Business Partner Setup in SAP S/4HANA

July 2, 2018July 2, 2018

This blog is intended to help the users who are new to S/4HANA Business Partner
Setup. In this blog, I would be providing some basic configuration steps required in case
we have to customize our own Business Partners (Customer/Vendor).

 SAP ERP Transaction codes (like XD01, XD02, XD03 or VD01, VD02, VD03/XK01,
XK02, XK03 or MK01, MK02, MK03 or VAP1, VAP2, VAP3 etc) related to
Customer/Vendor are Obsolete in S/4HANA and we will be using the transaction
code: BP for creating Business Partners (Customer, Vendor, Contact etc.)
 BP Number will be generated separately for each Business Partner created and in
the background Customer/Vendor number will be generated based on Customer-
Vendor Integration settings. It is recommended to have same BP ID (Business
Partner Number) & Customer Number /Vendor Number but not mandatory, it is
detailed at step no’s 6 & 7.

Business Partner:
Business Partner is the party with whom we have a business interest.
Business Partners can be Accounts, Contacts & Employees.
1. Accounts: Any account with which we have a business relationship. That can either
be

 Individual Accounts (Private Individuals) OR

 Corporate Accounts (i.e. Company(ies) or Organization(s)) OR
 Account Groups (Any Groupings)

2. Contacts: A Contact is a person with whom we have business relationship.

3. Employees: An employee is a member of your company, who is involved in the
interactions between your company and customers, vendors and other parties.
Business Partner Role: Business Partner Role is used to distinguish the business
partner in business terms. The Roles you assign to a Business Partner will define the
business transactions in which that particular partner is involved. i.e. Customers,
Vendors, contact persons, employees or other parties.
Business Partner (BP) Setup:
In this step, we will be performing the configuration setup required to define Business
Partner Roles and Customer-Vendor Integration Points which are required to create
customer, vendor or contact person using BP Approach in SAP S/4HANA.
Example: In case you want to setup multiple BP Roles like Sold-To, Ship-To, Bill-To,
Payer, Contact Person, Vendor etc. as per the business needs. we have to follow the
below steps to create those Roles in SAP S/4HANA.
1. Activation of Synchronization Objects:
To synchronize the BP with Customer/Vendor or Customer/Vendor with BP, this
indicator must be set.
Configuration Path – Synchronization Object Activation:
SPRO-> Cross-Application Components -> Master Data Synchronization ->
Synchronization Control -> Synchronization Control -> Activate Synchronization Options.

2. Activation of PPO (PostProcessing Office) Requests:

We will activate this setting to decide whether a PPO transport should be written in the
event of an error for each platform Object. This will help us in error handling.
Configuration Path – Synchronization Object Activation:
SPRO-> Cross-Application Components -> Master Data Synchronization ->
Synchronization Control -> Synchronization Control -> Activate PPO Requests for
Platform Objects in the Dialog.
3. PPO Objects:
In this step, we will be activating/deactivating the Postprocessing Orders creation. If we
activate this, then all messages from a business process for the same object are
combined under a main message. This will then be collected by Postprocessing Office
for mass processing of messages.
Configuration Path – Activate Creation of PPO Orders:
SPRO-> Cross-Application Components -> General Application Functions ->
Postprocessing Office -> Business Processes -> Activate Creation of Postprocessing
Orders

Steps mentioned below are to be performed for both Customer & Vendor as well.
4. Creation of BP Roles:
Before creating BP roles, we must create BP Role Categories and define the category of
each business partner using the below path.
In S/4HANA, we have 3 different categories of BP’s.

 Organization – Can be a company, association, department etc.

 Group – Married Couple, shared partners etc.
 Person – Individuals.

Once BP Role categories are defined, BP Roles will be created and each Role is linked
with one BP Role category.
Configuration Path BP Role Category:
SPRO-> Cross-Application Components -> SAP Business Partner -> Business Partner -
> Basic Settings -> Business Partner Roles -> Define BP Roles -> BP Role Categories.
Configuration Path BP Role:
SPRO-> Cross-Application Components -> SAP Business Partner -> Business Partner -
> Basic Settings -> Business Partner Roles -> Define BP Roles -> BP Roles.
For certain BP’s, Company Code Data or Sales & distribution or Purchasing org data are
not required and in few cases only General Data is required, such cases can be handled
using SAP standard views.
But for some BP Roles, we will be needing all the views (General Data, Company Code
Data, Sales & Distribution, Purchase Org Data), such requirements can be configured by
defining our own views & maintaining the relevant screen sequences, sub-header id’s,
data sets, calling applications.
We will create this BP views using the transaction code BUSD and assign these views to
relevant BP role under Interface control subscreen during BP Role creation (see above
screenshot).
Tcode: BUSD
Create new BP view:
Here we will define our own View and do the required assignments as per business
need.

