SAP

1. SAP Customer Account Groups
vs
SAP Partner Functions

2. Introduction
 In very broad terms:
• Business partners are all the people or companies involved in a
transaction. They may be customers, vendors (such as carriers),
employees (such as CSR’s or sales people), contact people,…
• When you create a new customer master, you have to select a
customer account group [master data]
• Once the customer master is created, you assign them a partner
function that identifies their roles and responsibilities within the sales
transactions [transaction data]
| SAP Customer Account Group vs SAP Partner Function | O2C Process Board | Dec 2012 | Business Use Only2

3. What is a Customer Account Group?
 When you create a new customer master, on the initial
screen, you have to select a customer account group.
 Typically, there are 4 major customer account groups
important in sales
• 0001 – Sold-to Party
• 0002 – Ship-to Party or Goods Recipient
• 0003 – Payer
• 0004 – Bill-to Party
 There may be and are typically more account groups. For
example:
• Sales Person, CSR, Affiliates, …
3 | SAP Customer Account Group vs SAP Partner Function | O2C Process Board | Dec 2012 | Business Use Only

4. What is a Customer Account Group?
 The customer account group determines a number of
things:
• What number range (NR) is assigned to it? For example: this means
that the Sold-to NR could be different from the Ship-to NR making
them easier to identify on the transaction level (useful – trust me ;))
• Is the customer number internally assigned or does the user need to
assign it? For example: Affiliate (Intercompany Customers) usually
have external NR assigned. Others are normally internally assigned.
• What screens and fields are required, optional or hidden? For
example: a ship-to party will never pay bills, so no payment or billing
screens or fields need to be maintained. They can be hidden.
 Which customer account groups exist, can and will vary in
each project. The examples here are the standard
delivered account groups.
4 | SAP Customer Account Group vs SAP Partner Function | O2C Process Board | Dec 2012 | Business Use Only

5. Show me some examples of Customer Account
Groups
5
SHAPE Sandoz SAP System OPEX Ciba Vision SAP System
| SAP Customer Account Group vs SAP Partner Function | O2C Process Board | Dec 2012 | Business Use Only
This illustrates how they can and will be different in 2 different
systems.

6. What is a Partner Function?
 A partner function refers to the rights, roles and
responsibilities a business partner can take on in a
business transaction
 Examples:
• SP Sold-to party
• BP Bill-to party
• PY Payer
• SH Ship-to party
• ZB Sales Budget Owner
• ZS Sales Rep
 A customer account group is configured to take on one or
more partner functions6 | SAP Customer Account Group vs SAP Partner Function | O2C Process Board | Dec 2012 | Business Use Only

7. That’s confusing, they appear to be the same. How
are they related?
 An example may help:
• A customer that is created as a Sold-to party (customer account
group 0001) can play different roles in a transaction.
- They can act as the Sold-to [SP]
- They can also act as a Ship-to [SH]
- They can also act as a Payer [PY]
- They can also act as a Bill-to [BP]
 Great, so what does that really mean?
• It is important from a master data maintenance perspective.
• Instead of having to maintain 4 customer masters records each with
their own customer account group (Sold-to, Ship-to, Payer, Bill-to),
we can create a Sold-to (customer account group = 0001) that acts
as a Sold-to (SP) Ship-to (SH), Payer (PY)& Bill-to (BP) in the
transactions.
| Presentation Title | Presenter Name | Date | Subject | Business Use Only7

8. That’s confusing, they appear to be the same. How
are they related?
 Great, so what does that really mean (cont)?
• So that means less customer master maintenance.
• It also means that you can configure customer master account groups that
play different roles. Example: Patient Master
- When the contact lenses are shipped to the optometrist, the patient number can be
included as an information only partner function on an order line item
- When the contact lenses are shipped directly to the patient (DTP), the patient could
be the Ship-to party partner function
• We can also limit the roles a partner function can take in a transaction. For
example: A customer created as a Ship-to (account group = 0002) location,
cannot be assigned a partner function of Sold-to, Payer or Bill-to.
 Note: If you look at transactions (orders, deliveries, invoices) you will
only ever see partner functions, not customer account groups.
| Presentation Title | Presenter Name | Date | Subject | Business Use Only8

9. What Partner Functions are required to complete a
Sales Transaction?
 Sold-to Party
• In SAP this is the master customer. It is typically on the Order,
Delivery and Billing document. A lot of data on the order defaults
from the sold-to party master. Only 1 sold-to can be on an order.
 Ship-to Party / Goods recipient
• In SAP this is the main partner for shipping (deliveries, return
deliveries, shipments, …). It determines where the goods will be
delivered. Only 1 Ship-to can be on a delivery.
 Payer
• In SAP this is the main partner for billing (invoices, credit memos,..).
It is also the party responsible for paying the bill. So they are
important from an AR and credit management perspective. Only 1
Payer can be on an invoice.
| Presentation Title | Presenter Name | Date | Subject | Business Use Only9

10. What Partner Functions are required to complete a
Sales Transaction?
 Bill-to Party
• In SAP, the Bill-to is the address that the invoice is sent to (physical
or electronic). So the bill-to is also a main partner for billing. It is
typical for the Bill-to to equal the Payer (but does not have to be).
For example: An Optomitrist has several stores. He may be
responsible for the bill (the Payer) but require the individual stores to
receive the invoices to verify them (the stores would be the bill-to’s).
Only 1 Bill-to per invoice
| Presentation Title | Presenter Name | Date | Subject | Business Use Only10