For which business scenarios can I use purchase order accruals?

For purchase order accruals in SAP S/4HANA Cloud, we can distinguish between purchase order items without valuated goods receipts and with valuated goods receipts.

Here’s what the different scenarios look like:

Purchase Order Items Without Valuated Goods Receipts

1. Purchasing consumable material or services without goods receipts:

The relevant goods receipts are not recorded in the system. The system calculates and proposes the accruals either on the basis of the delivery schedule contained in the purchase order item (where all planned deliveries are considered as received) or using a linear approach, that is using a linearization of the total value between the start and end date of the purchase order item.

2. Purchasing consumable material with non-valuated goods receipts:

The quantities of the received materials or services are recorded in the system using non-valuated goods receipts. Non-valuated means that for the entered goods receipt no costs have been posted.

The system calculates and proposes the accruals based on the quantity multiplied by the net price of the purchase order item using a linearization of the total value between the start and end date of the purchase order item.

Purchase Order Items with Valuated Goods Receipts

1. Purchasing consumable material with valuated goods receipt postings:

When the valuated goods receipt is entered, the system calculates and posts the costs by multiplying the entered quantity by the net price of the purchase order item.

Please note that in this case accruals are only needed if the valuated goods receipt has not been posted although the material has already been received. In this case, the system calculates the accruals based on the delivery schedule contained in the purchase order item. All planned deliveries are considered as received. The costs that have already been posted by the valuated goods receipt are subtracted from the proposed accrual amount.

2. Purchasing services with service-entry-sheet postings:

If service entry sheets are used, the system posts the costs in the same way as with a valuated goods receipt. In this case there’s usually no delivery schedule contained in the purchase order item and the system calculates and proposes the accruals based on a linear approach, that is, using a linearization of the total value between the start and end date of the purchase order item.

If you want to learn more about Purchase Order Accruals or Accruals Management in general, check out the SAP Help Portal under Accruals Management.