Master Data in Sales and Distribution

Overview
• Covers the key sales and distribution-relevant master data

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Objectives
After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:
• Maintain customer master data
• Maintain material master data
• Maintain the customer-material info record
• Maintain condition master data and explain pricing functions
• Issue output for sales documents
• Work with the incompletion log

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Contents
• Customer Master
• Material Master
• Customer Material Info Record
• Condition Master Data for Pricing
• Additional Master Data

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Customer Master
Lesson Overview
• Explains the structure and function of the customer master

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Objectives
After completing this lesson, you’ll be able to:
• Maintain customer master data

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Data Origin in Sales Documents
• Several sources of data can be copied into a sales order or into
another sales and distribution document
• Most of them are default values that user can overwrite in the sales and
distribution document, if necessary
• These sources of data include, for example:
• Customer master data
• Material master data
• Condition master data
• User creates and maintains this master data in the sales and distribution master data
for automatic pricing
• This could be a material price or a customer discount, for example
• Output is information that is sent to the customer via various media, such
as mail, EDI, or fax
• Examples include the printout of a quotation or an order confirmation, order
confirmations via EDI, or invoices by fax

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Data Origin in Sales Documents
• Control table: user can create and maintain these tables in
Customizing
• The default values of several data can be controlled in the sales and
distribution documents, depending on the table settings
• A previous sales document can serve as a source of data for
another sales document
• Example: a quotation can serve as a data source for a sales order

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Data Origin in Sales Documents

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Customer Master
• Customer master data include data needed to conduct business
with customers and to execute transactions that are specifically
related to the fulfillment process
• The customer master groups data into categories: general data,
sales area data, and company code data
• The general data is relevant for sales and distribution and for
accounting
• It is stored centrally (client-specific), in order to avoid data redundancy
• It is valid for all organizational units within a client
• Examples of general data are a customer’s name, address, and account
number
• If user maintain a customer master record without specifying a sales area
or a company code, the system will display general data screens only.

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Customer Master
• The sales area data is relevant for sales and distribution
• It is valid for the respective sales area (sales organization, distribution
channel, division)
• Sales area data relates to sales, shipping, billing, and partner functions
• Examples are the sales office and the currency in which the transaction is
conducted
• Shipping data specify the preferred delivering plant, delivery priorities,
and methods, shipping conditions, order combination, partial delivery
settings and tolerance levels
• They also define delivery tolerances and policies for dealing with partial
deliveries
• Billing data include billing terms and tax-related data
• The company code data is relevant for accounting
• It is valid for the respective company code and include data such as
payment terms and the reconciliation account in the general ledger
• The accounting department will typically complete this part of the
customer master data 12
Customer Master
• If a customer is served by multiple sales areas, then the data must
be defined separately for each sales area
• This arrangement permits a company to apply different terms and
conditions for different areas
• The customer master includes all data necessary for processing
orders, deliveries, invoices, and customer payments

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Customer Master

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Segments of Customer Master Data

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Data on The General Data Tab
Pages
• In order to maintain the general data in the customer master that
is relevant for sales and distribution and accounting, the data
fields are grouped on several tab pages
• The general data is maintained independently of the
organizational units
• The general data in the customer master is set out on the
following tab pages:
• Address
• Control data
• Payment transactions
• Marketing
• Unloading points
• Export data
• Contact persons
• By changing the Customizing settings, user can hide certain fields
on a tab page or make them required entry fields
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Data on The General Data Tab
Pages

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Data on The Sales Area Data Tab
Pages
• User can maintain the sales area data in various ways, depending
on the sales area (sales organization, distribution channel,
division)
• The sales area data in the customer master is set out on the
following tab pages:
• Sales
• Shipping
• Billing document
• Partner functions
• By changing the Customizing settings, user can hide certain fields
on a tab page or make them required entry fields

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Data on The Sales Area Data Tab
Pages

