Enable Material Substitution in Sales Area of S/4HANA Cloud

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Material determination substitutes one product with other product/products in sales document (within a specific date range/interval).

It uses the condition technique to replace one product with other product/products which are maintained in condition records.

Some usage examples:

• EAN (International Article Number) entered in a sales order is replaced with a product number.


• Customer product entered in a sales order is replaced with an internal product number.


• Consumer product has a special packaging during a holiday season. During this period, when sales orders are created, the original product number is replaced by the packaging specific product number.


• Discontinued product is substituted by a new material number within a specific interval.

In S/4HANA Cloud, it is available to customize your material determination. Below configurations are available:

• Define the condition tables to be used in material determination. Each condition table contains a combination of key fields which are required for creating condition records.


• Define access sequences to be used in material determination. An access sequence defines the order in which the system searches for valid condition records. An access sequence can be based on one or more condition tables.


• Define condition types for material determination. For each condition type, you can specify an access sequence and validity period settings. As a result, the system will follow the access sequence to check relevant fields when searching for a valid condition record.


• Define material determination procedures. In each procedure, you can specify the condition types to be considered in material determination.


• Assign a material determination procedure to sales document types. As a result, the system knows which determination procedure is valid for a business transaction.

After the configuration is done, condition records need to be maintained. It specifies in what conditions a material substitution can occur.

Now, when creating sales documents with a type which has been assigned with a material determination procedure, if the entered fields are suitable for the condition records, then material substitution will occur.