Scope of the Availability Check in Sales and Distribution Processing

The following elements can be included in the availability check:

* Stock

o safety stock
o stock in transfer
o quality inspection
o blocked stock

* Inward/Outward movement of goods

o purchase orders
o purchase requisitions
o planned orders
o production orders
o reservations
o dependent reservations
o dependent requirements
o sales requirements
o delivery requirements

Requirements in sales and distribution (sales requirements and delivery requirements) result from all transactions which forward a requirement to Materials Management (MM) or to Production Planning (PP). For example, this could include sales orders or deliveries and quotations as well. Sales and distribution requirements reduce existing stock or inward movements of stock on the material availability date to ensure that other outward movement of stock elements cannot access the quantity reserved in this way.

Requirements relevant for Sales and distribution are created in Sales and Distribution, whereas other elements in this list are created in Materials Management or in Production Planning.

For further information on transfer of requirements, see Requirements in Sales and Distribution Processing.

Defining the Elements to be Included in Check

A checking rule is assigned to each transaction. This rule in combination with the checking group controls the scope of the availability check. You can use the checking rules in Customizing for Sales to specify for the various transactions which of the elements listed above should be included in the availability check.

For trading goods it does not make sense to include planned or production orders, for example, in the availability check. However, for products manufactured by your company these orders should be included in the check.

For transactions such as make-to-order production, consignment or returnable packaging processing that create special stock, the availability check is performed against special stock.


If it is defined by the checking rules that both sales and delivery requirements are taken into account in the availability check in sales documents but only delivery requirements are taken into account in the availability check in deliveries, there is a danger that quantities reserved in the sales documents are considered to be available by the availability check in the deliveries. This can lead to sales documents becoming backlogged.