Procurement Problem - Spend Analysis

[Former Member]

Hi,

Can you help to solve this problem?

When capturing a PO for indirect spend, the users do not have to enter a material code,  They enter free text and then then randomly select a material group.  This messes up all the reporting we cannot do spend analysis on the indirect spend.

The business want us to introduce two new mandatory fields called category and sub-category which will be linked to the material group.  This will force the user to properly classify the PO and we can report on it.  The problem is that this will be a lot of customisation and development.

Any ideas on how we can regulate the capture of indirects and the use of free text?

Thanks

Sajit

[Prasoon]

Hi,

   Please check whether you can propose different dummy material codes (non stock item) to represent the different categories of consumable items. You can share the same to users and ask them to strictly use the corresponding material codes in the PO and change the text accordingly in PO.

   Since its with material code, you can material group in material master itself and get the report accordingly, based on material group.

   In any case, your business has to take organizational measures to enure that the user enters correct data / choose correct material while creating PO.

Regards,

AKPT

[tomasz_domanski]

Hi Sajit,

Why do you assume that 2 additional fields to be filled up will be better then 1 field to be filled up (MTRL GROUP) and how will it secure correctness of data? Rubbish in -> rubbish out always - the users can always select random values for these 2 fields you mention and you will have the same problem as now.

I think here you need to validate text vs mtrl groups and prove the users where they were wrong and maybe make it a KPI for them to not make mistakes. If their focus will be on it all should be ok with reporting?

And if you want to limit possible mtrl groups to be selected for special order types you can do it via BADI in Purchase Order.

Best Regards,

Tomek

[Former Member]

Thanks for the reply Tomek.

I agree with you ... the additional fields are requested by the business.  I am trying to find an alternate solution,

How do we go about adding additonal layers of classification to a PO so that we can do proper spend analysis?  This is the underlying problem that they are trying to solve.

Thanks

Sajit