Articles: Basic Data 
Use
In this user department, you define global article data not specific to a vendor or site.
Prerequisites
You have made the necessary Customizing settings to allow the system to display the screen data available for individual articles.
For more data about screen data, see Customizing for Logistics - General under Article Master ® Retail-Specific Settings ® Settings for Screen Data Display ® Process Screen Data Parameters.
Features
· If screen data exists for the current article, based on your Customizing settings the system displays pushbuttons and a thumbnail in the Screen Data group box that you can use to display additional screen material:
¡ Full screens
¡ Screen series
¡ Screens for variants of a generic article
¡ Screen material in an HTML viewer
· You can use a Business Add-In (BAdI) to adapt the storage structure to customer-specific requirements.
For more information, see Customizing for Logistics - General under Article Master ® Retail-Specific Settings ® Settings for Screen Data Display ® Enhancements Using Business Add-Ins ® BAdI: Control of Screen Data Display.
· For information about
¡ Tax data
see Articles: Tax Data.
¡ Articles status (cross-site and cross-distribution-chain) and about client-wide article blocking under
§ Articles: Blocking Articles for Purchase or Sale
§ Articles: Blocking an Article
Activities
The following is just a selection of the basic data that you can enter for each article:
· Units of measure/EANs/dimensions
¡ Unit of measure
Besides the base unit of measure, you can specify alternative units of measure. If you specify an alternative unit of measure, you must specify the factor for converting it to the base unit of measure. You can flag individual units of measure as the sales unit, unit of issue (or delivery unit), and/or order unit as required.
When creating and changing purchase orders and order items, you cannot change the base unit of measure in the article master record as this is blocked to prevent data inconsistencies. However, you can change other basic data in the article master record:
¡ EANs
You can create an International Article Number (EAN) for each unit of measure. You can define additional EANs for a unit of measure, by choosing Extras ® Additional EANs. See also EAN Management.
¡ Dimensions
You can enter dimensions, volume, and weight for each unit of measure.
For a generic article, you can also choose the following functions:
· Characteristic values
This function allows you to display the characteristics (such as color) used to describe and distinguish articles, and to select values (such as blue or white) for them. You can also define new characteristic values here and/or cancel existing ones.
· Variant
This allows you to display the combinations of characteristic values that have been defined for a generic article, for example, the colors in which a particular size is available. You can also define new combinations here.
See also:
Direct Access to Follow-Up/Replacement Article Relationships