Master Data

Master data is basically collection of properties, which can be created only once
but can makes changes rarely according to requirement. This data is the source for the
transactions.
Most important types of Master data are
 Customer Master data (CMR) or Vendor Master data
 Material Master data (MMR)
 Customer Material info record (CMIR)
 Pricing Master data/Condition Master data

Customer Master data : SAP Customer Master Data would include all the
details regarding the customers which are to be maintained into the system and used
as and when required. SAP Customer Master Data, as can be seen from its name, is
the Master Data related to Customer information. In SAP, if you wish to sale finished
goods, services or even scrap, you need a Customer so that the sales can be recorded
and executed.
 All business transactions are posted to and managed in accounts.
 You have to create a master record for each account that you need.
 The master record contains data that controls how business transactions are
recorded and processed by the system.( A transaction’s accuracy is based on
correct and accurate Master Data.)
 If the Master Data is not properly and accurate maintained, process like either
Procure-to-Pay or Order-to-Cash, Record-to-Report, Hire-to-Retire, Plan-to-
Produce will not be processed accurately.
 They also include all the information about a customer that you need to be able
to conduct business with him or her.

Customer Master Data can be classified as:

Sales & Distribution Customer
Finance or FI Customer
Sales & Distribution Customer
Sales & Distribution Customer is one whom you sell your manufactured or trading
goods and services meaning the products which belong to your organization and for
which you are known at the market. This type of Customer can also be used for the
selling scrap materials, which is a regular feature in the organization, when you want
to record and track the actual quantity of the scrap sold, if it has a significant
accounting and financial impact.
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Finance or FI Customer
Finance or FI Customer is one where you want to record sales to those customers
who are not regular ones, not part of your regular sales and you do not offer your
regular manufactured / trading goods and services to them. The example of such type
of customers can be, but not limited to, customers to whom you sell your fixed assets
after they were completely depreciated. Like you have a machinery which has
reached the end of its technical life and now you want to scrap it. Similarly, some
companies offer vehicles for sale which the company has been using for quite some
time to their employees first before offering it for sale at the open market.

In short, those customers who are not part of regular sales and for whom there is no
requirement to maintain Sales & Distribution’s specific data.

Account Groups in SAP Customer Master Data

Account Groups in Customer Master Data are used for high level classification of
Customers. It helps you to classify your Customers based on different traits, sector or
line of business. It also helps to decide which fields are mandatory when you are
creating a customer related to a certain sector, which fields are optional and which
fields can be suppressed or made hidden so that the User at the time of Customer
creation doesn’t get confused.

Example: You can make Value Added Tax – VAT field mandatory in the Account
Group of a regular customer, so that the system doesn’t let the User to bypass the said
field until and unless it is populated.
Under Account Groups you can configure in the backend and define if a certain
Account Group’s Customer number can be assigned internally / automatically by the
SAP system or externally by the User at the time of Customer creation or specific
number range for a specific customer or whether the Customer’s Account Group
number range is either numeric or alphanumeric.

Classification of SAP Customer Master Data

Customer master is a centrally shared data which can be used by the logistics
modules as well as the finance module. Information contained in the customer master
record can be both descriptive and have functional control depending on the usage.
Customer Master Data is classified in following three views:

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General Data
General Data in the Customer Master that is relevant for both Sales & Distribution
and Accounting, the data fields are grouped on several tab pages. The general data
includes Name, Address, Telephone number, other contact details, VAT, Tax, Good
Receiving Hours of Customer, Market Standing of the Customer, Correspondence,
Contact Persons with their designation and contract detail, etc.

Company Code Data

Company Code Data is relevant for Financial Accounting purposes and processes. It
is specific for a given Company Code. This view records data of the Customer’s
Accounting Data such as reconciliation account, sort rule, payment terms,
withholding tax information, payment methods, correspondence information with the
customer, dunning, insurance, etc.

Company Code data only applies to one Company Code. This data is only relevant to
Financial Accounting and includes:

 Account Management
 Payment Transactions
 Correspondence
 Insurance
If you edit a master record, you must specify the customer number and a company
code to access the screens containing company code data. You can only invoice a
business transaction if the data on the Payer partner function is entered in the
Financial Accounting view.