Assign Data Sets:

Data sets is nothing but the sub-screen/tab which we want to include in our BP role like
Additional data tabs, Data set will be created by ABAP consultant.

Screen Sequences:
To have multiple screens/views for each BP Role (i.e. Company Code Data & Sales and
Distribution data & Purchase Org Data), we will have to add screen sequences as shown
below.
This will enable calling of all views in single BP role.
Sub-header ID:
We have to add sub-header IDs, in order to get options to navigate to different screens
for same BP Role.

5. Number Ranges and Groupings:

In this step, we will be defining new number ranges for each BP Role.
Configuration Path Number Range Creation:
SPRO-> Cross-Application Components -> SAP Business Partner -> Business Partner -
> Basic Settings -> Number Ranges and Groupings -> Define Number Ranges.

BP Grouping –
For BP configuration we have BP grouping, these BP grouping will be linked to account
groups (refer step 7).
We will create BP groupings (Number Range Grouping) and assign the number range
Ids in this step.
Configuration Path Defining Grouping and Assign Grouping to Number Ranges:
SPRO-> Cross-Application Components -> SAP Business Partner -> Business Partner -
> Basic Settings -> Number Ranges and Groupings -> Define Groupings and Assign
Number Ranges.
6. Create Account Groups for Customer or Vendor (as in SAP ECC):
As part of S/4HANA BP setup, we also create customer/vendor account groups (like in
SAP ECC) and link it with BP number groupings created in the above step.
There are 2 ways of creating BP and Customer/Vendor.

 We will create BP first and in the background customer/vendor will be created

automatically.
 We will create customer/vendor first and in the background system will create BP
automatically.

This creation will be controlled by the settings present in step 7.

 Customer Account Groups Setup:

Configuration Path – Create Customer Account Groups:

SPRO-> Financial Accounting -> Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable ->
Customer Accounts -> Master Data -> Preparations for Creating Customer Master Data -
> Define Account Groups with Screen Layout (Customers).

Similarly, we have to create Vendor Account Group using the path:

Configuration Path – Create Vendor Account Groups:
SPRO-> Financial Accounting -> Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable -> Vendor
Accounts -> Master Data -> Preparations for Creating Vendor Master Data -> Define
Account Groups with Screen Layout (Vendors).

 Number Ranges for Customer Accounts:

In this step, we will create number ranges as per the Customer/Vendor Account Groups.
Configuration Path – Create Number Ranges for Customer Accounts:
SPRO-> Financial Accounting -> Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable ->
Customer Accounts -> Master Data -> Preparations for Creating Customer Master Data -
> Create Number Ranges for Customer Accounts.

In order to have same number generated for Business Partners & Customers/Vendors,
we have to define the customer/vendor account number ranges as external and also we
have to enable the check box for same number while assigning direction for BP to
customer (which is shown in step 7).
Below is the path to create number ranges for Vendor Account Groups:
Configuration Path – Create Number Ranges for Vendor Accounts:
SPRO-> Financial Accounting -> Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable -> Vendor
Accounts -> Master Data -> Preparations for Creating Vendor Master Data -> Create
Number Ranges for Vendor Accounts.
In the below step, we will assign the number ranges to customer account groups.
Configuration Path – Assign Number Ranges for Customer Accounts:
SPRO-> Financial Accounting -> Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable ->
Customer Accounts -> Master Data -> Preparations for Creating Customer Master Data -
> Assign Number Ranges to Customer Account Groups.

Similarly, we have to assign the number ranges to vendor account groups using below
path:
Configuration Path – Assign Number Ranges for Vendor Accounts:
SPRO-> Financial Accounting -> Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable -> Vendor
Accounts -> Master Data -> Preparations for Creating Vendor Master Data -> Assign
Number Ranges to Vendor Account Groups.
7. Number Range Assignment from BP to Customer Master:
In this step, we will assign BP grouping to customer account group to ensure that the
customer is updated at the same time as the business partner is processed as part of
customer integration.
In this step, we can also choose whether the customer master record is created with an
account group with internal or external number assignment or with identical numbers for
the BP created.
Configuration Path – Assignment of Number Range from BP to Customer:
SPRO -> 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.

