Defining Custom Partner Functions for BDRs and Invoices of Service Contracts

[Wei]

Introduction

Recently we found that many SAP customers want to define their own partner functions (also called Z partner functions) and pass them from service contracts to the subsequent billing request documents (BDRs) and invoices.

In this blog, you’re going to understand the business background lying behind and learn how to define custom partner functions for service contracts in your SAP S/4HANA Cloud system.

Business Background

We have the following typical uses cases:

• Customer bank account
  Your customer has different bank accounts in several banks. The customer has a default bank account, which they can make payment with. The bank account is also dependent on the transaction currency. In some special cases the bank account needs to be modified on the transaction level.
• Additional contact persons
  You want to add more than one contact person to a service contract. All the contact persons can be found in both BDRs and invoices of the service contract.
• Administrator
  In some small or medium enterprises, an administrator role may manage the back-office tasks as a partner.

Solution

Roles required in the above-mentioned business scenarios are different. However, all the roles can be regarded variants of business partners and therefore the issue can be solved in this way:

1. Creating custom partner function in both SD (Sales and Distribution) and Service. That’s because Service Contract is a service transaction type while BDR and invoices are SD documents. In between, sales documents are used as intermediate documents.
2. Map those partner functions so that they can be forwarded from service contracts to BDRs and subsequently to invoices.

How To

Let’s use the first case to demonstrate how to define a custom partner function for a bank.

With a configuration expert role or as a key user, you go to the Manage Your Solution app and choose Configure Your Solution. If you use the SAP Central Business Configuration, you can directly search for the configuration activities mentioned in the procedure.

1. Define a custom partner function in SD

Go to the Partner Functions tab in the configuration activity Set Up Partner Determination for Customer and Supplier Master. Configuration Activity for Partner Determination SD

Make sure you have a partner function named “Own Bank” or create a new entry per your own requirement. Define Partner Functions

2. Create a custom partner function in Service

2.1 Go to the configuration activity Define Partner Functions under Service -> General Settings -> Partner ProcessingDefine Partner Functions

2.2 Define a new partner function

For example, we name it ZB00001, Own Bank with Function Category 0000 and Relationship Category CRMH00 Is the Undefined Partner Of.

New Partner Function in ServiceNew Partner Function "Own Bank"

 2.3 Define new partner determination procedures

Go to the configuration activity Define Partner Determination Procedure in Service. Define Partner Determination Procedure in Service

 You define new partner determination procedures by copying the standard ones.

• For service contract header, copy SCH10001 to make ZSCH1001
• For service contract item, copy SCI00001 to make ZSCI0001

Copy Header and Item Partner Determination Procedures

New Partner Determination Procedures2.4 Add new partner function to your new partner determination procedures

New Partner Functions to Determination Procedures

 Add New Entry

• For service contract header ZSCH1001For service contract header ZSCH1001For service contract header ZSCH1001
• For service contract item ZSCI0001For service contract item ZSCI0001

For service contract item ZSCI0001

2.5 Assign new partner determination procedure to transaction type

Go to configuration activity Assign Partner Determination Procedure to Transaction Type and assign the header partner determination procedure ZSCH1001 (Service Contract Header New) to Service Contract (SC1). Assign Partner Determination Procedure to Transaction Types

Assign Partner Determination Procedure to Transaction Types

2.6 Assign partner determination procedure to item categories

Go to configuration activity Assign Partner Determination Procedure to Item Categories. Assign the item partner determination procedure ZSCI0001 (Service Contract Item New) to service contract item categories (SCN1, SCN2, SCN3). Assign Partner Determination Procedure to Item Categories

Assign Partner Determination Procedure to Item Categories

3. Map Service partner functions to SD partner functions

Go to the configuration activity Map Partner Functions to map the partner functions. 

Map Partner Functions

Map Partner FunctionsNew Mapping Entry

4. Set up partner determination procedures for sales document and billing documents

This step makes the system automatically to copy partner data from service contracts to billing documents through sales documents. Here we only demonstrate the steps for setting up partner determination for sales document header.

