Purchasing in SAP S/4HANA — Lesson 2: Purchase Requisitions, Source Determination, Requests for Quotation, Contracts, and Scheduling Agreements

Learning Objectives

• Explain the SAP structures, data, settings, roles, and dependencies governing purchase requisition and sourcing processes.
• Perform and validate RFQ, contract, and scheduling agreement control using reviewable system evidence.
• Evaluate the condition where a purchase order cannot progress because source determination, account assignment, and release conditions conflict and select proportionate corrective action.

Detailed Topics

• Purchase Requisitions applied to the course scenario, expected SAP behavior, dependencies, and evidence.
• Source Determination applied to the course scenario, expected SAP behavior, dependencies, and evidence.
• Requests for Quotation applied to the course scenario, expected SAP behavior, dependencies, and evidence.
• Contracts applied to the course scenario, expected SAP behavior, dependencies, and evidence.
• and Scheduling Agreements applied to the course scenario, expected SAP behavior, dependencies, and evidence.

Instructor Demonstration

The instructor traces a purchasing organization improving compliance, supplier responsiveness, and spend visibility across operational procurement. The walkthrough connects navigation, configuration or process logic, system messages, and evidence captured in the S/4HANA purchasing process, approval, and exception workbook. It also tests the exception where a purchase order cannot progress because source determination, account assignment, and release conditions conflict.

Hands-On Exercise

Complete a controlled SAP exercise covering Purchase Requisitions, Source Determination, Requests for Quotation, Contracts, and Scheduling Agreements and preserve the verified result in the S/4HANA purchasing process, approval, and exception workbook.

1. Confirm scope, prerequisites, master data, roles, dependencies, and acceptance criteria.
2. Execute the workflow while recording settings, transactions, outputs, and system messages.
3. Test normal behavior, one boundary condition, and the stated exception.
4. Document corrections, evidence, ownership, retest criteria, and handover actions.

Scenario Analysis

• Identify which object, rule, setting, or process step most strongly influences purchase requisition and sourcing processes.
• Compare two defensible responses and explain business, technical, control, and support trade-offs.
• Determine how the S/4HANA purchasing process, approval, and exception workbook should be approved, retained, retested, and updated.

Troubleshooting Guidance

Start where expected SAP behavior first differs from the observed result. Check master data, configuration sequence, authorization, integration, status, and transaction evidence separately. Treat “a purchase order cannot progress because source determination, account assignment, and release conditions conflict” as a hypothesis until system settings, logs, documents, and outcomes confirm the cause.

Validation Checklist

• Required SAP structures, master data, roles, settings, and dependencies are present.
• The S/4HANA purchasing process, approval, and exception workbook connects each conclusion to objective, reviewable evidence.
• Normal processing, the boundary condition, integration behavior, and exception were tested.
• Corrections, ownership, retest criteria, documentation, and operational handover are complete.

Lesson Outcome

Learners can apply Purchase Requisitions, Source Determination, Requests for Quotation, Contracts, and Scheduling Agreements, explain the resulting SAP behavior, and defend the outcome through the S/4HANA purchasing process, approval, and exception workbook.