Implementation Options
The following shows how partner determination is used in sales and distribution processing. The procedure is divided into two parts:
Prerequisites
You have implemented the settings described in the section
Partner Control in Customizing.Process Flow
I. Creating Master Records
If your customer merely acts as the ship-to party, create a master record for a ship-to party. In this case the system automatically proposes the account group 002. The partner can then only occur as the ship-to party.
You can find further information on account groups in the documentation on business partners under
Account Groups.If you create a master record for a sold-to party, the obligatory functions ship-to party, bill-to party and payer are automatically assigned with the sold-to party You can, however, overwrite the partners, if the partner functions have been defined in Customizing as changeable.
Example
The following table contains some examples of which partner combinations appear on the market and which activities you execute in the R/3 system, in order to show these relationships in the customer master record.
Scenario: |
Activities |
Prerequisites |
The partner issues orders, receives the goods and the invoice and pays. |
You create a sold-to party master record for the customer (account group 001). |
|
Customer A has three partners, to whom goods can be delivered. |
You create a sold-to party master record for customer A. In the screen Partner Functions Sales Area enter all three possible ship-to parties. |
There are master records for the three partners with the possible partner function SP. |
Customer 101 is the sold-to party, the invoices are paid for by customer 102 (e.g. central payment point. |
You create a master record for the sold-to party. In the screen Partner functions Sales Area change the default Customer 101 to Customer 102 in the field Payer PY. |
A master record exists for customer °102 with the possible partner function PY. |
Forwarding agent T is generally commissioned with deliveries to customer 4. |
In the screen Partner Functions Sales Area enter the additional partner function SP and the forwarding agent creditor number. |
A vendor master record exists for the forwarding agent. |
II. Creating Sales Documents
You can also enter a ship-to party first. The system then uses this to determine the sold-to party.
If several partners have been created in a customer master for a function, a screen appears on which you can choose the valid partners for this document.
If no partner has been defined in the customer master for a partner function, this function is not automatically transferred into the document. You can enter this function manually onto the order partner screen.
If a partner function has been defined in the partner determination procedure as an mandatory partner function, but no partner has been defined in the customer master, you must enter the partner manually otherwise the order will be incomplete.
Result
The planned partners are automatically copied into the subsequent order documents (for example, the bill-to party in the billing document).
See also:
Partner Determination for Customer Hierarchy Nodes