SAP S/4HANA Business Partner Conversion - Merge Customer and Vendor into single Business Partner

[Andi_M]

Introduction

In preparation of a technical S/4HANA conversion it is mandatory to convert (CVI conversion) Customers and Vendors into Business Partners. Maybe you struggle with merge of Customer and Vendor into one Business Partner at CVI conversion. This Blog post is about to clarify how to merge Customers and Vendors into one Business Partner and what the result of this merge is.

This CVI conversion has to be processed in ECC environment as a preparation step for technical S/4HANA conversion. CVI Cockpit will guide you through this process. More information about CVI Cockpit you will find in blog post
New CVI Cockpit – Enabling Movement to SAP S/4HANA through seamless BP Synchronization

It might happen that it is needed to merge Customers and Vendors into one Business Partner. In this case the Business Partner represents a legal entity from legal point of view. This legal entity is characterized with

• A single address


• A single communication data


• Several bank accounts


• Several contact persons


• Several credit cards


• ...

Target audience: Functional expert, Development expert

Version: SAP ECC 6.0 or higher

Updates:

04/2023: consider CVI_LEDH

 

Prerequisites

At the following example Customer is the leading object. That means Customer data is the main information in regards to address and numbering (dependent on same number set up). If you decide to use Venbdor as leading object, start with Vendor conversion.
As the initial situation there are Customers and Vendors in the system. Usually Customer and Vendor master data is linked with cross reference. Meaning Customer number is stored at Vendor master (field LFA1-KUNNR) and Vendor number is stored at Customer master (field KNA1-LIFNR). If this link is not established yet, this will be a requisit. If this link is not available, alternatively address data can be used. Usually address data for the same legal entity is 100% equal at Customer and Vendor master data. That's why uing Address data is much more complex and similiar to a duplicate check.

Initial situation

Separated Customer and Vendor master data with Contact Persons and bank accounts.

Initial Situation

Customizing

All 4 synchronization directios have to be activated in customizing:

• Customer -> BP


• Vendor -> BP


• BP -> Customer


• BP -> Vendor

Enhancement Implementation

You have to implement your own Enhancement Implementation of BAdI CVI_CUSTOM_MAPPER. With SAP note

2363892 - Linking Customer and Vendor to a single Business Partner during initial load before upgrad...

an example Implementation CVI_MAP_LEGAL_ENTITY is available at methods

IF_EX_CVI_CUSTOM_MAPPER~MAP_CUSTOMER_TO_BP
IF_EX_CVI_CUSTOM_MAPPER~MAP_VENDOR_TO_BP

This delivered implementation is a POC only, because following data has to be 100% equal:

1. Customer/Vendor has to be linked via LFA1-KUNNR and KNA1-LIFNR as foundation


2. Address data

I've never seen a system where address data of Customer and Vendor are the same. That's why you have to create your own matching criteria in your own implementation. You can use standard implementations as template and do your own adjustments. Pay attention to inline documentation at each step. This will help you to decide which steps to take over.
Foundation is the assignment of Customer/Vendor with fields KNA1-LIFNR and LFA1-KUNNR. Sometimes it is enough to just use these assignment to merge Customer and Vendor to one Business Partner.

Preparation with CVI_LEDH (Data Harmonization for Legal Entities)

Available with SAP ECC 6.0 EHP 8 SP17 and higher

During the synchronization process in MDS Load Cockpit (MDS_LOAD_COCKPIT), there may be errors for customer and vendor records that cross-reference each other forming a legal entity pair. The errors are due to inconsistencies in the address, bank details and tax data between the customer and vendor legal entity pair.

The Legal Entity Data Harmonization (CVI_LEDH) report lists the customer and vendor legal entity pairs. It facilitates selection of leading entity (customer/vendor) for address, tax details and bank data for harmonizing the data. The MDS Load Cockpit uses the leading entity information from this report to synchronize the legal entity customer and vendor pair to the business partner. This will harmonize the data and avoid errors for legal entity pairs in MDS Load Cockpit.

The usage of transaction CVI_LEDH is described at blog post Improvements to CVI Cockpit as of SAP ERP 6.0 EHP 8 SP17

A more detailed description how MDS_LOAD_COCKPIT is reacting in different cases you can find at blog post SAP S/4HANA Business Partner Conversion - Merge Customer and Vendor using Transaction CVI_LEDH (Lega...

Conversion steps with MDS_LOAD_COCKPIT

Convert Customer to Business Partner

>Business Partner with Customer role has been created. Business Partner for each contact person and relationship to Customer Business Partner has been created.

Convert Customer to Business Partner

Convert Vendor to Business Partner

Vendor data as of Vendor role, Contact Persons, relationships and bank accounts has been added to Customer Busines Partner. Business Partner has now the full set of Customer and Vendor data as foundation for reverse synchronization.

Convert Vendor to Business Partner

Convert Business Partner to Customer

Business Partner data inclusive vendor information as of Vendor Contact Persons and bank accounts are synchronized into Customer master.

Convert Business Partner to Customer

Convert Business Partner to Vendor

Business Partner data inclusive Customer information as of Customer Contact Persons and bank accounts are synchronized into Vendor master.

Convert Business Partner to Vendor

All 3 data objects, Customer, Business Partner and Vendor, are synchronized now.

 

Note for S/4HANA: Please pay attention to activate implementation CVI_ASSIGN_CUST_VEND of BAdI CVI_CUSTOM_MAPPER to provide customer number to vendor (LFA1-KUNNR) and vendor number to customer (KNA1-LIFNR).