0

Vendor Master Record

 SAP AG

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Vendor Master Record: Objectives

 At the conclusion of this unit, participants will

be able to:
 Explain the role of the vendor.

 Display, create, and change vendor master

records.
 Use the various levels of data maintenance in the
vendor master record.
 List the most important control functions used in
vendor master maintenance.
 Describe the role of the control account.

 Use partner roles.

 SAP AG

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Vendor Master Record

Vendor
master
record

General data

Purchasing
data Accounting data
R

 SAP AG

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Vendor Master Record: Organizational Levels

General data

Purchasing
organization data Accounting data

 SAP AG

 The vendor master record contains information about a vendor from a Purchasing and Accounting
perspective.
 Data in the vendor master record is structured by organizational considerations:
 General data is valid for the whole corporate group (client). This includes the vendor communication
data, for example.
 Accounting data is stored at company code level (company) and with the general data.
 Purchasing data on the vendor is managed separately for each purchasing organization, for example,
payment conditions. General data is also relevant to Purchasing, for example, address data.
 There are other levels for purchasing data, but which are optional (plant, vendor sub-range).

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Vendor Master Maintenance

General data

Purchasing and
accounting data
can be maintained
centrally or
independently of
Purchasing each other
Accounting data
organization data
R

 SAP AG

 In Accounting, the vendor is regarded as the company’s crediting business partner. The vendor
master record is therefore maintained by Accounting and Purchasing.
 You can use the R/3 System authorization concept to define how data maintenance should be
organized in the vendor master record.
 Each user department can maintain general data centrally or decentrally, as well as Purchasing and
Accounting-specific data. Often, Purchasing also maintains data at corporate group level.

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Vendor Master Data

Area of validity Data groups
General data

Valid
Validfor
forall
all Address
Organizational
Organizationallevels
levels Communication

Purchasing
Purchasingorganization
organization
data
data
Valid
Validfor
forone
one Order
Ordercurrency
currency
purchasing
purchasingorganization
organization Partner
Partnerroles
roles
Control
Controle.g.
e.g.Invoice
Invoice
Verification
Verificationtype
type

Company code data

Valid for one
company code Bank data
Payment transactions
Account management
R

 SAP AG

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Vendor Master Record: Account Group

Status (vendor or
one-time vendor)

Number interval Field selection

The
Theaccount
account
group determines
group determines
Type of number assgt Partner schema

Vendor sub-ranges or
plant-specific data

 SAP AG 1999

 When creating a vendor master record, you have to enter an account group. The account group has
controlling characteristics.
 You can create special master records for vendors from whom you only procure a material once or
very rarely. These are called one-time vendor master records and, in contrast to other master records,
you can use a vendor master record for several vendors. Therefore, no vendor-specific data is stored
for one-time vendors. You can control this using the relevant field selection for account groups for
one-time vendors.
When creating a purchasing document or accounting document with a one-time vendor, the system
automatically goes to an additional data screen. This is where you enter specific data, such as the
vendor's name, address, or bank details.

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One-Time Vendor

Miller Ltd
Vendor
Vendor master
master recd
recd

Description
Description
Language
Language
Reconciliation
Reconciliation acct
acct
Hooper & Co.
Currency
Currency RFQ / PO

Account Vendor
group
One-
address ?
MSK Ltd time X

Invoice
verification

Marks & Co.

Bank
details ?

 SAP AG 1999

 You can use a single one-time vendor master record to cover a number of vendors. You normally use
one-time master records for “one-time” vendors.

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Reconciliation Account for Vendor Master Record

R/3
System
Enter vendor
invoice

Subledger accounting Financial accounting

Vendor A Reconciliation account

parallel

Total Total
liabilities liabilities for
per vendor all vendors

 SAP AG 1999

 When you create a vendor master record, you need a unique number for the vendor. Depending on
the account group, the system assigns this automatically or the person responsible assigns it
manually. The vendor number is also used as the subledger number in Financial Accounting. In
subledger accounting, the total liabilities are updated per vendor.
 When you create a vendor master record, you have to maintain a reconciliation account. The
reconciliation account is a G/L account in G/L accounting. It maps a company's liabilities towards
several vendors in G/L accounting.
 When entering invoices, you enter the vendor, and the system uses the reconciliation account from
the vendor master record.

