Business Partner Concepts
BP – Introduction
Def: Any active entity related to the Business is called a Business Partner.
Note: The employee of the selling company is also a business partner.
BUSINESS PARTNER CONCEPTS
BUSINESS PARTNER CATEGORY
BP GROUPING
BP ROLE
DATA SET
BP RELATIONSHIP
BUSINESS PARTNER CATEGORY
The business partner category denotes whether a business partner is a natural person
(private individual), organization (legal person/entity or part of a legal entity, such as a
department), or a group.
The standard business partner categories are:
Natural person (private individual)
Organization (e.g. company, department in a company, club, association)
Group (e.g. married couple, shared living arrangement)
It is not possible to create any other business partner categories. You cannot alter the
business partner category at a later stage.
By launching the transaction code “BP” you will see the following screen. Note the BP
Category – People, Organization & Group.
Input fields will differ depending on the BP Category chosen
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BP Category – Organization
BP Category – Person
BP – GROUPING
Grouping is the container that holds the Number Range settings that is assigned to the BP
Role. When creating a BP internal number assignment is the default. Alternatively if you
want to use external number assignment, you must choose the relevant grouping and enter
the external number.
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Whenever a business partner is created it needs to be assigned to a grouping. Grouping
controls the number range which is either Internal or External number range
§ A BP must be assigned to a Group
§ The grouping controls the number range
§ Internal and external number assignment is possible
A Number Range is a range of numbers that you can assign to business objects such as
business partners, orders, products etc., Each number range has a number range intervals
and a number assignment type (Internal / External).
Internal Number Range
When storing a data record, the CRM System assigns a sequential number, which lies in the
relevant number range interval.
External Number Range -
The number is assigned by the user or by an external system, both of which must ensure
that the number lies in the relevant number range interval.
For example:
Domestic business partners -
Number range 01, number range interval 100,000 – 199,999, internal assignment
Foreign business partners -
Number range 02, number range interval 200,000 – 299,999, external assignment
To define number range for BP go to the following path in SAP CRM IMG Menu:
IMG->Cross-Application Components->SAP Business Partner->Business Partner->Number
Ranges and Grouping->Define Number Ranges
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Choose – .
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BP – ROLES
A business partner role can be used to classify a business partner in business terms. You
can choose one of the many SAP provides roles –or- you can define your own Role/s
IMG > Cross-Application Components ® SAP Business Partner ® Business Partner ® Basic
Settings ® Business Partner Roles. à Define BP Roles:
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If you need to make custom changes, just copy the existing role that matches your
requirement and then copy it and rename with an prefix ‘Y’ or ‘Z’.
NEVER make changes to the standard roles.
Following is the BP Role structure. The example shown here is for the BP Role – Contact
Person.
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All Roles have 2 factors that are important – Role Category and Role View
Role Category
Role category settings (as shown below) determines the BP category that this role is valid
for
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Role View
View determines that Data Sets that are valid for the assigned Roles. TCODE – BUSD will
take you to the View area:
Assign the required data sets to the View and then Assign this view to your BP Role. The BP
created for this role will have the following Data sets
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Differentiation Types
Application data is generally dependent on the primary key of the application object. For a
business partner, the primary key is the partner number. However, there can also be other
attributes that must be differentiated according to other criteria. If data for an instance is
only ever entered as a way of describing it as a criterion, then it would be called a
differentiation type. Differentiation types are usually entered on the initial screen.
Configure the input screens so that the value of the differentiation type is visible in the
header data if the underlying data is dependent on it
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Application objects
Each master data/transaction data object that uses BDT must be known. The maintenance
of application objects is subdivided into the following points:
Defining application objects
Assigning application objects à differentiation types
Settings transactions, task menu
Menu path: BUPT > BDT GENERAL > APPLICATION OBJECTS (BUS0)
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Concept of Sales Area:
Sales area is a combination of 3 fields/values
1. Sales organization - selling organization
2. Distribution channel - the means / medium through which the partner is buying the product
3. Division - product division. eg: food, chemicals etc
Note: it means that this busines partner can buy a product from the same org, channel and division.
Technical details of the BP: Data base tables involved.
1. BUT000 - Business partner general data
2. BUT020 - Busines partner address data
3. BUT050 - Business partner relation ship data
4. BUT100 - Business partner roles
Note: the business partner master data tables always start with BUT*
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Function modules related to business partner:
BUPA*
Eg: eg to get the roles - key word should be - bupa*role*
BUPA_ADDRESS_GET_DETAIL - for address info
BUPA_ROLES_GET - for role info
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