This tutorial will teach us how to use SAP MMBE transaction for displaying stock overview.
SAP MMBE
(Stock Overview) transaction is part of SAP inventory management. So, to better understand what stock
overview transaction entails, it is essential to understand the importance of an effective inventory
management for companies.
In order to meet their customers’ needs for availability of good while increasing their profits and
decreasing their expenditures, companies must use effective inventory management. Order-to-delivery
times for a customer are critical when choosing vendors. Therefore, reducing this time to a minimum can
provide a competitive advantage to a supplying organization.
SAP ERP with its Materials Management module has implemented a set of processes supported by SAP
inventory management functionality for all types of stock movements within a plant. As inventory is a
matter of quantity and value in a plant, stock movements are entered in real time. For this purpose,
several functions and reports are provided by SAP inventory management to give detailed information
about all goods and their stock data. SAP MMBE (Stock overview) transaction is one of these tools that
can be considered as a display at any given moment of information about the stock situation of an
individual material.
This snapshot informing an inventory user of a material status in SAP is also called stock overview
transaction. It provides the material stock balance on every organizational level (client, company code,
plant, storage location) relevant to inventory management and will also display information for batches
and/or valuation types and special stocks if needed.
Let us see more closely what SAP MMBE transaction really looks like and how to use it.
SAP MMBE – Stock Overview
Before discussing the stock overview transaction, please be informed that the numbers mentioned below
(for example material, plant, etc.) are just for illustrative purposes. Learners are most likely to have
different numbers in their SAP systems.
To call up the stock overview in SAP, enter the transaction code MMBE.
SAP Stock Overview Transaction Code
Alternatively, use this path in SAP Easy Access menu to start it:
Logistics > Materials Management > Inventory Management > Environment > Stock > Stock Overview
(MMBE)
Then comes the following screen.
SAP MMBE – Stock Overview Selection Screen
The title of the screen is Stock Overview: Company code/Plant/Storage Location/Batch. This title is
listing some organizational levels for which the material stock balance can be provided if the stock
overview is not set otherwise. This first screen is introducing us to the stock overview by requesting
certain selection criteria with fields subdivided in three groups which are as follows.
Database selections aiming to query the inventory database about the status of a specific material
according to either its plants, storage locations or batches.
Database Selections Group
Stock Type Selection inviting the user to filter display of the next screen of the stock overview according
to specific stock types.
List Display group inviting the user to further filter the stock overview by including more selective
information among which a subgroup of checkboxes called Selection of Display Levels that is inviting
the user to select exactly the organizational levels for which they wish to display the stock overview.
Stock Type Selection and List of Display Groups
Let us use the following information in the database selections group and leave the default values and
settings in the last two groups of the screen unchanged.
Material > R-B209
Plant > 1100
Storage location > 0001
SAP MMBE – Database Selections Sample Input
Then, let us click on the execution button below the screen title. The next page to appear will have
for title Stock Overview: Basic List.
SAP Stock Overview – Basic List Screen
On this screen, we can see two group: Selection and Stock Overview.
Selection group providing a brief description of the material for which we are requesting the stock status.
Selection Group in SAP MMBE Transaction
Stock Overview group that is displayed as a two-columns table.
Stock Overview Group in SAP MMBE Transaction
The left column lists organizational levels.
Left Column of SAP Stock Overview
Listing Organizational Levels
And the right column lists stock types.
Right Column of SAP Stock Overview Listing Stock Types
The following set of buttons above the list of organizational levels in the left column of the stock overview
group assists in displaying details about the stock overview.
Set of Buttons
Let’s discuss these buttons from left to right.
The first and the second buttons expand and collapse the subtree of the organizational levels.
The third button assists in finding a specific cell according to one of the organizational levels
identification numbers.
The fourth button is providing us with the print view of the stock overview.
The fifth button is giving us a detailed display of the stock types listed in the right column and of
course is linked to the organizational levels in the left column.
The right column lists different stock types that can be viewed by scrolling the horizontal scroll bar to the
right.
For the material R-B209 we can see organizational levels where it exists in the left column (company
code 1000, plant 1100 and storage location 0001). However, only two stock types among the listed stock
types which are unrestricted use and on-order stock types can be seen on the right side because of the
quantities they are showing.
As SAP is logically differentiating quantities of a material in stock using stock types concept for effective
inventory management, we can see that there are 40 pieces of R-B209 available in the inventory as
unrestricted use stock and 20 pieces are currently on-order.
When these 20 pieces are going to be posted to stock during goods receipt process the available
inventory for R-B209 will be 60 pieces under unrestricted use stock type (if posted to the unrestricted use
stock type).
The SAP stock types concept will be explained in another tutorial.
Customizing for SAP MMBE Stock Overview
Transaction
SAP stock overview transaction is made for display purposes. SAP MMBE gives the information about
current material stock levels. It is possible to configure display of stocks in each column and sort the order
into which they are displayed by performing customizing in SPRO transaction.
You need to navigate to the following path in SPRO to customize how stock lists are displayed:
Materials Management > Inventory Management and Physical inventory > Reporting > Define Stock List
Display
