SAP MM material master: views, required fields and data quality

In SAP, the material master is split into views, one for each department that uses the item: basic data, purchasing, MRP, accounting, storage, sales and others. Material master data quality depends on deciding, for each view and each material type, which fields are required, which are optional and which should not appear at all. Make everything optional and incomplete records get saved; make everything required and fields get filled with anything just to get past the screen.

Monday morning, a buyer opens a ticket: "The purchase order won't go through, the system says the material isn't maintained for purchasing." Maintenance created the material on Friday, with a description and a unit, and nobody extended the purchasing view. The master data team rushes to complete it, the buyer waits, the part arrives late.

The opposite scene is just as common, and it usually goes like this: a company decides to "put an end to incomplete records" and makes almost everything required. Soon after, safety stocks filled with arbitrary values appear on items that were never stocked, along with fields filled with "X" because the analyst needed to save. The record became complete and the information stayed wrong.

What are the views of the SAP material master?

They are blocks of material master data organized by user department. The SAP ERP documentation explains that, since several departments work with the same material and each uses different information, the data in a material master record is structured by user departments, such as accounting, basic data, classification, costing, forecasting, materials planning, purchasing, quality management, sales and distribution, storage and warehouse management.

For SAP S/4HANA, the SAP Learning lesson on creating material master records for purchasing describes what each view holds. Basic data includes the material short text, base unit of measure, weight and volume. Purchasing includes the responsible purchasing group per plant, over and under delivery tolerances, purchase order unit and control indicators. MRP includes safety stock, planned delivery time and MRP type. Accounting includes price control and the current valuation price.

One point in the SAP ERP documentation helps make sense of the rest: material description and base unit of measure appear in every department area, and they are mandatory and identical for all of them. SAP itself advises departments to decide together what goes into these fields.

What determines which views and fields appear?

Two mechanisms, working together.

The material type

According to SAP Learning, the material type controls, among other things, which data screens are displayed and in what sequence, which user departments can be maintained, the procurement type (produced in house, procured externally or both) and whether quantities and values are updated in inventory. The SAP ERP documentation gives a simple example: in the standard system, a raw material does not show the sales screens, because raw materials are not sold.

Also in the SAP ERP documentation, screen sequence and field selection depend on the SAP application components the company uses, the industry sector and the organizational levels at which data is entered. The person creating the record picks views in the Select View(s) dialog and then enters the organizational levels, such as plant and storage location.

Field selection

This is the configuration that defines how each field behaves. The SAP Learning lesson on field selection for material master records lists four attributes:

• Hide: the field does not appear. Suited to fields the company does not need.
• Display: the field appears but does not accept input. Suited to values filled, for example, during data transfer that should not be changed.
• Required entry: the user must fill it in.
• Optional entry: the user can fill it in, but does not have to.

Fields are grouped into field selection groups. In SAP S/4HANA there are 240 groups, 40 of them reserved for customers. The rule can vary by influencing factors such as material type, industry sector or plant. In other words, the same field can be required for one material type and optional for another.

Why does making everything optional hurt data quality?

Because SAP lets the record be saved and the problem only shows up later, in another department's process. The record passes through the master data team, nobody complains, and the error surfaces in the purchase order, in the MRP run or in inventory valuation.

SAP Learning shows this through the maintenance status. Each user department has a status, and it indicates whether the material has been sufficiently maintained for that process. The purchasing status is E: to create a purchase order, the material must have status E. If the material type involves value based inventory management, accounting data (status B) must also be available. That is exactly what blocked the buyer in the opening scene.

The other effect is harder to notice day to day. An empty optional field becomes a gap in the database, and the gap only shows up when someone measures it. How to measure completeness by view is covered in the article on how to measure master data quality.

So does making everything required fix it?

No. A required field guarantees that something was typed, not that the value is right. When a master data analyst is forced to fill in MRP type, safety stock and planned delivery time for an item they don't know, they guess or copy from another material. The record comes out "complete" and the planning data is wrong.

