Outlining Consumable Purchasing

Consumable purchasing is the procurement process for acquiring goods or materials intended for direct consumption within the organization. In this solution process, both standard and limit items can be procured.

Watch the following video to get an overview of the key process flow of the Consumable Purchasing Solution Process:

Consumable items can be entered either with or without a material number. The process can start either with a purchase requisition or a purchase order. The purchase requisition and the purchase order are subject to approval based on predefined approval workflows before being issued to a supplier. An account assignment category is necessary for this procurement process. As the value of the consumable goods is directly expended to an account assignment category, there is no inventory in the system for consumable goods. By posting a goods receipt, the value of the goods is expended to a cost center. Upon receiving the invoices from the supplier, they are entered with reference to the corresponding purchase order. This allows the purchase order, goods receipt, and invoice value to align.

The following diagram shows the key process flow of consumable purchasing.

You can find the complete Solution Process Flow on Process Navigator - SAP for Me:

A consumable material is procured directly for an account assignment object.

You can indeed procure stock material not only for stock, that is, to be placed in storage, but also directly for consumption. You may purchase trading goods for a customer, for instance. You can thus enter an account assignment for each item of an external purchasing document or purchase requisition if it is destined for direct consumption. In some instances, however, account assignment is mandatory.

You MUST enter an account assignment for an item under the following circumstances:

• A pure consumable material: If a material not subject to inventory management is ordered. It follows that such material is posted directly for consumption.
• If a product for which no product/material master record exists is ordered
• If an external service is ordered
• If a material is to be procured as a consumable, you must specify an account assignment category and other account assignment data in the document item of the relevant requisition or external purchasing document.

In this concept the main functions and key steps of the Consumable Purchasing Solution Process are explained but you can use other process steps or functions such as supplier confirmations in this solution process.