Business Partners

The master data of customers and vendors is managed in SAP S/4HANA by using business partner master data. By using this approach, it is possible to centrally maintain the master data for customers and vendors (in SAP ERP they have been handled separately).

Business partner master data can be maintained with the transaction BP or by using a corresponding app from the SAP Fiori launchpad. Business partners can be assigned multiple company codes. Business partners can be categorized as a person, group, or organization. An organization represents units such as a company, a department of a company, or an association. Organization is an umbrella term to map every kind of situation in the day-to-day business activities. A group represents a shared living arrangement, a married couple, or an executive board.

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. Relevant business partner roles related to shipping process are:

• Business Partner general (000000)
• Customer (FLCU01)
• FI customer (FLCU00)
• Vendor (FLVN01)
• FI vendor (FLVN00)
• Invoicing Party (BBP006)
• Carrier (CRM010)

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 sold-to party).

You define the general business partner data once and assign business partner roles (BP roles) to the business partner. Specific data is stored for each business partner role. In this way, you do not store redundant data, since the general data is independent of a business partner’s function or application-specific extensions. When you first create a business partner in the system, the BP role General Business Partner is automatically assigned to the business partner.

Assigning partner functions in the SAP system determines the functions of particular partners in the process. A partner function is a particular role that a business partner can take during the process. For example, one customer orders some products (partner function: sold-to-party and another customer receives the material (partner function: Ship-to-party). One partner can have several functions. For example, when all the partner functions within the customer partner type are assigned to one business partner, the same customer is the sold-to-party, ship-to-party, payer, and bill-to-party.

The following is a list of partner functions commonly used in the shipping process:

• Consignee
• Bill-to-party
• Carrier
• Shipper
• Ordering party
• Driver
• Payer
• Freight forwarder

Additional text can be defined for the business partner master data and you can use them as the printing address. The same business partner number can be maintained across multiple company codes.

Drivers: Drivers operate vehicles. They are defined as business partner with the role driver. Attributes like driver qualifications, shift sequence, validity period, home location, and absences can be maintained.

The system can be enabled to determine business partners for various document types. This allows users to easily and efficiently enter business partners in a business document. It cuts down on the chance of manual errors, and reduces the need to enter a business partner for each partner function.

In Customizing for Transportation Management under Master Data→Business Partners→Define Partner Determination Profiles, you can create a partner determination profile that the system uses to automatically determine the following features:

• The partner functions available in a business document

  You specify the list of partner functions that the system makes available in a business document.

• The level of control the user has in entering the partner function

  Depending on the settings you define in Customizing, you change or delete a partner function, or add a partner function from a list of available partner functions. You can also specify settings so that you cannot change or delete specific partner functions.

• How the system determines business partners for the partner functions

The system uses one of the following relationships that you specify in Customizing, to determine a business partner:

• Partner function and source partner function

  In Customizing, you can specify a source partner function for a particular partner function. In the application, when you enter a business partner in the field that you have specified as the source partner function, the system automatically copies the business partner to the associated partner function.

  For example, in Customizing, you specify the partner function as Invoicing Party, the source type as Partner Function, and the source function as Sold-to Party. In the application, you specify the sold-to party as Customer01. The system assigns Customer01 as the business partner for the invoicing party.

• Partner function and the source partner function in business partner master data

  The system uses the settings that you specify on the Partner Function tab page in the BP–Maintain Business Partner transaction to determine a business partner in a business document.

  For example, you are a logistics service provider (LSP), and you have a business partner APP_1. In the BP–Maintain Business Partner transaction, you specify APP_1 with the BP role of FLCU01 (Customer). On the Partner Function tab page of the BP transaction for APP_1, you specify an organizational unit and a partner function for the business partner APP_INV. APP_INV fulfills the role of invoicing party for APP_1. In Customizing, you specify the partner function as Invoicing Party, the source type as BP Relationship, and the source role as Sold-to Party.

  In a forwarding order, you specify the organization as 561234 on the General Data tab page and the sold-to party as APP_1 on the Business Partner tab page. The system checks the business partner master data for APP_1. On the Partner Function tab page, it finds that APP_1 uses APP_INV as the invoicing party for organization 561234. It assigns APP_INV as the business partner for the invoicing party.

• Partner function and business partner

  In Customizing, you directly assign a business partner to a partner function. In the application, the system automatically assigns this business partner to the partner function.

  For example, in Customizing, you specify the partner function as Invoicing Party, the source type as Business Partner, and the business partner as CSI_CARR1. The system automatically assigns CSI_CARR1 as the business partner for the invoicing party in the application.

  Note that you can enter a business partner that does not exist in the current system. This enables you to assign a business partner to a partner function in one system and transport it to another system where the business partner exists. For example, in a Customizing system, you have not defined any business partner master data. You have assigned business partner LUF to a partner function of carrier. You transport this data to a production system where LUF is defined. In a business document of the production system, the system determines that the business partner for the carrier is LUF.

• Relationship category

  The system can determine the business partner for a partner function based on the partner relationship you specify in the Maintain Business Partner transaction (transaction BP).

You can assign the business partner determination profile to the following business document types:

• Forwarding orders
• Forwarding quotations
• Forwarding settlement documents
• Freight orders
• Freight bookings
• Freight settlement documents
• Freight agreement RFQs
• Forwarding agreement quotations
• Freight agreements
• Forwarding agreements
• Internal agreements
• Mutual agreements