Practical Guide to SAP Business Partner Functions and Integration with SAP S/4HANA

2.1 Business Partner/Customer/Vendor—identical number

First, let’s consider the case where all three objects (customer, vendor, and business partner) are assigned the same number according to Figure 2.1, in our example the “200000”. To do this, Number Ranges and Account Groups must be defined accordingly.

Figure 2.1: Identical numbers BP/customer/vendor

This constellation is useful, for example, if you create the master data completely from scratch in a Greenfield approach (see Section 7.4) and there are no specifications from the user departments for numbers to be transferred. As a result, all three objects (business partner, role customer and role vendor) have an identical number and can be assigned to each other more quickly in evaluations.

2.1.1 Customers (Accounts Receivable)

First of all, a new account group has to be created and defined via Financial Accounting • Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable • Customer Accounts • Master Data • Preparation for Creating Customer Master Data • Define Account Groups with Screen Layout (Customers) (see Figure 2.2 und Figure 2.3).

Figure 2.2: New customer account group “ZBPC”

Figure 2.3: Characteristic of customer account group “ZBPC”

Subsequently, a new number range, as shown in Figure 2.4, with external number assignment has to be defined under, Financial Accounting • Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable • Customer Accounts • Master Data • Preparation for Creating Customer Master Data • Create Number Ranges for Costumer Accounts. Please make sure that this number range is not already assigned to vendors and business partners.

Figure 2.4: Number range for new customer account group

Finally, the new number range is assigned to the new customer account group. The assignment is made via, Financial Accounting • Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable • Customer Accounts • Master Data • Preparation for Creating Customer Master Data • Assign Number Ranges to Customer Account Groups (see Figure 2.5).

Figure 2.5: Number range/customer account group assignment

2.1.2 Vendors (Accounts Payable)

Proceed in the same way for vendors. Here too, a new account group has to be set up and defined under, Financial Accounting • Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable • Vendor Accounts • Master Data • Preparation for Creating Vendor Master Data • Define Account Groups with Screen Layout (Vendor) (see Figure 2.6 and Figure 2.7).

Figure 2.6: New vendor account group “ZBPV”

Figure 2.7: Characteristic of vendor account group “ZBPV”

Subsequently, you also create a new number range with external number assignment under, Financial Accounting • Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable • Vendor Accounts • Master Data • Preparation for Creating Vendor Master Data • Create Number Ranges for Vendor Accounts, which corresponds to that of the customer as shown in Figure 2.8.

Figure 2.8: Number range for new vendor account group

This number range is now again assigned to the new vendor account group via, Financial Accounting • Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable • Vendor Accounts • Master Data • Preparation for Creating Vendor Master Data • Assign Number Ranges to Vendor Account Groups (see Figure 2.9).

Figure 2.9: Assignment of number range to vendor account group

2.1.3 Business Partner

As a further step, a new number range is also set up in Customizing for the SAP Business Partner, this time with internal number assignment. This number range is then assigned to a new grouping that has also been created. This is done as shown in Figure 2.10 in Customizing under, Cross-Application Components • SAP Business Partner • Business Partner • Basic Settings • Number Ranges and Groupings • Define Number ranges and under Cross-Application Components • SAP Business Partner • Business Partner • Basic Settings • Number Ranges and Groupings • Define Groupings and Assign Number ranges (see Figure 2.11).

Figure 2.10: Number range for business partner grouping

Figure 2.11: Assignment of number range to business partner grouping

Overall, you must ensure that at least one grouping with internal and one with external number assignment exists within the number range assignment to the groupings (see Figure 2.12). These groupings are used by the system as default groupings and can be changed when you set up the SAP Business Partner.

Figure 2.12: Default grouping for internal and external number assignment

2.1.4 Master Data Synchronization

In a final step, the Master Data Synchronization, also known as Customer Vendor Integration (CVI), is set up. This ensures that the data remains reconciled during integration between the tables for the business partner and the tables for customers and vendors. This means, that data records that exist in both tables, such as the name and description, are transferred from the “leading” business partner table (BUT000) to the customer and vendor tables.

So that customer and vendor integration can take place, the “direction” of number assignment must be defined.

Number Assignment for Integration “Business Partner to Customer”

For customers, the number assignment takes place via, Cross-Application Components • Master Data Synchronization • Customer/Vendor Integration • Business Partner Settings • Settings for Customer Integration • Field Assignment for Customer Integration • Assign Keys • Define Number Assignment for Direction BP to Customer.

Please make sure that the field, Same Numbers is checked (see Figure 2.13). This ensures that business partners and customers (role “Customer (FI)”) are assigned the same number.

Figure 2.13: Number assignment BP direction customer

Number assignment for integration “Business partner by vendor”.

For vendors, the assignment is made via, 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. Again, the field, Same Numbers must be checked (see Figure 2.14) to ensure that business partner and vendor (role “Vendor (FI)”) are assigned the same number.

Figure 2.14: Number assignment BP direction vendor

We will take a closer look at customer vendor integration in Chapter 7.

2.1.5 Use case / Application example

Let us take a quick look at how the settings shown affect the application. To do this, we first create a business partner in the role, “000000 Business Partner General” and then add the roles, “FLCU00” and “FLVN00” to see which number is assigned in each case. We use transaction BP to create the SAP Business Partner. The number 200000 is assigned to the business partner according to the number range system (see Figure 2.15).

Figure 2.15: Number of the business partner—200000

The role, FLCU00 Customer (FI) is now added to the business partner in transaction BP. If you click on the tab, Customer General Data, you will see that the account group, ZBPC and the customer number 200000 are automatically stored (see Figure 2.16).

Figure 2.16: Number of the Customer—200000

In the Company Code view, which can be accessed via, More • Company Code, the company code and the reconciliation account must be entered and saved using the button.

In a further step, the role, FLVN00 Vendor (FI) is created. The vendor number 200000 this time with account group, ZBPV is also automatically stored here, as shown in Figure 2.17.

Figure 2.17: Number of the Vendor—200000