QUICK GUIDE: BUSINESS PARTNER SETUP

Contents
CONCEPT .................................................................................................................... 2
CUSTOMIZING ............................................................................................................ 4
SELECT THE RELEVANT ROLES ............................................................................................. 4
ASSIGN THE NUMBER RANGE BP (ONE NO. RANGE SCENARIO BP AND CUST,/VEND,) ............................. 5
Define Number Ranges ............................................................................................. 5
Define Groupings and Assign Number Ranges .............................................................. 5
SET THE NUMBER RANGES FOR CUSTOMERS (ONE NO. RANGE SCENARIO BP AND CUST,/VEND,) ................ 5
SET THE NUMBER RANGES FOR VENDORS (ONE NO. RANGE SCENARIO BP AND CUST,/VEND,) ................... 6
CUSTOMER VENDOR INTEGRATION (CVI) CUSTOMIZING .............................................................. 6
Synchronization Objects ........................................................................................... 6
PPO activation ......................................................................................................... 6
Activate Synchronization Options ............................................................................... 7
Establish Recipient of Postprocessing Messages (optional) ............................................. 7
Set BP Role Category for Direction BP to Customer ...................................................... 8
Define BP Role for Direction Customer to BP ................................................................ 9
Define Number Assignment for Direction BP to Customer .............................................. 9
Define Number Assignment for Direction Customer to BP ............................................. 10
Set BP Role Category for Direction BP to Vendor ......................................................... 10
Define BP Role for Direction Vendor to BP .................................................................. 11
Define Number Assignment for Direction BP to Vendor................................................. 11
Define Number Assignment for Direction Vendor to BP................................................. 12
FIELD SETTINGS BP (THE BP WILL BE LEADING) ...................................................................... 12
Configure Field Attributes per BP Role ....................................................................... 12
MAINTAIN TAX NUMBER CATEGORIES ................................................................................... 14
Change the message control from warning to error ..................................................... 15
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CONCEPT

Business partner
Patient structures Employee

Loan
recipient
Creditor

Tenant SAP
Business
Partner Vendor

Customer

⚫ neutral
⚫ persons and organizations
Plant
Debitor ⚫ cross-application
⚫ open infrastructure
⚫ integration through
business concepts

A SAP Business Partner is an Organization (firm, branch office), person or a group of persons or organizations
in which your company has a business interest.

You can create and manage your business partners centrally for different business transactions.

This is of prime interest if a business partner plays different roles for a company, such as sold-to party and ship-to
party.

You can create a business partner in different business partner roles. During the course of the business
relationship, the business partner can also get other business partner roles. You do not need to create the
general data, which is independent of a business partner’s function, again for this business partner. You just
add a Role which will contain the relevant information. This prevents data being created and stored
redundantly.

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A Business partner consists of general data (Name, address, bank information etc.) and Role specific
information (e.g. customer / vendor / employee / etc.). these roles are linked to other parts within SAP. When
a BP has the role customer the link with the customer / sales sub administration and the general ledger is
mandatory. On creation the relevant fields for and links to these areas are made.

It is advised is to implement the BP functionality for new implementations where the BP will be leading
regarding the numbering of the customers and vendors (this means the customer and vendor will have the
same number range) . With upgrades up to the 1503 release the BP functionality can be implemented but is
not needed. As from the 1511 release the HANA core the BP is mandatory and the old FD01/02/03 and
FK01/02/03 will not be available anymore. The BP is the only way to create the customers and vendors. In
this case the customer needs to decide how to deal with the number ranges.
The options are:
• harmonizing the two (e.g. the customer number range will remain the same and the vendors will be
migrated to the main customer number range. After this has been done the BP’s can be generated
using the same numbers) o Disadvantage: you lose the history of your vendors (the data is
divided over two numbers) You do not have to migrate the vendors to a new number range.
o Advantage: when you start to use e.g. FSCM collection management or CRM, which uses
the BP number, you will have no confusion regarding the number you are referring to.
• keep using the numbers and link them to the BP which will have a whole new number range.
o Disadvantage: when you start to use e.g. FSCM collection management or CRM, which
uses the BP number, you will have confusion regarding the number you are referring to
o Advantage: you do not lose the history of your vendors
You do not have to migrate the vendors to a new number range

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CUSTOMIZING

SELECT THE RELEVANT ROLES

IMG → Cross-Application Components → SAP Business Partner → Business Partner → Basic Settings →
Business Partner Roles → Define BP Roles

Hide the roles which are not relevant. This prevents a wrong selection by the users.

