A partner determination procedure contains several steps to determine where partner functions may or must appear in a sales process. Play the video to learn more.
In the video, Jim mentions the assignment of the account group to the customer master as one example of a partner determination procedure. Explore the table below to identify which partner procedures are assigned to partner objects in SAP S/4HANA:
| Partner object: | Assignment key: |
|---|---|
| Customer master | Account group |
| Sales document header | Sales document type |
| Sales document item | Item category in sales |
| Delivery document | Delivery type |
| Shipment | Shipment type |
| Billing header | Billing type |
| Billing item | Billing type |
If you take the account group assignment example, the account group controls the amount of data and the response of customer master records. The figure illustrates how the assignment works.
Account groups are already defined in the standard SAP system, such as 0001 Sold-to party, 0002 Ship-to party, 0003 Payer, and so on. You can create additional account groups as necessary.
When you define the account group, you determine the following:
- For each data field, whether it is displayed or not and whether maintenance is mandatory, optional, or not possible
Example: A customer master record for a customer who only acts as a ship-to party (created with account group 0002) requires information relevant for shipping. Billing information is not required. Therefore, the corresponding fields are not displayed.
- The number range
- A number of other control elements, such as for partners and texts of the customer master
- For each data field, whether it is displayed or not and whether maintenance is mandatory, optional, or not possible
While the account group controls a customer master record, the partner function determines which partner assumes specific business functions within the sales process.
The following figure illustrates how business partners are automatically copied from the customer master when you create sales documents.
In our example, the customer master of the sold-to party is accessed. Several partner relationships are stored in the customer master record for a sold-to party. The system can also copy a partner function from other customer master records to create a partner for the sales document by specifying the source of the partner function and the determination sequence. When you do, you should note the sequence in which the system determines the partners.
Here are examples of indirect partner functions:
You have various regular suppliers in various regions. You want the system to determine the forwarding agent in the sales document depending on the ship-to party. In Customizing, you ensure that the system determines the ship-to party by first accessing the master record for the sold-to party. It then accesses the ship-to party's master record to determine the forwarding agent.
You can use other sources to determine business partners in sales documents automatically, such as the tables for customer hierarchy (KNVH), contact persons (KNVK), and so on.
An analysis function is provided for tracing automatic determination of business partners in sales documents in greater detail.