define number assignment for direction bp

Master SAP S4HANA Business Partner Configuration: 15 Steps Guide

The synchronization of Business Partner (BP) numbers in SAP S/4 HANA Sis beneficial when a customer is also a vendor, and this feature is particularly helpful in S/4HANA where business partners can have different number ranges than customer vendors. A business partner can be created in several ways:

• different number ranges from customer and vendor accounts
• similar number ranges for BP and customer accounts,
• similar number ranges for BP and vendor accounts,
• the same number ranges for BP, customer and vendor accounts

The fourth scenario, where the BP number is synchronized with both customer and vendor accounts, is the focus of this configuration guide.

• Define Account Groups with Screen Layout
• Create Number Ranges for Customer Accounts
• Assign Number Ranges to Customer Account Groups—
• Define Account Groups with Screen Layout (Vendors)
• Create Number Ranges for Vendor
• Assign Number Ranges to Vendor Account
• Define Number Ranges
• Define Groupings and Assign Number
• Define BP Role for Direction Customer to
• Define Number Assignment for Direction BP to Customer
• Define Number Assignment for Direction Customer to BP—
• Define BP Role for Direction Vendor to
• Define Number Assignment for Direction BP to Vendor
• Define Number Assignment for Direction Vendor to
• Creating a test BP

Download – Master SAP S4HANA Business Partner Configuration: 15 Steps Guide

You might also be interested in these posts

• SAP FSCM Business Partner Settings Configuration Guide
• SAP Business Partner: Key Concepts, Configuration and End User Guide
• Business Partner in SAP S/4HANA: Concept Presentation
• Consultant’s Guide to SAP S/4HANA CVI Configuration
• Configuration & End User Guide to SAP FI Accounts Receivable

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Key topics discussed.

• SAP S/4HANA Finance

Business Partner Creation for Intercompany Customers and Vendors

Reading time: 5 mins

Meet the Experts

Agnes simonits.

Certified SAP Finance Consultant, delaware United Kingdom

Key Takeaways

⇨ setup business partners (bp’s) to support intercompany (i/c) activity within sap s/4hana., ⇨ learn the best practice approach and naming convention for establishing intercompany relationships, ⇨ prepare to leverage standard configuration and a simple naming convention to create and extend your intercompany business partners..

by Agnes Simonits, certified SAP Finance consultant, Delaware United Kingdom

In this article I provide step-by-step instructions to setup Business Partners (BP’s) to support intercompany (I/C) activity within SAP S/4HANA. Configuring the Business Partner for intercompany customers and vendors and setting up the related master data is a tricky process that is not well documented. Many steps are involved, and now that Business Partner usage is mandatory in SAP S/4HANA, the Best Practice approach and naming convention for establishing intercompany relationships in SAP for new S/4HANA customers has changed. Gone are the days when separate customers and vendors needed to be setup and were often prefixed by IC for each intercompany customer and IV for each intercompany vendor, followed by the company code for each legal entity relationship.

Figure 1 shows a basic example of an SAP customer with three company codes, all with relationships between each other to support cross-company activity. Before the Business Partner concept was introduced with S/4HANA (labelled Old Method), six customers and six vendors needed to be created to support the financial recording of intercompany activity and the associated I/C receivables and I/C payables. The New Method shows this number has been reduced by half. This is a significant improvement, especially for SAP customers with lots of legal entities (company codes) and intercompany activity.

Figure 1: Comparison of Old and New Method to Support I/C Relationships in SAP

Business Partner Concept

The Business Partner concept existed before S/4HANA and the advantages of this now mandatory design are well documented in the following article: https://www.sapinsideronline.com/artI/Cles/tips-for-business-partner-adoption-for-sap-s-4hana/ .

BP was available in classic SAP ECC for integration with CRM and SRM systems. Now that this object is required, BP has become the single point of entry to centrally maintain master data for customers and vendors.

Following are the steps to complete the intercompany Business Partner configuration:

Step 1 – create i/c customer and i/c vendor account group.

