ME49 in SAP: How to Compare Quotation Prices
Olivia Turner
⚡ Smart Summary
Compare Price for Different Quotations in SAP using transaction ME49. The price comparison list ranks vendor offers by collective number and recalculates the effective price once discounts and freight are included.
What is the Quotation Price Comparison List?
The price comparison list is a report that places every vendor offer for the same requirement side by side and ranks them. It exists because comparing quotations by eye is unreliable once each supplier quotes in a different unit, currency, or delivery quantity.
ME49 normalises all of that. It converts each offer into a common currency and a common quantity basis, applies whatever pricing conditions are maintained, and produces a rank per vendor.
After your quotations are entered, you can compare them to select the best available offer at this moment. We can compare the quotations in transaction code ME49.
We can select which quotations will be compared by using the collective number we addressed before to be an important field that is maintained on RFQ (or directly on the quotation).
If we forget to enter the collective number, we will have to supply all the quotation numbers in the selection field “Quotation“.
💡 Tip: The comparison is only as complete as the quotations behind it. A vendor whose freight condition was never entered in ME47 will look cheaper than it is, so confirm every offer is fully maintained before drawing conclusions.
Steps to Compare Price for Different Quotation
Step 1) In transaction ME49, Enter
- Purchasing organization (e.g. 0001).
- Collective RFQ (we have used 190123).
- Execute the transaction.
The comparison list looks like this:
From the list we can see that Vendor1 have proposed a better price.
What we need to do is check the effective price (with discounts, freight cost and other conditions). We will go back to the selection screen and we will tick three check boxes.
Step 2)
- Check all the boxes in the Price Calculations section.
- Execute the transaction.
Our results have changed significantly.
Now Vendor2 has the better price, and price of Vendor1 has gone up 256 EUR because of freight cost.
Now we can conclude that our Vendor2 has the best price, and we can proceed with the process.
If you select Mean value quotation and Minimum value quotation on the previous screen, you will get the result as they are shown below on the screen.
- Average price on all the quotations.
- Minimum price for all the quotations.
After comparing the prices/conditions, you can decide which offers to accept and which ones to reject.
Price Calculation Options in ME49
The checkboxes on the ME49 selection screen are what turned Vendor1 from winner into runner up. Each one changes what the ranking is based on, so knowing them prevents an expensive misreading.
| Option | What it adds to the comparison | When to use it |
|---|---|---|
| Include discounts | Applies percentage and absolute discount conditions maintained on each quotation | Always, whenever vendors quote volume or early payment discounts |
| Include delivery costs | Adds freight, duty, and other delivery conditions to the item value | Always for imported goods or heavy items, where freight dominates |
| Effective price | Produces the true landed cost per unit after all conditions | The figure that should decide the award |
| Mean value quotation | Adds a reference line showing the average across all offers | Judging whether the winning price is genuinely competitive |
| Minimum value quotation | Adds a reference line showing the lowest price per item | Split awards where different vendors win different lines |
| Percentage basis | Expresses each offer as a percentage of the reference price | Reporting the spread between suppliers to management |
The mean and minimum lines are reference rows, not vendors. They never receive an award; they exist so the buyer can see how far the winning bid sits from the field.
Reading the Output and Choosing a Vendor
Price is the loudest signal in the comparison list, but it is not the only one, and awarding on the lowest number alone is how procurement teams end up with late deliveries.
Read the list in this order:
- Check the rank on effective price, not net price. The first run of the report ranks on the raw quoted figure. Only the recalculated run reflects what will actually be paid.
- Compare against the mean. A winning bid far below the average deserves scrutiny. It often signals a different specification, a smaller pack size, or an omitted freight condition.
- Check the delivery date the vendor committed to. A cheaper offer arriving two weeks late may be unusable, and the comparison list does not weight this for you.
- Consider split awards. Where several materials are on one RFQ, the minimum value line often shows different winners per item. Nothing prevents accepting one vendor for one line and another for the next.
- Look beyond a single round. Vendor evaluation scores, past on time performance, and quality history sit outside ME49 and should inform the final decision.
Once the decision is made, the accepted offer is confirmed and the remainder are declined. Continue with selecting or rejecting a quotation, after which the winning terms can flow into a purchase info record and on to a purchase order.
