Lesson 3 of 5
Product sales views
9 min
The product master (called the material master in ECC) holds data for every department: purchasing, MRP, accounting, warehouse. Sales has its own views, maintained per sales organization and distribution channel and per plant. For Contoso's alternator CMC-ALT-100 these views decide which plant ships it, how the order item behaves, how it is taxed and which revenue account it posts to.
Maintain the product with the Manage Product Master Data app or MM01/MM02 in SAP GUI, choosing the sales organization data views for 1710 / 10 and the sales plant data view for plants 1710 and 1720. A product without sales organization data for a sales area cannot be ordered in it.
Sales organization data
| Field | Contoso value for CMC-ALT-100 | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Delivering plant | 1710 Detroit | Proposed plant in the order if no higher-priority source supplies one |
| Sales unit | Each | Unit the customer orders in |
| Minimum order quantity | 1 | Warning or error below it |
| Tax classification | Taxable | With the customer's tax classification, decides tax |
| Item category group | NORM (standard item) | Drives the item category in the order |
| Account assignment group | Finished goods | Revenue account determination at billing |
| Material pricing group | Alternators | Lets pricing condition records apply to a group of products |
Key sales organization fields. Values are Contoso's examples.
The item category group
The item category group is the most powerful single field in the sales views. Together with the sales document type, it determines the item category of each order item, and the item category decides almost everything about how the item behaves: whether it is relevant for pricing, whether it gets schedule lines, whether it is delivered, whether it is billed from the order or the delivery.
- Sales document typeStandard order
- Item category groupNORM from the product's sales organization data
- Usage and higher-level itemNone for a simple item
- Item categoryStandard item: priced, scheduled, delivered and billed from the delivery
- Schedule line categoryDetermined from the item category and MRP type; controls requirements and delivery relevance
If someone maintains a service item category group on a physical product by mistake, the order item might not be delivered at all, or might be billed straight from the order. The order saves without complaint, so this defect is found only by a tester who checks the item category, not just that the order saved.
Sales plant data
The availability check group controls how the availability check treats the product in the plant. The loading group, with the customer's shipping conditions and the plant, determines the shipping point. The transportation group feeds route determination. A product that is maintained for plant 1710 but not 1720 cannot be delivered from Chicago, even if the order proposes 1720.
| Symptom in the order | Product field to check | View |
|---|---|---|
| Wrong plant proposed | Delivering plant (after customer-material info and customer) | Sales organization data |
| Item not delivered or billed unexpectedly | Item category group | Sales organization data |
| No shipping point found | Loading group | Sales plant data |
| Availability check behaves oddly | Availability check group | Sales plant data |
| Revenue posts to the wrong account | Account assignment group | Sales organization data |
| Tax missing or unexpected | Tax classification | Sales organization data |
What would you do?
A test order for CMC-ALT-100 saves, but the item never appears in the delivery due list. Availability is confirmed and the order is complete. What should the tester check first?
- Sales views exist per sales organization and channel, and per plant.
- Sales organization data: delivering plant, sales unit, tax classification, item category group, account assignment group, pricing group.
- The item category group plus the document type determines the item category, which controls pricing, scheduling, delivery and billing.
- Sales plant data: availability check group, loading group, transportation group.
- Check the item category, not just that the order saved.
Check your understanding · not graded
Lesson check
1. Which product field, with the sales document type, determines the item category?
2. Which product field helps determine the shipping point?
3. At which level is the delivering plant maintained in the product master?
4. Why can a wrong item category group go unnoticed?