Professional Documents
Culture Documents
The client is a commercial, organizational unit within the R/3 system, with its own data, master records,
and set of tables.
From a business perspective, the client forms a corporate group.
Company:
It is an Organizational Unit for which financial statements can be drawn up according to relevant commercial law.
Note: A Company can have one or more company codes.
SPRO > Enterprise Structure > Definition > Financial Accounting >Define company (SPRO)
Define Company Code
The company code is the smallest organizational unit for which you can have an independent
accounting department within external accounting
A company code represents an independent accounting unit, for example, a company within a corporate
group (client).
Company Code
• It is a smallest Organizational Unit
• Each company code has its own Balance sheet and P&L Account.
• Company Code is subsidiary of Company or a member of a corporate Group
SPRO > Enterprise Structure > Definition >Financial Accounting > Edit, Copy, Delete, Check Company Code (EC01)
Define Controlling Area
A controlling area identifies an independent organizational structure for which costs and revenues are
collected.
Each controlling area can have one or more company codes assigned to it(see below)
Controlling Area:
• It is an Organizational Unit with in a company.
• It represents a closed system for the accounting purpose.
• Controlling area may be assigned to one or more company codes, but company code
must use the same operative Chart of Account.
SPRO > Enterprise Structure > Definition >Controlling > Maintain Controlling Area (OX06)
Define Plant
A plant is an organizational logistics unit that structures the enterprise from the perspective of
production, procurement, plant maintenance, and materials planning
A plant is a manufacturing facility or branch within a company
Plant
• It is an Operational Unit with in a company code.
• It is a place where materials are produced or Goods/Services are provided.
• A Plant can be having
– Manufacturing facility – Regional Sales Office
– Central Delivery warehouse – Corporate HQ – Maintenance Plant
Note: A Plant must always be assigned to a company code.
In the SAP ERP, several structures can be used to represent the legal and organizational structure of the
company. Organizational elements can be structured from the point of view of accounting, human resources and
materials management. It is possible to combine these structures. The organizational structures form a
framework in which all business transactions can be processed.
Following organizational units represents MM (Materials Management) module:
Company Code
Plant
Storage Location
Purchasing Organization
Purchasing Groups
Materials Management module uses some other organizational units which are maintained by other
modules in SAP, such as:
The organizational units discussed below are relevant for SAP Material Management (MM) only.
Client
From a business viewpoint, the client could represent a corporate group. The client is the highest
hierarchical level in the SAP system. A client is considered synonym for a group. Creation of client in
SAP is a technical requirement. It is the highest node or the hierarchy of the enterprise or
organizational structure in SAP. Several company codes can be maintained within a client.
Company Code
Company code is SAP is the organizational unit which is the created in Finance (FI) module and the
same is linked with Materials Management module. Strictly speaking it does not belong to SAP MM
organizational structure. Company code represents an independent company. Company which is a
legal entity and statutory requirement is to maintain a separate balance sheet. Profit and loss statement
are created and maintained at the company code level.
In a scenario where the model is that a corporate group or group of companies are carrying out their
businesses in different sectors of economy, every company by law is a legal entity which is liable to
maintain separate book of accounts. All books of accounts are maintained at the company code level.
Plant
Plant in the SAP system is a broad term which has a varying definition when different logistics
modules come into discussion.
In Materials Management (MM) module, a plant is referred to as a facility where the
material stock is kept, stored and inventory is maintained.
In Production Planning (PP) module, a plant is referred to as a production facility where
the production of goods is done.
Storage Location
Storage Location is an organizational unit in logistics which is assigned to a plant where the stock is
kept and inventory is managed. Storage Location can be characterized and vary based on their
properties like Raw Material Storage Location, Finished Goods Storage Location, Spares Storage
Location, Returns Sales Storage Location, Temperature Controlled Storage Location, etc.
Purchasing Organization
A purchasing organization is responsible for all purchasing activities within a company and is
responsible for handling procurement activities and documentation such as RFQ, contracts, purchase
orders, etc. In simple words, a Purchasing Organization is an organizational unit in SAP Materials
Management, which is responsible for purchasing and carries out procurement activities on behalf of
the company.