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Creating a Vendor Master Record with Reference

Address data Control

Reference data

X
Copy Blank Control
data

 SAP AG 1999

 To help you create a vendor master record, you can use an existing vendor as a reference. The
system prompts you to maintain the data (for example, address). The control data is copied from the
reference, but you can overwrite it.
 You can block the vendor master record (for example, for vendors who deliver products of poor
quality). Once you have set the block indicator, you can no longer place purchase orders with this
vendor.
 Note: In the source list, you can block a vendor for a single material.

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Partner Roles

Order recipient Invoicing party

Vendor

Supplier of goods
Payee

 SAP AG 1999

 The vendor can have various functions in its interaction with your company. For example, during the
procurement transaction the vendor is the order recipient, then the supplier of goods, the invoicing
party, and finally, the payee.
 By maintaining partner roles in the vendor master record, you can distribute one or more of these
roles among different vendor master records.

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Partner Roles

PI
OA

Ordering address Invoicing party

Vendor VD

GS AZ

Different payee
Goods supplier

 SAP AG 1999

 Partner roles can be used to represent different functions performed by business partners within the
procurement process. The partner role defines the rights, duties and tasks of a partner in carrying out
a business transaction.
 The partner roles that exist within Materials Management include the following:
 Ordering address
 Goods supplier
 Invoicing party
 Different payee
 Partners can be defined for partner roles at the level of the purchasing organization, the plant or the
vendor sub-range.
 Partners can be maintained for partner roles in the vendor master record or the purchasing document.
If partners have been maintained in the vendor master record, they are suggested by the R/3 System
in purchasing documents.
 You can specify several partners for one partner role.

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Customizing Partner Roles

1
Vendor master Account Admissible
record group partner roles

Partner Partner Partner

schema schema schema
POrg VSR Plant
Partner No End Higher
role change level
OA
...

2 Purchasing
document type

Partner schema

 SAP AG 1999

 Partner roles are defined in Customizing and assigned to a partner type (for example, vendor or
customer). The partner types that can be used are predetermined and cannot be changed.
 For each vendor account group you specify which partner roles the vendors belonging to the account
group may assume.
 You can group different partner roles using a partner schema and specify, for example, that the
partner cannot be changed after having been entered. Partner schemas are assigned to purchasing
document types and vendor account groups.
 As of Release 4.0A, you can specify when a partner role from the vendor master record (or, in the
case of release orders, from the contract) is suggested:
 At the start of the document entry process (after the fields on the initial screen have been filled)
 At the end of the document entry process (when the document is checked/saved)
 The latter approach is advantageous if you have maintained different data in the vendor master
record – for example, at plant level. The R/3 System checks whether all document items have the
same plant and then searches for partners that have been defined for the plant.
 As of Release 4.0A, you can specify whether the R/3 System is to carry on searching at higher levels
if no partner is found at a given level (for example, plant).

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Vendor M aster: Sum m ary (1)

 The vendor m aster can be m aintained

centrally or on a decentralized basis.
 G eneral data is m anaged at the client level,
purchasing data at the purchasing
organization level, and accounting data at
com pany code level.
 Vendor m aster records are assigned to an
account group. The account group determ ines
the control functions for m aintenance (field
selection, num ber assignm ent, partner
determ ination schem a, etc.).

 SAP AG

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Vendor M aster: Sum m ary (2)

 Vendor postings require a control account

(G/L account).
 If the business partner does not utilize all
of the vendor’s roles, several vendor
m aster records have to be created, and
are m anaged via partner roles.

 SAP AG

(C) SAP AG TAMM40 8-15