There is also a technical limit. SAP Learning warns that there are fields for which the program itself demands input, such as base unit of measure, and that these fields should not be hidden. Changing field selection without knowing what the system already requires creates a different kind of problem.

I prefer the simplest rule: a field is required when that department's process cannot work without it, for that material type. Everything else is optional or hidden.

How do you define required fields by department and material type?

Step 1: list the material types the company actually uses

Start with the types that get the most new records. For each one, note which views it needs. A material that is purchased and stocked needs purchasing, MRP, storage and accounting. A consumable that is purchased but not stocked may not need MRP.

Step 2: give each view an owner

Purchasing data is filled in by people who know purchasing. MRP data by people who plan. The master data team coordinates and checks. The split between who owns the data and who looks after it is covered in the article on data owner vs. data steward.

Step 3: for each view, ask what blocks the process

With the view owner, list the fields without which their process does not run. Those are the candidates for required. Fields the company does not use go to hidden. Fields filled by data load that should not change go to display.

Step 4: document the rule before configuring

A simple spreadsheet does the job: material type, view, field, attribute (required, optional, hidden, display), owner and reason. That spreadsheet is your master data policy. The SAP configuration comes after it.

Step 5: configure and test

SAP Learning describes the sequence: identify the field selection group that contains the field, check whether other fields in the same group should follow the same rule (if not, change the field's assignment), determine the influencing factor (for example, material type), find the current field reference, change it or create a new one, and test.

The table below helps in the conversation with each department. The "who maintains it" and "what goes wrong" columns are practice recommendations and readings, not system rules. The fields are examples from the SAP documentation.

View (department)	Who maintains it (recommendation)	Fields that usually drive the process (SAP examples)	What goes wrong if left empty
Basic data	Master data team	Material short text, base unit of measure, weight, volume	Without a base unit of measure the system won't save; empty weight and volume show up when logistics needs to plan a shipment
Purchasing	Purchasing	Purchasing group, over and under delivery tolerances, purchase order unit	Without the purchasing view the purchase order cannot be created; without a purchasing group nobody knows who is responsible for buying the item
MRP	Planning	MRP type, planned delivery time, safety stock	The item is not planned the way the department expects, or is planned without the real replenishment time
Accounting	Controlling or cost accounting	Price control, current valuation price	A material with value based inventory management cannot reach the purchase order without accounting data; a wrong valuation price distorts inventory value
Storage	Warehouse	Unit of issue, storage conditions, packaging dimensions	Whoever receives and issues the item lacks information on how to store it and in what unit to issue it
Sales	Sales	Sales price, minimum order quantity, item category group	The sales process lacks the data it needs to quote and invoice

How do you know a view is complete?

Through the maintenance status, which SAP Learning defines per user department: it tells you whether the material has been sufficiently maintained for a process. The Extend Material View(s) function (MM50), which displays or maintains extendable materials, is the one SAP points to for determining whether a material is sufficiently maintained.

The maintenance status tells you whether the department data is sufficiently maintained for the process. It does not tell you whether the values inside it are right. For that, the master data policy rule and the master data team's review still apply.

What does this look like in an example?

Hypothetical example, created only for illustration. The company, items and rules are fictitious.

A hypothetical manufacturer buys two kinds of items for maintenance. The first is stocked spare parts, kept in the warehouse and replenished through planning. The second is office supplies that are bought regularly but not stocked, created with material type NLAG. SAP Learning explains that, in the standard system, NLAG has no quantity or value update, and the order quantity is posted as consumption at goods receipt.

The master data team sits down with purchasing, planning and the warehouse and agrees on this policy:

• Stocked spare part: purchasing, MRP, storage and accounting views always. Purchasing group, purchase order unit, MRP type and planned delivery time required. Safety stock optional, filled in by planning when the item is critical.
• NLAG material: purchasing view always, with purchasing group and purchase order unit required. Since NLAG has an accounting view, it is included for the valuation price used in purchase requisitions. Planning fields the company does not use for this type are hidden.

