Business Partner Roles 
Definition
Rights and obligations taken on by a business partner in different business transactions.
Use
A business partner role can be used to classify a business partner in business terms.
A business partner is a cross-role entity. This means that each business partner is automatically assigned the role Business Partner (General), independent of the business transactions or functions involved, or the business context in which the business partner is first relevant to your company. You can extend the business partner by creating it in additional new roles, reflecting other functions that it has. Central data, such as name, address, and bank details, only has to be created once.
A business partner of your company, for example, has the following life cycle in CRM Enterprise. When the initial contact is made, you create master data with a business partner role for your new business partner in CRM. This role is characterized by certain data sets. With time, your relationship with the business partner changes, and the business partner is involved in a new business transaction with your company. You use a new role for your business partner, so that all the attributes that are appropriate to the new business process are maintained in CRM.
Structure
· The basis for defining a business partner role is a business transaction. The attributes of the role are determined by the requirements of the particular transaction. The data that is available for a transaction also depends on the business partner category. For more information, see Business Partner Category.
The following data sets, for example, are defined for the following roles and transactions:
Role |
Business Transaction |
Data Sets |
Sold-To Party |
Orders products |
Sales |
Ship-To Party |
Receives products |
Shipping |
· You can group roles together in a role grouping, which you can then select in business partner maintenance. For more information, see BP Role Grouping.
· The following functions are available for roles in business partner maintenance:
¡ Overview of all roles assigned to a business partner
¡ Deletion of role assignments
¡ Where-used list for roles
This allows you to check whether you can delete the assignment of the roles to business partners that form part of a business partner relationship. If the relevant role categories are defined at the level of the relationship category and form a prerequisite for creating a relationship, then the assignment cannot be deleted:
The diagram below provides you with an overview of the different elements of the role concept and how they fit together:
For more information about the business partner role concept, see in the Implementation Guide Cross-Application Components ® SAP Business Partner ® Business Partner ® Basic Settings ® Business Partner Roles.
Integration
You have the option of extending business partner roles to include customer-specific attributes.
For more
information, see General
Extensibility and 
Business Data
Toolset.
Example
You are an employee in the sales department of your company Smith Ltd. You have made initial contact with Jenny Bright at Miller Ltd. You would like to send her information about your existing products. You create the following business partner master data in CRM Enterprise:
· A master record for a business partner with the name Miller Ltd. with the Prospect role. You create the central data and the address.
· A master record for a business partner with the name Jenny Bright with the Contact Person role. You create the central data, the address, and the relationship "is contact person of" with you at Smith Ltd.
Three months later, the first product is sold and delivered to Miller Ltd. The invoice is sent for settlement to the parent company Miller and Sons. You create the following new business partner master data:
· A master record for a business partner with the name Miller and Sons, with the Bill-To Party and Payer roles. You create the central data, address, bank details, and billing data.
· The new Sold-To Party role for Miller Ltd. You create the sales and shipping data. You assign Miller and Sons to Miller Ltd. with the relationship “bill-to party” and assign the corresponding sales area and partner function.