Decentralized Purchasing
Suppose a company has several plants and all the plants have their own procurement department which
are responsible to carry out day to day purchasing for their own respective plant. Hence, Purchasing
Organizations will be created that will be used separately for each plant. So, this means that a
Purchasing Organization can be assigned to a Plant.
Centralized Purchasing
It is also possible to assign one or more plants to a single Purchasing Organization. If, for example, a
company has only one procurement department which is a centralized and carries out procurement
activities for all the company. Furthermore, a Purchasing Organization can also be assigned to
company code level as well.
Similarly, one plant can have several Purchasing Organizations assigned to it as well, this varies from
company to company, industry to industry and scenario to scenario.
Purchasing Group
The final unit of SAP MM organizational structure that we need to discuss is Purchasing Group. A
Purchasing Group represents an individual or a group of individuals, not necessarily in procurement
department, who are responsible of carrying out purchasing activities. This is usually used for
reporting purposes, as well as approval procedure (release strategy) for Purchase Requisitions (PR),
Requests for Quotation (RFQs), Purchase Orders (PO), Contracts, etc.
You can describe a Purchasing Group as a group of purchasers responsible within a purchase
organization to procure a specific type of material and/or service.
Example:
In a procurement department, there are two groups of purchasers. Each group has two members. So,
you can authorize each group of purchasers to procure a specific type of material and/or service. Group
1 having Purchasing Group RM1 (Raw Materials) is responsible for procurement of raw materials.
Similarly, group 2 having Purchasing Group CN1 (Consumables) is responsible for the procurement of
consumable items and so on.
Hence, you can assign these groups to the users so that they remain in their assigned Purchasing
Groups.
Enterprise structure defines various levels in an organization. These levels are placed according to some
hierarchy. Each level has some specific functionality associated with it, which in a combined way describes the
working of an organization. Also enterprise structure defines various organizational units that are present in an
enterprise. The Organizational Structure in MM consists of following Organizational Levels:
Client
Company Code
Plant
Storage Location
Purchasing Organization
Purchasing Group
Following diagram is one such organizational structure which describes the levels incorporated in an
organization. Client being at the topmost, followed by multiple company code, followed by multiple plants,
plants having multiple storage location with their own or centralized purchasing organizations.
Client
The fundamental explanation of Client is as follows:
Client is a commercial organizational unit in R/3 system.
It has its own set of master data with independent table sets.
According to hierarchy, Client is at highest level in SAP system.
Data that is maintained at client level is valid for all organizational levels.
Company Code
The fundamental explanation of Company Code is as follows:
Within Client, Company code is the independent accounting unit.
It is a legal entity that has its own profit, loss and balance statement.
It is the smallest unit in organization for which a complete independent account set can be replicated.
Plant
The fundamental explanation of Plant is as follows:
Plant is an organizational unit within a company where activities take place. A plant will produce goods
and makes goods available for the company.
It is unit having manufacturing facility, warehouse distribution center or a regional sales office within
logistic. It subdivides an enterprise in different aspects.
Storage Location
The fundamental explanation of Storage Location is as follows:
Storage location is an organizational. unit which actually differentiates between different material stocks in a Plant.
Storage location is a place where stock is kept physically.
Plant can be consisting of multiple storage location. All data is stored at storage location level for a particular S.Loc.
Purchasing Organization
The fundamental explanation of Purchasing Organization is as follows:
Purchasing Organization is an organizational unit under company or plant which is responsible for
procurement activities according to requirements. It is responsible for external Procurement.
Purchasing organization can be at client level i.e. centralized purchasing organization.
Purchasing organization can be at company or plant level i.e. company specific or plant specific
Different forms of purchasing can be described as follows:
Centralized Purchasing
Purchasing organization is not assigned to any company code it procures for all company codes belonging to different client.
Company specific Purchasing
Purchasing organization is assigned to a company code only, Plant belonging to the company code can purchase
through this Purchasing organization.
Plant specific Purchasing
Purchasing organization is assigned to a Plant, only this specific Plant can purchase through this Purchasing organization.
Purchasing Group
The fundamental explanation of Purchasing Group is as follows:
Purchasing group is an organizational unit, which is responsible for everyday procurement activities within an
organization.
It is a buyer or group of buyer responsible for procurement activities in a purchasing
organization.