With this rule, the analyst is not forced to invent a safety stock for office supplies, and the spare part cannot be created without the data planning needs.

How do you change required fields without breaking existing data?

The new configuration applies to what gets maintained from now on. Existing materials keep their empty fields. SAP Learning is direct about it: if you make fields mandatory, check whether existing materials are affected and, if necessary, maintain the missing data in those materials.

This is how I would do it:

1. Before configuring, find out how many active materials of each type have the field empty.
2. Agree with the view owner on the correct value for those materials, by family or item by item.
3. Complete the data before, or together with, the change, so the next edit to an old material does not stop operations.
4. Test the new rule in a test environment, with materials of each type.
5. Tell the departments the date and the reason for the change.

If the company is close to converting to SAP S/4HANA, priorities shift. What to clean up before conversion is covered in the article on the material master before S/4HANA conversion.

Where should you start?

1. Take the three material types with the most new records in the last quarter.
2. For each one, list the views needed and the owner of each view.
3. With each owner, mark the fields that block their process. Those are the required ones.
4. Write the rule into the master data policy before requesting the configuration.
5. Measure how many active materials already break the rule and plan the cleanup of that data. The material data cleansing page shows how this work is organized.
6. Configure, test and track "material not maintained" tickets over the following weeks.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between a required field in SAP and a required field in the master data policy?

A required field in SAP is a configuration: the system won't save without it. A required field in the policy is a company rule, which the master data team can check even when the system allows saving. Ideally the two match, and the policy is written first.

Can I change the material type after the material is created?

According to SAP Learning, only if there are no stocks and no open documents for the material. In SAP S/4HANA, the change is made with the Change Material Type app in the SAP Fiori launchpad or, in SAP GUI, with transaction MMAM. That is why it pays to choose the right type at creation.

How do I extend a view that is missing?

The Extend Material View(s) function (MM50) displays or maintains extendable materials. In practice, the view is usually added through material creation (MM01), selecting the missing view and organizational levels. The Create Material app in the SAP Fiori launchpad offers the same user experience as MM01.

Does making a field required fix data quality?

It fixes the blank, not the wrong value. A required field without a clear filling rule and without an owner tends to receive generic values. Quality comes from the rule, the view owner and the review, with required fields as support.

Who should request a change to field selection?

The request should come from master data governance, with the agreement of the owner of the affected view and a survey of the existing materials that will be impacted. The configuration stays with the team responsible for SAP. A change requested directly by one department, without that conversation, tends to block another department's work.

How 4MDG can help

In SAP material master cleansing, 4MDG delivers each item with a standardized description, material type, material group and unit of measure checked, loaded into SAP ECC or S/4HANA, with entry rules and an approval workflow so duplicates do not come back. In an SAP S/4HANA migration project, master data is cleansed and standardized at the source, before the load. If you want to see where your catalog is incomplete, request the free assessment through consulting and assessment or get in touch through our contact page.

Sources

• SAP Learning, "Creating Material Master Records for Purchasing", Purchasing in SAP S/4HANA course, https://learning.sap.com/courses/purchasing-in-sap-s-4hana/creating-material-master-records-for-purchasing, accessed on October 20, 2026.
• SAP Learning, "Setting Up Field Selection for Material Master Records", Cross-Functional Customizing in SAP S/4HANA Materials Management course, https://learning.sap.com/courses/cross-functional-customizing-in-sap-s-4hana-materials-management/setting-up-field-selection-for-material-master-records, accessed on October 20, 2026.
• SAP Help Portal, SAP ERP documentation, "Screen Sequence and Field Selection", https://help.sap.com/saphelp_me60/helpdata/en/dc/14c453f57eb44ce10000000a174cb4/content.htm, accessed on October 20, 2026.
• SAP Help Portal, SAP ERP documentation, "Main Area", https://help.sap.com/saphelp_me60/helpdata/en/46/c3b853dcfcb44ce10000000a174cb4/content.htm, accessed on October 20, 2026.