Configuring the Material Master

Klee Associates, Inc.

Material Types
When you create a new material, you have to select the industry sector and
material type. Ignore the industry sector for now I have yet to see a good use
for this field. The material type, however, drives the entire use and usefulness of
the Material Master.
Material Type answers many questions about the material: Is the material
configurable? Is it a raw material? Is the master number assigned internally or
externally?
The material type determines the order of user views (tabs) and which fields you
see on those views. In addition, it designates whether the procurement type is inhouse or external and whether changes in material value are updated to the
Financial Accounting module.
From the many standard material types that exist in the SAP system, I
recommend you select the one that fits the material with which you are working.
Then copy it to your own custom material type. The example in this manual is to
copy from a KMAT (configurable material) to a ZMAT.

Step 1: Configuring Material Types

The following procedure illustrates how to configure material types.
1. Review the material types in the standard SAP system and find the one that
most closely resembles the material to be created.
2. Navigate to the IMG and execute the following transaction:
Transaction Code: (no unique transaction code)
Logistics General Material Master Basic Settings Material Types
Define Attributes of Material Types
3. Select the material type that you want to copy and click the Copy icon

4. Clicking the Copy icon takes you to the Create Material Type screen. Enter a
name for your new material type. ZMAT appears in this example.

5. General Data Tab

The next figure displays the fields in the general data section of the Create
Material Type screen. Complete this screen as shown in the table below.

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Configuring the Material Master

Create Material Type: General Data

Field Name

Description

Field reference

The field reference determines which fields are

mandatory, optional, hidden, and display only. It was
created in Step 2 of this unit. In our example, the field
reference is also ZMAT.

SRef: material type

The screen reference material type determines which

screens appear and in what order they appear, when
creating a material master record.
Authorization group is required to limit certain users
from creating certain material types. SAP performs
two checks when a user attempts to create a new
material:

Authorization group

1. Determine if that user has access to the

Create Material transaction.
2.

Verify that the user has access to create

that material type. (You can leave this blank
if you do not want to restrict or maintain the
material types that specified users create.

Cross-plant material status can restrict specific

purposes or actions for a material.

X-plant matl status

Another configuration step in the IMG can configure

the behavior of the selectable statuses. For example,
if a material type cannot be procured, configuration of
the material status would indicate a warning or error
message to a user who is trying to procure that
material type.
The settings driven by the status can also be
overridden on the material master.

Item category group

Item category group drives the processing of the

material type in the sales order. The combination of
item category group and order type determines the
item category defined for a sales order line item.

With Qty Structure

A quantity structure consists of a Bill of Material and

Routing and is the basis for calculating material costs.
It is used in process and repetitive manufacturing. If a

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material is costed with a quantity structure, turn on

this indicator to improve system performance. You
can override this checkbox in individual material
masters.
Initial Status

Check the initial status box if this is a batch material

and the initial batch of this material should be
restricted.

External no. assignment

w/o check

Check this box if you want to allow external

numbering of the material master (assigned by the
user) without SAP checking that the number is within
a valid range. This basically allows the user to name
the material without following any naming
conventions.

General Tab Field Completion

6. Specifying parameters on the Special Material Types tab

On the Special Material Types tab, you can mark if the material is:

Configurable

For a process (product produces co-products)

Pipeline mandatory material

Manufacturer part

Create Material Type: Special material types

7. Internal/external Purchase Orders Tab

The figure below shows the Create Material Type: Internal/external purchase
orders tab. In this area, set whether to allow internal or external purchase orders.

10

Select 0 if internal or external purchase orders are not allowed.

Select 1 if they are allowed, but SAP will issue a warning message.

Select 2 if they are allowed without warning.

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Configuring the Material Master

Create Material Type: Internal/External POs

8. Setting a standard material classification

If you use a standard material classification for your materials of this material
type, you can enter it in the Create Material Type: Classification tab to save users
from selecting it for every new material created.

Create Material Type: Classification

9. Setting default price control for material type

The figure below shows the Create Material Type: Valuation screen. A valuation
class assigns the material to a group of general ledger (G/L) accounts that are
updated when a goods movement occurs.
This section determines what the default price control will be for your material
type. You can select either standard price or moving value, or leave it blank. The
account category reference (specified in the Acct cat. reference field) is a group
of valuation classes (G/L accounts) that SAP lets you enter when maintaining the
Accounting view of the material master record. (If your material type does not
utilize the Accounting view, this section is irrelevant.)

Create Material Type: Valuation

10. Determine the valuation area for the material type. On the Quantity/value
Updating Tab, you will select the appropriate valuation area conditions.
A valuation area is simply the level at which you value your stock either at
a plant or company code level or by quantity or value. Most SAP customers
set their plants here. You can choose to display the quantity and value of
your stock within the material master record. If you need to see this

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information in the Material Master, you can select it here; but keep in mind
that tracking it at this level does add a load to your system.
Be sure to maintain this for any new plants you add to your system!

Create Material Type: Quantity/value updating

11. Set user departments for the material type by selecting which views (also
called user departments) appear as tabs when you create a material master.
The following figure below shows the User departments setting for the material
type. In this grid, you select views required to maintain this material type.

Create Material Type: User departments

12. Save the new material type

Step 2: Assigning material types to special Create transactions

If you have users who create only a single material type, you can further simplify
material master entry by assigning that material type to a special Create
transaction.
The menu path in SAP remains the same. In other words, the material type
description you see in the IMG does not change the material type you see in
the SAP menu. You will have to request that your SAP Administrator either
change the menu or create a Z transaction for your use and add it to the
menu.

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Configuring the Material Master

SAP Material Master Create (Special) menu

1. To create a special transaction, follow this path in the IMG:

Logistics General Material Master Basic Settings Material Types
Assign Material Types to Special Create Transactions
2. Change the material type from the standard SAP material type to the custom
one you created.

3. Save your changes

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