T156 table — Movement Type Master Table

Each row in T156 represents one movement type, identified by BWART, and holds the general control indicators SAP uses to classify that movement type: whether it is a stock increase or decrease, whether it is a receipt into or issue from a stock account, and whether it posts to consumption. This is the definitional layer. It answers the question 'what kind of movement is 261' but not 'what fields does 261 require on the MIGO screen' or 'which GL account does 261 hit'. Those questions belong to other tables. T156 is maintained through customizing, rarely touched after go-live except when a new movement type is being introduced for a business scenario the standard set does not cover, such as a bespoke scrapping or subcontracting flow.

T156 is a small customizing table, typically a few hundred rows across all clients, so selectivity is not a performance concern the way it is on MSEG or MATDOC. Always restrict by MANDT first out of habit, then filter on BWART if checking a specific movement type. The real work is reading the indicator combination correctly rather than filtering a large dataset: KZBEW, KZZUG and KZVBR together determine the category, and no single field tells the whole story. Do not try to infer account determination behavior from this table; it only classifies the movement, it does not carry GL accounts or valuation class logic.

Symptom: a posting with movement type 262 is being treated as a receipt instead of a reversal of a goods issue to cost center. Selection: read T156 for BWART = '262' and check KZZUG and KZVBR. If KZZUG is blank and the record is flagged as a reversal-type movement rather than a genuine receipt, the posting logic upstream (in MIGO or the interface) is misclassifying the transaction, not the table definition. Cross-check the same fields for BWART = '261' to confirm 262 is configured as its counter-movement.

T156 is unchanged in S/4HANA as a customizing table; movement types remain the same concept and the standard set is largely identical to ECC. The underlying document tables it joins to have changed shape, since MSEG and MKPF are now compatibility views over the unified MATDOC table, but the BWART key and its meaning carry through untouched. No CDS-based replacement exists for T156 itself; it is maintained through the same customizing transactions as before.

Movement type configuration is owned by the MM inventory management functional consultant, maintained through the movement type customizing transaction, commonly OMJJ. Any request to add or change a movement type needs sign-off from whoever owns account determination configuration as well, since a new movement type is only useful once its account determination entries exist.

MSEG and MATDOC are the transaction tables that carry BWART on every posted material document item and are the tables consultants actually query when tracing a specific movement. MKOL and MSKA hold special stock quantities where movement type classification matters for consignment and sales order stock. Reason codes, maintained alongside movement types, restrict which cancellation or correction reasons are valid for a given BWART. MIGO and MB1A through MB1C are the transactions that generate the postings T156 classifies.