Understanding Procurement of Material with Serial Numbers

Objectives
After completing this lesson, you will be able to:

After completing this lesson, you will be able to:

  • Demonstrate the procurement of material with serial numbers

Features of the Procurement of Serialized Materials

Serialization is a way to keep track of individual materials. For some process tasks, such as goods receipt, goods issue or inventory count, you enter not only the material and quantity, but also the serial numbers of the individual pieces. A serial number is a unique number that identifies an individual piece of a material. For example, if the goods receipt quantity of a material is 3 pieces, you must enter a serial number for each of the 3 pieces. You can track all goods movements for a particular serial number.

Material Master Record for Serialized Materials

You define a material as serialized by entering a serial number profile in the Plant Data /Storage 2 view of the material master record.

Some serial number profiles are delivered in SAP S/4HANA Cloud, but you can also configure you individual profiles. The serial number profile controls, among other things, the process steps for which the entry of a serial number is required.

The figure, Material Master Record of a Serialized Material, shows an example of a serialized material.

Streamlined Procurement Process - Create Purchase Order

The simplified procurement process begins with the manual creation of a purchase order.

We recommend creating purchasing info records for recurring purchases of a certain product.

A purchasing info record contains information specific to a material and the supplier providing the material. It contains information such as the purchasing price, the planned delivery time, the standard order quantity, and tolerances for over- and under deliveries. This data is used as default values in the purchase order transaction. The information is specific to a particular purchasing organization and optionally a specific plant.

The Manage Purchase Orders (F0842A) app allows you to create a purchase order manually in several different ways. We try to present different options during the course.

The following steps outline how you can create a purchase order with the Manage Purchase Orders app referring to a purchasing info record:

  1. Start the Manage Purchase Orders app.

  2. Choose Create to create a new PO.

  3. Choose Add from Document in the item area.

  4. In the Add from Document dialog screen, enter the supplier and the material and choose Info Record as the purchasing document type. To start the selection, choose Go.

  5. Select the required info record in the search result and choose Add Items to confirm your selection.

  6. Add missing item data such as plant and order quantity and choose Order to create the purchase order.

Streamlined Procurement Process - Post Goods Receipt

Use for example the Post Goods Movement (MIGO) app for posting a goods receipt for a serialized material.

  1. Start the Post Goods Movement app.

  2. Choose Goods Receipt as transaction and Purchase Order as the reference.

  3. Check the default value for the movement type and change it to 101 if necessary.

  4. Enter the number of the reference document. If you don’t know the number of the document, use the Search function.

  5. To copy the items from the reference document, choose Execute or press Enter on your keyboard.

  6. Select the delivered items using the OK indicator. If necessary, change the quantity for the items, and specify a storage location and stock type.

  7. Expand the item detail data.

  8. Select the Create Serial Nos Automatically checkbox.

    Note
    You can also enter the serial numbers manually or import them from a file for example.
  9. Post the goods receipt.

Note
Although you cannot see the serial numbers on the stock overview, the system prompts you to enter the corresponding serial numbers when you withdraw a stock quantity of this material.
Note
Note that for purchase order items with serialized materials, you can use the Post Goods Movement (MIGO) app as well as Post Goods Receipt for Purchasing Document (F0843).

Streamlined Procurement Process - Create Supplier Invoice

You use the Create Supplier Invoice app (F0859) to enter manually and post a supplier invoice related to a purchase order.

When you start the app, simply enter the company code (if it is not automatically proposed), the gross invoice amount, the invoice date, the reference, and the purchase order number. The system determines all further data.

In the item list, the system proposes all items that correspond to the referenced purchase order. The system proposes the quantities and amounts of all items for which goods receipts were posted but not fully invoiced.

If necessary, change the proposed data according to the received supplier invoice. The system compares the supplier invoice data with the related purchase order data. If the deviation is outside defined tolerances, the invoice is posted, but the invoice is automatically blocked for payment.

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