Product Information
S/4HANA Business Partner – Customer-Vendor Integration
Setting up Business Partner S/4 HANA
(Updated on 23th Aug 2021 )
This blog is based on S/4HANA 1511 release , however most of the concept of the setting up the business partner remains same for all the subsequent releases of S/4HANA i.e upto SAP S/4HANA 2020
This blog is aimed to give you most of the information you want to know for setting up Business Partner for new implementation or System conversion from ECC to S/4HANA.
There are redundant object models in the traditional ERP system in which the vendor master and customer Master were used and with aim of principal of one SAP has simplified this approach and has introduced BP as mandatory target object in S/4HANA.
Business Partner is now capable of centrally managing master data for business partners, customers, and vendors. With current development, BP is the single point of entry to create, edit, and display master data for business partners, customers, and vendors
Customer/Vendor Object Model Limitations
- Only one single address
- No relation between a vendor and a customer for the same real world entity (no role concept)
- No time-dependency
Business Partner – SAP Strategic Object Model
- General data are shared across different roles
- One business partner could perform multiple roles, e.g., customer and vendor (supplier)
- One business partner could have multiple addresses
- Time-dependency object attributes and relationships
- Provide harmonized architecture
- Customer/Vendor Integration (CVI) component ensure the synchronization between the Business Partner object and the customer/vendor objects
Dependencies/Pre-requisites
Business partner has been mandatory with S4 Hana Enterprise Management version i.e 1511 and 1610 & old transactions related to Vendor and customers have become obsolete.
It´s recommended but not mandatory that BuPa ID and Customer-ID / Vendor ID are the same.
The Business Partner Approach is not mandatory for the SAP Simple Finance 1503
Check and activate Business Functions
CA_SUPPLIER_SOA
CA_BP_SOA Switch ‘VENDOR_SFWS_SC1’ and switch ‘VENDOR_SFWS_SC2’ have to be active for the vendor contact person’s data to be synchronized with BP contact person’s data
The appropriate specific transaction like XD01,XD02, XD03 or VD01, VD02, VD03 / XK01, XK02, XK03 or MK01, MK02, MK03 etc. are not available in SAP S/4HANA Enterprise management Version i.e. 1511 and 1610
Currently mass maintenance for customers and vendors via transaction MASS is not available.
Before you begin the BP conversion from an SAP ERP system to an SAP S/4 HANA system, you have to answer the questions Whether the Business Partner ID and Customer-ID /Vendor ID should be the same in the S/4 HANA System?
Business Partner Master Data Setup Process
Open Fiori App Manage Business Partner Master Data
With this app you can manage business partner master data. You can create, change, search, display, and copy business partner master data. You must have assigned the business role Master Data Specialist – Business Partner Specialist SAP_BR_BUPA_MASTER_SPECIALIST
Lets see how to setup one time customer and vendor master using this Fiori App.
- Setup BP General Data
Select General Business Partner Role and Grouping, here this grouping is linked with customer/ vendor Number range and this Grouping is key in linking the Vendor/Customer & BP groups as well as number ranges which is explained below in detail.
Table BUT000 will be updated once General BP role is completed.
2. Setup FI Vendor
BP Role FLVN00 FI Vendor extension enables Invoice to be posted directly in FI.
Here vendor master table LFA1 and LFB1 will be updated.
FI document can be posted but cannot create PO as purchasing data is not yet extended so for extending purchasing data use ROLE FLVN01
Table LFM1 will be updated once the BP Role is extended to Supplier BP Role
Once BP is extended to Purchase Organization using BP Role FLVN01 the vendor can be used PO can be created.
Setting up Customer
Table KNA1 will be updated once BP Role is extended to FI Customer and Finance can start posting directly in FI for example FB70 etc.
Extend Customer to Sales Area
BP Role FLCU01 is extended to sales area.
Table KNVV updated with Sales view details and henceforth Customer can be used in sales area.
Extend Customer to Credit Segment
Table UKMBP_CMS_SGM updated
Note- S4 Hana credit Management setting should be enabled to check the credit limits for customers
Maintaining Tax details
You can add customer Tax details in Identification tab of BP which will enable you to enter tax details with tax category and tax number and once you save this detail in BP the same you can see in KNA1 table , you can check whether these tax categories exists in table V_TFKTAXNUMTYPE & V_TFKTAXNUMTYPEC & also check field BP status that these tax number fields are optional/mandatory not hidden..
Customizing
Business Partner Customizing
Activate the PPO Request for the synchronization object Business Partner
Cross-Application Components–> Master Data Synchronization –> Synchronization Control–> Synchronization
Active Synchronization between Customer/Vendor and BP is active
Define BP Roles
Assign BP Role to BP Role Category
Cross-Application Components–> SAP Business Partner–>Business Partner–> Basic Settings –> Business Partner Roles–> Define BP Roles
This setting is already available in standard delivered system for standard roles.
