Material costs appear in the itemization as costing items of category M. These items are determined automatically in material costing with quantity structure. In unit costing (that is, material costing without quantity structure or base planning objects), you enter the materials manually as items of category M.

You can access the data of these materials in the material master record, in order to determine the prices of the materials for costing purposes. You can also transfer the results of material cost estimates into the material master record.

In addition, the material master record contains information about the determination of the quantity structure and about the procurement of the material to be costed.

The cost estimate accesses data in the accounting and costing views of the material master record, in order to do the following:

• Determine a price for externally-procured materials (in accordance with the valuation strategy for material valuation)
• Assign the material costs of a cost element using the valuation class
• Find the currency and price unit of the cost estimate

The cost estimate accesses data in the costing and MRP views of the material master record, in order to do the following:

Material costing provides the following information for the accounting view or costing view of the material master record:

• Standard prices for materials with standard price control
• Tax-based prices and commercial prices for inventory valuation 1, 2, 3
• Other planned prices 1, 2, 3

For more information about the material master record, see LO Material Master under the following: