Outlining Reservations in SAP S/4HANA

A reservation is the requirement of the warehouse to make the materials for a goods movement (generally a withdrawal) ready at a later date and for a particular purpose. It is important that reservations are considered in materials planning so that a required material can be procured at the right time. A reservation also simplifies and speeds up the entry process, and helps prepare the work in the goods issuing department.

Typically, you preplan goods issues (GIs) and transfer postings with a reservation, but you can also preplan goods receipts (GRs).

Preplanning of transfer postings is only possible for transfer postings in the one-step procedure, from storage location-to-storage location (movement type 311) and plant-to-plant (movement type 301). The preplanning of GRs with a reservation should only take place in exceptional cases. If you are using purchasing and production, then GRs are planned with purchase orders (POs) and production orders. Receipt reservations are not necessary.

Reservations can be created both manually and automatically.

The automatically generated reservations belong to the following:

• Dependent reservations: These reservations are for orders, networks, and work breakdown structure (WBS) elements. When you open an order, network, or project, the system automatically reserves the warehouse components. Although you can display dependent reservations, you cannot maintain them directly. For example, you cannot change a dependent reservation for an order directly; you need to change the order's components. The system then automatically updates the reservation.
• Stock transfer reservations: These reservations plan the transfer between storage locations. If, for example, reorder point planning is managed at the storage location level, and the available stock falls short of the reorder point, the system creates a stock transfer reservation in the plant with the amount of the replenishment quantity.

A reservation document consists of a header and at least one item. The header contains general data about the reservation transaction (created by, movement type, account assignment, and base date). The items describe the individually planned movements (material, quantity, requirement date, plant, and storage location).

A reservation document consists of a header and at least one item. The header contains general data about the reservation transaction:

• Created by
• Movement type
• Account assignment
• Base date

The items' data describe the individually planned movements:

• Material - What are we moving?
• Quantity – How much are we moving?
• Requirement date – When are we moving?
• Plant / Storage location – Where are we moving the items?

There are two indicators in the items of a reservation that control the processing of the reservation. To be able to post a goods issue to a reservation, the movement needs to be allowed. Once the goods issue is posted - finally or even partially - the Final Issue indicator will be set automatically or manually.

• Movement Allowed indicator:

  When posting a goods movement, you can refer only to reservation items for which the Movement Allowed indicator is selected. With this indicator, you can also prevent a goods movement from being posted to a reservation item. This is useful if the requirement date for the material is far in the future.

• Final Issue indicator:

  The Final Issue indicator is used to mark a reservation item as completed. It is set automatically during goods issue posting if the entire reserved quantity is withdrawn. You can also set the Final Issue indicator for a reservation item manually if you only issue a part of the reserved quantity and no longer require the remaining quantity. You can set the indicator directly when you enter the goods movement, but also by changing the reservation.

• Reservations ensure materials are available for future goods movements and support efficient warehouse operations.
• You can create reservations manually or automatically, including dependent and stock transfer reservations.
• A reservation document has a header with general data and items detailing material movements.
• Indicators in reservation items control whether goods movements are allowed and when reservation items are completed.