Maintaining Business Partner Master Data

Objectives

After completing this lesson, you will be able to:
  • Describe the concept of the business partner
  • Maintain a supplier master record

Master Data in the Procurement Process

Master data comprises data records that are stored in the database for a long period of time. These data records are stored centrally, and are used and processed on a cross-application basis. This avoids the multiple storage (redundancy) of data.

The business partner master data (supplier), the material master data, and the purchasing info record belong to the most important master data in the procurement process.

Diagram showing master data in the procurement process. An explanation is given in the following paragraph.

When a purchasing document is created, data is transferred by default from existing master records to the purchasing document. This reduces the effort required to enter the data. Data such as quantity unit, material short text, and purchase order text are copied from the material master into the new document. The supplier address and data for payment processing are transferred from the supplier master record. Supplier-specific data for a certain material, such as delivery time and price, can be taken from the purchasing info record.

Concept of the Business Partner

Maintain SAP Business Partner

The link between a business partner and other components is achieved by a role concept. A business partner role corresponds to a business context in which a business partner can appear. Possible roles are, for example, supplier and FI vendor (relevant for procurement processes) or customer and FI customer (relevant for sales processes). This ensures that the relevant master data for the various processes can be recorded correspondingly, and that the business partner can be used for the relevant functions (such as procure-from party).

Business Partner: Customer/Vendor Integration

The accounts payable accounting department uses the SAP Business Partner to manage the supplier master records. Technically, this subledger uses its own vendor master records, which are integrated in all accounting transactions, such as creating business transactions on accounts and processing posting data. Therefore, we require business partners that are managed as vendors in Financial Accounting, and as business partners in other applications, to exist synchronously.

The customer/vendor integration takes place in the background while the system processes the business partner master data. When you create or change a business partner, the system creates or changes all required fields in the vendor account, according to the information in the business partner. The vendor master record is linked to the business partner according to the settings made for synchronization control and Vendor Integration in Customizing.

In Customizing, you assign account groups for the vendor master records to the business partner groupings, to ensure that the system updates the vendor at the same time as your process business partners.

Display Business Partner Data

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Reconciliation Account and Partner Functions

Reconciliation Account

When creating a business partner master record for a supplier, a unique number is required. Depending on the business partner grouping, this is automatically assigned by the system or manually assigned by the administrator. The supplier number is also the subledger (SL) number of the financial accounting. In subledger accounting, the sum of the liabilities per supplier is updated.

Diagram outlining the creation of a reconcillation account. Details are provided in the following text.

You must also maintain a reconciliation account in the company code data of a business partner. This account is a G/L account in the general ledger. A reconciliation account depicts a company’s liabilities to several suppliers in general ledger accounting.

When an invoice is posted, the reconciliation account for general ledger accounting is thus determined from the master record of the supplier (invoicing party).

Partner Functions

Because of this, it is possible to define appropriate partner functions for purchasing in the supplier master record. These partners can then be accepted as proposal values in purchasing documents.

Examples:

  • Partner function Invoicing Party:

    If you order from Supplier A, the invoice will always be created by the company headquarters C. Company headquarters C is therefore the deviating invoice party for Supplier A.

  • Partner function Goods Supplier:

    If you order from Supplier A, the goods will always be delivered by subsidiary S. Subsidiary S is therefore the deviating supplier of goods for Supplier A.

Master Data for One-Time Supplier

It is not possible to create a purchasing document or an invoice in the SAP system without a business partner master record.

However, for suppliers who supply the company once or very rarely, it does not make sense to enter their own supplier master records in the system. Therefore, collective accounts are set up for such one-time suppliers. These collective accounts are called Conto per Diverse (CpD) accounts. A special business partner grouping is used to create a CpD supplier master record.

If a supplier master record is available, a normal supplier master record is used. Otherwise, a one-time supplier master record.

Unlike other supplier master records, no supplier-specific data is stored in the master record for a CpD account because the account is used for several suppliers. In a one-time supplier master record, you can store, for example, the language, purchase order currency, and reconciliation account. You can only enter supplier-specific data, such as the name, address, or bank details, during document entry.

Create New Supplier Master Data

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Learning

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