This report allows you to use list editing to display or maintain customer hierarchies. You can do so directly or through transactions VDH1 (maintain) and VDH2 (display).
A customer hierarchy is made up of the various hierarchy nodes assigned to it.
A node is made up of the combination of customer/sales organization/distribution channel/division.
Every assignment has a validity period.
The assignment of a (lower-level) node to a (higher-level) node must always be unique, in other words, one node cannot be assigned to several nodes within the validity period. It is not possible to represent networks.
Customer hierarchy data is only saved in table KNVH. The attributes of a hierarchy node (for example, rebate or pricing-relevant indicator) are originally stored in the customer master (tables KNVV/KNA1). When you maintain the assignments, the system copies them from the master and stores them in table KNVH as redundant (for performance reasons).
In the meanwhile, if the attributes of a node change in the customer master record, they can be updated before or during hierarchy maintenance. You cannot update the attributes directly in the hierarchy.
On the selection screen, first specify the hierarchy type. This determines what the customer hierarchy is used for. Different types of hierarchy are not related to each other, which means that an assignment within a hierarchy of a certain type is unique but could also appear in another hierarchy type. Customer hierarchies are typically used for pricing (standard hierarchy type A) and statistics, where a hierarchy can be used for more than one purpose. The system proposes the current date as the validity (or selection) date. It then displays all assignments that are valid on this date. If you choose a date in the past, the system only displays the assignments because you cannot make retrospective changes to hierarchy data. You can select according to certain nodes or subnodes (such as sales organizations) within the hierarchy. All hierarchy trees are displayed that contain nodes that meet your selection criteria. We recommend that you use this selection if there are a large number of data records for a hierarchy type, as reading all the records can lead to performance problems or a time-out error.
You can choose whether the hierarchy nodes or assignments should be displayed with the customer name or validity period. You can also restrict the depth of the display to one of the first three levels to obtain a better overview. For easy navigation, simply place the cursor directly on the node you want to see.
You can maintain the hierarchies in that you can either change the validity period of an existing assignment (assignment details) or create a new assignment. You can also use the processing options - cut, subordinate, assign to higher-level, move and delete - to edit nodes and/or sub-trees. If the system detects errors when it reads the hierarchy data (for example, not permitted assignments), you can select them in an error list and analyse them in detail.
You can also display the hierarchy graphically. You can change the graphic display parameters in Customizing for SAP Graphics. You can go directly from the hierarchy to the display or maintenance of the customer master data, to make any changes needed.
You determine which hierarchy types and assignments of account groups and sales areas are permitted in Customizing for Sales and Distribution under Master Data -> Business Partners -> Customers -> Customer hierarchy.
Here you define the relevant hierarchy tpye for pricing per sales document type, as well as hierarchy partner functions and their use in the partner determination procedures for sales and billing document headers.
Once your settings are consistent and you have structured the hierarchy, during sales order entry, the system checks whether the sold-to party appears in the pricing hierarchy defined for that sales document category. If it does, the system copies the path of all the higher-level nodes of the sold-to party including their rebate and pricing-relevant indicators. The individual nodes with hierarchy partner functions (from the initial partner function for the hierarchy type) are stored as partners. You can see this path on the partner screen of the order if you change or expand the display. Note that you need to define enough hierarchy partner functions so that all the higher-level nodes can be copied.
These partner hierarchy functions are only defined for copying to the sales document and should not be used in the partner determination procedure for the customer master data, because maintaining them there is irrelevant. The system then determines the first node from the path of hierarchy nodes that contains a rebate or pricing-relevant indicator. If hierarchy conditions are also stored for this node (at customer and/or customer-material level), these are included in rebate or price determination.
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