In SAP service procurement, at which level can you store long term prices for services as service conditions?

Introduction / Context:
When working with external services in SAP Materials Management, it is common to negotiate long term prices with specific service vendors. Instead of manually entering prices for each purchase order, SAP allows you to store these agreements as service conditions. Understanding at which level these conditions are stored is important for both configuration and daily purchasing activities, and it is a frequent topic in SAP certification questions for service procurement.

Given Data / Assumptions:

• We are dealing with service procurement in SAP, not classic stock materials.
• Long term prices are stored as condition records that can be reused by purchase orders and outline agreements.
• The aim is to be able to reflect different prices for the same service when supplied by different vendors.
• Only one option correctly represents the main level at which service conditions are stored.

Concept / Approach:
In practice, the same service (for example, consulting per hour or maintenance work) can be offered by multiple vendors at different prices. Service conditions in SAP are therefore maintained in a way that links the service to the specific vendor with whom the price was agreed. This is similar to material info records, where the combination of material and vendor determines the purchasing conditions. Plant specific variations can be handled in pricing or organizational data, but the key conceptual link for service conditions is between the service master and the vendor.

Step-by-Step Solution:
Step 1: Recall that condition records for procurement usually combine an object (material or service) with a vendor, because pricing is typically negotiated per supplier. Step 2: Understand that for services, the same generic service code may be sourced from multiple vendors at different hourly or lump sum rates. Step 3: Recognize that storing a single price at service level only would not allow vendor specific pricing. Step 4: Evaluate the options and identify which one describes service conditions as being kept at the service and vendor level. Step 5: Conclude that option b is the best match for how long term service prices are typically stored as service conditions in SAP.

Verification / Alternative check:
Imagine that your company purchases the same cleaning service from two different service providers. Vendor A offers the service at a lower hourly rate than Vendor B. In SAP you would want purchase orders created for Vendor A to automatically pick up Vendor A's price, and orders for Vendor B to use Vendor B's negotiated rate. This scenario can only be satisfied if the service conditions are specific to the combination of service and vendor, reinforcing that option b is conceptually correct for the level at which long term service prices are maintained.

Why Other Options Are Wrong:
Option a ignores the vendor dimension, which would prevent having different prices for different suppliers of the same service. Option c allows only a single universal service price, which does not match typical real world negotiations. Option d suggests that every condition must include service, vendor, and plant simultaneously, which is overly restrictive and not the standard conceptual description. Option e is incorrect because SAP explicitly supports conditions for services, not only for stock materials.

Common Pitfalls:
A frequent mistake is to assume that service pricing works exactly like material pricing without paying attention to how conditions are actually maintained. Another common confusion is mixing up plant specific organizational data with the basic level at which conditions are defined. For certification questions, focus on the need to differentiate prices per service and supplier, which naturally leads to service and vendor level conditions.

Final Answer:
Long term prices for services are stored as service conditions at the combined service and vendor level so that prices can differ per service and supplier.