Vendor Master Record

Vendor Master Record

Vendor master data is the most important data for purchasing as well as for an accounting department. Without vendor master purchase order can not be created.

It contains all important information which is getting shared by an accounting department and purchasing department.    

It consist of following important information such as  Vendor Name ,address, sales person,reconciliation account,vendor schema group-which helps to determine pricing procedure, Inco Terms, Payment Terms etc.

Therefore, the vendor master record is maintained by both Accounting and Purchasing.

How is the Vendor Master Record Structured?
Vendor master records contain important data on your vendors. You can also store data in the vendor master record that applies to certain specific organizational levels (e.g. company code, purchasing organization, plant) within your enterprise.

The vendor master record consists of three areas:

•   General data

Data that applies equally to each company code within your enterprise (address, telephone number, language in which you communicate with your vendor, etc.).

•  Company code data

Data kept at company code level (payment transaction data or number of control account, for example).

•  Purchasing data ( at Purchase Organization )

Data that is of importance with regard to your enterprise’s purchasing activities and which is kept at purchasing organization level (such as contact person or terms of delivery).

The following data retention level
Vendor Sub range level

Plant

Vendor sub-range/plant

What is the Function of the Account Group?

• You must assign each vendor whose data you wish to store in the SAP System to an account group.
• The account group determines, for example, that only those screens and fields of the vendor master record that are needed for the relevant role of your business partner are displayed and ready to accept user input.
•  The account group determines:

§  The type of number assignment and the number range from which the account number used by the system to identify the vendor is assigned

§  Whether or not a one-time vendor is involved

§  Which data retention levels below the purchasing organization are allowed (for example, vendor sub-range)

§  Which partner determination schema are valid

§  You maintain the account groups in Customizing for Logistics General under Business Partners => Vendor => Control => Define Account Groups and Field Selection (Vendor).

Reconciliation Account

Ø  While creating a Vendor Master Record, you need a unique number for the vendor (Creditor). This is assigned automatically or manually.

Ø  When creating a Vendor Master Record, Reconciliation account is required entry. The reconciliation account is a G/L Account in G/L accounting.  It gives details on liabilities towards several vendors in G/L account.

 How are the Vendor Master Records Numbered? 

Ø  Vendors master record can have internal number or external number assignment. This is getting determined via account group.

Ø The number can be assigned internally by the system in a sequential manner . User can also input number externally numeric or Alfa numeric.

Ø  Number is always unique within client for specific account group.

Menu path for Vendor Master Record

Three ways vendor master can be created
XK01 : All Vendor Master Record data .
MK01:  Create only general data and Data specific to purchasing .
FK01 :Company code specific data can be created only with transactions