Partner determination

In SAP all the entities who are involved in a business transaction are
represented as partners. Ex a carrier can be created as a partner on the
sales order. This document describes the partner determination on the sales
order. Partner function specifies the kind of the role the partner is playing in
the document. A partner can play many roles in a business transaction.
Example is sold to party customer can act as a payer , bill to party and ship
to party. To enable this the roles played by this partner (partner functions)
should be assigned to the account group. In this case the account group for
sold to party which is 0001 in the standard system is assigned to partner
function BP, PY and SH.
Partner source specifies what is the source for the partner in the business
transaction. The source for the ship to customer is sold to party. In a
scenario where a carrier should be determined based on the ship to location,
the source for the carrier is ship to party.
Partner determination can be done at different levels :
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)

Customer master
Sales Document header
Sales Document Item
Delivery
Shipment
Billing Header
Billing Item

Terms Associated with Partner Determination :

1) Partner Types : The partner types allow us to distinguish between
different business partners such as customer, vendor, employee etc
Eg : Customer ( Partner type is KU) , Vendor (Partner type is LI).
2) Partner Functions : represent the functionality or role each partner
plays within the business transaction (Eg : Sold-to-party,Ship-to-party
Etc.)
This Partner functions are assigned to Partner types
Configuration Step For Partner Function and Determination

Step -1

Go to Spro
Sales And Distribution
Partner Determination

Basic Function

Execute after Executing following Screen will appear

Set up

Double click on Set up Partner Determination for Customer Master following

Screen will appear

1st set up partner detemination procedure

Go to New Entries

Enter Partner Determination Procedure Name with name Description and

Save.

TR No : RSDK901621
2nd Step
Click on Partner Functions in Procedure following screen will appear

Go to New Entries

Assign MS to SP,SH,BP, PY and save.

What is meanning for M

Partner is mandatory
Indicates whether a partner function is mandatory in a particular partner
object, such as the customer master, sales document, the item category.
Not modifiable : Here we can see that SP (Sold-to-party) is maintained as
not modifiable. So in XD01 or in any sales doc type we cant modify the sold
to party if the customer is created in the account grp Z001.
Mandatory Function : If we tick this for the partner functions , then those
partner functions needs to be maintained else we cant save the customer
master.

How To Create New Account Group in T.code OVT0

To Create New Account Group Go to T.code OVT0

Go to New Entries and enter the following details as per the requirement

After creation of Account Group assigned in

Assignment

Account Groups - Function

Once account group created and assigned to function , if you go to XD01 you
will see newly created account group is now coming on the Screen.

We can see which are the partner functions

determination procedure (MS) are defaulted here.

assigned

to

partner

How to Create New Partner Function and assigned

to procedure
If you want to add other partner function other than sold to party , ship to party ,
Bill to Party , Payer below are the configuration Step.

Configuration Step : Click on Partner function following screen will appear

Click on New Entries or copy with existing on enter partner function name
and save.

Some Useful Meaning of Error group,

Error group ; For SP partner function ,Error group maintained is
07(Customer).Error group acts as incomplete logs,when we are creating
customer master if we dont maintain SP Partner functions the system will
not allow to save the customer master.
Higher-level partner function : This is related to customer hierarchy.
Eg : You can, for example, define as a higher-level partner function the sales
director of a customer where you do not have complete details for contacts.
When you mail promotional sales literature to the customer, you can
automatically send the information to the higher-level contact.
Uniqueness in the master data : If we tick this field. The partner function
associated to this can be maintained only once in the customer master.
Eg : SP (Sold to- party ) This can be maintained only once , we cant have
2 sold to party for a customer.
Eg : CR(Forwarding agent) For this partner function we neednt tick .
because for a customer there may be many number of forwarding agents .

If you go to XD01 and in Sales Area Data in partner function the newly
created partner function is added in partner Tab.

II. Set Up Partner

Document Header

Determination

for

Sales

click on Set Up Partner Determination for Sales Document Header following screen will
appear

Select Partner Determination Procedure and Go to New Entries

Enter Partner Determination Procedure Name and save.

After creating Partner determination procedure select created Partner Determination

procedure and double click on Partner Functions in Procedure

Go to New Entries

Enter Partner function and save.

Next go to Partner Determination Procedure Assignment

Search with order Type and assign the Partner Determination procedure and save.

If you see in Sales order all the partner function appearing in Header Partner Function.

III. Set Up Partner

Document Item

Determination

Click on Partner Determination Procedure following screen will appear

for

Sales

Go to New Entries

Enter Name ,description and save.

Select ZMS2 and click on Partner Function in Procedure

Go to New Entries

Enter Partner Function

For maintaining other Partner functions like Delivery , Shipment ,

Billing
at document levels the procedure is same. But few
functionalities may changes :