Account Group /Number Range Mapping
I am explaining below with an example of requirement for setting up One Time Vendor and One Time Customer Account and as a summary we need to setup Vendor/Customer Account group & assign number ranges to respective Vendor/Customer account group as it was required in classic ERP environment.
Additionally BP grouping is mapped with Vendor/Customer account group
Define Account Groups Vendor
Financial Accounting (New)–> Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable–> Vendor Accounts–> Master Data–> Preparations for Creating Vendor Master Data
Assign Number Ranges to Vendor Account Groups
Similarly for Customers we need to define Account Group and assign number range to Customer account groups.
Define Number Assignment for Direction BP to Vendor/Customer
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
Define BP Number Range and assigning to BP Grouping
Cross-Application Components–> SAP Business Partner–> Business Partner–> Basic Settings –>Number Ranges and Groupings
Define Number Ranges-BP
Define Groupings and Assign Number Ranges
Create Number Ranges for Vendor/Customer
Financial Accounting (New)–> Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable–> Vendor Accounts–> Master Data –> Preparations for Creating Vendor Master Data
Create Number Ranges for Vendor Accounts
Similarly create Number Ranges for Customer Accounts.
How to maintain Field Status ?
Refer SAP KBA Note 2565164 to know how to maintain field Status for BP
This will enable to start work with new Business Partner in S4 Hana Enterprise Management Environment.
Do you want to know how to convert existing Vendor/Customers while doing system conversion from ECC to S/4HANA ?
Very detailed information for deep dive you can refer this CVI cookbook link from Christoph Dutz, Michael Foo and Alexander Roebel which focuses on BP conversion from ECC to S4HANA
Also refer SAP note 2265093 which explains the conversion process of existing customer /vendors to business partners in detail – must refer the atttached PDF within this note you will find following very useful information :-
CVI_MIGRATION_PRECHK
This report performs the necessary business checks for customer and vendor master data if you are intending to migrate to SAP S/4HANA. This report gives an upfront overview of master data consistency that is required for conversion to business partner master data
CVI_UPGRADE_CHECK_RESOLVE
You can use this report to perform the necessary checks per client. It also provides Customizing resolution program, where you can find out missing customizing entries and the solution to create/correct these entries for each client.
PRECHECK_UPGRADATION_REPORT
This report performs the necessary checks for Business Partner before upgrading to S/4HANA. The prechecks that the report executes are listed here:-
- BP roles are Assigned to Account Groups
- Every Account Group BP Grouping Must be Available
- Customer Value Mapping
- Vendor Value Mapping
- CVI Mapping
- Contact Person Mapping
- Checking Direction from Customer to BP
- Checking Direction from Vendor to BP
MDS_LOAD_COCKPIT
You can use this report for the following purposes:-
- Synchronize the customer/supplier data into SAP business partner during conversion from S/4HANA to S4/HANA
- Create or update a corresponding SAP business partner for the customer and supplier data for general data, addresses, role data, bank details and so on
MDS_PPO2
You can use this report for the following purposes:-
- View the error state of Business Partner, Customer and Supplier synchronization
- Set the error log statuses to Completed after resolving the error
Do you want to know how to handle custom fields added in customer/vendor master in ECC during conversion to S/4 ?
In SAP Business Suite (ERP 600 and Enhancement Packages), customer master data and vendor master data transactions such as FD01, FD02, FD03, XD01, XD02, XD03, FK01, FK02, FK03, XK01, XK02 and XK03 have been enhanced by customers with additional fields using BAdI. In the customer and vendor master dialog transactions, these fields were integrated by adding additional sub-screens to the existing screens.
Moving to a SAP S4HANA release, traditional customer/vendor master transactions are made obsolete and replaced by the business partner transaction BP. Because of this, all extension-specific fields have to be integrated into the business partner.
PDF document attached with OSS note 2309153 provides a guideline how customers can transfer the enhancements they have made in the customer/vendor transactions to transaction BP, so that a maintenance of these fields remains possible after the upgrade to a S4HANA release.
https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/2309153
Brought to you by the S/4HANA RIG
Thanks
Ajeet Agarwal
Product Expert- SAP S/4HANA RIG- APJ
Hi Ajeet,
So the older approach of customer change pointers generating DEBMAS IDocs no longer works with S/4? We are configuring the customer replication - the change pointer configuration, ALE distribution model, and the partner profile is all set - but the IDocs are not getting created from running RBDMIDOC program.
Regards,
Jay
Hi Jay
Please refer OSS note 2559670 , DEBMAS is still available but you need to change the way it was replicating in ECC.
Thanks for the information. I will check out the note. We did get Debmas IDocs to get generated.
Hi Ajeet,
So According to best practices which is the best way to ingerate s4 hana for BP creation,
Idoc, LTMC etc??
if possible kindly share you email id.
