Defining Credit Master Data in the Business Partner 

Use

In the master data of the business partner you define the following:

●     Which rule is used to calculate the score, the risk class, and the credit limit?

Alternatively, you can define the score, risk class, and/or the credit limit manually.

●     Which check steps are executed in a credit check for the business partner?

You can also define:

●     Which customer credit group does the business partner belong to?

●     Which analyst or analyst group is the business partner assigned to?

●     Should credit checks also be carried out for additional business partners that are related to him?

●     External credit information

●     Collateral and credit insurance?

●     Negative credit events, block reasons, indicator for special attention?

Prerequisites

●     You have created a general master data record for the business partner (for example, category, name, address).

●     You have made the Customizing settings for the rule for scoring and credit limit calculation, the check rules, and the risk classes.

●     You have, if necessary, portrayed your analysts and analyst groups as business partners in the system.

●     You have configured the Customizing of the customer credit groups, the block reasons, and the rating procedures.

●     If you want to use collateral, credit insurance, negative credit events, or business partner-specific check exceptions, make sure that you have made the corresponding Customizing settings for the additional information (see Configuring Business Partner Additional Information).

●     If you want to import external credit information automatically, make sure that the external information providers are connected via the relevant XI interface (see Connecting External Information Providers).

Procedure

Navigation

Menu Path	Transaction Code
SAP Menu ® Accounting ® Financial Supply Chain Management ® Credit Management ® Master Data ® Business Partner Master Data	UKM_BP

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       1.      Call up Business Partner Maintenance in the role Business Partner Credit Management. On the tab page Credit Profile, enter a rule for scoring and credit limit calculation and a check rule. To have the system calculate the score, choose Calculate with Formula.

       2.      If required, enter a customer credit group.

You can use the customer credit group as selection criterion in the transactions for mass changes to credit master data.

       3.      If required, enter a business partner relationship of the category Managed in Credit Management By; to do this, choose Relationships. The business partner that you refer to is an analyst or an analyst group. You can restrict the relationship to one credit segment or it can be valid for all credit segments.

You can use the analyst or analyst group as selection criterion in the credit limit utilization list.

       4.      If required, enter business partner relationships of the type Higher Level Credit Account of or Lower Level Credit Account of; to do this, choose Relationships. You can restrict the relationship to one credit segment or it can be valid for all credit segments.

In a credit check for a business partner, higher level credit accounts are also checked. This means that the check can stretch over several hierarchy levels.

       5.      If required, enter external credit information or import it via the XI interface.

You can use the external credit information as input parameter for scoring.

       6.      If required, under the additional information in the general data (valid for all credit segments there) or in the data for a credit segment, enter collateral and/or credit insurance with amount and currency, and set the relevance indicator and a validity interval.

In a credit check with the check steps Statistical Check of Credit Limit Utilization or Dynamic Limit Check with Credit Horizon, before the comparison with the credit limit, the credit exposure is reduced by the amount of the collateral and/or credit insurance if the indicator Consider Collateral or the indicator Consider Credit Insurance is set in Customizing and the current date is in the validity period of the collateral or credit insurance and the relevance indicator is set.

       7.      If required, under the additional information in the general data (valid for all credit segments there) or in the data for a credit segment, enter check exceptions with a validity interval. The field Information Type is a counter that enables you to enter several check exceptions.

In a credit check for this partner, those checks for which check exceptions are defined are omitted if the current date is within the validity period for the check exception and the indicator Consider Check Exceptions is set in the Customizing for the check rule. This means that you can achieve a temporary relaxation in the checks for a business partner without having to define a new check rule.

       8.      If required, under the additional information in the general data, enter negative credit events with a validity interval, deletion date, and an information type for categorization.

In the definition of formulas for scoring or the credit limit calculation, you can use the function NEGATIVE_CHARS to check the existence of negative credit events. You usually use this function to assign a bad score to a partner in such a case.

       9.      If required, in the data for a credit segment, set the block indicator, with block reason (optional).

A credit check for a blocked credit account (that is, partner and credit segment) always has a negative result if the block indicator is set. Any block reason appears in the log for the credit check.

   10.      If required, in the data for a credit segment, set the indicator Special Attention.

This indicator is a selection criterion, for example, in the credit limit utilization list. You can set the indicator manually, or automatically via the follow-on process Set Indicator for Special Attention in Customizing for Events and Follow-On Processes.

   11.      If required, in the data for a credit segment, set the resubmission date.

This resubmission date is a selection criterion, for example, in the credit limit utilization list.

Under certain circumstances, you may have to delete the business partner data in the previous segment and recreate it in a different credit segment. This could be the case, for example, if a customer becomes a major customer, and different distribution channels therefore apply.

Before you delete date in the previous credit segment, make sure that the credit exposure is zero!

To delete the data in the previous credit segment, in change mode choose Delete Data in Segment.