0Topic SAP SD Master Data:
Customer Master Records:
The customer master record is the basis for all sales transactions as well as deliveries and payments. Customer master records can represent different entities based on the role they play in the transaction. We’ll be using and discussing the following customer master records:
- Sold to Party The partner or customer that places the sales order request.
- Ship to Party The partner or customer that receives the delivery of the goods or services.
- Bill to Party The partner or customer that receives the invoice.
- Payer Party The partner or customer that is responsible for the payment of the invoice.
Other important customer master records are created, such as inter-company customers, which represent the company that is behaving like a customer because they are placing orders with another company in the same client.
- Menu Path: SAP Easy Access | SAP menu | Logistics | Sales and Distribution | Master Data | Business Partner | Customer | Create
As this is our first navigation within the Easy Access Menu, it is time for a great tip. If you know of an object in the menu, but don’t know of the navigation menu path to find the object, you can use the transacti on code [SEARCH_SAP_MENU] to search for a specific object.
Customer Master Record Transaction Codes:
One creates the different views of customer master records, using the menu path outlined next.
- Menu Path: SAP menu | Logistics | Sales and Distribution | Master Data | Business Partner | Customer | VD01 – Sales and Distribution (or XD01 – Complete)
- [VD01] Create general and sales and distribution views of the customer master record.
- [XD01] Create general and central customer master views or company code data.
Very generally, the original SAP transaction code naming conventions used to work as follows. The first two characters of the transaction code represented the application, while the last two characters represented the activity, such as:
Prefixes Suffixes
VA = Sales Order 01 = Create
VL = Delivery 02 = Change
VT = Shipment 03 = Display
VF = Billing
When you create a customer master record, the system knows which fields are relevant (and so which fields to turn “on” and “off” in the screens) by using the assigned account group. You generally do not need all of the fields provided by SAP and you can use the account group to switch off irrelevant fields. For example, the Ship to Party account group does not need the Payment Terms field, so you can switch off this field for the Ship to Party account group (0002 in SAP standard). The account groups are defined in Finance, but they can be accessed with the following:
- Menu Path: SAP Customizing Implementation Guide | Financial Accounting | Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable | Customer Accounts | Master Records | Preparations for Creating Customer Master Records | Define Account Groups with Screen Layout (Customers) [OBD2]
Select the data of the customer master account group that you wish to change:
- General data
- Company Code data
- Sales data
The structure of master data in the customer master record is comprised of these three areas:
- General Data This includes information such as address, telephone number, etc., and is maintained for every customer. This data is only identified by the customer number, and is not specific to the company code or sales area. Maintaining the data is possible from both the company code view ([XD02]) and the sales and distribution view ([VD02]).
- Company Code Data This data is mostly of interest to the accounting department. It includes, for example, information on the reconciliation account and dunning procedures and withholding tax. This data applies to only one company code. Transaction code [XD01] is used to create customer master data, with company code relevant data.
- Sales and Distribution Data This data is only of interest for the sales and distribution area. It includes, for example, data on pricing or shipping. This data only applies to one sales area, and therefore is dependent on the sales structure (sales organization, distribution channel, division). It is possible to have different data for the same customer for different sales areas. You define the customer once in the general data view. And then you define the company code or sales area–specific data for that customer in the company code or sales area views. Credit management is linked to the customer master. A short summary of customer master data relevance is:
- Company Code Data applies to one company code.
- Sales and Distribution Data applies to one sales area.
- Basic Data remains the same regardless of the company code or sales area selected.
Therefore if you edit the customer master record you must specify the customer number and company code, using transaction code [XD02], in order to access the screens containing company code data.