T-

Code BP

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ASSIGN THE NUMBER RANGE BP (ONE NO. RANGE SCENARIO BP AND CUST,/VEND,)

DEFINE NUMBER RANGES

IMG → Cross-Application Components → SAP Business Partner → Business Partner → Basic Settings →
Number Ranges and Groupings → Define Number Ranges

Number range 01 Is for the regular BP’s which will be created in the process (e.g. a new vendor needs to be
created)
Number range 02 is for e.g. intercompany customers/vendors for which you want to make sure the company code
equals the BP number. Therefore this is an external number range.

DEFINE GROUPINGS AND ASSIGN NUMBER RANGES

IMG → Cross-Application Components → SAP Business Partner → Business Partner → Basic Settings →
Number Ranges and Groupings → Define Groupings and Assign Number Ranges

SET THE NUMBER RANGES FOR CUSTOMERS (ONE NO. RANGE SCENARIO BP AND
CUST,/VEND,)

T-code: XDN1

The Customer number ranges in FI are external. The BP will determine the number.
The number range of the customer and vendor are equal. Reason the BP is leading and that number can be a
customer or vendor

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SET THE NUMBER RANGES FOR VENDORS (ONE NO. RANGE SCENARIO BP AND CUST,/VEND,)

T-code: XKN1

The Vendor number ranges in FI are external. The BP will determine the number.
The number range of the customer and vendor are equal. Reason the BP is leading and that number can be a
customer or vendor

CUSTOMER VENDOR INTEGRATION (CVI) CUSTOMIZING

SYNCHRONIZATION OBJECTS

IMG → Cross-Application Components → Master Data Synchronization → Synchronization Control →

Synchronization Control → Synchronization Objects

Synchronization Synchronization Platform Ob- Block

Object Mode Extractor Class Description ject Size
BP 1 CVI_BP_EXTRACTOR Business Partner X 50
CUSTOMER 1 CMD_EI_API_EXTRACT Customer 50
VENDOR 1 VMD_EI_API_EXTRACT Vendor 50

PPO ACTIVATION

IMG → Cross-Application Components → Master Data Synchronization → Synchronization Control →

Synchronization Control → Activate PPO Requests for Platform Objects in the Dialog
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 Synchronization Ob- PPO Ac-
ject tive
BP X

ACTIVATE SYNCHRONIZATION OPTIONS

IMG → Cross-Application Components → Master Data Synchronization → Synchronization Control →

Synchronization Control → Activate Synchronization Options

ESTABLISH RECIPIENT OF POSTPROCESSING MESSAGES (OPTIONAL)

IMG → Cross-Application Components → Master Data Synchronization → Establish Recipient of Postprocessing

Messages

Goal: assign a user to each type of error which can occur during the creation / synchronization of
the BP with Customers / vendors

When reading the help text you will see it is possible to activate a workflow which automates the process

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The business processes for which you can use the Postprocessing Office are contained in the Business Processes
(/SAPPO/S_BPROC) system table.

Below you will find the Processes for Business partner integration

SET BP ROLE CATEGORY FOR DIRECTION BP TO CUSTOMER

IMG → 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

The following roles are relevant for the CVI Customer Integration

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The FLCU00 is the role for the FI part of the customer data
The FLCU01 is the role for the SD part of the customer data

DEFINE BP ROLE FOR DIRECTION CUSTOMER TO BP

IMG → Cross-Application Components → Master Data Synchronization → Customer/Vendor Integration →

Business Partner Settings → Settings for Customer Integration → Define BP Role for Direction Customer to BP

Here the link between the BP roles and the FI customer group is defined

DEFINE NUMBER ASSIGNMENT FOR DIRECTION BP TO CUSTOMER

IMG → Cross-Application Components → Master Data Synchronization → Customer/Vendor Integration →

Business Partner Settings → Settings for Customer Integration → Assign Keys → Define Number Assignment
for Direction BP to Customer

