Collective Number

Here i m giving example from MM perspective where we use collective Numbers:

A collective number is required in transaction ME41 for almost every business. While
creating a request for quotation (RFQ), you have to add the collective number manually. You
can get multiple quotations against one purchase request (PR) from different vendors. You
can use this collective number to collect all quotations against one PR or against one material.

For one example, say a company wants to purchase a laptop. First, it creates a PR for this
laptop using transaction ME51N. Then it creates an RFQ for vendors with reference to the
created PR using transaction ME41. If the company sends the RFQ to 10 vendors, then it has
to create 10 RFQ documents. When it gets a quotation from all vendors, it needs a common
ID for the quotations so it can compare them and determine the lowest price. In this case, it
can use the collective number (stored in the Coll. No. field) to retrieve and then compare
these prices. By default, the user has to enter this collective number manually, which is time
consuming and allows for error if the user enters a number incorrectly.

Thanks & Regards,

Deepaks