The Purchasing Value Key Field in SAP S4/HANA

In SAP S4/HANA, the purchasing value key field is in the Purchasing view tab under the material master (MM03). The field can be used for different scenarios and it is very handy to set up reminders related to delivery, outstanding POs, or any deadline in that case. The other example is GR/IR Control or tolerance limit control.

In this article, we will examine the field and how to configure it.

The configuration of the purchasing value key can be found under:

SPRO – Materials Management – Purchasing – Material Master – Define Purchasing Value Keys

1. Reminder/Expedite Fields

Here you enter the number of days you want the reminder to be sent or messages sent to the vendor. You can enter either + or – numbers. A positive number will be sent after the due date given by the purchasing document, and the negative number will do the opposite.

• Acknowledgement required

If you tick this indicator, then that means that the vendor is expected to send an acknowledgment that they have received the purchasing document.

• GR/IR Control – Tolerance

Tol. Undelivered: the indicator means that you can allow a % for under-delivery for this material. For example, say you ordered 100 of material X and you received 87 of them, the system will allow it, but if received 86? Nope, the system will throw an error.

The same goes for tolerance over delivery, you can enter a percentage for the over-delivery tolerance (Tol. Overdelivery). Going back to the example of 100, the system will allow you to receive 107, but not 108.

Unlimited Over delivery: This indicator means that you can accept unlimited quantities from the supplier and will override what you indicated in Unlimited OverDel.

• Shipping Instructions

This field allows instruction regarding shipping or packaging requirements to be sent to the vendor if used. The table is T027A and can be configured via:

SPRO – Materials Management – Purchasing – Material Master – Define Shipping Instructions

• Vendor Evaluation

Minimum delivery quantity percentage (Min. Del.Qty %): you can enter the minimum percentage of the PO quantity that must be delivered for the receipt of the goods to be included in the vendor evaluation. This field prevents the vendor from receiving a good score for on-time delivery when the delivery quantity was insufficient.

StdDelDtVar: Standardizing Value for Delivery Time Variance is entered to determine how many days from the planned delivery data will constitute 100% variance for vendor evaluation.

I hope you found the usage of purchasing value key in SAP useful.