Purchasing (MM-PUR)
Purpose
An SAP system consists of a number of components that are completely integrated with one another. This integration allows the various departments and units of an enterprise to share and maintain the same information.
Purchasing is a component of
Materials Management
, abbreviated to
MM
. The
MM
component supports all the phases of materials management: materials planning, purchasing, goods receipt, inventory management, and invoice verification.
The tasks of the
MM Purchasing
component are as follows:
External procurement of materials and services
Determination of possible sources of supply for a requirement that arises either in materials planning or directly in a user department
Monitoring of deliveries and payments for deliveries
Good communication between all participants in the process is necessary for procurement to function smoothly.
Integration
Purchasing communicates with other SAP components to ensure a constant flow of information. For example, it works side by side with the following components:
Controlling (CO)
The interface to the cost accounting system (Controlling) can be seen above all in the case of purchase orders for materials intended for direct consumption and for services, since these can be directly assigned to a cost center or a production order.
Financial Accounting (FI)
Purchasing maintains data on the vendors that are defined in the system jointly with Financial Accounting. Information on each vendor is stored in a vendor master record, which contains both accounting and procurement information. The vendor master record represents the creditor account in financial accounting.
Through PO account assignment, Purchasing can also specify which G/L accounts are to be charged in the financial accounting system.
Sales and Distribution (SD)
In the context of materials planning, a requirement that has arisen in Sales can be transferred to Purchasing. In addition, when you create a purchase requisition, you can immediately assign it to a sales order.
SAP Supplier Relationship Management (SAP SRM)
A central contract created by a strategic purchaser (buyer) in SAP SRM can be distributed to several ERP systems and be available there for sourcing.
Portal Content
The
Business Package for Buyer
provides easy access to personalized worklists for frequently used purchasing objects, such as purchasing requisitions, purchase orders, vendors, or materials. The prerequisite for this is that you use and own a license for a SAP NetWeaver Portal.