Maintaining Master Data

When you create a business partner in SAP ECC, you must create it as a customer, vendor, employee or competitor. The partner type you choose determines what kind of master records are created, and, later, what partner functions this partner can take on.

You have to create a partner separately for each type that is relevant. For example, if your company both buys from and sells to a particular company, you have to create this company as a customer and a vendor.

In SAP CRM, a partner automatically takes on all partner functions unless you specify (by creating relationships) that other partners should take on these functions for the first partner. This feature simplifies maintenance of master data because there is no need for you to enter partner data repeatedly.

Partner Type in SAP ECC and Partner Function Category in SAP CRM

When you create new partners in SAP ECC, your assignment of the partner to a partner type determines what kind of master records are created and what functions it can have. When you define a new partner function, you also assign it to a partner type. Only partners of the same type can have this function. The partner types are hard-coded in the system, and you cannot change them or create new ones. Sales and distribution includes the commonly used types customer, vendor, employee, contact person, and mail partner.

The partner function category in SAP CRM is a hard-coded key that is assigned to a partner function. It allows the system to identify and work with the function. The system includes commonly used partner function categories, such as sold-to party, payer, activity partner and contact person. You cannot change them, or create new types.

There are more partner function categories in SAP CRM than there are partner types in SAP ECC. They do not correspond to each other in any way.

Account Group in SAP ECC and Sales Classification in SAP CRM

The account group in SAP ECC is a category, such as bill-to party or consumer, to which you assign a business partner. An account group determines which data is relevant for creation of a master record. The system includes commonly used account groups, but you can also define your own. To define account groups in Customizing, choose  Logistics - General Business Partner

The sales classification used for business partners in SAP CRM is also a category, such as consumer. The sales classification is assigned to a business partner implicitly based on its role.

If you distribute business partner master data between SAP CRM and SAP ECC, a partner's classification in SAP CRM determines its account group in SAP ECC, or the other way around. If you replicate partners from SAP CRM into SAP ECC, you can only create SAP ECC master records for those with the following classifications in SAP CRM:

You can specify which account group in SAP ECC corresponds to which classification in SAP CRM using the transaction PIDE in the plug-in for SAP CRM Middleware. Here you can also make other settings for the distribution of business partner data between SAP CRM and SAP ECC.

For more information, see Sales Classification.

Business Partner Relationship Category

Business partner relationship categories exist only in SAP CRM. They are the definitions of business-relevant connections between partners, and include Has the Contact Person or Is Married To. The system includes a number of relationship categories, and you can also define your own. Many categories are hard-coded to correspond to partner function categories.

Sources for Partner Determination

In SAP ECC there are fewer sources for partner determination than in SAP CRM, and you can specify only one source for each partner function to be determined. The following sources are available:

SAP ECC generally uses the master data of the sold-to party, but you can customize it to use the master data of any partner in the transaction. Other sources that are available in SAP CRM, such as the preceding document or organizational data, are not available for partner determination in SAP ECC.

In SAP CRM, there are more sources than in SAP ECC, and you can specify as many of them as you want for each partner function to be determined. They include:

Sequences in SAP ECC and Access Sequences in SAP CRM

The sequence in SAP ECC indicates when the partner is determined, in other words, whether it is the first partner determined in a transaction, or the second or the third, and so on. You assign sequences to partner functions in partner determination procedures.

The access sequence in SAP CRM defines a search strategy that specifies the sources of data the system uses when it determines a partner and the order in which it uses these sources. It does not specify whether this partner is determined before or after other partners. In SAP CRM, you specify when a partner is determined by making an entry in the field Determination Time in the Customizing activity Define Partner Determination Procedure.