1681187 - Why it is not Possible to Assign More Than one Product Category to a Cost Center in an Org Unit?

If you define an Org Unit as a Cost Center, then you are allowed to assign a Product Category to that Org unit. But it is possible to assign only one Product Category to that Cost Center. What is the reason for this behavior?

1. Go to Organizational Management work center.
2. Select Edit Org Structures.
3. Highlight the Org Unit (Cost Center) and go to Definitions tab.
4. Select Details link adjacent to Cost Center.

Where, you are allowed to assign only one Product Category.

The usage of this feature is to get the Postings made against the cost center for the selected Product category in the report Profit Detail by Contribution Margin Scheme in Cost and Revenue work center. 

System cannot decide which Product Category has to be filled at the Cost Center. The Product Category most relevant to the Cost Center has to be entered at the Cost Center level if required for analysis. However, this is an optional field and it can be ignored, if there is no postings exist for the Cost Center.

The system works as designed.

Question:

So basically when four products categories are used at a cost center, these cannot be evaluated. But why does this work for revenues/customer invoices?

Answer:

We get the Product Category from the Sales scenarios from the Product in the Accounting Document. However, we do not get this information from Purchasing; hence we refer to the Cost Center assignment. There is a proposal to provide this link in Financials in future releases

KBA , SRD-FIN-COR , Cost & Revenue , How To

SAP BUSINESS BYDESIGN 1708 ; SAP Business ByDesign 1711