Business Partners and Partner Determination
Unit Contents:
 Partner functions
 Partner types
 Partner determination procedure
 SAP AG 1999
© SAP AG
LO605
11-1
Partner Determination: Topic Objectives
At the conclusion of this unit, you will be able to
 Name the most important criteria for determining
business partners
 Set up new business partners in Customizing
 Include additional business partners in the sales
process
 SAP AG 1999
© SAP AG
LO605
11-2
Partner Determination: Course Overview Diagram
0,-13. Free
goods
OR
OR
LF
LF
F2
F2
1. Introduction
2. Organizational
units
12. Material
determination
§
3. Sales Order Processing
11. Outline
agreements
4. Sales
document
type
10. Partner
determination
5. Item
category
9. Incompletion
XYZ/99
M1 -?-
6. Schedule line
cat.
8. Special Business
7. Data flow
Transactions
 SAP AG 1999
© SAP AG
LO605
11-3
Partner Determination: Business Scenario
 As part of your efforts to improve customer
service, you want to assign each of your
customers a sales employee as their own personal
representative.
 This information should be available automatically
in your sales documents.
 Your company is also investigating whether you
can evaluate this data, to obtain the criteria for
awarding performance bonuses to your staff.
 SAP AG 1999
© SAP AG
LO605
11-4
Business Partners
Market
1
Vendor
Customer
4
3
1
2
Customer
6
pa
Com
ny
Contact
person
2
Employee
Employee
5
Contact
person
 SAP AG 1999

Different business partners with different business relationships with each other all exist within a
marketplace.

Examples of business partners are:
 Customer
 Vendor
 Employee
 Contact person

Examples of business relationships are:
 1. Vendor-customer:
The vendor acts as the forwarding agent to the customer
 2. Contact person - customer:
The contact person is employed at the customer's company
 3. Contact person - customer:
The contact person is the customer's consultant but does not work
in the same company
 4. Customer-customer:
Sold-to party and ship-to party are different people
 5. Employee - contact person:
Contact person is looked after individually
 6. Employee - customer:
Customer manager
© SAP AG
LO605
11-5
Partner types
Sold-to party
Ship-to
party
Sales
personnel
Representative
= Customer
= Vendor
= Contact person
Payer
Partner
function
Vendor
Forwarding
agent
Contact
person
Buyer
= Employee
Create sold-to party
Partner functions
Contact person
Contact partner number
Sold-to party
Customer number
Sales employee
Personnel number
 SAP AG 1999

The business partners that exist in the marketplace are represented with a partner type in the R/3
System.

Partner types AP, KU, LI and PE are defined in partner processing for the Sales and Distribution
application module. These are defined as follows:
 AP
Contact person
 KU
Customer
 LI
Vendor
 PE
Personnel
In other applications (such as Service Management) different partner types have been defined (for
example, O for organizational unit, S for position, A for work center).
© SAP AG
LO605
11-6
Partner Functions
SP Sold-to party
.....
ER Employee
responsible
SH Ship-to party
Business
partner
FA Forwarding
agent
BP Bill-to party
PY Payer
AP Contact person
 SAP AG 1999

While the partner types allow us to distinguish between different business partners, the partner
functions represent the roles they play within the business transaction.
 For example, different customers (customer partners) can assume certain roles in a business
transaction. The customer who places the order does not necessarily have to be the same customer
who receives the goods or the customer who is responsible for paying the invoice.

Assigning partner functions in the SAP system determines the function(s) of particular partners in
the sales process. One partner may take on several functions.
 In the simplest case, all the partner functions within the customer partner type would be assigned
to one business partner, in other words, the same customer would be the sold-to party, ship-to
party, payer and bill-to party.

You can enter contact persons for a customer directly in the customer master and they are
automatically assigned to that customer. The contact person can also be assigned to another
customer, for example, in a consultant role.

The forwarding agent is an example of a vendor.

Employees of your own company (such as sales representatives or clerks) are managed in the
employee master records. They can assume partner functions of partner type "Personnel", such as
partner function ER, responsible employee.
© SAP AG
LO605
11-7

You can maintain partner relationships both in sales documents and in the master data. Partner
relationships are usually already defined in the customer master. They are proposed automatically in
the document header when you create a sales document.
 If Customizing permits it, you can change or supplement these relationships manually by going to
the partner screen and changing the function assignment.

In Customizing, you decide whether several partners can be assigned to one partner function in the
customer master. If multiple partners of the same function are maintained, when you then enter a
sales order, a selection list appears containing these partners.

In the sales documents, the system has been configured so that only one partner can be assigned to
each partner function. The only exception is for outline agreements (partner functions AA and AW).

You can also define partners at item level in the sales documents. However, business partners that
are only defined in the header cannot be changed at item level.

You can determine which partner functions must be entered (mandatory functions).

You can prohibit anyone from changing a partner that has already been entered (for example, you
could indicate the sold-to party cannot be changed in the sales document).

