Changing a Customer Master Record (SAP Library - FI Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable)

Changing a Customer Master Record

Use

Provided you have the relevant authorization, you can change any of the fields in a master record at a later date, except for the account number and account group.

If authorizations have been created for changing master records, you may not be able to change certain fields.

If you wish to change sensitive fields, you may need a second user to approve your changes. For more information, see Dual Control for Changing Master Records

Integration

If you have also implemented the Sales and Distribution (SD) application component, you can also change the sales data. For more information about the sales functions, see the documentation for the Sales and Distribution (SD) application component.

Prerequisites

Your system administrator can use field status specifications or authorizations to restrict some fields from being changed. These fields are then just displayed. This is recommended for the reconciliation accounts, for example, so that they cannot be changed by mistake. For more information about how to restrict authorizations for changing data, see the Maintain Profiles activity in the Implementation Guide (IMG) for Financial Accounting Global Settings.

When changing master data, you should note the following:

If you change the sort key for line item display, all line items posted after the change are sorted according to the new sort key.

If you change the date of the last dunning run or the last interest calculation, this change will affect the next interest calculation or dunning run for the account. As a result, the account may be dunned or interest may be paid on the account sooner or later than if you had not made the changes.
If after posting to the customer account, you change the reconciliation account number specified in the customer master record, you will have to make an adjustment to the receivables accounts at the fiscal year end in order to create your financial statements. You make this adjustment by running the balance sheet adjustment program.
If you do not set the Record payment history indicator when first creating the master record and then later decide to set it, bear in mind that payments made prior to setting the indicator are not included in the payment history analysis.

Features

A customer master record spans several screens. Accordingly, it is possible to change data on a number of different screens. You can:

Change data centrally (general, company code, and sales data)

Change accounting data
Change sales data (order processing, shipping, and billing data)

The system logs all changes. For each field, it stores the time of change, the name of the user, the current and the previous field contents. You can display the changes made to the entire customer master record or to a specific field. For more information, see Displaying Changes to Customer Master Records

There are a number of maintenance functions that you can use to maintain the master data. For more information, see Maintenance Functions for Customer Master Data: Overview

Activities

To carry out the following maintenance function...	Choose...
Changing a Customer Master Record Centrally	Master records -> Maintain centrally -> Change
Changing a Customer Master Record for Accounting	From the Accounts receivable main menu, choose Master records -> Change