When you enter goods movement in the MIGO transaction or any other transaction dealing with material documents, you need to specify SAP Movement Types. SAP movement type is a three-character key which differentiates various material movements, e.g. Goods Receipt, Goods Issue or Transfer Posting.

SAP movement types has controlling functionality in SAP. They play the main role in account determination as well. For example, the movement type 101 used for Goods Receipt is configured to post accounting documents on the stock account as debit and GR/IR account as credit, whereas the movement type 201 used for Goods Issue is configured to post accounting documents on the stock account as credit and the cost center account as debit, and so on.

SAP movement types also control the screen of the MIGO transaction. Every movement type has a specific automatic set of screens behind. So, when you use different SAP movement types, different types of screens appear in the transaction MIGO. SAP movement types can also influence message determination.

Furthermore, SAP movement types can be used with a Special Stock Indicator. For example, in Consignment Order, we use the movement type 201 with a special indicator K for consignment to perform goods issue to a cost center. It is also a classification key indicating the type of material movement (for example, goods receipt, goods issue, physical stock transfer).

SAP Movement Types Customizing (Transaction OMJJ)

SAP movement types enables the SAP system to find predefined posting rules determining how the accounts of the financial accounting module (stock and consumption accounts) are to be posted and how the stock fields in the material master record are to be updated.