BR,
Ahmed
ahmedkhan29789@gmail.com
Hi Ahmed
For the initial load for new implementation projects LTMC is the standard tool available in S/4HANA to create BP.
Thanks
Ahmed, thank you for sharing this.
Would you have any info on how to trigger CREMAS IDoc outbound when the BP is changed?
I activated change pointers for CREMAS, but I see in table CDHDR a BUPA_BUP change pointer, and this is not triggering the CREMAS outbound.
Rgds,
Derek
Hi Derek,
Have you assigned the required Table/field to the message type (CREMAS) in Tcode: BDCP2? If yes, is it triggering the change log in the table BDCP2?
Hello Ajeet,
Thank you for your excellent post.
Brief about my requirement: We have separate instances for SAP ERP HCM and S/4 HANA on Premise. Using ALE I have integrated HR Mini Master with Basic Infotypes (0000, 0001, 0002, 0006, 0105, 1000, 1001).
Now Using the HR Mini master I have to setup Business Partner for Employee role. Do you recommend internal number range or external number range. It would be great help if you can share configuration steps for setup Business partner for Employee Role.
Thank you,
Ramakrishna.
In the CVI cookbook from Christoph Dutz, Michael Foo and Alexander Roebel, on page 44 there is a mention of master data check report that can be executed to check for any master data (not configuration) inconsistencies. There is also a link to a sample report that the cook book advises to use to create a customized report.
Unfortunately, the embedded file cannot be open.
Is there another place I can get hold of it?
I have searched SAP Support portal for it, but cannot find it there.
Thank you
If you want to understand how to setup field status for BP, please refer SAP KBA 2565164
Thanks
Hi Ajeet,
Great work and nicely explained. I have few questions and if you can help clarify few concepts.
Let's say we have both customers and vendor which need to be migrated from non-SAP to S/4HANA. We are going to load customer first and then vendors. My questions are
Will really appreciate if you can help me with above questions.
Thank you
Sajjad
Very well explained Ajeet . Thank you
Hi,
thank you for the useful document. I've just started to working in s4/hana 1610 on premise edition and in step 2 when I want to extend BP to FI vendor and select BP role FLVN00, company code tab is not displayed. It is hidden. I only see the data related to BP role-000000 (address, Could you please tell me what am I missing?
Best regards,
Customer/Vendor Object Model Limitations
You should add that they also share the same communication block (e.g. mail, telephone).
This is the reason why we canceled the consolidation. See note 2670582.
Hello Ajeet,
I have scenario where apart from regular customer our client has Super Customer : Super Customer
Can customer role - 1000 in S/4 can have 4000 - Bank Accounts role ?
Hello Ajeet,
Awesome blog and really very helpful 🙂
I had one question- I read you have mentioned-
Customer/Vendor Object Model Limitations
Only one single address
Could you explain this bit more?
Thanking in advance!
Best Regards,
Mrityunjai
Hi Mrityunjai
With std Custome and vendor master you could maintain only one address however with BP you can define different address types by doing some configuration settings.
Path :SPRO-Cross Application Components-SAP Business Partner-Business Partner-Basic Settings-Address Determination-
1. Define Transactions
2. You need to define Address Types
3. You need to assign Transaction to Address Type
When ever you are creating multiple address entries while creating BP, It will reflects under BP Address Overview Screen.
Further you can also refer SAP note 2706243
Thanks
Hi Ajith and SAP World
Just wanted to share my 2 bits.
If anyone facing 100’s of error entries during CVI and struggling to perform delta load for them. Kindly check below note and optionally also my idea of deleting BP table entries from se14.
https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/2384595. --> Also include logic for the two tables but021_FS and but0is.
The z report attached in above note does not delete the entries due to the way the logic is written, you need to ask an abaper to review the code make changes to the logic to have entries deleted from database.
I would suggest a shorter way is to make all corrections found in transaction /SAPPO/PPO2 after running mds_load_cockpit for all entries, then delete all BP table entries from se14.
Follow these steps:
Run Transaction SE14 --> enter a table name found in note attachment --> select tables --> click on edit --> select delete data --> select direct/background --> click activate and adjust database.
Repeat above step for all table names from note and including the CVI*LINK* tables.
Next initialize BP Number Range NR status to 0 and re-run mds_load_cokpit for all entries for a quicker resolution.
Both ways (delete program from note or se14 way) can be done, depends on number of error entries, as I found doing delta load quite difficult after first run.
Thank You.
Thanks Tarun for sharing this useful information which may be helpful for many of our colleagues/ customers and partners.
Regards
Ajeet
Hello! Please, could you answer, How to make the field CREATION_GROUP mandatory? Tnahks!
Hello Narkez,
We've been recently looking for the same topic. Please, look through the comment section of the following blog post: How to find BP grouping from Business Partner | SAP Blogs (https://blogs.sap.com/2021/04/01/how-to-find-bp-grouping-from-business-partner/). I believe it could help you.
Best regards,
Pavel