Business Partner Requirements and Configuration

S/4HANA Business Partner master data design requires a structured approach to track the many moving parts.

In this 7-minute video, I share my template for doing just that. It’s a small insight into the process of crafting a master data design for Business Partner.

I also share how I quickly analyze Business Partner configuration in any SAP system-client. That’s super valuable. For this task, MDA Workbench is the secret enabler.

The output (analysis) looks just like the input (requirements). That’s because these are two sides of the same coin.

Over time, I’ve got to build up functional requirements and express them in a way that properly enables accurate configuration. And then I need to be able to quickly evaluate the Business Partner configuration in any system-client … on demand, and repeatedly. With a few minutes of effort, not hours!

What you’re going to see fits this specific use case, but the concept is totally generic — I use this approach for all kinds of configuration and master data analysis. And now so can you.

Reference

The files used in creating this video can be downloaded as a Zip file named BP_CONFIG_EXAMPLE.zip

Here are the files in the zip file:

• BP-CONFIG.mdb
  • A Microsoft Access Database that contains queries, but no data.
• BPConfig-20211222B.mdawb
  • MDA Workbench project file. This specifies which tables and fields will be transferred from an SAP system-client to a Local System Database (i.e. a Microsoft Access Database_.
• BP-CONFIG – HE4-400.mdb
  • A Microsoft Access Database that contains queries and data. This is the result after data is transferred.
• EXPORT_20211222-102251.XLSX
  • An example export of 4 Queries to Microsoft Excel.
  • The worksheet named RPT_BP_GROUPINGS_DETAIL is my objective for expressing Business Partner design. This is the content that I want to build up over time, as my Business Partner design becomes clear in detail. I want to create the spreadsheet this way — one row per Business partner grouping, with details all the way down to number ranges and customer and vendor account groups — because with nothing more than this spreadsheet as my guide, I can configure these main parts of my Business Partner design. Ready for unit test!
• RPT_BP_GROUPINGS_DETAIL_20211222-102224.XLSX
  • An example export of 1 Query to Microsoft Excel.

Related Reading

• SAP S/4HANA Business Partner Objects
• Peeking Behind the Curtain of S/4HANA Business Partner