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 Partner Functions in The Customer
Master
• Customers can play different roles or partner functions in the fulfillment
process
• User stores the partner functions for the customer master in the customer
master sales area data (tab page Partner functions)
• During sales order processing, they are copied as default values into the documents
• For sales order processing, user needs the mandatory partner functions sold-
to party, ship-to party, payer, and bill-to party
• In the course of processing a sales order, they can differ from each other or can be
identical
• Sold-to party: places the order
• This is the primary type of business partner
• It also stores data on sales, such as assignment to a sales office or pricing procedure
• Ship-to party: receives goods or services
• The ship-to partner record also stores data such as unloading points and receiving hours
• Bill-to party: receives the invoice for goods or services
• This partner record houses the address, printing related-data, and electronic
communication information
• Payer: is responsible for paying the invoice
• It also stores bank data and billing schedule information
• Other partner functions, such as contact person or forwarding agent, are not
absolutely necessary for sales order processing
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Partner Functions in The Customer
Master
• For example, the customer may request that the material be
shipped to one of its customers
• In this case, the party that actually receives the shipment is considered
the ship-to party
• However, the invoice will be forwarded to the customer that ordered the
materials—that is, the bill-to party
• Alternatively, the bill-to-party may be another company that processes
invoices for the customer
• As another example, a large enterprise may be comprised of a
number of companies, such as franchises
• An order may be placed by headquarters, the sold-to party, with
instructions to deliver the materials to numerous franchises, the ship-to
parties
• The invoice may be sent to headquarters, which also serves as the bill-to
party
• Finally, the payment may be outsourced to another company, which will
be the payer of the invoice

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Partner Functions in The Customer
Master

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Data on The Company Code Data
Tab Pages
• In order to maintain the company code data relevant for
accounting in the customer master, the data fields are grouped on
several tab pages
• User can maintain the company code data in various ways,
according to the company code
• The company code data in the customer master comprises the
following tab pages:
• Account management
• Payment transactions
• Correspondence
• Insurance
• By changing the Customizing settings, user can hide certain fields
on a tab page or make them required entry fields

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Data on The Company Code Data
Tab Pages

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Effects of Changes in The Customer
Master
• When user changes a master record after having used it to create
documents (orders, deliveries, billing documents, and so on), the
changes do not affect the documents already created
• The address in the customer master, however, is an exception
• If necessary, therefore, user would have to change the data (but not the
address) in the documents manually

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Effects of Changes in The Customer
Master

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Lesson Summary
You should now be able to:
• Maintain customer master data

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Material Master
Lesson Overview
• Explains the structure and function of the material master

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Objectives
After completing this lesson, you’ll be able to:
• Maintain material master data

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Material Master
• There are several types of products a company can sell, which are
under the Material Menu:
• Trading Goods
• Define as material type HAWA
• These are products that company buys and then resells without any transformation
• Non-stock materials
• Delivered as material type NLAG
• These are materials that company doesn’t actually keep in a warehouse
• Services
• Defined as DIEN
• If company is in the service industry then all of the different services provided to
customers must be created as such in the material master
• Packaging Materials
• Identified as material type VERP
• These are the materials that will contain or wrap products when shipped from the
warehouse

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Material Master
• There are several types of products a company can sell, which are
under the Material Menu (cont.):
• Competitive Products
• Defined as WETT
• Some companies decide to keep material master records for products of their
competitors to keep track of the product characteristics and also how they compare
to their own products
• Other Materials
• In some cases, companies sell raw materials, sometimes because they have
excessive inventory or because other business partners use them as parts for
repairing finished products
• In these cases, company also need to maintain sales data for those raw materials so
the material can be process in sales documents.

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Material Master
• The key organizational elements in fulfillment for which material
master data are defined are client, sales organization, distribution
channel, and plant
• Material master data are grouped into views and that each view is
relevant to one or more processes and defined for specific organizational
levels
• The material master comprises the following areas: basic data, sales and
distribution data, purchasing data, various further data for
engineering/design, accounting, costing, warehouse management, and so
on
• The three views relevant to fulfillment are basic data, sales organization
data, and sales plant data
• The basic data is relevant for all areas
• It is valid for all organizational units within a client

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Material Master
• The sales organization data is relevant for sales and distribution
• It is valid for the respective sales organization and the distribution
channel
• Examples of sales organization data are the delivering plant, sales units,
and minimum quantities
• The delivering plant is the preferred plant from which deliveries are
made for the particular sales organization and distribution channel
• Sales units are the units of measure, such as cartons, barrels, containers,
cases, pallets, and crates, in which the materials are sold
• Quantities include minimum order quantities and delivery quantities
• In addition, a link to pricing conditions is available
• Because the data are defined for each combination of sales organization
and DC, each DC can have different values for these data to support
different sales strategies

