The system always carries out the message determination process when you create an RFQ, a purchase order, a contract, an outline agreement, a scheduling agreement release, or a standard delivery schedule under a scheduling agreement. " Message determination" means that the system searches for a message record whose default values match up with the values from the relevant purchasing document.

• The external messages have been set up in Customizing for Purchasing.
  You can also work with the standard settings. For further information, see Tips for Fast Message Determination Set-Up in the Implementation Guide (IMG).
• You must have created message records via master data maintenance in the Purchasing menu. (See Creating Message Records.)

1. You create a purchasing document.
2. The system carries out the message determination process. This is based on the condition technique. (See the documentation Cross-Application Components under CA – Message Control for more on this topic.)
1. The system assigns the message determination schema that is valid for the purchasing document. The schema contains the message type.
2. The system searches the condition tables for a valid message record (e.g. for the document type) via the access sequence assigned to the message type.
3. If a message record is found, the system generates a message for the purchasing document using the data of the record (transmission medium, transmission time-spot etc.) and places it in the message queue.



You can view an analysis log of the message determination process as well as the message itself in the purchasing document via Header ® Messages. At this point, you can also change the output criteria for the message (see Changing the Output Criteria).

Note that the analysis log is not saved and is only available immediately following the message determination process.

4. The message is outputted from the message queue in accordance with the specified transmission time-spot. (See Outputting Messages.)