Customer Material Info Record [CMIR] in SAP: VD51 Tcode

By : Jessica Blake Jessica Blake
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⚡ Smart Summary

Customer-Material Info Record in SAP, created with transaction VD51, maps a customer’s own material number to your internal material code. This resource explains the purpose of the record, its key fields, and the VD51, VD52, and VD53 transactions.

  • 🔗 CMIR Purpose: A customer-material info record links the customer’s own material number to your internal material code.
  • 🗣️ Customer Language: It lets a customer order using their name for a product, while SAP still processes your material.
  • ⌨️ VD51 Transaction: Transaction VD51 creates the record, VD52 changes it, and VD53 displays it.
  • 🧾 Key Data: The record can store the customer material number, delivery plant, delivery priority, and partial-delivery rules.
  • 🚚 Sales Impact: During order entry, SAP defaults this data, which speeds up processing and reduces errors.
  • 🛡️ Best Practice: Maintain the record per sales area so the correct data applies to each customer and distribution channel.
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Customer Material Info Record in SAP using VD51

What Is a Customer-Material Info Record?

Sometimes a customer refers to a material by a layman name rather than its technical name in a purchase order. There is therefore a need to map the customer’s material name to your own material code, and this mapping is called a Customer-Material Info Record, often shortened to CMIR.

The record is maintained for a specific customer within a sales area, which means a combination of sales organization and distribution channel. Once it exists, SAP can recognize the customer’s material number during order entry and automatically substitute your internal material, along with any customer-specific data stored in the record. It is created with transaction VD51, while VD52 and VD53 are used to change and display it. As part of the sales and distribution master data, the record sits alongside the customer master and material master and is read during sales order processing. The record is optional, but it is a practical way to keep ordering simple for the customer and accurate for your team.

Why Use a Customer-Material Info Record?

A customer-material info record solves a common problem in sales: customers rarely use your material numbers. It stores customer-specific information that SAP applies automatically during order processing. The main benefits include:

  • Order in the customer’s language: The customer can order using their own material number, and SAP finds the correct material automatically.
  • Fewer order errors: Because the mapping is stored once, sales staff do not have to translate part numbers manually on every order.
  • Customer-specific delivery data: Delivery plant, delivery priority, and minimum or partial delivery rules can be defaulted per customer.
  • Faster order entry: The system copies the stored data into the sales document, which speeds up processing.
  • Better communication: Documents such as delivery notes can show the customer’s own material description.

In short, the record makes ordering easier for the customer and more reliable for your sales team, especially when the same product is sold to many customers who each use a different part number.

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How to Create Customer Material Info Record

Follow these steps in transaction VD51 to create the record for a customer and sales area.

Step 1) Enter the T-Code.

  1. Enter T-Code VD51 in the command bar.
  2. Enter the customer code, sales organization, and distribution channel.

Enter VD51 with customer, sales organization and distribution channel

Press the Enter button, and the next screen will appear.

Step 2) Enter the information.

  1. Enter the material number and the customer material.
  2. Click on the Save button.

Enter the material number and customer material in VD51

Step 3) Check the message.

A message “Customer-Material info was saved” is displayed.

SAP message confirming the customer-material info record was saved

Also Check:- Create Customer Master Data: SAP XD01

Key Fields in a Customer-Material Info Record

When you create the record in VD51, you maintain it for a specific customer and sales area. Beyond the basic mapping, several fields let you tailor how orders for that customer behave:

  • Customer Material Number: The identifier the customer uses for the product; this is the core of the record.
  • Material: Your internal material code that the customer number maps to.
  • Plant: The default delivering plant for this customer and material.
  • Delivery Priority: The priority applied when the order is processed and scheduled.
  • Minimum Delivery Quantity: The smallest quantity allowed for a delivery of this item.
  • Partial Delivery / Item Usage: Rules that control whether partial deliveries are allowed for the customer.

These fields are optional, so maintain only the ones your process needs and leave the rest blank to inherit standard behavior. The customer material number and your internal material are the essential pair, while the delivery-related fields are useful when a customer has special shipping requirements.

VD51, VD52, and VD53: Create, Change, and Display

SAP provides three transaction codes to manage the customer-material info record across its life cycle. Each one opens the same record in a different mode, which keeps changes controlled and traceable. Because all three point to the same underlying data, the record you create in VD51 is immediately available in VD52 and VD53, so choosing the right transaction is mainly about intent.

T-Code Action When to use it
VD51 Create Set up a new customer-material info record
VD52 Change Update fields such as delivery data or the customer material number
VD53 Display View the record without making any changes

As a rule, display the record first with VD53 to confirm the current values, and switch to VD52 only when an update is genuinely required. This habit prevents accidental changes to live customer data. In many projects, display access through VD53 is granted widely, while change access through VD52 is restricted to a smaller group of data owners.

FAQs

No. It is optional. You only create it when a customer orders using their own material number or needs customer-specific delivery data. Without it, orders simply use your standard material number and master data defaults.

Yes. Each customer can have its own number for the same material, maintained in a separate record per customer and sales area. This lets many customers use their own names for one internal material without conflict.

When you enter the customer material number in a sales order, SAP looks up the info record and substitutes your internal material automatically. It also copies stored data such as delivery plant and delivery priority into the order line.

Yes. AI can match customer part numbers to your materials by learning from past orders and catalogs, then suggest the mappings for VD51. A user should confirm each match before it is saved to avoid incorrect substitutions.

AI can detect duplicate or inconsistent customer material numbers, flag records with missing delivery data, and recommend corrections. This keeps the mapping reliable, although a data steward should review the suggestions before applying them in production.

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