SAP Knowledge Base Article - Public

3463638 - Supplier Return Posts to Difference Account Instead of the Inventory Account for Material with Moving Average Perpetual Cost Method

Symptom

  • In the journal entry of a return to supplier you notice an unexpected posting line to a difference account. 
  • You see the expected posting line to the purchasing clearing account (Unbilled Payables) with the initial inventory amount. 
  • You also see the expected posting line to the Inventory account, however, with a different value. 
  • The difference is offset to a difference account defined for losses from purchase price differences.

Environment

SAP Business ByDesign

Reproducing the Issue

To access the posting choose, for example, the following path: 

  1. Go to the Source Documents view of the General Ledger.
  2. Find the supplier return's goods and activity confirmation XYZ (XYZ represents the goods and activity confirmation ID). 
  3. Press Actions and choose View Business Transaction.
  4. Press View All and go to the Journal Entries tab. Then access the journal entry. 
  5. You can see three posting lines for material ABC (ABC represents the material ID), for example: 
    1. Inventory Account: Credit: 180,00 CC (CC represents company currency). 
    2. Unbilled Payables:    Debit: 150,00 CC
    3. Difference account:  Debit:   30,00 CC

Cause

Between the initial inbound delivery and the supplier return the inventory cost of material ABC has changed. The supplier return updates the resulting quantity to zero. Therefore, the resulting inventory value changes to zero which causes any differences to the initial delivery to be posted as purchase price difference: 

Example: Material ABC: 

Sequence of business transaction events: 

  1. Initial inbound delivery DEF at a purchase value of 15,00 LC/1 ea (DEF represents the goods receipt ID): 
2. Inventory value and cost updated, for example through GR/IR clearing 3. Return to supplier XYZ: return of delivery DEF, ie. 10 ea: 
  • capitalized quantity: 10 ea
  • capitalised amount: 150,00 LC (15/1 ea)
  • capitalized quantity: 0 ea
  • capitalised amount: 30,00 LC
  • capitalised quantity: -10 ea
  • capitalised amount: -180,00 LC

Resulting Inventory impact: 

  • resulting inventory quantity: 10 ea
  • resulting inventory value: 150,00 LC
  • resulting inventory cost: 15,00 :C /1 ea

Resulting Inventory impact:

  • resulting inventory quantity: 10 ea
  • resulting inventory value: 180,00 LC
  • resulting inventory cost: 18,00 LC/1 ea

Resulting Inventory impact: 

  • resulting inventory quantity: 0 ea*
  • resulting inventory value: 0,00 LC**
  • resulting inventory cost: 18,00 LC/1 ea

Posting: 

  • Inventory account:  Debit: 150,00 LC
  • Unbilled Payables:  Credit: 150,00 LC
 

Posting: (for example, in case of GR/IR clearing)

  • Unbilled Payable: Debit:  150,00 LC
  • Inventory account: Debit: 30,00 LC
  • (Purchases in Transit: Credit: 180,00 LC)
 

Posting: 

  • Inventory account:                   Credit: 180,00 LC
  • Unbilled Payables:                     Debit:  150,00 LC
  • Purchase price diff. account:       Debit:   30,00 LC

    */**: As the resulting inventory quantity updates to zero the resulting inventory value must be zero as there is no quantity left. Therefore, the return considers the full inventory value, here 180,00 LC for the return posting. 

    Resolution

    This is the designed system behaviour: 

    The difference between the initial posting of goods receipt DEF and return GHI, here 30,00 LC,  is set off to the purchase price difference account. 

    As the supplier return updates the resulting inventory quantity to zero, the full inventory value is considered. The difference amount between initial delivery and the return is offset to a difference account for purchase price differences. 

    Keywords

    return to supplier,  supplier return, wrong account, difference account , KBA , SRD-FIN-INV , Inventory , Problem

    Product

    SAP Business ByDesign 2402