ME22N — Change a purchase order

ME22N maintains a commitment that has already been made. Suppliers confirm different dates, business users increase quantities, prices are renegotiated and account assignments are corrected, and all of that has to be reflected in the order rather than in an email. Because the order is the reference for goods receipt and invoice verification, changing it changes what the receiving and finance teams are allowed to post. The system records the change so both an auditor and a buyer can see what the order looked like before, which is exactly why replacing an order instead of changing it is poor practice.

Changes cluster in two places: shortly after creation, when the supplier responds with a different price or date, and during receipt and invoicing, when quantities or values turn out to be wrong. It is also the transaction used to close a line that will not be delivered, to shift a delivery date the plant is planning against, or to correct an account assignment before period end. Support teams reach for it when an invoice cannot be posted because of a variance, but the right change depends on what has already happened against the item.

Open the order by number, or find it by supplier, material or requisition. Change at the level the correction belongs to: header for terms and supplier-wide data, item for quantity, price, delivery date, plant and account assignment, and the delivery schedule when only dates change. Look at the item status information first, because a partially received or partially invoiced item constrains what may still be changed. Where a release strategy is active, a significant change can reset the release, so the order stops being valid for the supplier until it is released again. Saving records a change document and, depending on output settings, sends a change message to the supplier.