Customer Master Data in S/4HANA: Key Configurations Explained

ADHARSH K S
2 days ago
3 min read

Updated: 5 hours ago

In SAP S/4HANA, Customer Master Data is no longer maintained as a standalone object like in ECC. It is managed through the Business Partner (BP) concept, which unifies customer, vendor, and other master data into a single, simplified model.

What is Business Partner in S/4HANA?

In SAP S/4HANA, a Business Partner (BP) is the central, unified master data object used to manage all parties an organization does business with - such as customers, vendors, prospects, and employees.

SAP replaced the separate Customer Master (XD01) and Vendor Master (XK01) with Business Partner to create one single source of truth.

How to configure Customer Master in SAP S/4HANA?

Customer Account Group

A Customer Account Group in SAP S/4HANA is a classification that controls how customer master data is created, structured, and processed especially from a Financial Accounting (FI) and Sales & Distribution (SD) perspective.

Even though SAP S/4HANA uses the Business Partner (BP) as the central master data object, Customer Account Groups are still mandatory and very relevant

Follow below path for configuring Customer Account Groups

STEP 1: Go to "Define Customer Account Group with screen layout" and Click on New Entries then provide you 4-Digit Alphanumeric Code for Customer Account Group, Description and Save.

STEP 2: Go to "Create Number Ranges for Customer Accounts" then click on Edit Intervals

STEP 3: Click on Add Interval and Enter Number Range Interval, you can tick the External Indicator if you want to enter Customer Number Manually.

STEP 4: Go to Assign Number Ranges to Customer Account Groups then click on Position and find your Account Group and provide your NR against it.

Business Partner Grouping

BP Grouping (Business Partner Grouping) in SAP S/4HANA is a classification used at the time of Business Partner creation that mainly controls:

Number range assignment
Internal vs External numbering
Logical grouping of business partners

Follow below path for configuring Business Partner Grouping:

SPRO > IMG > Cross-Application Components

STEP 5: Go to "Define Number Ranges" > Click on Add Interval and Enter Number Range Interval, you can tick the External Indicator if you want to enter BP Number Manually.

STEP 6: Define BP Grouping and Assign Number Ranges by Clicking on New Entries then provide the Grouping Name, Number Range and save.

Assignment of BP to Customer

Assignment of BP to Customer in SAP S/4HANA means linking a Business Partner to a Customer master record by mapping BP Grouping to Customer Account Group, so that the BP can behave as a customer in FI and SD roles.

Follow below configuration path for Customer and BP Integration

SPRO > IMG > Master Data Synchronization

STEP 7: Define Number Assignment for Direction BP to Customer > Click on New Entries and provide the BP Grouping and Customer Account Group.

NOTE: TO HAVE SAME NUMBER FOR BOTH BP AND CUSTOMER

Ensure that the Customer Number Range Interval and BP Grouping Number Range Intervals are similar.
And, Customer Account Group Number Range is ticked External.

In SAP S/4HANA, Customer Master Data is managed through the Business Partner concept, which brings better integration and simplified maintenance. Proper configuration of BP roles, number ranges ensures smooth order processing and accurate financial postings.

Thank you for reading my blog and read my next blog on topic:

"How to Create Customer Master in S/4HANA?"