Right after a new implementation, everybody is concentrating on getting the invoicing right, and paying suppliers etc. and they tend to assume that the GR/IR is taking care of itself. Generally, if everything matches, it does, the problem is that not everybody understands that the quantity must match exactly to clear the GR/IR account. A typical problem where the invoices are posted manually, could be users struggling to post fractions correctly, for example where using the standard goods receipt process for a service. Another problem, where invoices and credit notes are posted via an interface, is not being able to distinguish between a price and quantity difference and using e.g. a credit memo to post all corrections.
My advice is always try to correct something the way it was originally posted. Not only is it easier to follow the PO history, but if you are clearing a lot of items in one go with MR11 it will put them in one document, making it impossible to reverse one item if you make a mistake. Also it assumes the higher quantity is incorrect e.g. if you have a goods receipt of 10 and an invoice of 6, it will reduce the 10 and the not increase the 6.
You can run MR11 selecting “prepare list” to see what is outstanding and investigate if you can correct it by other means. You can select “last movement before key date” which is based on the last goods movement to look at older items only.
Ideally, if there is a balance on the GR/IR account because the invoice or goods receipt was posted incorrectly or is missing, then instead of using MR11, post the missing goods receipt or invoice, or reverse it out and post it correctly.
A problem may occur if you need to reverse out the invoice (which you may also need to do in order to correct the goods receipt), if it has already been included in a payment with other invoices. One option is to post a dummy credit instead, reverse/correct the goods receipt and then reverse the dummy credit, but if you have many such items it may be easier to use MR11.
Another reason to use MR11 could be that you have had a stock-take and the stock has already been corrected, or the stock has already been issued and any correction to the stock would make the stock negative. Or, it is simply too late or complicated to warrant the time investigating what happened with smaller differences.
MR11 is all about correcting the balance on the GR/IR which is caused by a difference in quantity (not price) between the invoice and the goods receipt. It should only be used when no more invoices or goods receipts are expected or can be posted.
You can select items with only a small difference by selecting either the Qty.Var. less Than/Equal to %” or the “value variance less than/= to” fields. Note that selecting “automatic clearance” means that it will write off the differences as opposed to “prepare list” which only shows the differences”
MR11 documents can be reversed either by going into MR11_SHOW or by clicking on the account maintenance documenting the PO history, but be careful if more than one PO has been corrected in one MR11 document, as it will reverse the whole document.
If you post a correction using MR11 you will see a line in the PO history marked “account maintenance”, which refers to the accounting document (i.e. no MM document is produced). Do not be alarmed that there is no value in the PO history, only quantity, this is normal, although it is the opposite of what is actually posted.
In the case where there is e.g. a goods receipt and no invoice – the MR11 posting should show as a positive in the PO history, which means that the incorrect goods receipt value has been removed, reducing the stock value, assuming moving average price and sufficient quantity on hand exists, otherwise price differences will be credited.