Lesson 1 of 6
Master data vs transactional data
7 min
Every SAP system holds three very different kinds of data, and most confusion for new users comes from mixing them up. Configuration (also called Customizing) defines how the system behaves: which document types exist, which fields are required, how prices are calculated. Master data describes the long-lived things the business works with: customers, suppliers, products, G/L accounts, cost centers. Transactional data records the events that happen to those things: a sales order, a goods receipt, a supplier invoice, a journal entry.
A simple test tells them apart. Master data is created once and then used again and again, for months or years. Transactional data is created by a business event, refers to master data, and is rarely changed once it is complete. Configuration is set up by the project team, moved through the landscape with transports, and is usually not something a business user maintains at all.
Examples from each process
Contoso Motor Co. builds alternators in its Detroit plant (plant 1710) and keeps a second plant in Chicago (plant 1720). Here is how its data splits across the main processes:
| Process | Master data used | Transactional data created |
|---|---|---|
| Order to cash | Customer business partner, product CMC-ALT-100 (alternator), sales price | Sales order, outbound delivery, billing document, journal entry |
| Procure to pay | Supplier business partner, component CMC-RTR-200 (rotor), purchasing info record | Purchase requisition, purchase order, goods receipt, supplier invoice, payment |
| Plan to produce | Bill of material, routing, work center, product MRP data | Planned order, production order, goods issue of components, goods receipt of the alternator |
| Record to report | G/L accounts, cost centers, profit centers | Journal entries, allocations, period-end postings |
Contoso Motor Co.: master data feeds every transaction.
Copying at the moment of creation
When you create a sales order, SAP does not just point at the customer record. It copies many values from master data into the new document as defaults: payment terms, incoterms, the shipping condition, the delivering plant, the price. You can often override them in the document. After that, the document keeps its own copy.
- Customer masterPayment terms, incoterms, shipping conditions for sales area 1710 / 10 / 00
- Product masterDelivering plant 1710, sales unit, item category group, weight
- Price conditionBase price for CMC-ALT-100, valid today
- Sales orderValues copied in as defaults; the order now holds its own copy
That copy behavior has two practical consequences. First, if master data is wrong when the order is created, the wrong value travels into the order and onward into the delivery, the invoice and the accounting entry. Second, fixing the master record later does not repair documents that already exist. If a tester finds that Contoso's customer had the wrong payment terms, correcting the business partner fixes tomorrow's orders, not yesterday's.
Why the distinction matters to testers
When a test fails, the first question is always which layer caused it. A configuration defect needs a transport and a change request. A master data defect needs a data correction, often by a different team. A transactional problem may be user error. Labeling the cause correctly is what lets the right person fix it quickly, and it stops the same "defect" being logged three times by three testers who all hit the same incomplete product record.
What would you do?
A tester reports that every sales order for one Contoso customer shows payment terms of 60 days, but the contract says 30 days. Orders for other customers are fine. What is the most likely layer of the problem?
- Configuration sets the rules, master data describes long-lived business objects, and transactional data records business events.
- Documents copy many values from master data when they are created, so master data errors flow downstream.
- Correcting a master record does not fix documents that already exist.
- Classifying a failure by layer gets it to the right team fast.
Check your understanding · not graded
Lesson check
1. Which of these is master data?
2. A product's sales unit is corrected after 20 orders were created. What happens to those 20 orders?
3. Who usually maintains configuration?
4. Why should testers classify a failure as configuration, master data or transactional?