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Material Master
• The sales: plant data is also relevant for sales and distribution
• It is valid for the respective delivering plant
• Sales plant data provide details on how the material will be shipped from
that plant
• Examples are specific transportation requirements (e.g., refrigeration)
and the methods of loading the material (e.g., a hand cart, forklift, or
crane)
• Note that it is necessary to define materials for every combination of sales
organization and distribution channel, as well as for every plant if the
data are different
• Very often, the material data will be unchanged between plants or
distribution channels
• Additional data relevant for different organizational units is
available for various other areas

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Material Master

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Data on The Sales Tab Pages
• There are several tab pages in the material master, that are valid
for sales and distribution:
• The basic data is relevant for all areas
• It is maintained independently of the organizational units
• The data for Sales: Sales Org. 1 and Sales: Sales Org. 2 as well as the sales
text is valid for the sales organization and the distribution channel
• The Sales: General/Plant data and the Foreign Trade: Export data is valid
for the delivering plant
• By changing the Customizing settings, user can hide certain fields
on a tab page or make them required entry fields

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Data on The Sales Tab Pages

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Cross-Division Sales
• User can use this kind of processing to enter multiple materials
with various divisions in a sales order
• User can control the following in Customizing, according to the
sales document type:
• Whether it is possible to enter multiple materials with various divisions
for an order
• The way the system is to respond (with or without warning message)
• Whether the division on item level is copied from the material master
record or whether the division in the document header is also copied into
the item

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Cross-Division Sales

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Division-Specific Sales
• User cannot use this kind of processing to enter multiple
materials with various divisions in an order
• This can be controlled in Customizing, according to the sales
document type

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Division-Specific Sales

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Lesson Summary
You should now be able to:
• Maintain material master data

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Customer Material Info
Record
Lesson Overview
• Explains the structure and function of the customer-material info
record

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Objectives
After completing this lesson, you’ll be able to:
• Maintain the customer-material info record

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Master Data: Customer-Material
Information
• A customer-material information record is comprised of master
data specific to one customer and one material
• In contrast to data in a material master, which apply to all customers, and
data in a customer master, which apply to all purchases made by a
particular customer, data in a customer-material info record relate to
purchases of a specific material by a specific customer
• The customer-material info record is used for storing customer-
specific material data
• If a customer-material info record has been defined for a customer
and a material, the default values take priority over the values in
the customer or material master when a document is processed
(order, delivery, and so on)

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Master Data: Customer-Material
Information
• User can use the customer-material information record to
maintain the following data:
• Cross-reference from his customer's material number to his material
number and the customer's material description
• This cross-referencing of material numbers enables the customer to place an
order based on its internal material numbers, which the info record then
translates into the company’s material numbers
• Remember that most customers also have enterprise systems that manage
their procurement process
• Consequently, the customer material number is the link between the seller’s
master data and the buyer’s master data

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Master Data: Customer-Material
Information
• User can use the customer-material information record to
maintain the following data (cont.):
• Specific shipping information for this customer and material (such as
delivery tolerances, specifying if the customer will accept partial
deliveries, or the default delivering plant)
• However, if these preferences vary for different materials, then they are
included in the customer-material info record
• For example, if deliveries are normally sent to one specified plant but deliveries
for a particular material must be sent to a different plant, then this preference
is noted in the customer-material info record for that material, not in the
customer master

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Master Data: Customer-Material
Information

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Order Entry Using The Customer-
Material Information
• Sales orders can be placed with the customer's material number
by using the Ordering Party tab page
• The system finds the associated material master via the customer-
material information

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Order Entry Using The Customer-
Material Information

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Lesson Summary
You should now be able to:
• Maintain the customer-material info record

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Customer Master Data for
Pricing
Lesson Overview
• Explains the condition master data

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Objectives
After completing this lesson, you’ll be able to:
• Maintain condition master data and explain pricing functions

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Condition Master
• Pricing conditions are master data that companies use to
determine the selling prices of their products
• Companies create conditions for various components of the final
selling price, including gross prices, discounts, freight, surcharges,
and taxes
• Conditions can be fixed amounts, percentages, or based on a
sliding scale, and they can be either independent of or relative to
other conditions
• For example, the price of a product can be material specific and customer
independent, meaning that the seller charges the same price to all of its
customers

