Understanding the Concept of Master Data

Objectives

After completing this lesson, you will be able to:

  • Understand the concept of master data

Master Data in SAP S/4HANA

Business Partner and Assigned Roles

The Business Partner is created and the roles necessary for the usage of the BP are assigned. The different roles are created on certain organizational levels. The role FI Vendor, which is necessary to use the BP in FI based purchase postings, is assigned to the company code. So the data in this role can be maintained in each company code different. Note that vendor is also called supplier.

You can assign a different vendor number and customer number to your BP inside the BP maintenance transaction.

In the general role of the business partner, the name and address of the BP is entered.

In the role FI vendor (BP used as a vendor in FI), you enter the following data:

  • The terms of payment

  • The names of important contacts related to the vendor (for example, sales people)

  • The reconciliation account from the general ledger (G/L), because the vendor is a creditor of the company

You can decide whether to maintain many roles at once or to add roles later, when you need them.

Material Master Record

The material master contains the information that a company needs to manage a type of material. The material master defines how a product is sold, manufactured, purchased, inventoried, and costed. The information in the material master is grouped into views that are organized by business function.

Transactions

Transactions are application programs that execute business processes in the SAP system. Whenever possible, master data is copied during transaction processing, thus avoiding re-entry of data. For example, when executing the Create Sales Order transaction, the user must enter the customer master number.

The customer master number is copied into all of the relevant customer information areas. Once the material master numbers are entered for the items being ordered, the relevant material data will be copied to the sales order.

When performing each transaction, applicable organizational elements must be entered. For example, by specifying the sales organization, the appropriate sales group is given credit for the sales activity. The designation of the plant and storage location determines product sourcing.

Documents are electronic data records of transactions, and contain all of the relevant, predefined information from the master data and organizational elements.

Display a Material Master Record

Display a Customer Master Record

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