"Define item categories for sales documents"

In this menu option you define your categories for the sales documents. They represent the different business transactions in the SAP System together with the sales document types.

The item categories contained in the standard SAP R/3 System and the sales document types cover the usual business transactions.

You have the following possibilities for defining your own item categories:

Change an existing item category.

Copy an existing item category and change it according to your requirements.

Create a new item category.

In this menu option you do not make specifications concerning the following functions:

Pricing

Statistics

Text determination

Incompletion

You will edit these functions later in the respective menu options. This means that the definition of an item category is only complete if you have edited all of these menu options.

In this menu option you have to make or check the following specifications:

Item category

Specify an alphanumeric key for the item category that can have up to 4 characters.

Enter a description for the key.

Item type

If no physical delivery of goods is to be carried out for an item , you have the following possibilities to characterize the item category:

as a value item

as a text item

Differing data on header level and item level

If the fields on item level may contain data that differs from the header fields, you have to characterize the item category as a business item.

This means, for example, that the Incoterms that apply to one item may differ from the Incoterms in the sales document header.

Schedule line allowed

If physical delivery of goods is to be carried out for an item, the SAP System has to be able to set up schedule lines. Therefore, you have to characterize the item categories relevant for delivery correspondingly here.

Relevancy of weight specifications and volume specifications

If the weight and volume of an item is to be determined automatically by the SAP System, you have to characterize the item category correspondingly here.

You can then, for example, have the freight charges calculated automatically by the SAP System based on the weight or the volume.

Completion rule

Here you determine the completion rule for quotation items and contract items. The possible entries inform you about the possible completion rules. Currently, you cannot change them in Customizing.

Relevancy for delivery

Here you flag text items or value items which do not have schedule lines and are relevant for deliveries. Only the flagged items are copied from the sales document into the delivery when creating a delivery.

Relevance for billing

Here you characterize an item category which is relevant for:

delivery-related billing

order-related billing

You define the respective billing type in the sales document type.

Billing block

If you define a billing block for an item category, this specification is copied into the sales document item. This way, the item is blocked for all billing types that are allocated to this billing block. For more information on the allocation of billing blocks to billing types, see section "Define blocking reasons in billing" . You can only remove the block manually from the salesdocument.

Special stock

Here you specify an indicator which defines the type of special stock. If, for example, certain stock is managed separately, for example in the case of consignment stock, this indicator defines the type of stock.

Returns

Here you flag an item category that you provided for return deliveries.

Manual selection of alternatives

If several alternatives are available for BOM explosion, you can control with this indicator whether the alternatives are displayed on the screen for manual selection.

Transaction procedure

You can determine the transaction procedure for an item category individually:

Group screen sequence

Here you have to define the screens to be displayed by the SAP System and the sequence for a certain transaction (for example, creating an order).

Field selection item

Here you determine the fields that are to be displayed on the item screens by the SAP System, depending on the item category.

The possible entries list the keys you may use. Currently, the keys cannot be changed in Customizing.

Note

If you create or copy a new item category that is to be included in a delivery, you also have to define a delivery item category with the same name.

The SAP System automatically copies the item category into the delivery item that was found for the sales document item.

SAP Recommendation

If you define your own item categories, the keys should start with the letter Z since SAP does not use this range of names in the standard SAP R/3 System.

If you define your own item categories, you should copy similar item categories defined by SAP and make the corresponding changes.

In this case, all specifications of the existing item category are copied as well as the allocation to sales document types. Data is copied, for example, concerning partner determination, pricing, or document flow, but you do not edit it in this menu option. As a result, you can test your new item categories with regard to the defaults set here without having to edit the other menu options.

When copying sales document types, item categories and schedule line categories, the SAP System automatically creates a log with the copied data. Using the log, you can check whether all copied data applies to your item category or whether you have to make changes.

Actions

If you only have to make insignificant changes (e.g. a changed description) to the existing item categories, change them correspondingly.

Insignificant changes concern parameters that are not used for controlling purposes.

If you have to make further changes, define new item categories.

You can, for example, define your own pricing for your item categories. Or you define an item category in which the data may not differ from the data on header level but which matches an existing item category and is tied up with the document flow in a similar way.