Introduction to Master Data in SAP

What is Master Data?

Data stored in SAP R/3 is categorized as

1. Master Data and
2. Transactional Data.

Master data is the core data that is used as a base for any transaction. If you are producing, transferring stock, selling, purchasing, doing physical inventory, whatever your activity may be, it requires certain master data to be maintained.

Example of Master Data

• Material master data
• Customer master data
• Vendor master data
• Pricing/conditions master data
• Warehouse management master data (storage bin master data)

The ones we will focus in MM module are material master and purchase info record.

Material Master: What you should know about material master?

Material in SAP is a logical representation of certain goods or service that is an object of production, sales, purchasing, inventory management etc. It can be a car, a car part, gasoline, transportation service or consulting service, for example.

In All the information for all materials on their potential use and characteristics in SAP are called material master. This is considered to be the most important master data in SAP (there are also customer master data, vendor master data, conditions/pricing master data etc), and all the processing of the materials are influenced by material master. That is why it’s crucial to have a precise and well maintained material master.

In order to be confident in your actions you need to understand material master views and its implications on processes in other modules, business transactions and a few more helpful information like tables that store material master data, transactions for mass material maintenance (for changing certain characteristics for a large number of materials at once).

Material types

In SAP ERP, every material has a characteristic called “material type” which is used throughout the system for various purposes.

Why is it essential to differentiate between material types and what does that characteristic represent?

1. It can represent a type of origin and usage – like a finished product (produced goods ready for sale), semifinished product (used as a part of a finished