Paul Ovigele, Ovigele Consulting
Enabling ‘multiple account assignment’ functionality is very useful as it enables you to split an individual line on a purchase order or purchase requisition into multiple account assignments. This means that you can enter several cost centers on a single line of a purchasing document and choose a method for distributing the purchasing cost among the cost centers. The distribution method could either be on a quantity or percentage basis and this is specified in the “Account Assignment” tab of the purchase order line item. To set up the functionality for multiple account assignments, you need to go transaction OME9 or the following configuration menu path:
Materials Management -> Purchasing -> Account Assignment -> Maintain Account Assignment Categories
You can then double-click on the account assignment category that you want to enable for multiple account assignments and in the field ‘ID: AcctAssgt Scrn’, set the indicator to “2 - Multiple account assignment”.
One issue that occurs when you make this setting is that the purchase document will become “GR Non-valuated”. You can see proof of this by going to the “Delivery” tab of the purchase order line item and you will see that the checkbox “GR Non-Valuated” has been checked. This means that when you perform a goods receipt on the purchase order (transaction MIGO), no value will be posted to financial accounting. The only time a value will be posted is when you perform the invoice verification process (transaction MIRO). In cases where the invoice arrives in a different month from the goods, you could therefore understate your current liabilities for the period.
The bad news is that if you are not on release ERP 6.0 (from Enhancement Pack 4 upwards) there is no standard solution to this issue. If however, you are on that release and enhancement pack, you can activate the business function “LOG_MM_MAA_1”. To do this you need to go to the configuration menu (SPRO) and follow the path:
SAP Customizing Implementation Guide -> Activate Business Functions
You can then highlight the business function “LOG_MM_MAA_1” and hit the “Activate Changes” button and hit the “save” button to save your changes. The next time you create a purchase requisition or purchase order you will notice three major changes:
(1) For the account assignment category that you have enabled with “multiple account assignment” functionality, the purchase order line item can be GR-Valuated (meaning that the checkbox “GR Non-Valuated” will not be activated and goods receipt of that line will pass a value to Financial Accounting);
(2) You will be able to enter amounts into the account assignment lines in the “Account Assignment” tab of the purchase order line item. Previously, you were only able to distribute the line item amount into the account assignments according to percentages or quantities.
(3) You will be able to use the multiple account assignment functionality for delivery costs. This means that if you enter (say) a freight condition cost on the line item of a purchase order, this cost will also be distributed to the account assignment items according to the same logic that was used to split the product items.
For more infrormation on how to optimize your SAP Financials landscape, I've put together my top tips in the book 100 Things You Should Know About Financial Accounting with SAP which is published by SAP Press.