ME23N — Display a purchase order

ME23N shows the purchase order exactly as stored, with no possibility of changing it. That makes it the transaction of choice for anyone who needs the facts rather than the ability to act: a finance analyst reconciling an open commitment, an auditor tracing an approval, a support consultant explaining a variance, or a business user checking what was actually ordered. Read access to purchasing documents is also far easier to justify in an authorisation concept than change access, so in most landscapes many more users have this transaction than have the change transaction.

It is the first stop in most procure-to-pay investigations. When a supplier claims a delivery was never ordered, when an invoice will not post because of a quantity or price difference, or when a goods receipt appears against the wrong cost object, the answer is usually visible in the order and its history. It is also used in reconciliation: an item whose ordered quantity, received quantity and invoiced quantity disagree explains a GR/IR balance far more reliably than a spreadsheet does. Project teams use it to confirm that an interface or a conversion created the order the design intended.

Open the order by number, or search by supplier, material, requisition or plant. Read the header for supplier, purchasing organisation, terms and release status, then the item overview for quantities, prices, delivery dates and plants. Item detail carries the account assignment, conditions, texts, confirmations and the purchase order history. The history is the most useful single view: it lists the goods receipts and invoices posted against the item with quantity and value, which immediately shows whether the item is fully received, partly invoiced or closed. Status information tells you whether delivery and invoice are flagged as complete, which explains why nothing further can be posted.