White Paper Business Partner
on Business and Credit
Partner Hierarchy Set up
Authored by: Manisha Sunkari
Co-Authored by: Balaji Ramesh
Contents
Business Partner approach in S4 Hana
Advantages
BP Key Concepts
Business partner Configuration
Demo – Business Partner Creation
BP – Relationships
Credit Hierarchy Set up
Business Scenarios
Configuration - Credit Hierarchy
Demo – Credit Hierarchy
Business Partner Approach in S4 Hana
In the past, users had to go through multiple transactions for any particular SAP business process. The
new approach for SAP S/4HANA follows the “principle of one” rule where S/4HANA offers a single
solution for a business requirement. As part of this simplification, the biggest change without a doubt is
the Business partner approach. Business partners are now capable of not only centrally managing
master data but also customer and vendor data.
In SAP S/4HANA, Business Partner is the leading object and single point of entry to maintain Business
Partner, Customer, and Supplier (formerly known as Vendor) master data.
This is to ensure the ease of master data maintenance and to achieve harmonization between them.
Compared to classical ERP transactions, maintenance of Customer and Supplier master data via Business
Partner has many advantages:
A legal entity is represented with one Business Partner.
Business Partner allows maintenance of multiple addresses with corresponding address usages.
In classical transactions, one customer can only be associated to one account group. But in
Business Partner, multiple roles can be associated to the same Business Partner.
Maximal data sharing and reuse of data which lead to an easier data consolidation.
General Data available for all different Business Partner roles, specific data is stored for each
role.
Maintenance of multiple relationships to the same Business Partner.
Maintenance of Time Dependency at different sub-entities roles, address, relationship, bank
data etc.
Enhanced data integrity and reduced data redundancy
Key Terms
1. Business Partner Role – Function that a Business Partner takes on depending on a
Business transaction. Different roles could be like Customer, Supplier, Contact Person etc.
2. Business Partner Role Category – Business Partner Roles will be linked to a Business
Partner Role Category which is like a many to one relationship
3. Business Partner Category - It is mandatory to specify a Business Partner category at the
time of Business Partner creation based on which the classification of Business Partner
happens. BP is divided into 3 Categories, viz., Person, Organization, Group
Business
Partner Role 1
Business Partner Category
Business Partner Person
Business Role Category Organization
Partner Role 2
Group
Business
Partner Role 3
Thus, it’s clear that the Business Partner role category is the linking factor between the Business
Partner role and the Business Partner Category.
During BP creation, it’s important to select the BP category, once the BP category is selected, user
can select the Business Partner role that was linked to the BP Role Category having the specific BP
category allowed.
For Suppose BP Role 1 is assigned to a BP Role Category which doesn’t include the BP category
Organization, User will not be allowed to create an Organization with BP Role 1.
Business Partner Configuration Guide
Define BP Roles and BP Role Groupings
SPRO Cross Application components SAP Business partner Business partner
Basic Settings Business partner roles Define BP Roles
SPRO Cross Application components SAP Business partner Business partner
Basic Settings Business partner roles Define BP Role Groupings
Number Ranges
Number ranges assignment is based on the BP Grouping, Number ranges are defined and then
assigned to BP Grouping.
SPRO Cross Application components SAP Business partner Business partner
Basic Settings Number Ranges and Groupings.
At the time of BP creation, user is prompted to select the BP grouping, as that now there is a link
between the BP Grouping and Number ranges, system will automatically pick the assigned number
range.
Customer Account Groups
Customer Account group configuration remains the same as that of ECC.
SPRO Financial accounting(New) Account Receivables and account payables
Customer Accounts Master Data Preparations for creating customer master data
Define Account groups with screen layout
Assigning the number ranges to Account Group
SPRO Financial accounting(New) Account Receivables and account payables
Customer Accounts Master Data Preparations for creating customer master data
Assign Number Ranges to Customer Account Groups
Configure Partner determination procedure to determines (Include or exclude) the partner
functions for each account group
Define & Assign partner function to account groups
Partner functions are used mainly in transaction processing (Not covered in This training session),
and relationship categories mainly in master data.
SPRO Sales and Distribution Basic Functions Partner Determination Set up partner
Determination Set up partner determination for Customer Master Account group-
Functional Assignment
Master Data Synchronization
On activating this indicator, with the BP number creation, sold to party Number will get
created automatically
SPRO Cross Application components Master Data synchronization Synchronization
control Activate synchronization option click on Activate indicator
SPRO Cross Application components Master Data synchronization
Synchronization control Activate PPO Requests for Platform Objects in the Dialog
Customer Vendor Integration
SPRO Cross Application components Master Data synchronization
Customer Vendor Integration Business Partner Settings Settings for Customer
Integration Set BP Role Category for Direction BP to Customer
Customer
Business Partner
Vendor
SPRO 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
Checking the same number option ensures that the Customer/Vendor is created with the
same number as that of the Business Partner.
BP Creation
Choose the appropriate Business Partner Category, BP grouping and BP role.
Now maintain the different sets of data like General data, Sales data, Accounting data, Credit
Data
Credit Hierarchy
Business Scenario:
There is a Parent Group and few Child Groups like the Tata business group.
Now the Client requires the credit to be managed at Parent level meaning, Credit data should be set
up at the Parent level and this data should be used by the children for carrying the credit checks.
Similarly, the credit exposure value of the Parent should get updated with the net values of the
orders created for the Lower Level Customers.
Pre-requisites:
BP must be extended to the SAP Credit management role and credit data
must be in Place for both the Higher and Lower Level Customers
Relationship must be set between the Customers
Unique Checking rule must be created and assigned to the Lower Level
Customer
Credit Limit data should be maintained under the same Credit segment
Higher level Customer
Checking rule – Create a checking rule without maintaining any parameters for credit calculation.
Lower Level Customer:
Assign the above created Checking rule to the Lower level customers. This ensures that the credit
exposure of the child is not checked but the Parent’s credit exposure value is checked during sales
order creation
A limit of 0 should be set
Maintaining Relationship between the Business Partners
Demo
Credit exposure -- Lower Level Customer
Net value of the order is added up to the existing exposure value
Credit exposure -- Higher-Level Customer
Net value of the order is added up to the existing exposure value, though the sold to party in the
sales order is the Lower Level Customer.
