SAP Customer Account Groups vs SAP Partners Function

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)

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 

Customer Account Group----What is it?

Customer account group determines lot of things:

·         The number assigned to it

·         The customer number assigned - internal or external

·         Screens and fields status: Required, Optional or hidden

Partner functions

• A partner function refers to the rights, roles and responsibilities a business partner can take on in a business transaction. A customer account group is configured to take on one or more partner functions

Examples:

•       Sold-to party

•       Bill-to party

•       Payer

•       Ship-to party

•       Sales Budget Owner

•       Sales Rep

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]

Partner Functions 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.

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).