Friday, October 10, 2008

SAP SD Partner Functions Partner Determination in Sales and Distribution

Use

By assigning a partner function to a partner you can determine which functions the partner fulfills in the business process. A partner can have more than one function.

The diagram shows partner functions which are typical for sales and distribution processing.

In the simplest case all required partner functions for partner type Customer are taken over by the customer, that is to say a customer appears in the partner functions Sold-to party, ship-to party, payer and bill-to party. As these functions are generally necessary for sales and distribution processing, they are defined in the system as mandatory partner functions. You can change this setting in Customizing or define other functions as mandatory partner functions.

You can define other partner functions in the customer master or in the sales document.

Integration

Partner functions are classified using partner types. Partner types allow general scheduling of partner functions in creditors, customers, personnel and contact persons.

Features

The following partner functions exist, for example, in the standard system for sales and distribution:

Partner Type: Customer

  • Sold-to party
  • Ship-to party
  • Bill-to party
  • Payer
  • Sold-to party authorized to release

You can define the sold-to party authorized to release in the partner screen of a contract. This partner may only schedule orders with reference to this contract, even when he is not the contract sold-to party.

Partner Type: Contact Person

Contact persons are natural persons with whom you must be in contact at the customers in order to carry out business processing (e.g. buyers). It is not necessary for you to be a customer employee. You could, for example, be an independent advisor.

You can create contact persons directly in the customer master record. You are then assigned to this customer. The contact persons can however be assigned to other customers.

Partner Type: Vendor

  • Forwarding agent

A forwarding agent is an example of a business partner on the credit side, who is included in a sales process. If you commission a particular forwarding agent for deliveries to a specific customer, you can define the forwarding agent in the customer master record as the partner.

Possible partner functions on the credit side in the sales process are, for example, interpreters or auditors.

Partner Type Personnel

  • Employee responsible
  • Sales personnel

You can enter an employee from your firm as the person responsible.

- In the customer master record: if the employee is normally responsible for processing transactions with this customer.

- In the sales document: if the employee is responsible for processing the business transaction.

These functions are also important in Sales Support (CAS). For more information, see Information on Sales Personnel.

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