Purchasing Master Data and Special Procurement Processes
Vendor, info record, source list and the specials
Vendor master is a business partner in S/4HANA carrying the supplier role (for example FLVN01). Purchasing data sits at purchasing organization level and optionally at plant level: order currency, payment terms, incoterms, partner functions.
The purchasing info record holds the material–vendor relationship: price conditions with validity periods and scales, order unit, tolerances, and the GR-based IV indicator. It can be general (plant-independent) or plant-specific. Prices reach the PO through the condition technique (calculation schema, typically RM0000). The source list defines which sources may be used for a material/plant and can be flagged as mandatory; quota arrangements split requirements across sources by quota rating.
Special procurement processes to distinguish:
- Consignment: stock belongs to the vendor (special stock K), no PO value, settled with MRKO against consignment info record prices, received with 101 K.
- Subcontracting: PO item category L with components provided to the subcontractor (issue 541); the GR of the finished product consumes them.
- Third-party order: PO item category S, vendor ships directly to the customer; the goods receipt is statistical.
- Stock transport order: plant-to-plant with document type UB, with or without SD delivery; without delivery it uses 351/101 and a stock-in-transit position.
- Pipeline: materials handled without stock management.
Traps: consignment stock is not valuated on your balance sheet until withdrawal; a subcontracting GR can drive components negative; a mandatory source list blocks POs to unlisted vendors; a plant-specific info record overrides the general one.
Rule of thumb: ask who owns the stock and who ships to whom. Ownership decides consignment versus normal procurement; the shipping route decides third-party versus stock transfer.