Here the FI account groups are linked to the BP groups. As you can see that two account groups are used.
One for the regular BP’s and one for the Inter Company BP’s. This customizing also links the number
ranges.
With the option [same numbers] you make sure the BP and customers are in sync

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DEFINE NUMBER ASSIGNMENT FOR DIRECTION CUSTOMER TO BP

IMG → Cross-Application Components → Master Data Synchronization → Customer/Vendor Integration →

Business Partner Settings → Settings for Customer Integration → Assign Keys → Define Number
Assignment for Direction Customer to BP

Here no customizing settings since the starting point is to create only customers via the BP and not via the
FI/SD transactions

SET BP ROLE CATEGORY FOR DIRECTION BP TO VENDOR

IMG → Cross-Application Components → Master Data Synchronization → Customer/Vendor Integration →

Business Partner Settings → Settings for Vendor Integration → Set BP Role Category for Direction BP to
Vendor

The following roles are relevant for the CVI Vendor Integration

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The FLVN00 is the role for the FI part of the vendor data
The FLVN01 is the role for the MM part of the vendor data

DEFINE BP ROLE FOR DIRECTION VENDOR TO BP

IMG → Cross-Application Components → Master Data Synchronization → Customer/Vendor Integration →

Business Partner Settings → Settings for Vendor Integration → Define BP Role for Direction Vendor to BP

Here the link between the BP roles and the FI customer group is defined

DEFINE NUMBER ASSIGNMENT FOR DIRECTION BP TO VENDOR

IMG → 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

Here the FI account groups are linked to the BP groups. As you can see that two account groups are used.
One for the regular BP’s and one for the Inter Company BP’s. This customizing also links the number
ranges.
With the option [same numbers] you make sure the BP and vendors are in sync

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DEFINE NUMBER ASSIGNMENT FOR DIRECTION VENDOR TO BP

IMG → 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 Vendor to BP

Here no customizing settings since the starting point is to create only customers via the BP and not via the
FI/SD transactions

FIELD SETTINGS BP (THE BP WILL BE LEADING)

Since the BP is leading you should not change the screen layout of the account groups in FI.
However when you change the screen layout of the account groups in FI you need to make sure
that these settings will match with the field settings in BP. If they do not match you will have
problems when saving the BP. (e.g. you make a field mandatory in FI but not in the BP. When
saving the BP the changes will not be saved if the mandatory filed is not filled. When there are
issues you can find a detailed error log in transaction MDS_PPO2 (Post Processing Office)

CONFIGURE FIELD ATTRIBUTES PER BP ROLE

IMG → Cross-Application Components → SAP Business Partner → Business Partner → Basic Settings →
Field Groupings → Configure Field Attributes per BP Role

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Via this customizing you can do the following:
• Make fields optional / mandatory / hidden / display only
• Hide field groups completely (when you hide all fields within a group)
• Hide Tab pages completely (when you hide all fields within all groups on a tab page)

E.G you want to hide the following fields in tab page [customer: additional data]

After selecting the customizing transaction

Select the following option

Select the relevant role in which you want to change the field attributes

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Select the correct data set
Activate the radio buttons to the required specifications

MAINTAIN TAX NUMBER CATEGORIES

IMG → Cross-Application Components → SAP Business Partner → Business Partner → Basic

Settings → Tax Numbers → Maintain Tax Number Categories

Here the default settings regarding the Tax numbers of the different countries are maintained.
You can also (de-)activate the duplicate check.

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This setting will activate the check on duplicate Tax numbers. The message will be a warning.
The next chapter describes how to change the message type from warning to error.

CHANGE THE MESSAGE CONTROL FROM WARNING TO ERROR

Below you will find the steps to change the default warning message into an error message.

Message control Duplicate tax message

First enter the SAP-Standard part in table T100s

Start transaction 'SM31' enter Table/View 'T100s' and press Maintain

Press [New Entries]

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 add
the following entry

Save the changes

Enter the Customer specific part in table table T100c by starting transaction 'OBA5',

Enter the Application Area 'BUPA_TAX' and press enter,

Press [New Entries]

add following entry to set an error for the message 'BUPA_TAX 400':

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Save the changes

Result: it is not allowed to enter two BP’s with the same VAT number

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