Purchasing Info Record (SAP Library

Purchasing Info Record

Definition

Serves as a source of information for Purchasing. The purchasing info record (also referred to in abbreviated form as the "info record") contains information on a specific material and a vendor supplying the material. For example, the vendor's current pricing is stored in the info record.

The info record allows buyers to quickly determine:

Which materials have been previously offered or supplied by a specific vendor

Which vendors have offered or supplied a specific material

Structure

Content of an Info Record

The info record contains:

Data such as prices and conditions that you can store for the relevant purchasing organization or plant

The number of the last purchase order

Tolerance limits for overdeliveries and underdeliveries

The planned delivery time (lead time required by the vendor to deliver the material)
Vendor evaluation data

An indicator showing whether the vendor counts as the regular vendor for the material

The vendor sub-range to which the material belongs

The availability period during which the vendor can supply the material

The info record contains quotation and ordering data. The data in the info record (prices for example) is also used as default data for purchase orders.

For instance, you can store the current and future quotation conditions (discounts, fixed costs etc.) in the info record, in order to be able to copy them into Pos. You can also maintain the vendor’s conditions directly in the info record.

Organizational Levels

An info record can apply to the following organizational levels:

Purchasing organization

Plant

Procurement Types in Info Records

Standard

A standard info record contains information for standard purchase orders. The info records can be created for materials and services with and without master records.

Subcontracting

A subcontractor info record contains ordering information for subcontract orders. For example, if you subcontract the assembly of a component, the subcontractor info record would include the vendor's (subcontractor’s) price for assembling the component.

Pipeline

A pipeline info record contains information on a vendor’s commodity that is supplied through a pipeline or pipes (for example, oil or water) or by similar means (for example, electricity through the mains). The info record contains the vendor’s price for the consumption of such commodities by the buyer ("pipeline withdrawals"). You can store withdrawal/usage prices for different validity periods.

Consignment

A consignment info record contains information on a material that vendors keep available at their own cost on the orderer’s premises. The info record contains the vendor’s price for withdrawals by the orderer from consignment stock. As in the case of the pipeline info record, you can store prices for different validity periods.

For more information on pipeline and consignment procurement, refer to the documentation MM Special Stocks and Special Forms of Procurement in Materials Management.

Order Price History

The purchase order price history logs the various prices charged for a material by a vendor.

Texts in the Info Record

The info record contains the following text types:

Info record memo

An internal note or comment that is adopted in the PO item. The info record memo is not printed out.

PO text in info record

This text serves to describe the order item and corresponds to the PO text in the material master record. It is adopted in the PO item and included in the printout.

Short text

For material that has a material master record, the short text (short description) is adopted directly from the material master record in the PO or the outline purchase agreement.

PO Text in Info Record Versus PO Text in Material Master Record

For an info record linked to a material master record, you can specify for each purchasing organization whether:

Only the info record PO text is to be displayed and printed in purchasing documents

(To do so, set the indicator No m. text in the purchasing organization data of the info record.)

Both the info record PO text and the material master record PO text are to be displayed and printed in purchasing documents

Both texts are displayed and printed if the indicator No m. text is not set.

Note

If you distribute purchasing info records via Application Link Enabling (ALE), other SAP systems can make use of this data.

You will find more information on distribution in the documentation CA - ALE Business Process Library and under Distributable Master Data Objects.