what is importance of Account group in customer code create?

[Former Member]

Dear Experts,

whlie creating customer code we have difference types of Account group , what is the importance ? what is mean by bill- to party , sold-to party . i am very new to SD please guide me

regards

rajakarthik.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

customer is created as master data through xd01.

there are 3types of data maintained..

general data, sales area data and company code data

now when you create customer the fields which you enter or see or optional fields all are maintained through account group.

suppose there are different companies ex: comp1 comp2 comp3 (sister concern) under a main company called XYX Group of companies.

the customer details may vary for company1 2 3 ... hence the account group is used.. ..for example comp1 needs the information of customer like address, email, street, house number, shippin g condn. etc...etc.. but company2 doesn't need the house number or street but requires other details.. so at this moment we can configure the account group as per our needs..

you can check in OBD2, select a/c group. --->details...type of data....double click..

hope it has helped you a bit

[Former Member]

Hi Raja

First, try to understand "Customer".

"Customer" is actually one type of Business Partner.

If you will tell simply "Customer", then it does not make a complete sense to me, as in business, I will be interested to know, which "Customer" you are talking about.

Beacuse, there are four types of Customer. The Customer Partner type is categorised as per the function performed by them.

The Customer, who places order is called -- SP (Sold-to-party),

the Customer who receives the goods is called -

---

SH (Ship-to-party),

who receives the Bill is called -- BP (Bill-to-party) and

who makes the payment is called --- PY (Payer).

SP, SH, BP and PY are called "Partner Function" (i.e. Function performed by the Partner "Customer").

If you will take the example of a small business, you will find, the same person is placing the order, receiving the goods, receiving the bill and making the payment also. That means, he is performing the role for all the functions SP,SH,BP and PY.

But, if you will go for a big Corporate, you may find all four may be different. For example, Delhi office is the SP, Mumbai office is SH, Kolkata office is PY & Chennai office is BP.

All the 4 Partner functions are mandatory in a sales process, they may be performed by one partner or by four different partners.

As all the above Partner Functions are mandatory, they need to exist in the system as a Customer. A customer exist only when a master data is created for him.

ACCOUNT GROUP

You must have seen ,when Billing document is saved, there is posting takes place in Accounting.

A Debit posting to Customer account and credit posting to Revenue account. It indicates that, Customer is also considered as an "Account" in FI.

So, a group of Account (customer) behaving in a similar manner are one "ACCOUNT GROUP". Those different Account Groups are normally created in FI. There are various Account groups like 0001(Sold-to-party), 0002(Ship-to-party) etc, and you can create your own also.

When you create a Customer, system needs to know, what type of Customer (Account) you are going to create. System gets this information through "Account Group". If you want to create a Customer who will work as a Payer, then you need to choose the Account Group "Payer" and not '0002- Ship-to-party".

A "Payer" needs the billing and Payment related information, he does not require Shipping related information. Hence, the Shipping tab is not found totally in the customer master of a "Payer". Similarly, those fields which are not required for a particular type of customer, they are suppresed (made invisible).

Which fields will be mandatory, optional, suppressed & display purpose only, are decided/ controlled by the Account group and this is what we call "Field selection" which is controlled by Account group (one controlfunction of Account Group).

Similarly, when we save a Customer master, the customer number (either internal or external) comes from the "Number range" which has been assigned to the Account group. There are few other functions which are also controlled by the Account group like whether "One-time customer" default output etc.

That means without specifying an "Account Group", you can not create a Customer as now you know, Account group controls the Customer master data.

Hope, this explanation will create your doubts in a simpla manner.

Regards

Edited by: pradyumna on Oct 24, 2009 6:55 PM

[Former Member]

This message was moderated.

[Manoj_Mahajan78]

Hello Raja!

The account group determines:

1) Which screens and fields are necessary for entering

master data ?

2) Whether you can or must make an entry in these fields

3) How master record numbers are assigned (externally by you or internally by the system) and the number range from which they are assigned.

4) Which partner functions are valid

5) Whether the business partner is a one-time customer

or one-time vendor.

You need to define partner determination procedure, and assign the partner functions to it. This procedure will be assigned to the account group.

Regds

MM

[Former Member]

Account group is the base of creation of Customer Master.

Sold-to-Party is the Customer Placing an order.

Ship-To-Party is the Delivering Location of Goods & services.

Bill-To-Party is the Business partner, who receives the Bill

Payer is responsible for making Payment for Goods delivered.

Note: Sold-to-party by default creates Sold-to-party, Ship-to-party, Bill-to-party and payer with same customer code and location. In the case Ship-to-party, Bill-to-party or / and payer are different, in that case we will require to create their customer master separately.

Regards,

Rajesh Banka

[Former Member]

now coming to bill to party ship to party sold to party etc,,,

suppose you give a order to company,, then you become the sold to party for that company

now you say that the goods you ordered must reach your friends place.. your friend becomes ship to party to that company

you want to receive the bill but payment will be made by the bank,, then you become bill to party and the bank becomes the payer..

all these above are partner functions,, and you can add more partners.. like executives, brokers, etc

[Former Member]

Hi,

Account Group is the Key configuration section, which decides about all field appear & other characteristics of customer master record that you create.

IMG Path:

Logistics - General -> Business Partner -> Customers -> Control -> Define Account Groups and Field Selection for Customers

There you can create a new Account Group as per you requirement.

For example if you select the Account Group 0001 & go in to it's details.

You can see below setting.

- You can assign the number range. (That's the number system gives when you save a customer with that account group)

- under "Field status" section, you can see 3 other sections, General data, Company code data & Sales data.

Double click on any, you can go in to detail of that section. that's what you see in XD01, XD02, XD03 transactions as buttons.

There you can hide, set options or set mandatory fields in to each tab.

If you go in to one section, Eg:Sales data, you can see "Select Group" section. Sales, Shipping, Billing, Documents are the tabs appear in your customer master.

Go in to one of that.

you can see hide, mandatory settings for each field.

So this way you can configure your customer master as required by the customer.

Coming back to your "what is mean by bill- to party , sold-to party" section,

This is what we called as Partner Function in SAP.

You can have different partner functions for one customer, For example

If your going to do a sale for a customer in USA, your Sold to Party is CUST USA (Which you created with Account Group Sold-To Party)

If that customer is ask you to deliver it to UK, You can create a another customer record with Account Group Ship-To Party and assign that number (CUST-UK) to CUST USA in Tx: XD02 under partner tab. You can have multiple Ship to Parties for once customer (When he has multiple receiving points)

Then if he want to send the bill to his JAPAN office, You can create another customer record with Account Group - Bill to Party & assign that to CUST USA in Tx: XD02 under partner tab.

Same way Payment is coming from his office at CHINA, you have to create a customer from Account Group "Payer" and assign that to your CUST USA in Tx: XD02 under partner tab.

Now when creating the sales order, you can select relevant partners for each sales order line item from Partner tab.

Then delivery will be created for the Ship to Party & the Billing document will create for Payer.

Best regards,

Anupa