SAP Inventory Manager, Warehouse Stock, and User Roles

Inventory management is the process of efficiently monitoring the flow of products into and out of an existing inventory in the warehouse. This process involves controlling the receipt of products in order to prevent the inventory from becoming too high or too low.

It is important to understand that Warehouse Stock and user roles are configured separately in the back end by your administrator. For example, you could have a user role of Warehouse Manager, but Warehouse Stock may not be enabled in the application. That could affect the screens that you do or do not see. Each site and configuration will be different, and not all examples can be covered in the tables in this section. If you have any questions about your configuration, ask your administrator.

SAP Inventory Manager without Warehouse Stock Enabled

When inventory gets too high, items are stored at an unnecessary cost. When inventory is too low, it can cause a stock-out and production could be halted due to a lack of raw materials. In SAP, the inventory management functionality revolves around the movement of materials in and out of the storage facility and the physical count of those items at regular intervals. Since the basic SAP Inventory Manager application tracks the total stock of materials for a storage location, you will use this when you have a warehouse that is small and easily managed.

SAP Inventory Manager with Warehouse Stock Enabled

Enabling Warehouse Stock in the SAP Inventory Manager application provides flexible, automated support in processing all goods movements and in managing stocks in your warehouse complex. The system supports scheduled and efficient processing of all logistics processes within your warehouse. Warehouse Stock allows you to map your entire warehouse complex down to the storage bin level. Not only do you gain an overview of the entire quantity of material, you also always have the ability to determine exactly where a certain material is within your warehouse complex.

You can use warehouse stock to optimize the use of all of your storage bins and warehouse movements and to store material stocks from several plants together in warehouses with random storage. This allows you to optimize the use of all storage bins, mix pallets belonging to several owners in randomly slotted warehouses and still know exactly where a particular material is located within your warehouse complex.

User Roles

User roles are controlled through back end configuration, and define what you, the user, see on your client device. Depending on your defined role, you may or may not see various tabs, action menu items, or have access to certain fields. There are three user roles you can be assigned in the SAP Inventory Manager application. You can only be assigned one role at a time. Following are the three user roles:

  • IM: SAP Inventory Manager user; limited to only inventory-level screens and transactions

  • WH: Warehouse Manager user; able to view basic SAP Inventory Manager screens like receipts, issues, etc. Also able to view Warehouse screens and transactions.

  • IMWH: Dual user; able to view all screens and transactions for both SAP Inventory Manager and Warehouse Stock

Viewing Screens and Understanding User Roles

As mentioned above, depending on your assigned user role, you may or may not see certain tabs, screens, or have some fields on screens available to you. If you are unsure of what user role you are assigned to, the following tables can help you to figure out which screens are assigned to which user role.

Screens Visible by User Roles*

Group Category

Tab Name

Show for User Role

Hide for User Role

Comments

Inbound

Receipts

IM, WH

Inbound

Reversals

IM, WH

Inbound

Put Away

WH

IM

Outbound

Issues

IM, WH

Outbound

Reversals

IM, WH

Outbound

Pick

WH

IM

Internal Process

Physical Inventory

IM, WH

There is only one tab for physical inventory counts, thus, it will show for all user roles.

IM: Two Action menu items for physical inventory: Document Download and Add

WH: Two Action menu items for physical inventory: Document Download and Add

IMWH: Four Action menu items that allow a user to add/download physical inventory at both the Inventory Manager and the Warehouse Manager level.

Internal Process

Reversals

IM, WH

Internal Process

Stock Overview

IM, WH

There is only one tab for Stock Overview, therefore, it will show for all user roles.

As with physical inventory counts, different action items will display based on user roles to perform searches at the IM or WH level.

Internal Process

Stock Transfers

IM

WH

Internal Process

Transfer Orders

WH

IM

Internal Process

Put Away

WH

IM

Internal Process

Pick

WH

IM

Orders

Purchase Requisitions

IM, WH

* - IM, WH stand for SAP Inventory Manager and Warehouse Manager, respectively. IMWH stands for a dual-role consisting of both SAP Inventory Manager and Warehouse Manager.
Physical Inventory Action Menu List

Menu Item Name

Show for User Role

Download Physical Inventory

IM, IMWH

Download Warehouse Inventory

WH, IMWH

Add Physical Inventory

IM, IMWH

Add Warehouse Inventory

WH, IMWH
Stock Overview Action Menu List

Menu Item Name

Show for User Role

Download Inventory Stock

IM, IMWH

Download Warehouse Stock

WH, IMWH