Purpose
This page is to contain basic information about Purchasing Info Record (PIR).
Overview
The Purchasing Info Records (PIR) is an association of material and vendor. Therefore, it is used for source of supply determination in purchasing.
Two kinds of PIRs exist: with and without purchasing organization data.
The general PIR data are stored in table EINA, the purchasing organization related data in table EINE.
Create PIR
Specific transactions for PIR maintenance
You can create / change / display PIR in transaction ME11 / ME12 / ME13.
For all of the three transactions apply: if you only enter a material and a vendor, only the general data from EINA table are created or displayed. For this reason, if you only enter material and vendor in ME11, entry will only be created in EINA.
The purch org. related data stored in EINE, and also the purch org related conditions, can only be created or displayed, if you enter purch org:
PIR creation in relation to another purchasing documents
If you create Purchase Order or Contract, a PIR can also be automatically created, if the related customizing is in place.
To create a PIR automatically after a PO is saved, the Infoupdate flag must be set:
Read following documents on this topic:
SAP Note 569885 - About Info Record Update indicator (EKPO-SPINF)
KBA 1954384 - Infoupdate flag in purchase order is creating inforecord without any information, eventually returning error ME807
See also:
Info Record update during SRM Contract distribution - Debugging Guide
How system handles ERS flag in SA or in Contract, and No ERS flag in the created Info Record
Delete PIR
In transactions ME15 and ME16, you can set the deletion indicator (LOEKZ) in single or multiple PIR documents.
ME16 can only set the deletion mark in the EINE table (EINE-LOEKZ) and cannot reset it. ME15 can set and reset in both tables.
The deletion indicator (deletion flag) can also be displayed and changed in transactions ME12/ME13 over Extras/Deletion Flags.
The display can be controlled by customizing table T162 (OLME → Purchasing Info Record → Define Screen Layout → ... → Administration Data)
Important : purchasing documents such as Purchase Order created afterwards, will still consider the PIR documents marked for deletion. Therefore, the deletion mark is a logical deletion but has no effect on the purchasing process.
KBA 1896184 - Deleted info record used when creating purchasing documents
To remove a PIR document from the system, you need to archive it. For this reason, the archive object MM_EINA is used. You can only archive PIR documents, that have been marked for deletion; this is the real effect of the deletion mark. Once archived, the PIR data will disappear from tables EINA and EINE, and they have no effect any more on the purchasing process.
SAP Note 1543146 - MM_EINA: Archiving of EINE without EINA records
If you wish to set the deletion indicator with transaction MEMASSIN, please consider this :
KBA 2190287 - MEMASSIN does not update EINA-LOEKZ, EINE-LOEKZ
Inconsistencies
The vendor – material assignment must be unique. This means, no duplicate must exist, only 1 PIR number can exist for a vendor – material assignment. If there is a duplicate (or even more PIR numbers exist) for a vendor – material assignment, this is an inconsistency which can lead to severe errors and even dumps. Such an inconsistency must be fixed using the reports from below note:
SAP Note 836917 - Duplicate or multiple info records
Further transactions related to PIR
MEMASSIN - Mass-Changing of Purch. Info Records
ME1M - Info Records per Material
ME1L - Info Records per Supplier
You can display a list of the existing PIR documents using some selection criteria.
Important function modules related to PIR (possible breakpoints)
ME_MAINTAIN_INFORECORD
ME_UPDATE_INFORECORD
ME_READ_INFORECORD
BADI
ME_INFOREC_SEND
BAPIs for PIR creation and maintenance
There are 3 function modules in the function group MEWI ("BAPIs for Info Record"):
BAPI_INFORECORD_GETLIST - this is a real BAPI, with "Released" status and remote enabled. You can find this in the BAPI transaction as well.
ME_INFORECORD_MAINTAIN - (obsolete - 2787315 - Issues when using ME_INFORECORD_MAINTAIN)
ME_INFORECORD_MAINTAIN_MULTI - these two are not released function modules - this means that their individual usage, for example in custom main program is not supported, they are only supported within an SAP standard program/transaction solution. These FM's aim is solely SAP internal usage as both have been designed to create Info records from external systems via SAP standard integration solutions. You will not find them in the BAPI transaction.
Please also read this note about this topic:
SAP Note 2492873 - Improvement in Procurement process to maintain multiple Info records along with conditions
Related Content
Related Documents
Purchasing Info Record – SAP Help
Info Record update during SRM Contract distribution - Debugging Guide
Related SAP Notes/KBAs
SAP Note 569885 - About Info Record Update indicator (EKPO-SPINF)
KBA 1954384 - Infoupdate flag in purchase order is creating inforecord without any information, eventually returning error ME807
KBA 2418804 - Purchase info record price not updated for the current period in table EINE
KBA 1896184 - Deleted info record used when creating purchasing documents
SAP Note 1543146 - MM_EINA: Archiving of EINE without EINA records
SAP Note 836917 - Duplicate or multiple info records
KBA 2418804 - Purchase info record price not updated for the current period in table EINE
KBA 2787315 - Issues when using ME_INFORECORD_MAINTAIN