To create an I/C customer group, follow the menu path:

Financial Accounting (New)   > Accounts Receivables and Payable   > Customer Accounts   >  Master Data   > Preparations for Creating Customer Master Data   > Define Account Groups with Screen Layout (Customers)

To create the I/C customer group (ZICC) you click on the New entries button and fill in the necessary information shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Define Account Groups for Intercompany Customers

To create an I/C vendor group (ZICV), do the same steps but choose Define Account Groups with Screen Layout (Vendors) shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3: Define Account Groups for I/C Vendors

Step 2 – Create a number range for I/C Customers

To define the I/C customer number range, follow the menu path:

Financial Accounting (New)   > Accounts Receivables and Payable   > Customer Accounts   >  Master Data   > Preparations for Creating Customer Master Data   > Create Number Ranges for Customer Accounts

In this example you use an user defined external number range (03) for I/C customer groups as shown in Figure 4 .

Figure 4: Create an external number range for I/C Customers

Step 3 – Assign the number range to I/C Customers

To assign a business partner number range, follow the menu path:

Financial Accounting (New)   > Accounts Receivables and Payable   > Customer Accounts   >  Master Data   > Preparations for Creating Customer Master Data   > Assign Number Ranges for Customer Accounts

You assign 03 number range to the I/C customer group (ZICC) as shown in Figure 5.

Figure 5: Assign a number range to I/C Customers

Step 4 – Define I/C Business Partner Roles and Role Categories

To define business partner role categories, follow the menu path:

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

In this step, you configure a new BP role for I/C customers by copying from the existing FI Customer role (FLCU00) as shown in Figure 6.

Figure 6: Define BP Role for Intercompany Customers

To create a BP role for I/C vendors you need to do the same steps by copying the existing FI Vendor role (FLVN00) as shown in Figure 7.

Figure 7: Defining BP Role for Intercompany Vendor

To create I/C customer and I/C vendor role categories, copy FLCUU and FLVN00 roles and create IC and IV role categories as shown in Figure 8.

Figure 8: Define BP Role Categories for Intercompany Customers and Vendors

Step 5 – Create a number range for Business Partner

To define a BP number range, follow the menu path:

Cross-Application Components > SAP Business Partner > Business Partner > Basic Settings > Define Number Ranges

In this example you choose 03 external number range for BP for I/C Customers and I/C Vendors as shown in Figure 9.

Figure 9: Create an external number range for Business Partner

To assign a BP number range for I/C customers and vendors, follow the menu path:

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

In this example you assign 03 external number range to the I/C customer and vendor groups as shown in Figure 10.

Figure 10: Assign an external number range (03) to BP for I/C customers and vendors

Step 7 – Create a link between the BP and I/C Customers

To assign the same BP Grouping Number Range to I/C Customer Number Range, follow the path and tick the ‘Same Numbers’ flag as shown in Figure 11.

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

Figure 11: Selecting the same number assignment for BP and Intercompany Customers

Step 8 – Create a BP and I/C customer with the same number

In Step 8, we use the Fiori app shown in Figure 12 to create the Business Partner for an I/C customer reflected in Figure 13 . The same app and process is used to create an I/C vendor. Note that the various fields to be populated for your I/C BP’s varies by each SAP customer’s needs. Therefore, it is assumed the reader has experience with the Business Partner creation step, identification of required fields, and population of the needed data including Trading Partner information which is used to uniquely identify I/C accounts receivable and I/C accounts payable, amongst other I/C accounts.

Figure 12: Open the Maintain Business Partner app in Fiori

Figure 13: Example of a successfully created Business Partner for I/C Customer (1710) with the same number range

In closing, your newly created Business Partners should have the Trading Partner field populated in the Control tab using your new BP roles and then extended to the company codes required to support your intercompany posting relationships for financial, procurement, and order to cash processes. You’re now prepared to leverage standard configuration and a simple naming convention to create and extend your intercompany Business Partners.

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Working with Business Partners in SAP S/4HANA

After completing this lesson, you will be able to:

• Work with business partners in SAP S/4HANA

The Business Partner (BP) Approach

Business partners (bp) in sap s/4hana.