It is also possible to enter or change the address of a partner, such as the ship-to party, manually.
This change does not affect the master record.
© SAP AG
LO605
11-8
Partner Determination Procedure
Customer master
Sales document header
Sales document item
Delivery
Billing header
Billing item
Sales activity (CAS)
(1)
(1)
Defined partner
functions
Procedure for
sales documents
OR Standard order
SM Product proposal (2)
KAB Release order
(3)
(4)
Sold-to party
Ship-to party
Payer
Sales partner
Forwarding agent
...
Assign to document type
Procedure for customer
master records
(2)
SP
PY
ST
Sold-to party
Payer
Ship-to party
Assign to account group
(3)
0001 Sold-to party
0100 Distribution center
CPD One-time customers
...
QT Quotation
OR Standard order
DF Free-of-charge delivery
...
 SAP AG 1999

Partners appear in the system at different levels, such as the customer master, in the sales document
header, in the sales document items, and so on.

You can define your own partner determination procedures for each of these levels.

A partner determination procedure is where you determine which partner functions should or must
appear.

You determine areas of validity by assigning procedures.
For example, you use the account group to assign the partner determination procedure for the
customer master. The partner procedures are assigned to the partner objects as follows:
 Partner object
 Customer master
Assignment key
->
Account group
 Sales document header ->
Sales doc. type
 Sales document item
->
Item category in sales
 Delivery
->
Delivery type
 Shipment
->
Shipment type
 Billing header
->
Billing type
 Billing item
->
Billing type
 Sales activities (CAS)
->
Sales activity type
© SAP AG
LO605
11-9
Customer Master and Account Group
Create sold-to party
Customer
: C1
Sales organization
: 1000
Distribution channel
: 10
Division
: 00
Account group
: 0001
ACCOUNT GROUP 0001
Field selection
Number assignment
One-time account: Yes/No
Proposed message
ACCOUNT GROUP
0001 Sold-to party
0002 Ship-to party
0003 Payer
0004 Bill-to party
 SAP AG 1999

The account group controls the amount of data and the response of customer master records.
Account groups are already defined in the standard SAP system, such as account group 0001 Sold-to
party, 0002 Ship-to party, 0003 Payer, and so on. . .
You can create additional account groups as necessary.

When you define the account group, you determine:
 For each data field, whether it is displayed or not and whether maintenance is mandatory, optional,
or not possible
 The number range
 A number of other control elements, such as for partners and texts of the customer master

Example:
A customer master record for a customer that only acts as a ship-to party (created with account group
0002) requires the information relevant for shipping. The billing information is not required, which
is why the corresponding fields are not displayed.

In contrast to the account group, which controls a customer master record, the partner function
determines which partner assumes specific business functions within the sales process.
© SAP AG
LO605
11-10
Permitted Partner Functions per Account Groups
Account group (Definition)
0001
0002
0003
0004
0005
0007
...
Partner function (definition)
SP
SH
PY
BP
CP
FA
...
Sold-to party
Ship-to party
Payer
Bill-to party
Prospective customer
Sales partner
Sold-to party
Ship-to party
Payer
Bill-to party
Contact person
Forwarding agent
In which account group can customers
assume the role of the sold-to party?
Partner function SP  Account group 0001, 0005, CPD,...
In which account group can customers
assume the role of the ship-to party?
Partner function SH  Account group 0001, 0002, CPD,...
 SAP AG 1999

For organized sales processing, it is important that each customer is only used for the functions
within a document that have been assigned to him or her. You can guarantee this by assigning
permitted partner functions to each account group.

If you choose partner type customer for a new partner function, you then have to determine which of
your customers can be entered for this partner type.

Because you control the customers through the account group, you assign all the defined partner
functions to each account group. As a result, the account group of a customer also controls the
possible partner functions.

Examples from the standard system:
 Customers in the following account groups can be sold-to parties:
0001, 0005, 0007, CPD, and so on . .
 Customers in account groups 0002 (ship-to party), 0003 (payer) or 0004
(bill-to party) cannot be sold-to parties.
© SAP AG
LO605
11-11

When you create sales documents, the business partners are automatically copied from the customer
master. In the process, the customer master of the sold-to party is accessed.

Several partner relationships are stored in the customer master record for a sold-to party. The system
can also copy a partner function from other customer master records to create a partner for the sales
document by specifying the source of the partner function and the determination sequence. When
you do, you should note the sequence in which the system determines the partners.
 Example of indirect partner functions:
You have different regular suppliers in different regions. You want the system to determine the
forwarding agent in the sales document dependent on the ship-to party. In Customizing, you
determine that the system determines the ship-to party first by accessing the master record for
the sold-to party. Then it accesses the ship-to party's master record to determine the forwarding
agent.

You can also use other sources to automatically determine business partners in sales documents, such
as the tables for customer hierarchy (KNVH), contact persons (KNVK), credit representatives
(T024P), and so on. . .

