The system derives purchase order commitments from the order value. It is the value of goods ordered, but for which no actual costs have yet been incurred.

The following purchase order data affects the creation and reduction of purchase order commitments:

• The purchase order value
• Delivery date
• Account assignment

For this data transfer to take place from Purchasing, the purchase order must be assigned to an order, a cost center, or a project.

The system uses the following to create purchase order commitments:

• Individual purchase order

You create commitments using the expected delivery date, not the date the purchase order was created.

A purchase order commitment includes anticipated delivery costs. These costs are managed separately by the system. They are displayed individually according to origin (for example, freight costs, duty costs, packaging). This distinction between the delivery costs and the purchase order itself ensures that you can clearly display the different currencies in which the individual cost components are incurred.

In the Purchasing component, you can assign a purchase order item to several account assignment objects (for example, you can distribute the costs for an item to several orders or cost centers). The system updates the purchase order commitment on the corresponding account assignment objects accordingly.

You can change the account assignment for a purchase order item so that, for example, the costs are assigned to an item on order 2 instead of order 1. You can only do this if no actual costs have yet been incurred. Therefore, no goods receipt or invoice receipt may already have occurred. The system displays the purchase order commitment on the new account assignment object.