From a technical perspective, the customizing object that you use to control customers and vendors in SAP ERP still exists in SAP S/4HANA. This is the account group and it is still needed for specific determination logic, such as controlling partner functions.

SAP ERP has some customer or vendor object model limitations:

Only one single address per master record is available.

There is no relation between a vendor and a customer for the same real world entity (no role concept).

You cannot model persons.

You cannot model time-dependency.

BPs in SAP S/4HANA have the following features:

Different roles share general data.

One BP can perform multiple roles, for example, customer and vendor (supplier).

One BP can have multiple addresses.

Time-dependent object attributes and relationships can be modeled.

They support a harmonized architecture across the whole system.

You create contact persons as separate BPs, linked with relationships.

The Customer/Vendor Integration (CVI) component ensures synchronization between BP objects and customer/vendor objects in the system. The customer and vendor master data tables are updated automatically after a BP is created or changed.

Using Customer/Vendor Integration (CVI)

Executing the conversion from customers and/or vendors to BPs requires multiple steps:

Preparation :

Implement SAP S/4HANA pre-checks according to the 'SAP S/4HANA Conversion Guide', in the 'Pre-Checks' chapter.

Activate the CA_BP_SOA business function.

Check CVI customizing and trigger any necessary changes. For example, the missing BP role category.

Define number assignments according to the 'SAP S/4HANA Conversion Guide', in the 'Introduce Business Partner Approach (CVI)' chapter.

First, you must implement a number of pre-checks. Next, you must activate business function CA_BP_SOA , check the CVI Customizing, and trigger any necessary changes. You must define number assignments according to the conversion guide.

Synchronization :

You use the synchronization cockpit (transaction MDS_LOAD_COCKPIT ) to synchronize the data (data load). For more, go to the chapter 'Introduce Business Partner Approach' of the 'SAP S/4HANA Conversion Guide'.

Conversion :

The conversion step is part of the system conversion from the SAP ERP system to SAP S/4HANA, on-premise. No additional CVI action is required.

Post Processing and Testing :

Finally, you must activate the post-processing direction BP to customer/vendor.

There is no impact on custom code. You need not adapt the custom code call to the previously used transaction codes because automatic redirection is in place.

Any interface for creating or updating customer or vendor master data has to now call CVI function CVI_EI_INBOUND_MAIN . You can no longer use IDocs or BAPIs for customer/vendor creation that do not call the CVI function CVI_EI_INBOUND_MAIN .

Business Partner Creation in SAP S/4HANA

One way to create BPs in SAP S/4HANA, is by using the SAP Graphical User Interface (SAP GUI) and entering the transaction code BP in the command field.

When doing this for a supplier, you need to create three types of data:

Client level data for the Organization with role 0000000 Business Partner (Gen.) .

Purchasing data for all Purchasing Organizations with role FLVN01 Supplier . If additional data for subranges is required, the subranges themselves and the subrange data can be defined in one step.

Accounting data for all Company Codes with role FLVN00 FI Vendor .

Another way to create BPs in the SAP S/4HANA system is by using the Manage Supplier Master Data app. This app allows a system user to create all data in one step. You only need to maintain the roles FLVN00 FI Vendor and FLVN01 Supplier. The role containing the general data is created automatically.

Business Partner Relationships

Definition :

A BP relationship represents the business connection between two BPs.

To create a relationship between two BPs, you must assign a BP relationship category to the BP relationship. The BP relationship category describes the characteristics of the BP relationship.

You can assign attributes to a relationship, such as a firm’s address for the contact person relationship. This prevents data being stored redundantly.

You can limit a relationship time by entering the start date and end date of the relationship. With this limit, it is possible to get an overview of periods, for example, periods in which certain BPs were contact persons for a company.

Integration :

You make necessary settings for relationships in the Implementation Guide (IMG) in customizing of the business partner under  Business Partner Relationships .

An Example :

Ms. Lopez at Hansen PLC is the contact person for company Smith PLC.

You create Ms. Lopez as a BP of the BP category Person and with the BP role BUP001 Contact Person .

