Oracle Inventory – Purchasing Category: Purchasing category is nothing but an Oracle Inventory category which is attached to a category set mapped to Purchasing functional area. Following setup steps need to be performed to setup a Purchasing category.

Step-1: Define "Item Category" flexfield structure

Responsibility: "Inventory Superuser" or similar
Navigate to: Setup -> Flexfields -> Key -> Segments
Query for Application "Inventory" and Flexfield Title "Item Categories".

There is already one seeded structure for the purchasing category as "PO_ITEM_CATEGORY" but if you want to define a custom one for your business please create it by entering the Structure code, title and description. Add the required category segments to the structure.

Step-2: Define Item Categories

Navigate to: Setup -> Items -> Categories -> Category Codes.
Enter the structure name and click on the "Find" button.
Define the Item category codes and description in the "Categories" form.

Step-3: Define Category Set

Navigate to: Setup -> Items -> Categories -> Category Sets
Enter the category set name, description, flex structure (the one you have setup in the Step-1), Controlled at and Default Category values.
Add the category codes defined in the previous step to the details section of the "Category Sets" form.

Step-4: Assign the category set to the functional area

Navigate to: Setup -> Items -> Categories -> Default Category Sets
Assign the category set name defined in the Step-3 to the "Purchasing" functional area.

Now the purchasing category setup is complete.