processing key GBB (offsetting entry for inventory postings) uses account modifications e.g. for the order settlement (processing key AUF).
• #113: Step 1: Determination of the value string for movement type-based MM transactions can be viewed via the menu option: Tools -> Customizing -> Configuration -> Logistics -> Material Management -> Inventory Management -> Transactions -> Movement types -> New movement types (Transaction code OMBQ) Choose view "Posting Control". Step 2: Determination of the value string for non movement type-based MM transactions can be viewed via the tables: T169 and T169W. Step 3: Determination of the processing keys: a.) Movement type-based MM transactions: Table T156W b.) Non movement type-based MM transactions: Table T169A Step 4: The G/L account to be used in a given circumstance (Rules) is set up via one of the following menu options (different simulation functionality !): Tools -> Customizing -> Configuration -> Logistics -> Material Management -> Valuation / acct assg. -> Configuration -> Acct determination -> Automatic posting. Tools -> Customizing -> Configuration -> Logistics -> Material Management -> Invoice verification -> Master data -> Automatic posting.
• #114: When customizing the account determination process, a valuation grouping code is first selected (this also implies a chart of accounts). After this, a posting transaction is selected for the configuration of the G/L accounts. This determines the processing (or transaction) key and the account modifications relevant for this transaction. After this, the relevant G/L account can be allocated for the individual valuation classes. A simulation function supports the checking of the settings made.