Material Ledger Closing

Material Ledger Closing in SAP Quick review

Material Ledger Closing: Movements for a material that is valuated with the material ledger are always carried out using the valuation price. If the price control indicator in the material master record is S, movements for the material are carried out with the standard price. If the price control indicator in the material master record is V, movements for the material are carried out with the periodic unit price.

When postings such as invoice receipts occur, the prices can differ from the valuation price. These differences are collected and totaled by the material ledger and taken into account during material ledger closing.

Material Ledger Closing in SAP

The Before Material Ledger Closing: The differences between the valuation price that occur when postings are made are collected the following categories:

GR/IR (goods receipt/invoice receipt): Differences between actual values and the valuation price that may occur due to invoice receipts are collected here. Differences can occur between a goods receipt and an invoice receipt, because the invoice price is unknown at the time of goods receipt. The values from invoice receipts are posted to a GR/IR clearing account and the offsetting entry is made in the vendor account.

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Value Variances: Differences between actual values and the valuation price that can occur due the to the following are collected as,

  1. The Goods receipts for the production order
  2. Transfer postings
  3. Goods issues
  4. The Initial entries of inventory data with a specified amount
  5. Deliveries free of charge
  6. Inward movements from consignment inventory to the company’s own stock
  7. Purchase order-related goods receipts

Values from goods receipts are posted to a GR/IR clearing account; the offsetting entry takes place in the material inventory account. If the the order price differs from the valuation price in the goods receipt, the system posts an offsetting entry to the material stock account and the price difference account (transaction key PRD). Such differences are totaled in the material ledger and indicated as to be closed.

With goods receipts that are not based on a purchase order item, price difference are posted directly to the price difference accounts.

Posting to a Prior Period: Variances are collected here when a posting is made to the previous period using a valuation price other than the one in the current period.

At Material Ledger Closing: At material ledger closing, the system takes the differences arising in the above categories into account, depending on the price control of the material. If you carry out material ledger closing for a single material (without saving), you can display which postings the material ledger would make and with what amounts if you were to save the material ledger closing at this time.

Materials with S price control (standard price):The system calculates for each material, the balance on the GR/IR clearing account and posts this amount to a price difference account (transaction key PRY). Differences that were collected in the Value variances category were posted to various price difference accounts before material ledger closing. These postings are not changed.

Differences that were collected in the Posting to a prior period category were posted to the revaluation account before material ledger closing. These postings are not changed. The new periodic unit price is calculated for statistical information.

Materials with V price control (periodic unit price): The system calculates the balance on the GR/IR clearing account and posts this amount to the material stock account in proportion to the current inventory quantity. The portion of the balances with which the material inventory cannot be debited are posted to a price difference account (transaction key PRY).

Differences that were collected in the Value variances category were posted to various price difference accounts before material ledger closing. These postings are offset in total against a separate price difference account at material ledger closing (transaction key PRY).

The system calculates the balance and posts this amount to the material stock account in proportion to the current inventory quantity. The portion of the balances with which the material inventory cannot be debited are posted to a price difference account (transaction key PRY).


Differences that were collected in the Posting to a prior period category were posted to the revaluation account before material ledger closing. The system calculates the balance on this account and posts this amount to the material stock account in proportion to the current inventory quantity.

The portion of the balances with which the material inventory cannot be debited are posted to a price difference account (transaction key PRY). The postings to the material stock account result in a new periodic unit price for the material, found by dividing the inventory value by the inventory quantity.

Also See: How to Maintain default User Settings when Creating Material Master?