S/4 HANA Business Partner – Partner

Function Vs Partner Relationships

In S/4 HANA, the Business Partner (BP) model integrates the customer master and vendor master data
under the Partner umbrella.

This gives the advantage of using the BP model for both customer relationship management and the ECC
partner function features for transactions.

The Business Partner model is from SAP CRM whilst the Customer Master & Vendor Master model is
from ECC.

The integration allows for performing both the CRM and ECC related activities in a single platform.

One feature that is interesting to note is the Partner Functions and Partner Relationships.

In S/4 HANA Customer Vendor Integration (CVI) the CRM business partner model is combined with the
customer/vendor master model of ECC.

In this document I would like to provide some general information on the partner relationship and the
partner functions that might come handy when looking for data in the system and choosing one over the
other depending on your requirement.

BP Relationships

This stems from the SAP CRM Business Partner Model where a partner relationship is established between
two Business Partners based on a given criteria. A very common relationship in BP is Contact Persons
(CP). There are however other relationships that can be applied like

“BBP002 – Has the Invoicing Party”

The table TBZ9 and TBZ9A contains the list of partner relationships configured for BP.

Tables pertaining to BP Relationship are listed below

Table Name Description

BUT050 BP relationships/role definitions: General data
TBZ9A BP Relationship Categories: Texts – Check table
TBZ9 BP relationship categories – Check Table
BUT051 BP Relationship: Contact Person Relationship
BUT052 BP Relationship: Addresses
BUT053 BP Relationship: Company Interest
In the SAP GUI Partner Relationships can be assigned as follows
Choose the required partner relationship from the relationship categories list. Then assign the
corresponding partner ID in the relationship field as shown in Fig 4 below.
The partner relationship definition screen will look like the one shown below.
Any additional options with regards to the contact person can be added in this screen before saving the
data.

The configured contact person relationship upon confirming options will appear as shown below
The partner Functions on the other hand is defined specific to Vendor or Customer level that is specific to
the role of the partner i.e. Customer or Vendor. In the below example a partner function assignment for the
TEST PARTNER created as a customer is shown.

There are several differences between Partner Relationship and Partner Function. A key distinction is that
the relationship is independent of the Partner’s setup as a customer or vendor.

In the Customer Vendor Integration (CVI) feature of the S/4 HANA Business Partner model, the same
partner can be extended to both customer and vendor roles thus making it possible to have entries in KNA1
as well as LFA1 tables apart from BUT000 table.

A key factor to note is that the partner function of the customer or supplier business partner is used in
transaction operations like Sales Order creation, Purchase Order Invoicing etc.,