Sales Area Data

Sales Area Data is relevant for Sales and Distribution processes and is specific to a
given Sales Area. You can maintain the Sales Area Data in various ways, depending
on the Sales Area (a combination of Sales organization, Distribution channel and
Division). All the sales related information will be maintained in this area. Including
Sales, Shipping, Billing and Partner Function. All the data present in the system will
be applicable only for that specific sales area. The customer can be extended for any
other sales area as well depending upon business requirements.

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This view is to record the data of customer related to Sales and Distribution
transaction such as data for sales process, delivery process, billing process and
partner function. The data for one customer can differ for each sales area. This data is
only relevant to Sales and Distribution. If you edit a Customer Master record, you
must enter the Customer number and the Sales Area to access screens containing
Sales and Distribution data. You can only process Sales and Distribution transactions,
for example, a sales order, after entering the Sales and Distribution data for a
Customer in the Customer Master Data.
All critical fields that must be maintained by the business in the system are set as
mandatory fields, so that the users will not forget to enter all the necessary data during
the sales transaction(s). Sales Area data of customers is further classified in following
four tabs/sections:

1. Sales
2. Shipping
3. Billing
4. Partner Functions

Important SAP Customer Master Data Transactions

Following is the list of the key transaction related to SAP Customer Master Data:

 VD01 – Create Sales & Distribution Customer Master

 VD02 – Change Sales & Distribution Customer Master
 VD03 – Display Sales & Distribution Customer Master
 VD04 – Display Changes Sales & Distribution Customer Master
 VD05 – Block Sales & Distribution Customer Master
 VD06 – Flag for Deletion Sales & Distribution Customer Master
 FD01 – Create Accounting Customer Master
 FD02 – Change Accounting Customer Master
 FD03 – Display Accounting Customer Master
 FD04 – Display Changes Accounting Customer Master
 FD05 – Block / Unblock Accounting Customer Master
 FD06 – Set Deletion Indicator Accounting Customer Master
 XD01 – Create Customer Master – Centrally / Complete
 XD02 – Change Customer Master – Centrally / Complete
 XD03 – Display Customer Master – Centrally / Complete
 XD04 – Display Changes Customer Master – Centrally / Complete
 VCUST – Customer List

How to Create SAP Customer Master Data

As always, there are several ways to start a transaction in SAP ERP:

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 Enter XD01 in Transaction Command Field or executing Customer Master
Creation Transaction

Start XD01 Transaction

 Navigate through ‘Tree’

Start XD01 Transaction via Standard SAP Menu

Create SAP Customer Master Data Centrally

Whenever you want to create Customer Master Data, enter XD01 to create Customer
Master complete / centrally.

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In the initial screen, a dialog box will appear:

SAP Customer Master – Initial Screen

In the first part of the dialog box, you should select the relevant Account Group. List
of all Account Groups will be displayed:

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Customer
Master – Initial Screen > List of Account Groups

Select the relevant Account Group and populate relevant Company Code, Sales
Organization, Distribution Channel and Division. Since this Account Group has a
setting of ‘external’ number range which is alphanumeric, therefore, enter the
Customer code as well. Else in other case where number range is internal this field
needs to be blank.

Customer Master – Initial Screen with fields populated

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If you do not populate the Customer field the system will prompt with following
message:

Custo
mer Master – Initial Screen; System’s Error message when Customer Number is not
populated.

If you want to reference the Customer which is already created in the system and is
very close to the nature of the Master Data you are about to create, you can use the
second section ‘Reference’ of the dialog box on the initial screen. This step will help
and assist you in populating required fields as they will be copied from the reference
Customer, except the basic information i.e. name, phone, etc. which will help in
easing the data entry. You can change the default populated fields, where required.

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Customer Master – Initial Screen > Reference Section

Once you have populated all the required fields, press either enter or at the end of
the dialog box.

Customer Master – Initial Screen > All Fields Populated

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SAP CUSTOMER MASTER – GENERAL DATA

The system will take you the first tab of the General Data where you are required to
enter Customer’s basic information, i.e. Address, Telephone Number, Email, etc.

Customer Master – General Data > Address

Please note the fields having a check box are required fields. If
they are not populated, the system will prompt with an error

message .

