Sales Item Category Controls - Part 1

An item category controls the behavior of an item and below are the controls which defines the item category.

Item Type :

A way of classifying items that require different kinds of processing by the system. The system processes items that refer to a specific material differently than items that do not refer to a material. For example, text items do not require processing for pricing, taxes, and weight calculations

Below are the common item types used in SAP.

Blank Standard Item

Business generally uses standard items in SAP. The pricing for a standard item takes into consideration the change in quantity, weight, volume, and time units associated with the material.


A         Value Item

SAP provides value items for scenarios where you bill your customer for the goods or services rendered.

B         Text item

Text items are generally used for sending print materials such as flyers, catalogs, and so on, to the customer. These items are generally not billable to the customer and therefore are not relevant for pricing. Text items can be added directly to the sales order without requiring you to create a material

master record first. 

Completion Rule 

The rule for establishing when a quotation or contract is complete. The system uses the completion rule to determine the status of a quotation or contract that has been referenced by other documents.

The Completion Rule field controls the completion status for an item in inquiries, quotations, and contract documents. It tells that at what point in time your item will be considered completely processed. 

Blank Not relevant for completion

A         Item is completed with the first reference

In this SAP will set the status of your quotation document as complete on its first reference by an order.

B         Item is completed after full quantity has been referenced

C         Item is completed after the target qty is fully referenced

D         Item is referenced via contract release

E         Item is completed after full target value is referenced

Special Stock 

The stock of materials that must be managed separately for reasons of ownership or location. Make a selection in this field when you want your item category to use the inventory of some special stock location.

Below are the commonly used special stocks.

E Orders on hand

This is used during Individual purchase Order processing scenario. Where procurement happens against the sales order.

W Consignment (cust.)

This is used during consignment processing where stock needs to be maintained separately for tracking purpose.

*** Billing Relevance 

This field controls the billing for a specific item. 

Blank Not relevant for billing

If the item is not relevant for billing this can be left blank. But Ideally, Relevant for proforma is maintained instead of using this field.

A         Delivery-related billing document

Billing is based on the outbound delivery. The billing status is only updated in the outbound delivery.

B         Relevant for order-related billing - status acc.to order qty

Billing is based on the sales document. The billing status depends on the requested delivery quantity.
Item categories REN (returns) and BVN (cash sales items) are set up with billing relevance B in the standard system.

C         Relevant for ord.-related billing - status acc.to target qty

Billing is based on the sales document. The billing status depends on the target quantity.
Item categories G2N (credit memo) and L2N (debit memo) are set up with billing relevance C in the standard system.

D         Relevant for pro forma

To create a pro forma invoice, the billing relevance indicator must not be blank.

This ideally used for Intra Stock Transfer process, Free of Charge Deliveries, Consignment and Export processes.

F         Order-related billing doc. - status according to invoice qty

Relevant for order-related billing based on the invoice receipt quantity (third-party business). This controls that customer invoice will be raised only based on the Vendor Invoice Receipt.

You can make the control setting as to whether the invoice receipt quantity or the goods receipt quantity is relevant for billing in the copy control for billing on the item level in the billing quantity field

G         Order-related billing of the delivery quantity

The order is relevant for billing; more specifically, the cumulated quantity that has already been delivered is relevant. You can use this category to bill for multiple partial deliveries in one process.

H         Delivery-related billing - no zero quantities

You can use this category to prevent items with a value of zero from being included in billing.

I         Order-relevant billing - billing plan

Billing takes place using the billing plan and its status. The status of the order item can be understood as the overall status of the billing plan billing statuses.

Item categories WVN (maintenance contract item), MVN (lease item), and TAO (milestone billing) are set up with billing relevance I in the standard system.

J         Relevant for deliveries across EU countries

The delivery is only relevant for billing if:

1. The 'Plants Abroad' switch is active in Customizing (in the basic settings for Financial Accounting).

2. The country of departure (country where plant is located) and destination country (country where ship-to party is located) are different EU countries.

Item categories KBN (consignment fill-up), KAN (consignment pick-up), and NLN (standard stock transfer item) are set up with billing relevance J in the standard system.

K         Delivery-related invoices for partial quantity

Business uses this indicator if you want to select both items and partial quantities for billing.

L         Pro forma - no zero quantities

M         Delivery-related invoices-no zero qtys (incl main batch itm)

N         Pro forma - no zero quantities (including main batch items)