An analysis function is available for tracing the automatic determination of business partners in sales
documents in detail.
© SAP AG
LO605
11-12
Partner Determination: Unit Summary
You are now able to:
 Name the most important criteria for determining
business partners
 Set up new business partners in Customizing
 Include additional business partners in the sales
process
 SAP AG 1999
© SAP AG
LO605
11-13
© SAP AG
LO605
11-14
Exercises
Unit: Business Partners and Partner Determination
At the end of these exercises, you will be able to:
 Include and control your own business partners in the master data and
business processes
Your company wants to improve their customer care. Therefore, you
would like to assign a personal representative to important customers,
such as customer T-S62C##, who would then be responsible for ensuring
that the business transactions with that customer run smoothly.
1-1
Enter a new partner function 9# for the personal representative in Customizing.
(Key of the new role for each student group: see table below)
Key:
9# (see the following table!)
Description: Representative ##
Partner type: PE
Keys of the new function for each student group:
© SAP AG
Group
number
Partner
function
Group
number
Partner
function
Group
number
Partner
function
01
9A
07
9G
13
9M
02
9B
08
9H
14
9N
03
9C
09
9I
15
9O
04
9D
10
9J
16
9P
05
9E
11
9K
17
9Q
06
9F
12
9L
18
9R
LO605
11-15
1-2
Create a new partner determination procedure Z## with description Procedure ##
for object ”customer master”.
Enter the following partner functions:
– SP
Sold-to party (cannot be changed, mandatory function)
– SH
Ship-to party (mandatory function)
– BP
Bill-to party (mandatory function)
– PY
Payer (mandatory function)
– 9#
Representative ##
Customer T-S62C##’s master record is controlled by account group ZK##. Assign
the new procedure to account group ZK##.
1-3
Extend the customer master record for customer T-S62C## in sales area 1000 / 10 /
00 with the personal representative.
Note: In the master data menu for Sales, choose:
 Business partners  Customers  Change  Sales and Distribution
Button: Sales area data; Sales tab card: Partner functions
Enter employee 1701## in the partner screen as the personal representative and save
the master record.
1-4
Optional
In the next step, verify that the new partner in the master record will be
automatically controlled in document type ZA##.
1-4-1 Create a new partner determination procedure Y## with description Order
procedure ## for object ”sales document type”.
1-4-2 Enter the following partner functions:
– SP
Sold-to party (cannot be changed, mandatory function)
– SH
Ship-to party (mandatory function)
– BP
Bill-to party (mandatory function)
– PY
Payer (mandatory function)
– 9#
Representative ## (mandatory function)
– SE
Sales employee
1-4-3 Assign the new procedure to sales document type ZA##.
© SAP AG
LO605
11-16
1-5
Optional
Determine whether the partner function 9# Representative ## was automatically
transferred from the customer master record to the order.
1-5-1 Create a trade fair## order for customer T-S62C## (purchase order number
##LO605-ZA##06). Determine whether the partner function 9#
representative ## has been stored as a partner in the order header.
1-5-2 Also enter an employee called Hubert Schwarz as the sales employee.
1-5-3 Can you determine the sales employee from the sold-to party’s master
record?
_________________________________
Why or why not?
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
© SAP AG
LO605
11-17
© SAP AG
LO605
11-18
Solutions
Unit: Business Partners and Partner Determination
1-1
Create a new partner function.
IMG  Sales and Distribution  Basic Functions  Partner Determination
 Define partner functions  Button: Partner functions  Create entry (by
overwriting an existing entry)  Save
1-2
Create a new partner determination procedure for object “customer master”
 Back  Select partner object ”Customer master”  Button: Partner
procedures
 Complete entry Z##  Save
 Position cursor on procedure  Button: Procedure details  Enter functions
 Save
 Goto  Procedure assignment
 Account group ZK## – Partner procedure Z##  Save  Exit
1-3
Extend the customer master record for customer T-S62C## with the personal
representative.
 Business partners  Customer  Change  Sales and distribution
 Button: Sales area data Sales tab card: Partner function  Partner
function: Add representative ##
© SAP AG
LO605
11-19
1-4
Optional
Create a new partner determination procedure for object “Sales document header”
1-4-1 IMG  Sales and Distribution  Basic Functions
 Partner Determination  Define and assign partner determination
procedures
 Select Object: Select sales document header  Button: Partner
procedures
 Complete entry Y##  Save
1-4-2 Enter partner functions
 Position cursor on procedure  Button: Procedure details  Enter
functions
 Save
1-4-3 Assign the procedure
 Goto  Procedure assignment
 Sales document type ZA## – Partner procedure Y##  Save  Exit
1-5
Optional
Check whether the new partner function was automatically transferred from the
customer master record to the order.
1-5-1 Create an order.
Logistics  Sales and distribution  Sales  Order (order type: ZA##)
 Create
1-5-2 Also enter the sales representative.
 Goto  Header  Partners
 Search for the employee’s personnel number using a matchcode
1-5-3 Can you determine the sales employee from the sold-to party’s master
record?
No
Why or why not?
Partner procedure Z##, which controls this customer, does not contain
this function. As a result, you cannot save the function of the sales
employee in the customer’s master record. This means that the system
cannot use the customer master to propose this partner in the sales
document.
© SAP AG
LO605
11-20