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C
ustomer Master – General Data > Address

Enter Name, Address and Search Term. Search Term helps in finding relevant
Customer at the time of Sale Order Entry in the Search Help dialog box. Enter
required fields, when you press ‘More Fields’ button, system will show additional
fields:

Customer Master – General Data > Address, Additional Fields

Scroll to other Tabs in General Data and populate data where required.

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Customer Master – General Data > Control Data

If your Customer is also your Vendor, you can enter the Vendor number of Vendor
Master in the Vendor field.

Bank Information of the Customer:

Customer Master – General Data > Payment Transactions (Bank Data)

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Customer Master – General Data > Marketing (Statistics)

Good receiving hours of the Customer are maintained here:

Customer Master – General Data > Unloading Point

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Customer Master – General Data > Export Data

Customer Master – General Data > Contact Person Details

SAP CUSTOMER MASTER – COMPANY CODE DATA

Press button to enter the Company Code Data view.

Since this Customer is created with reference, hence, fields of Reconciliation Account
and Sort Key are already populated.

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Customer Master – Company Code Data > Account Management

SAP CUSTOMER MASTER – SALES AREA DATA

Press button to enter the Sales & Distribution data view.

The first tab you will arrive is ‘Sales’. It contains sales related information.

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Customer Master – Sales Area Data > Sales

Sales District – A geographical segmentation which defines a higher level of sales
geographical structure.

Sales Office – Sales Office establishes connection between the company and the
customer. It monitors company’s sales in the market which is done by company’s
sales force. It is a physical location that has the responsibility of the sale of certain
products or services within a given geographical area.

Customer Group – Identifies a group of customers (for example, wholesale or retail).

Currency – the currency in which the customer order goods.

Acct at cust. – Your Vendor or account number which the Customer uses in their
organization for various purposes.

Price group – which pricing group does the customer belongs, for pricing condition
purposes.

Cust.pric.proc. – for determination of correct pricing structure on Sales Order.

Price List – the pricing classification to which the customer belongs.

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Cust.Stats.Grp – for generating SIS (LIS) reporting.

The second tab is of ‘Shipping’ which is relevant at the time of delivery / dispatch or
shipment of goods to the Customer.

Customer Master – Sales Area Data > Shipping

Delivery Priority – High, Normal, Low, Medium.

Shipping Conditions – Standard or Immediately.

Delivering Plant – Plant from which the goods to be dispatched to the Customer.

Complete Delivery – if the Customer only accepts complete deliveries and partial is
not allowed. This check box needs to be checked if Customer doesn’t accept partial
deliveries.

Partial delivery per item – whether partial deliveries are allowed.

Max. partial deliveries – the number of maximum partial deliveries are allowed.

Unlimited tol. – if the customer accepts unlimited over or under deliveries of goods
ordered.

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Underdel. Tolerance – Percentage (based on the order quantity) up to which an under
delivery is accepted by the Customer.

Overdeliv. Tolerance – Percentage (based on the order quantity) up to which an over

delivery is accepted by the Customer.

The third tab of the Sales Area Data is ‘Billing’:

Customer Master – Sales Area Data > Billing Documents

It contains information whether the Customer is relevant for Rebates.

Incoterms – trading established globally with the standard of International Chamber of

Commerce (ICC)

Terms of payment – agreed terms of payment with the Customer weather is Customer
is a Cash or Credit.

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Paym.guar.proc. – Payment Guarantee Procedure defines if the Customer pays via
Letter of Credit, Payment Cards or Bank Guarantee.

Credit ctrl area – Credit Control Area, if the Customer is a Credit Customer and
belongs to a Credit Control Area.

Taxes – if the customer is liable for Taxes or exempted etc.

The fourth and the final tab is Partner Functions:

Customer Master – Sales Area Data > Partner Functions

It shows the parties involved in the sales processing. The following are the mandatory
partner functions:

1. Sold to Party
2. Bill to Party
3. Payer
4. Ship to Party

If the Customer has multiple locations where he ordered the goods to be delivered,
you can add Ship to Parties here in this tab. Please note that the Ship to Party Master
Data should be created under relevant Account Group.

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Customer Master – Sales Area Data > Partner Functions, Multiple Ship-to Parties
Once you are done with maintaining and changing values in the SAP Customer

Master Data, don’t forget to press Save or CTRL+S for the values to take effect
in your sales transactions and the system will confirm that the Customer is created and
saved.

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SAP
Customer Master Data – Save confirmation

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