Creating Business Partners

When a business partner is created, the business partner category must be selected. The business partner category is the term used to classify a business partner as one of the following:

• A natural person (for example, a private individual or an employee)

• A group (for example, a community of heirs)

• An organization (a legal entity or part of a legal entity, such as a company or a department of a company)

The business partner category determines which fields are available for data entry.

The business partner category assignment cannot be changed once the business partner has been created.

The number range of a business partner is determined by a grouping, which needs to be selected when creating a business partner on client level.

To configure groupings, use the following menu path in Customizing: SAP Customizing Implementation Guide → Cross-Application Components → SAP Business Partner → Business Partner → Basic Settings → Number Ranges and Groupings → Define Groupings and Assign Number Ranges.

The assignment of business partners to groupings is stored in table BUT000.

A supplier master record is automatically created in the background when you create a business partner master record for a supplier. An account group is assigned automatically to this supplier master record. The account group depends on the grouping and is assigned in table TBC001.

To maintain this table, go to SAP Customizing Implementation Guide → Cross Application Components → Master Data Synchronization → Customer/Vendor Integration → Business Partner Settings → Settings for Vendor Integration → Field Assignment for Vendor Integration → Assign Keys → Define Number Assignment for Direction BP to Vendor.

The Same Numbers checkbox in this Customizing activity decides whether business partner master records and supplier master records have the same numbers. If the checkbox is not selected, the number for the supplier is assigned through the account group.

You can display the assigned account group on the Vendor: General Data tab in the business partner master record for the BP role Supplier.

Field selection for business partners can be maintained in Customizing under the following: SAP Customizing Implementation Guide → Cross Application Components → SAP Business Partner → Business Partner → Basic Settings → Field Groupings. The field attributes can be defined on the following levels:

• Client
• BP role
• Activity (create, change, display)
• BP type: The BP type is a field in the business partner master data that you can optionally populate to add flexibility to the field selection control. BP types can be freely defined in Customizing.

If different settings are maintained for the same field, priority rules apply.

The field selection priority rules within business partner roles differs from the standard rules. In the standard logic, HIDE has the highest priority, followed by DISPLAY, MANDATORY, and OPTIONAL.

For business partner roles, MANDATORY (Required Entry) has the highest priority, followed by OPTIONAL, DISPLAY, and HIDE. An example: the field Internet Mail Address (E-Mail) has been set as a required entry (MANDATORY) for business partner role FLVN00 FI Vendor and as a hidden entry (HIDE) for business partner role FLVN01 Supplier. When any supplier is then maintained in the system, the field is a required entry.

A business partner relationship represents the business connection between two business partners.

To create a relationship between two business partners, you have to assign a business partner relationship category to the business partner relationship. The business partner relationship category describes the characteristics of the business partner relationship.

You can limit a relationship in time by entering the start date and end date of the relationship. This means that it is possible to get an overview of the periods in which certain business partners were contact persons for a company, for example.

Ms. Lopez at ABC Supplier Ltd. is the contact person for your company.

Ms. Lopez is created as a business partner of business partner category Person and with business partner role BUP001 Contact Person.

A relationship is then created with the relationship category is contact person of between business partner Lopez (having the BP category Person), and the business partner ABC Supplier Ltd. having the BP category Organization.

You can assign some attributes (such as a firm’s address for the contact person relationship) to a relationship, which prevents data being stored redundantly.

The data relevant for suppliers (business partner roles Supplier and FI Vendor) is subdivided into the following categories:

• General data:

  General data is valid at client level. General data includes data such as the supplier’s address, control data, bank details, and relationships.

• Accounting data:

  Company code data is maintained at the company code level. Company code data includes data such as the number of the reconciliation account, information for correspondence and withholding tax, and the payment methods for automatic payment transactions.

• Purchasing data:

  Purchasing data is maintained for each purchasing organization. Purchasing data includes data such as the purchase order currency, International Commercial Terms (Incoterms), partner functions, purchasing data, and various controls pertaining to the supplier. You can also maintain different data for specific plants or for supplier sub-ranges.

In the purchasing data of a business partner, maintain the purchase order currency and the applicable terms of payment. This data is used as default values in purchase orders, outline agreements, and purchasing info records.

The business partner also contains control fields for the purchasing process. The following are some control indicators:

• GR-Based Invoice Verif. or Eval. Receipt Settlement.
• Acknowledgment Requiremt.
• Automatic Purchase Order.

These indicators determine the following:

• The purchasing functions that are possible for a supplier
• The default values for the corresponding fields when creating info records and purchasing documents for this supplier

In addition to the purchasing data, you can maintain partner functions for business partners. Partner functions enable some functions in the procurement process to be carried out by different business partners. If, for example, an invoicing party differing from the supplier is specified in a purchase order, this invoicing party will be determined when the invoice is posted with reference to this purchase order.

Most purchasing-relevant supplier data stored at purchasing organization level can be maintained differently at plant or sub-range level.  Some data can even be maintained exclusively at plant level. One example is the default value for the release creation profile used in scheduling agreement processing with release documentation.

Supplier sub-ranges subdivide a supplier's total product range according to a variety of criteria. You can freely define sub-ranges, for example, CAR or TRUCK. However, they have a maximum length of six characters. You can assign a sub-range in an info record or in a purchasing document item. In the general supplier master data, you have to allow additional data for plants/sub-ranges before you can create them.

Using sub-ranges and partner functions, you can, for example, determine different mail addresses for the same supplier, depending on the material or plant.

A business partner is a necessary prerequisite for the creation of an external purchasing document, such as request for quotation, purchase order, or outline agreement. If no master record has yet been created for a business partner, you can use one-time suppliers when creating a purchasing document.

As you can use a one-time supplier master record for several suppliers, you cannot store supplier-specific address data in such a record. When creating a one-time supplier master record, you must select a grouping that has an account group for one-time suppliers. When creating a purchasing document, you must then enter the address data manually.

Purchasing Category is a business entity in SAP S/4HANA. You can assign material groups to purchasing categories to organize and analyze spend. The purchasing categories are used in the supplier evaluation process (supplier evaluation by purchasing category) and in purchasing real-time analytics as separate views when performing analysis.

Examples of purchasing categories could be plastic parts, metal parts, or chemicals. Besides materials groups and planned spend, you can assign suppliers and employees to purchasing categories. In the SAP Fiori launchpad, you can use the app Manage Purchasing Categories to do the previously mentioned assignments.

You can assign a supplier to multiple purchasing categories. Material groups can only be assigned to one purchasing category.

In the back-end system, use the transaction BP for maintaining business partners/suppliers.

With the Purchasing List, you can get an overview of all suppliers per purchasing organization. To display the list of suppliers, on the SAP Easy Access screen, choose Logistics → Materials Management → Purchasing → Master Data → Vendor → List Displays → Purchasing List( MKVZ).

On the SAP Fiori launchpad, you can use the following apps for business partners/suppliers:

• Maintain Business Partner

  This app or the BP transaction is the central entry point for creating, editing, and displaying master data for all business partners.

• Manage Business Partner Master Data

  With this application you can create, change, search, display, and copy business partner master data.

• Manage Supplier Master Data

  With this application you can create, change, search, display, and copy supplier master data.

• Display Supplier List

  With this app you can view and download a list of suppliers according to different search filters.

• Mass maintenance, vendor master

• Master Data Process Overview for Business Partner

  This app shows overview information on both completed and open tasks.