Similarly, we have to assign number range from BP to vendor using below path:
Configuration Path – Assignment of Number Range from BP to Vendor:
SPRO -> 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.
8. BP Role Category for Direction:
In this step, we will define the direction of BP role category. i.e. whether customer to be
created from BP creation or BP creation should happen when the Customer is created.
Configuration Path – Set BP Role Category for Direction:
SPRO-> Master Data Synchronization -> Customer/Vendor Integration -> Business
Partner Settings -> Settings for Customer Integration -> Set BP Role Category for
Direction BP to Customer.
Similarly, we have to set BP Role Category of vendor for direction using the below path:
Configuration Path – Set BP Role Category for Direction:
SPRO-> Master Data Synchronization -> Customer/Vendor Integration -> Business
Partner Settings -> Settings for Vendor Integration -> Set BP Role Category for Direction
BP to Vendor.
9. BP Role Exclusion Groups:
In case, if we do not want to extend any business partner to another BP Role (or to
restrict one business partner to one BP role), then those BP roles must be maintained in
BP role exclusion group. While changing business partner, system will not display the
BP Roles other than the one under which business partner has created.
In this step, we will define BP exclusion group and add BP Roles in it.
Configuration Path – Define BP Role Exclusion Group:
SPRO -> Cross-Application Components -> SAP Business Partner -> Business Partner -
> Basic Settings -> Business Partner Roles -> Define BP Role Exclusion Groups ->
Define BP Role Exclusion Groups

Configuration Path – Assign BP Roles to BP Role Exclusion Group:

SPRO-> Cross-Application Components -> SAP Business Partner -> Business Partner -
> Basic Settings -> Business Partner Roles -> Define BP Role Exclusion Groups ->
Assign BP Role to BP Role Exclusion Group
10. Contact Person:
In order to create contact person business partner in S/4HANA, BP role category for BP
role (contact person) should be set as “Person”.
We will have to activate the contact person assignment using the path:
Configuration Path – Activate Assignment of Contact Person:
SPRO -> Master Data Synchronization -> Customer/Vendor Integration -> Business
Partner Settings -> Settings for Customer Integration -> Field Assignment for Customer
Integration -> Assign Attributes -> Contact Person -> Activate Assignment of Contact
Persons.

Using transaction BP, we have to create contact person business partner as a person.
Once BP contact person is created, assign this contact person to any of business
partners (Customer, Vendor) as “Has a contact person” under relationships tab.
Once the contact person business partner is saved, this BP will be automatically
synchronized to contact person via Customer-Vendor integration and to check the
contact person number in SAP table after integration takes place, we have to execute
the transaction code: MDS_LINKS to find the contact person mapped to a BP number.
11. Field Status Group Settings:
In S/4HANA, field status group settings will be done using the below path.
To perform fields status group settings, we will have to create field attributes for BP
Roles.
Configuration Path- Field Status Group Settings:
SPRO-> Cross-Application Components -> SAP Business Partner -> Business Partner -
> Basic Settings -> Field Groupings -> Configure Field Attributes per BP Role ->
Configure Field Attributes for Each Role Category.
Once BP Role is added, we will get all the Datasets mapped to BP Role view and we will
have to make the fields Mandatory/Optional/Suppress/Not. Specific as shown in below
screen.

12. Partner Determination:

We can define our own partner determination procedure and assign it to the
customer/vendor account groups as in SAP ECC.
Configuration Path- Setup Partner Determination (Tcode: VOPAN):
SPRO-> Sales and Distribution -> Basic Functions -> Partner Determination -> Set Up
Partner Determination.
Similarly, by using the below path we will have to setup partner determination for Vendor
Account Groups.
Configuration Path- Setup Partner Determination (Tcode: VOPAN):
SPRO-> Materials Management -> Purchasing -> Partner Determination -> Partner
Settings in Purchasing Documents -> Define Partner Schemas.
BP Creation:
Transaction code: BP
Click on Organization & BP Customer creation screen will appear. Select the desired BP
Role you have created & create the BP Customer.

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