What's new since the 2020 handbooks
The course notes on this site are built from the SAP S/4HANA 2020 participant handbooks (Collection 20). This page collects the changes in later releases that matter for daily work and for the certification exam, so you can read the older material with the current product in mind.
Course editions and how they were merged
The study folder contains five handbooks, all from Collection 20 (SAP S/4HANA 2020). No older (ECC-based, e.g. SCM500/SCM510/SCM515/SCM520/SCM550) or newer collection was present, so "merging old and new" on this site means two things:
- The five 2020 courses are merged into one table of contents on the home page, with a topic map that links the places where courses overlap (for example ERS appears in S4500 and S4515; split valuation in S4510 and S4550).
- Changes that SAP shipped after 2020 are added as purple Newer releases boxes inside the lesson notes and summarised on this page.
| Course (2020) | Topic | Classic ECC predecessor | Exam relevance |
|---|---|---|---|
| S4500 | Business processes in sourcing & procurement | SCM500 | Procurement processes, master data, enterprise structure, analytics |
| S4510 | Inventory management & physical inventory | SCM510 | One of the heaviest-weighted topic areas |
| S4515 | Invoice verification | SCM515 | Invoice verification, GR/IR |
| S4525 | Consumption-based planning & forecasting | SCM525 | Consumption-based planning |
| S4550 | Cross-functional customizing in MM | SCM550 | Valuation & account assignment, configuration of purchasing |
How SAP Learning packages this today
SAP has moved most of this content into free learning journeys on learning.sap.com (for example the sourcing and procurement journeys for SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition and Public Edition). The classroom codes S4500–S4550 still exist for instructor-led training. Content is largely the same; the newer journeys add Clean Core, Joule and more Fiori apps.
S/4HANA simplifications every lesson assumes
| Area | ECC behaviour | SAP S/4HANA behaviour |
|---|---|---|
| Supplier master | Vendor master XK01/MK01 | Business Partner is mandatory: BP with roles such as FLVN00 (FI supplier) and FLVN01 (purchasing supplier); Customer/Vendor Integration (CVI) keeps LFA1/LFB1/LFM1 in sync. |
| Material number | 18 characters | Up to 40 characters (extended material number, must be activated). |
| Inventory tables | MKPF/MSEG plus aggregate tables (MARD, MBEW quantities…) | Single line-item table MATDOC; old tables are compatibility views. Stock is computed on the fly, which removes locking bottlenecks. |
| Goods movement transactions | MB01, MB1A, MB1B, MB1C, MB11, MB31 | Obsolete; use MIGO or the Fiori goods movement apps. |
| Material valuation | Material Ledger optional | Material Ledger is always active for actual costing in the currencies of the valuation area (actual costing itself remains optional). |
| Accounting | Separate FI and CO documents | Universal Journal ACDOCA; MM postings write directly into it. |
| Planning | Classic MRP MD01/MD02/MD03 | MRP Live MD01N runs in HANA; MRP areas are mandatory where storage-location planning is needed (the old storage-location MRP indicator is gone). |
| Output | NAST condition-based message determination | New output management (BRF+ based) available for purchasing documents; NAST still possible. |
| Purchasing approval | Release strategy (classification) | Release strategy still supported, plus flexible workflow (Fiori-configured) for PRs, POs, contracts, RFQs, supplier invoices. |
Release timeline after 2020
| Release | Highlights for MM |
|---|---|
| SAP S/4HANA 2021 | Further Fiori coverage of purchasing, more situation templates, enhanced central procurement, intelligent features (e.g. proposals in invoice processing). |
| SAP S/4HANA 2022 | Improved supplier confirmation handling (price/quantity changes with acceptance workflow), more flexible workflow scenarios, expanded analytics. |
| SAP S/4HANA 2023 | Mass creation/change of product specifications, plant-level factory calendar for supplier evaluation scores, a product sourcing overview page, carbon-footprint data in supplier bids; Joule assistance for retrieving PR/PO data. |
| SAP S/4HANA 2025 (SAP Cloud ERP Private) | Continued AI (Joule) scenarios in procurement, more Fiori-first apps; classic transactions remain available in the private edition. |
Details of individual features are best checked in the SAP Help Portal "What's New" viewer for the release you use; the boxes in the lessons only note changes that alter how a concept works.
Purchasing
- Manage Purchase Requisitions, Manage Purchase Orders, Create Purchase Order – Advanced (wraps ME21N) and Manage Purchase Contracts are the primary UIs.
- Self-service requisitioning (Create Purchase Requisition / My Purchase Requisitions) replaced SRM shopping carts for casual users.
- Flexible workflow conditions are maintained in Manage Workflows for Purchase Requisitions/Purchase Orders; release strategies (ME28, ME29N, ME54N) remain for classic configurations.
- Central procurement (hub system) lets one S/4HANA system manage requisitions and contracts for several back-end ERP systems.
- Joule can retrieve purchase requisition and purchase order data in natural language (2023+).
Inventory management and valuation
MATDOCas single source of truth; reports such as MB52, MB5B and MMBE read it via compatibility views.- Fiori apps: Post Goods Receipt for Purchasing Document, Transfer Stock – In-Plant, Transfer Stock – Cross-Plant, Stock – Single Material, Stock – Multiple Materials, Material Documents Overview.
- Physical inventory: Manage Physical Inventory Documents, Enter Inventory Count, plus situation handling for counting differences.
- Material Ledger always active; price differences at GR/IR are tracked in the ledger, and the period-end close uses CKMLCP when actual costing is active.
- Inventory valuation with Universal Journal: stock values and price differences go straight to
ACDOCA.
Invoice verification
- MIRO remains; Fiori Create Supplier Invoice and Manage Supplier Invoices are the modern front ends.
- Invoice workflows (flexible workflow for supplier invoices) and situation handling for blocked invoices.
- GR/IR clearing: MR11 is still used, and the Monitor GR/IR Account Balances / Reconcile GR/IR Accounts apps support clarification work with machine-learning proposals.
- Incoming invoices can be captured by SAP Document Information Extraction or the OpenText-based SAP Invoice Management add-on.
MRP and consumption-based planning
- MRP Live (MD01N) is the recommended run; classic MRP transactions still exist.
- Fiori: Monitor Material Coverage, Manage Material Coverage, Schedule MRP Runs.
- Planning file entries are handled automatically by the HANA-based run; MRP areas replace storage-location planning.
- Predictive MRP and demand-driven MRP (DDMRP) are separately licensed extensions.
Configuration and output
- Implementation projects use SAP Activate and SAP Cloud ALM; the classic IMG project transactions (SPRO_ADMIN) are less central but the IMG itself (SPRO) is unchanged.
- Business Partner customizing (number ranges, groupings, role-to-account-group mapping) is part of CVI configuration.
- Output management for purchasing documents uses BRF+ decision tables (Output Parameter Determination), Adobe forms and email templates.
- Clean Core: prefer extensions via key-user tools and released APIs instead of modifications. It appears as a topic in the newer certification.
Sources
- SAP Help Portal: SAP S/4HANA, including the What's New viewer and simplification list.
- SAP Learning: learning journeys and certification pages.
- SAP Community: SAP S/4HANA procurement, release highlights webinars.
- Participant handbooks S4500, S4510, S4515, S4525, S4550 (Collection 20).