Free SAP Sales and Distribution (SD) Books, FAQ’s: Creating a Customer Master Record in SAP SD

You create a customer master record when you start a business relationship with a new customer. Customer master records can be created for the following business partners:

Customer:

- Ship-to party

- Payer

- Bill-to party

One-time customer including all partner functions

Creating a Customer Master Record for a Customer

Because the customer master record for the sold-to party has the widest scope, this example describes how to create a customer master record for the sold-to party. When you call the customer master record initial screen via the menu, select the partner function for the business partner.

Steps

Creating a Master Record for a Sold-to Party

Use the following steps to create a customer master record for a sold-to party:

In the

SD Master Data Screen

select, Business partners

Sold-to Party

Create

You reach the: Create Customer Initial Screen. The account group for the sold-to party is already proposed on this screen.

Enter the following data:

- Sales organization

- Distribution channel

- Division

By selecting Extras ® Sales areas ® All sales areas you can find out which combination of sales organization, distribution channel, and division is possible for the customer.

Do not change the proposed account group, as this will also change the selected business partner. Leave the field Customer blank, because internal number assignment is defined for the account group of the sold-to party.

Press ENTER.

You reach the Create Customer: Address screen.

Enter the address data. Enter a name in the field Search term which will later make it possible for you to retrieve the customer master record using a matchcode.

By pressing ENTER, you will access further data screens for this customer master record. Enter all necessary data in these screens.

Some of the data screens that you process require special data input, or are logically linked with other screens which you reach using function keys. For further information on these screens, see Changing a Customer Master Record.

If you press the ENTER key after having entered data in the last data screen, a dialog box is displayed in which the system prompts you to save your data.

Select Yes and press ENTER to save your customer data.

The following message is displayed at the bottom of the screen:

Account created for SlsOrg. DistCh Div.

If you access the initial menu for the customer master record by selecting Other customers, the account group is not proposed. To find the account groups defined in your company, place the cursor on the field Account group and press the F4 key.

By using menu option Extras ® Account group info ® Acct groups/numbers you can also find out

whether the corresponding account group identifies a one-time customer (one-time account)

whether internal or external number assignment is defined for the account group

which number interval has been defined for the account group

Creating a Customer Master Record for a Customer Centrally

In addition to the sales and distribution data, the accounting data is also important for a payer. You can therefore create a customer master record centrally for the following partner functions:

For the payer
For the sold-to party who, in addition to the other partner functions, also takes on the function of the payer

Creating a Customer Master Record for a Payer Centrally

Below you will find a description on how to create a master record for a payer centrally. The procedure is essentially the same for central creation of a customer master record for a sold-to party.

Proceed as follows:

In the

SD Master Data Screen

select, Business partners

Payer

Create

Create centrally

You reach the Create Customer: Initial Screen. The account group for the payer is already displayed; it is proposed by the system.

Enter the data for the payer and press ENTER.

By pressing the ENTER key you access all sales and distribution screens and accounting screens in the customer master record.

Some of the data screens you process require special data input or are logically linked with other screens which you reach using function keys. For further information on these screens, see Changing a Customer Master Record.

If you press the ENTER key after having entered data in the last data screen, a dialog box is displayed in which the system prompts you to save your data.

Select Yes and press ENTER to save your customer data.

You return to the initial screen for creating a customer master record, where you can see the number of the customer master record created.

Reference

If you create a customer master record centrally, you should also enter the data for FI (e.g. insurance data and account information) as well as information for automatic payment transactions. For further information on this accounting data, see the R/3 FI documentation on accounts receivable accounting.

Creating a Customer Master Record for One-time Customers

Use the following steps to create a customer master record for a one-time customer:

In the

SD Master Data Screen

select, Business partners

One-time customers

Create

You reach the Create Customer: Initial Screen.

Enter the following data:

- Sales organization

- Distribution channel

- Division

The account group CPD (one-time account) is proposed. Do not change this account group. The system automatically assigns an internal number for one-time customers

Press ENTER.

You access the address screen of the customer master record. This screen is limited to those fields which can be identical for different customers.

Enter the following data:

- in the field Name, a generic term for those customers for whom you are creating a customer master record (for example, Dallas and Houston to keep the customers from these two cities separate)

- a search term which will later help you retrieve the customer master record

- the country

Press ENTER to access the various data screens of the customer master record.

Some of the data screens that you process require special data input, or are logically linked with other screens which you reach using function keys. You will find detailed information on these screens in "Screens in the Customer Master Record".

Enter all necessary data.

You can store the master record in each of the customer master record screens by selecting Customer

Save.

If the master record contains additional required entry fields which you have not yet filled, you access the corresponding screens, where you save the necessary data by selecting the menu options Customer ® Save.

After saving the data, you return to the initial screen for creating a customer master record. The following message is displayed at the bottom of the screen: Account created for SlsOrg. DistCh Div.

When later creating a sales order for a customer whose data fits to the one-time customer master record, after entering the customer number, the system automatically branches to an address screen where you can enter the address, name and other relevant information.

Using a Reference for Customer Master Record Creation

If a customer master record with similar data already exists, you can enter its number in the field Customer in the reference section of the initial screen, which will reduce the effort required to create the new master record.

If you enter only the customer number in the reference section, the system will copy only the general data into the new customer master record. If you also enter data on the sales area, the sales and distribution data will also be copied. Only data which can be identical for both master records is copied. For example, address and unloading points are not copied, while country, language and account group are. You can change all copied data.

If you create a customer master record for a customer for whom a customer master record in another sales area already exists, the general data will not need to be entered again for the second master record because it already exists in the system.

Master Data Grouping

You can specify that customer master records which have been created in a particular sales organization for a specific distribution channel and division are also valid in other distribution channels and/or divisions. This means that you only have create master records which you require in various distribution channels once. This can save you a lot of time and effort.

You can use the same function to edit material master records and prices.

Master data grouping for distribution channels.

At distribution channel level, you can specify the other distribution channels in which prices and customer and material master records are also valid.