You then create a contact person relationship with the relationship category is contact person of between BP Lopez (having the BP category  Person ) and BP Hansen PLC (having the BP category Organization ).

The firm’s address is assigned to Ms. Lopez and more data is created, such as the calling and visiting hours.

Business Partner Grouping and Customizing Settings

You determine the number range of a BP by a grouping, which you must select for a BP on the client level.

To define and analyze these groupings, you can use the following menu path in customizing: SAP Customizing Implementation Guide → Cross Application Components → SAP Business Partner → Business Partner → Basic Settings → Number Ranges and Groupings → Define Groupings and Assign Number Ranges .

The assignment of BPs to groupings is stored in table BUT000 .

You can display the assigned account group on the general vendor data tab page within the BP role Supplier .

You can maintain field selection for BPs under: IMG → Cross Application Components → SAP Business Partner → Business Partner → Basic Settings → Field Groupings . You can define field attributes at the levels of client, BP role, activity, and BP type. If different settings are maintained for the same field, priority rules apply.

The field selection priority rules within BP roles differ from the standard rules. In the standard logic, HIDE has the highest priority, followed by DISPLAY, MANDATORY, and OPTIONAL.

For BP roles, MANDATORY ( Required Entry ) has the highest priority, followed by OPTIONAL, DISPLAY and HIDE. For example, the Internet Mail Address (E-Mail) field is set as a required entry (MANDATORY) for the BP role FLVN00 FI Vendor and as a hidden entry (HIDE) for the BP role FLVN01 Supplier . When you maintain any supplier in the system, the field is a required entry, no matter which role you maintain.

Internally in the system, the BP still has an account group. The account group depends on the grouping and is assigned in table TBC001 . To maintain this table, navigate to SAP Customizing Implementation Guide → 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 .

The Same Numbers check box in this activity decides whether BP master records and suppliers have the same numbers. If the check box is not selected, the number for the supplier is assigned through the account group.

Purchasing Categories in SAP S/4HANA

Purchasing categories are an SAP S/4HANA-specific business entity. Material groups can be assigned to purchasing categories to help organize and analyze spend. Purchasing categories are, for example, used in supplier evaluations and in real-time analytics for purchasing, where they can be used for drill-down and filtering.

Examples of purchasing categories could be plastic parts, metal parts, or chemicals. Besides material groups and planned spend, suppliers and employees can also be assigned to purchasing categories. A supplier can be assigned to several purchasing categories if required.

Create a new Business Partner and Explore its Configuration

Create a new business partner and explore its configuration - part 1, create a new business partner and explore its configuration - part 2, create a new business partner and explore its configuration - part 3.

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Assign Vendor Account Group to Business Partner Group in SAP

How to assign vendor account group to bp group in sap.

In this SAP Business Partner configuration steps, we are going to assign Business Partner group to vendor account groups . The assignment of vendor account groups and BP groups enables integration between BP and vendor accounts, so that vendor details will be updated at same time in both vendor master data and BP.

You can update whether the vendor master data can be created as externally or internally or with the same numbers.

You can assign vendor account groups to BP Groups in SAP by using the following navigation method

• Transaction code: SPRO
• SAP IMG Path: SAP Customizing Implementation Guide > 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

Step 1: Execute transaction code “SPRO” -> Choose SAP Reference IMG > Follow the IMG menu path and execute IMG activity “Define Number Assignment for Direction Vendor to BP”.

Step 2: On change view “Number Assignment Direction Vendor to BP” overview, screen, click on new entries button

Step 3 : On new entries screen: Number Assignment for Direction Vendor to BP, update vendor account group and BP group in the fields and press enter to continue,

Click on the Save option and save the configured details in SAP.

SAP Flexible Real Estate Management pp 165–216 Cite as

Step-by-Step Guide for Configuring and Implementing SAP REFX

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• First Online: 10 September 2016

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3393710 - How to Create a One Time Customer or Supplier in SAP S/4HANA Cloud

• How to Create a One Time Customer in SAP S/4HANA Cloud
• How to Create a One Time Supplier in SAP S/4HANA Cloud

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