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Condition Master
• User can define condition master data (condition records) to be dependent
on various data
• User can, for example, maintain a material price customer-specifically or define
a discount to be dependent on the customer and the material pricing group
• The price can be customer specific, in which case the company charges different
customers different prices, perhaps based on some agreements between the
company and the customer
• Similarly, discounts can be uniform, or they can be based on the quantity or
value of the purchase
• For example, company offers a 10% discount for purchases of between 100 and 500 units
and a 20% discount for purchases of more than 500 units
• Freight is generally based on the weight of the shipment, and it may be waived
for purchases greater than a predetermined amount
• Thus, the final price to the customer is a function of, or conditioned on,
numerous variables
• In Customizing, user can control the data on which prices, surcharges and
discounts, freights or taxes can be dependent
• User can define conditions to be dependent on any document fields
• Frequently occurring cases have already been set in the standard system
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Condition Master

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Condition Master Records in
Pricing
• Because numerous conditions are defined for a product, a
company must have a procedure to determine which conditions
apply to a particular customer order
• This procedure, called the condition technique, consists of identifying
available condition types (gross price, customer-specific price, discounts,
freight, surcharges, etc.) and determining which ones apply to the
particular circumstances of the order
• The condition type defines multiple uses of a condition
• User can have a percentage, a quantity-dependent, or an amount-
dependent surcharge or discount, depending on the condition
type
• By specifying a validity period, user can restrict a price agreement
to a certain period
• User can maintain values within a condition record (price,
surcharge, discount) according to a scale
• There is no limit to the number of scale levels
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Condition Master Records in
Pricing

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Pricing in Sales Orders
• Prices, surcharges, discounts, freight, and taxes (conditions) for a
business transaction can be found automatically using the
automatic pricing function
• User can also change these conditions manually
• Pricing is carried out using the condition technique
• Pricing represents the calculation of prices and costs using
condition

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Pricing in Sales Orders

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Lesson Summary
You should now be able to:
• Maintain condition master data and explain pricing functions

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Additional Master Data
Lesson Overview
• Introduces other important aspects of master data

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Objectives
After completing this lesson, you’ll be able to:
• Issue output for sales documents
• Work with the incompletion log

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Output
• A variety of outputs that are generated during the fulfillment process,
such as quotations, confirmations, and invoices, must be communicated
to customers
• The data needed to perform this task are included in output conditions
• The condition technique used to determine pricing is also used to determine
how outputs from the process are communicated to the customer
• Output is information that is sent to the customer via various media, such
as mail, EDI, or fax
• Examples include: the printout of a quotation or an order confirmation, order
confirmations via EDI, or invoices by fax
• As with pricing, output determination takes place using the condition
technique
• Output can be sent for various sales and distribution documents (order,
delivery, billing document, ...)
• In the output master data, user defines the transmission medium, the
time, and the partner function for an output type
• Output types include quotations, order confirmations, and invoices
• Partner functions include sold-to parties, ship-to parties, and bill-to parties
• Transmission media include printers, telex, fax, mail, and EDI
• Transmission time include immediately or periodically using a program
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Output
• Output can be sent, for example, as soon as data is saved or by
means of a standard program that is run regularly (RSNAST00)
• The layout of an output is defined by a form in SAPscript
• The form is assigned to an output type

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Output

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Incompletion Log
• Each sales and distribution document contains data required for
the document and for further processing
• The system determines which fields will be displayed in the
incompletion log, if the user does not complete them during sales
order processing
• User receives the incompletion log either:
• Automatically when the data is saved, or
• By choosing Edit → Incompletion Log
• In Customizing, user can decide which fields should be part of the
incompletion log
• The incompletion log functions are available in the sales order
and in the delivery

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Incompletion Log

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Common Master Data -
Distribution Channels
• If user does not need the master data (customer/material and
condition master data) to be differentiated according to
distribution channels, user has to set up a representative
distribution channel
• The master data for the representative distribution channel applies to all
distribution channels for which user has set up this reference in
Customizing
• By doing this, user can minimize the effort of entering and
maintaining master data
• In addition, user can update statistics for distribution channels
without having to create master data for the various distribution
channels

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Common Master Data -
Distribution Channels

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Common Master Data - Divisions
• If user does not need the master data (customer or condition
master data) to be differentiated according to divisions, user has
to set up a representative division
• The master data in the representative division applies to all divisions for
which user has set up this reference in Customizing
• By doing this, user can minimize the effort of entering and
maintaining master data
• In addition, user can update statistics for divisions without having
to create master data for the various divisions

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Common Master Data - Divisions

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Lesson Summary
You should now be able to:
• Issue output for sales documents
• Work with the incompletion log

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Unit Summary
You should now be able to:
• Maintain customer master data
• Maintain material master data
• Maintain the customer-material info record
• Maintain condition master data and explain pricing functions
• Issue output for sales documents
• Work with the incompletion log

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