Partner Determination

Business transactions may have one or more partners involved in the transaction. For
example, when an order is placed, you have the Sold-to Party placing the order. You may
have a different Ship-to Party (entity receiving the delivery) for the order. The invoice may
go to another entity called the Bill-to Party and still another entity may make the payment
(the Payer).
Automatic partner determination happens in the sales document, delivery, billing
documents, sales activities, and customer master record. This automatic partner determination
is configurable. In this section, we’ll cover how to set up the partner determination, including
what partners are possible in a business transaction, what partners are required, and what types
of customers from the customer master can fulfill the partner roles. For example, you must have
a Sold-to Party in the sales order. But the Sold-to Party cannot be a customer who is created as
account group 0002 (the Ship-to Party).
To configure partner determination, use the following menu path.
Menu Path SAP Customizing Implementation Guide | Sales and Distribution | Basic
Functions | Partner Determination | Set Up Partner Determination
By referring back to master data, covered earlier in this chapter, we see that each partner
(customer) master record is created on the basis of a specific account group—for example,
Sold-to parties use account group 0001.
We also note the four basic partner functions:
SP Sold-to Party
SH Ship-to Party
BP Bill-to Party
PY Payer