Lesson 2 of 5
Categories and roles
7 min
Two choices shape every business partner: its category, which says what kind of party it is, and its roles, which say how you do business with it. Getting them right at creation saves a lot of trouble, because the category cannot be changed afterwards.
Three categories
| Category | What it represents | Typical fields | Contoso example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Organization | A company, a legal entity or part of one, an association | Name 1–4, legal form, industry | Great Lakes Fleet Services; Lakeside Components |
| Person | A natural person | First name, last name, title, date of birth | A purchasing manager at Great Lakes Fleet Services, as a contact person |
| Group | A group of persons or organizations, such as a married couple or a household | Group name and group type | Rare in manufacturing; common in banking and utilities |
The category determines which fields appear. An organization has a legal form; a person has a first and last name. Choose wrongly and you cannot fix it by editing: you would create a new partner and block the wrong one. Most B2B customers and suppliers at a company like Contoso are organizations. Persons appear as contact people, as sole-trader suppliers, or as one-time consumer customers.
Roles
A BP role adds a business context, with its own fields and screens. Every BP has the general role, and you add others as needed. For customers and suppliers, finance and logistics have separate roles:
| BP role (code) | Adds | Organizational level | Who uses it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Business partner, general (000000) | Name, address, communication, bank details, tax numbers | Client | Everyone |
| FI customer (FLCU00) | Reconciliation account, payment terms, dunning, payment methods | Company code | Accounts receivable |
| Customer (FLCU01) | Sales data: pricing, shipping, billing, partner functions | Sales area | Sales and order-to-cash |
| FI supplier (FLVN00) | Reconciliation account, payment terms and methods, withholding tax | Company code | Accounts payable |
| Supplier (FLVN01) | Purchasing data: order currency, incoterms, invoice verification controls | Purchasing organization | Purchasing and procure-to-pay |
| SAP Credit Management (UKM000) | Credit profile: risk class, credit limit and rules | Credit segment | Credit management |
A complete customer that you sell to and invoice therefore usually has three roles: general, FI customer and customer. A complete supplier has general, FI supplier and supplier. Missing a role is a classic test finding: a sales order for a new customer fails because the sales area data under the customer role was never created, or an invoice cannot be posted because the company code data under the FI role is missing.
Relationships
Business partners can be linked to each other through relationships. The most common is the contact person relationship: Great Lakes Fleet Services (organization) has a contact person, its purchasing manager (person). Relationships carry their own data, such as department and function, and can have validity dates.
- Create BPChoose category Organization and a grouping
- General dataName, address, tax number, bank details for Great Lakes Fleet Services
- FI customer roleCompany code 1710: reconciliation account, payment terms
- Customer roleSales area 1710 / 10 / 00: pricing, shipping, billing data, partner functions
- Credit roleCredit segment: limit and risk class
- RelationshipLink the purchasing manager as contact person
What would you do?
Maria cannot create a sales order for a newly created customer in sales area 1710 / 10 / 00. The BP exists and the master data team says "it has the customer role". What should she ask them to check first?
- Categories are organization, person and group; the category is fixed at creation.
- Roles add business contexts: FI customer and customer, FI supplier and supplier, credit management.
- Finance roles hold company code data; sales and purchasing roles hold sales area and purchasing organization data.
- A complete customer or supplier needs the right roles and the right organizational data.
- Relationships, such as contact persons, link business partners to each other.
Check your understanding · not graded
Lesson check
1. Which business partner categories exist?
2. Which role holds a customer's reconciliation account and payment terms for company code 1710?
3. Which role holds purchasing data such as order currency per purchasing organization?
4. Can you change a BP's category from person to organization after creation?