Partner determination

In SAP, Partner Determination Procedure has been used across modules. The main advantage of having Partner Determination Procedure is to update the documents with appropriate responsible persons (Internal / External) which will give better control in execution phase.

Overview

This a procedure by which system selects the assigned sales relevant partner function/functions to the object in Order to Cash process.

In brief, sales partner are business parties which are involve/relevant to a sales process/transaction. Each partner are defined/identified based on role & function they play in those sales process/transaction. These can internal or external to an organization. To setup, determine & copy these business partners in a sales process or specific sales process or master in SAP SD, we use a search technique, known as Partner Determination.

Main Components in Partner Determination

1. Define the procedure 
2. Partner function in procedure 
3. As sing procedure to you customer account group
4. Partner Function
5. Assign Account Group
6. Partner Function Conversion 

Partner Object

Following are the Partners object with respective key area for which partner determination can take place-

• Customer
• Sales Document Header
• Sales Document Item
• Delivery Document
• Shipment Document
• Billing Document Header
• Billing Document Item

SPRO path/Transaction Code

Transaction Code	VOPAN / VOPA
SPRO Path	Sales and Distribution - Basic Functions - Partner Determination - Set Up Partner Determination

Configuration Steps

Let us go through the configuration steps involved in partner determination. Here we would take focus on partner determination for a customer master.

Existing Sales Partner in Customer Master Determination:

Partner Function	Language	Name	Language-specific  Partner Func.
AG	EN	Sold-To Party	SP
RE	EN	Bill-to Party	BP
RG	EN	Payer	PY
WE	EN	Ship-to Party	SH

The following are the steps involved in adding a new partner type, say, JP, for customer master for partner determination:

Step 1. Partner Functions

Maintain a new partner function, JP,  under partner function node with respective partner type (KU for Customer, LI for Vendor) & indicator for Uniqueness in the master data.

Step 2. Assigned Partner Function to Account Group

Assigned newly created partner function JP to corresponding account group of your desire.

Step 3. Create Partner Determination Procedure

Select partner determination procedure if your requirement is met. Otherwise copy existing Partner determination procedure.

Step 4. Maintain relevant Partner to determine under Partner Determination Procedure

Under partner determination procedure sub-dialog, you assign required partners to partner determination procedure. Here you specify whether the assigned partner can be:

• modified in object or not
• whether it is mandatory
• sequence in which partners are determined (may differ with object).

Step 5. Assign Account Group to Partner Determination Procedure

Assign Partner determination procedure to account group. It is assumed that required account groups are available in the system.

In case of other objects same procedures can be followed. It differs at step 5, where you assign partner determination procedure to respective object.

Partner Object	Partner Determination  Procedure assigned to
Billing Header	Billing Type
Billing Item	Billing Type
Customer	Customer Account Group
Delivery	Delivery Type
Sales Document Header	Sales Document Type
Sales Document Item	Item Category
Shipment/Transportation	Shipment Type