Partner Determination in Sales order Item level

[karthik_kumar98]

Hello Experts ,

When a sales order is created , the partners are determined by the partner procedure linked with sale document type header.

As per , standard configuration , the partners SP,SH,BP,PY all copied to all the items as default.

But there is an Item level partner determination procedure that is linked to Item category of the material.

If the partners at item is copied as default from header and also saved later , What is the significance of Item level partner determination procedure ? Suppose if Both are different partner det. procedures , what partner determination will the item perform as priority ? But will it be a case that the partner copied from header need to be available in the item partner determination procedure ? Thanks for your time ,

[Jelena]

The significance is that in some cases the partner determination needs to be performed at the item level. You could have an order placed by a corporate HQ to be delivered to two different warehouses. This would be a single purchase order from the customer and they would want it referenced and then billed as a single document. So you'd just create an order with two different ship-to's assigned to each item (or multiple items).

When partner assignment (or other business data) is maintained at item level it overrides any header level assignment.

[karthik_kumar98]

Hello Jelena, Thanks for your reply and time.

This means there need to be a manual maintenance of different Ship To Party for all the items in Sales Order before the order is saved. This can be possible when many Ship to is maintained at header level , that been copied from the Customer master.

This also means that the manual maintenance of SH item level has overridden the automatic item partner determination procedure . Still , am not clear when the item partner determination ( Through Item partner determination procedure) will exclusively determine the Ship To Partner , if at all it over rides the header partners flows to item . Still searching any examples or clarificarion 🙂

Thanks

[Lakshmipathi]

When you post a query and give further updates, please add the content under "Comments" and not under "Answer" as you were not answering to a query but only providing additional informations as asked by the members. Also, when you add the text under Comments, it will be intimated to the person to whom you are responding whereas, if you add the text under Answer, the member will not be intimated. By the way, your above answer has been converted as comment by me.

[Jelena]

karthik.kumar98 was there a question? Not sure I understand your comment...

There is no need for manual assignment to each item. Have you ever actually tried to enter an order in SAP? You'd see exactly what happens. When you enter a Ship-to at header level, it applies to all the items. Then you can enter a different Ship-to in one or more items, as needed. The rest of the items will still use the header partner. You can observe the entries in VBPA table afterwards. (Not sure if it's the same table name in S4.)

It's not feasible to maintain "many ship-tos at header level", VBPA table key won't allow this.

What clarification is needed exactly?

[karthik_kumar98]

Hello Brian ,

So , as per you told , my understanding is that , for any special Item category like DIEN or any internal partners for billing or any information pass to a specific partner , this partner is exclusively determined through the item category Partner determination .But most cases , it can be only Header to Item partners flow I think. I am quite clear , still , i will try test and find the actuals. Thanks for sharing your knowledge and your time.

[bnienhaus]

Hi Karthik,

I'm not sure why I didn't get a notification for your comment. However, I think the example is still a valid one. Let's say you have a special Partner Function "Service Scheduler" who must review services ordered on an order. This Service Scheduler is assigned to any customer at header level and copied to order header via copy control. So, the Partner Function is present on the header of every order.

But especially when the special item category appears, the item level determination applies the same to the item. In your workflow, you are only checking the existence of a service scheduler on item level to trigger some rule. Therefore, through the functionality we're discussing, you would create an automated notification only in the cases they must actively check.

Hopefully that's clearer. It's a little hard to make up an abstract example that may or may not fit 100%

Best Regards,

Brian

[Lakshmipathi]

bnienhaus

I'm not sure why I didn't get a notification for your comment

Because karthikk9 has not commented but Answered. That is why, wherever I notice this, I convert the Answer to Comment but in the above case, I could not as already, you responded in which case, the option to convert the answer to comment would not be available

[bnienhaus]

Hi Karthik,

Since partners can also be internal to an organization, one scenario I could imagine needing the Item Partner Determination is for special internal processing of service items or other special non-stock items like design services etc.

So, for example, based on an Item Category like DIEN or similar, we add special internal partners for billable services or special handling. Then, using workflow or similar technologies based on these assigned partner functions, one could route notifications to appropriate teams for special handling / processing only when needed based on pre-determined partner relationships.

Best Regards,

Brian