Phase 12 — Cross-Module Integration
🎯 In plain words
❓ Why it matters
Real projects are a team sport. You'll sit in rooms with FI, CO, SD and PP consultants, and the moment your stock or invoice posting touches their world, you need to speak their language. "Talk to the other consultants" — knowing the handover points — is a senior skill that separates a data-entry user from a consultant.
🧠 Key concepts you must know
1. MM ↔ FI (Finance)
The biggest link. When you post a goods receipt or invoice, MM hands accounting entries to FI:
- OBYC — the rulebook that maps movements to the right G/L accounts (automatic account determination).
- GR/IR — the clearing account that sits between the goods receipt and the invoice until they match.
- Accounts payable (AP) — the invoice creates the open item you eventually pay the vendor.
2. MM ↔ CO (Controlling)
- Cost centers / internal orders — when you issue stock or buy directly for consumption, the cost lands on a CO object.
- Controlling area — the bracket CO reporting lives in; FI and CO must agree on it.
3. MM ↔ SD (Sales & Distribution)
- STO (stock transport order) — move goods plant-to-plant, including inter-company, using delivery + billing.
- Third-party — a sales order triggers a PR to a vendor who ships straight to the customer.
- ATP / availability — SD checks "can we promise this?" against the stock MM maintains.
4. MM ↔ PP (Production Planning)
- Subcontracting — send components to a vendor who returns a finished part.
- BOM — the recipe of components a production order consumes.
- Backflush — components auto-issued from stock when production confirms.
5. The rest — know the one-liner
- MM ↔ QM — a goods receipt can create an inspection lot; QM releases stock from quality inspection.
- MM ↔ PM (Plant Maintenance) — spare parts are reserved/issued against maintenance orders.
- MM ↔ PS (Project System) — project procurement: PRs/POs assigned to a WBS element.
- MM ↔ WM / EWM — warehouse detail: bins, picking and putaway below storage-location level.
🛠️ Do it now — practise alongside
Don't just read — walk one process across the boundary so the handover becomes concrete:
Scenario 25 — MM-PM Scenario 26 — MM-PS MM↔FI — Accounting 101 Integration mapFor each, ask: what did MM create, and which module picked it up? That question is exactly what an integration interview tests.
🔗 Connects to
- Phase 8 — Valuation & OBYC: the MM-FI link in detail — OBYC and the accounting behind every movement.
- Phase 5 — Special Procurement: STO and subcontracting are the SD and PP handovers in action.
- Phase 6 — Inventory Management: the stock movements here are what most other modules read from or post to.
🎓 Cert focus & quick recall
C_TS452 integration/business-process area. Expect "which module does X" and handover-point questions rather than deep config.
What does MM hand to FI?
Accounting entries: a goods receipt and an invoice each create FI documents, with G/L accounts chosen by OBYC, the GR/IR clearing account in between, and an AP open item for the vendor.
Where does CO get charged?
On a CO object — a cost center or internal order — when stock is issued for consumption or you purchase directly to a cost center/order.
Which module delivers an inter-company STO?
SD — an inter-company stock transport order uses an SD delivery (and inter-company billing) to move goods between company codes.
PM vs PS procurement — what's the difference?
PM procures spare parts against a maintenance order. PS procures against a project, with PRs/POs assigned to a WBS element.
✅ You're ready to move on when…
- You can say, for FI/CO/SD/PP, what MM hands over and what that module does with it.
- You've walked at least one cross-module scenario end to end (e.g. MM-PM or MM-PS).
- You can give the one-line role of QM, PM, PS and WM in relation to MM.