In this blog post, we will take a look at how to enable Credit Limit Checks on a Business Partner other than the Payer for a Sales Document posted in the system. This is a part of SAP Credit Management in Financial Supply Chain Management having integration with Sales and Distribution. We will enable this through setting up Subordinate-Superordinate Relationships between Business Partners.
SAP Credit Management enables performing a check on the Business Partner’s credit limit while posting a Sales Document. The standard functionality performs a credit check on the “Payer” chosen in the Sales Document posted according to its relevant Check Rule.
There may arise a requirement where the credit limit check for a particular account/ group of accounts is to be performed on a “Parent” Business Partner, instead of the Payer.
Earlier, this could be done through UKM_BP where there were two possible 'Relationship categories' specially referring to the Credit Management:
- FUKM001 - Higher-level Credit Management Account of... (e.g. holding company/ parent company - head office)
- TUKM001 - Lower-level Credit Management Account for... (e.g. subsidiary/ affiliate/ associated company - branch)
SAP S/4 HANA 2020 release onwards, these categories have been renamed to:
- FUKM001 - 'Superordinate Credit Account From'
- TUKM001 - 'Subordinate Credit Account To'
The above relationships can be maintained via Transaction Code “BP” and then opening up the “Relationships” tab.
In a case where sub-segments are maintained, but credit limit check is performed only at the main segment level, a relationship needs to be maintained for both – at the main segment and sub-segment level.

Maintain Relationships
If such a relationship is defined, a credit limit check will not only be performed on the Payer but also on the Payer’s Parent (Superordinate account).
If we require the system to perform a check only on the Superordinate Credit Account – and ignore all Subordinates, this can be done in the following manner:
- The Superordinate Credit Account will be assigned the normal Check Rule in SAP Credit Management
- The Subordinate Credit Accounts will be assigned a special Check Rule (which does not have any Static/Dynamic Credit Limit Check.
Let us see how SAP Credit Management will perform Credit Limit Checks in different scenarios:
We will consider three customers in different combinations – CUST_MAIN, CUST_BRANCH1 and CUST_BRANCH2.
Scenario |
Sold-to-Party |
Payer |
Relationship |
Check Rule |
Credit Limit Check performed on: |
1 |
CUST_BRANCH1 |
CUST_BRANCH1 |
None |
Normal |
CUST_BRANCH1 |
2 |
CUST_BRANCH1 |
CUST_MAIN |
None |
Normal |
CUST_MAIN |
3 |
CUST_BRANCH1 |
CUST_BRANCH1 |
CUST_MAIN is Superordinate to CUST_BRANCH1 |
CUST_MAIN - Normal CUST_BRANCH1 – Normal |
CUST_MAIN and CUST_BRANCH1 |
4 |
CUST_BRANCH1 |
CUST_BRANCH2 |
CUST_MAIN is Superordinate to CUST_BRANCH2 |
CUST_MAIN - Normal CUST_BRANCH2 – Normal |
CUST_MAIN and CUST_BRANCH2 |
5 |
CUST_BRANCH1 |
CUST_BRANCH2 |
CUST_MAIN is Superordinate to CUST_BRANCH2 |
CUST_MAIN - Normal CUST_BRANCH2 – No Check |
CUST_MAIN |
6 |
CUST_MAIN |
CUST_BRANCH1 |
CUST_MAIN is Superordinate to CUST_BRANCH1 |
CUST_MAIN - Normal CUST_BRANCH1 – Normal |
CUST_MAIN and CUST_BRANCH1 |
7 |
CUST_MAIN |
CUST_BRANCH1 |
CUST_MAIN is Superordinate to CUST_BRANCH1 |
CUST_MAIN - Normal CUST_BRANCH1 – No Check |
CUST_MAIN |
8 |
CUST_BRANCH2 |
CUST_BRANCH2 |
CUST_BRANCH1 is Superordinate to CUST_BRANCH2 and CUST_MAIN is Superordinate to CUST_BRANCH1 |
CUST_MAIN - Normal CUST_BRANCH1 – Normal
CUST_BRANCH2 – Normal |
CUST_MAIN, CUST_BRANCH1 and
CUST_BRANCH2 |
9 |
CUST_BRANCH2 |
CUST_BRANCH2 |
CUST_BRANCH1 is Superordinate to CUST_BRANCH2 and CUST_MAIN is Superordinate to CUST_BRANCH1 |
CUST_MAIN - Normal CUST_BRANCH1 – No Check
CUST_BRANCH2 – No Check |
CUST_MAIN |
By setting up the above relationships, you will be able to perform Credit Limit Checks on a Business Partner other than the Payer selected for the Sales Document. The Credit Limit set up in the Superordinate Credit account will be picked up to perform the Credit Limit Check.
Do share your thoughts and feedback in the comments!
Check out other blogs on SAP S/4 HANA
here.