SD Partner Determination

4.1 Add partner function OB Own Bank to the partner determination procedure SO02 Sales Order.

Partner Determination SO02

Add New Partner Function

Find OB Own Bank

OB Added to SO02

4.2 Assign partner determination procedure to relevant sales documents and billing documents

Go to the Partner Determination Procedure Assignment tab, make sure that the partner determination procedure SO02 Sales Order (used as intermediate document of service contract BDR) is assigned to the sales document type (BSC) for service contract BDRs. If not, you can carry out the assignment. Partner Determination Procedure Assignment

Note that you do the same for billing document header. The following table gives you the necessary data:  

Configuration for ...	Partner Determination Procedure	Partner Determination Procedure Assignment (Document Type)
Sales document header	SO02	Assigned to BSC (Service Contract BDR)
Sales document item	/*	/*
Billing document header	For BDR, use FK	Assigned to  SVTB (Service Contract BDR)
For invoice, use CI01	Assigned to F2 (Invoice)
Billing document item	/*	/*
*We found it not necessary to make the settings for the item level. The partner can be automatically forwarded to the item level.

Configuration Activity for Billing Header

 4.3 Assign account group 

Go to the Account Groups – Function Assignment tab, make sure you have the partner function OB assigned to account group CUST customers.Account Groups

New Entry for Account Group

 If you use the system OB Own Bank, this is the last step for the settings.

4.4 Partner function conversion

If you have customized your own partner function (e.g. ZB), you need to perform one more step for the partner function conversion.Partner Function Converstion

5. Test what you have set up for Own Bank

To test the additional partner Own Bank in business, make sure you have the relevant business roles to access the applications:

1. Customer Service Manager role for service contract apps
2. Billing clerk role for billing apps

5.1 Check in Manage Service Contracts app

Go to the Manage Service Contracts app and create a service contract with an item (SCN1 standard service contract item).Manage Service Contracts app

5.2 Use Own Bank as a partner

Go to the Parties Involved tab and choose Own Bank for both the header and item. Then release this service contract for follow-up billing procedure. The service contract ID is 7000003021.Choose Own Bank

Release Entire Contract and Item

5.3 Create billing document requests

Go to the Schedule Billing Document Requests app for service contracts. Create BDR for the service contract 7000003021.Schedule BDR Creation app

Create a New Job for Service Contract

Go to Job Log

Select a BDR

 Copy the BDR number from the job log. Let's use BDR 1000007049.

5.4 Check Own Bank in BDR

Go to the Manage Billing Document Requests app to see details about the BDR 1000007049. You can see that the partner Own Bank is there.Find Manage Billing Document Requests app

Find the BDR

Go to Header Partner

Find Own Bank

 Go to the item overview, you can also find Own Bank in the item partners.Own Bank at BDR Item Level

6. Create invoice and check Own Bank

So far, the custom partner Own Bank can only be forwarded from service contract to the BDR (a type of sales document). If you want it to be forwarded from the BDR to the invoice (a billing document). Perform the following steps.

6.1 Create an invoice based on BDR

Create Billing Documents app

 Find BDR and Create Billing Documents

6.2 Check Own Bank at the header level of the invoice

Check Own Bank in Invoice Header

In the Manage Billing Documents app, when you go to the item-level business partners, you can only view the business partners that are specifically assigned to the item, not the partners inherited from the header.

6.3 Check Own Bank at the item level of the invoice

Go to the Display Billing Documents app (based on GUI) to view the custom business partner Own Bank at the item level.Check Own Bank at Item Level

Conclusion

In this blog, we explained to you the business requirements of customizing your own business partners for service contracts. Following that, we also demonstrated you how to add a custom partner and map it for service contracts step by step. Subsequently, the custom business partner chosen in a service contract was forwarded to billing document requests and finally to invoices.

You can have a try in your own system. If you have further questions, please ask a question or comment under this blog.