Business Partners in certain countries or regions must have registration certificates issued by the legal authorities to conduct business. These certificates have a specific validity period and need to be renewed periodically.
Business Partner Certificates Localization solution allows you to manage the legal and business certificate information related to your business partners. This information can then be used to fulfill the legal requirements for various business processes in a country. With the business partner certificates function, you can configure the certificates necessary for your country or region, keep track of the certificate validity to manage your business transactions with your partner and take the required actions, such as handling invoices and making payments.
As a business configuration expert user, you can activate business partner certificates for a specific country with the BP roles of FI supplier and FI customer to manage configuration activities and make changes as necessary.
Different types of certificates can be defined for business partners across all countries.
Certificate IDs can then be assigned to the country/region and their properties, such as mandatory status, attachment requirement, and default validity.
If a Certificate ID is mandatory for a country/region, the system will display an error or warning message when trying to save or edit the business partners master data.
Specify whether an attachment is mandatory for certificate creation for a specific country or region.
You can use Validity Period to specify the default time duration for the certificate, and this value is used to calculate the certificate's validity end date automatically.
As a business user, you can manage certificate information for the business partners created as FI Supplier and FI Customer roles. The new Certificates tab is available in the Maintain Business Partner app when creating or editing a business partner.
Maintain certificates that are mandatory for the country/region of the company code assigned to the business partner and
Add an attachment(s) for certificates that require an attachment, and use the 'attachment icon' to display an attachment if the certificate has it.
Specify the main certificate for each combination of country/region and certificate ID, and
The system validates the certificates details against configurations and saves the details if all requirements are met. Otherwise, it displays an error or warning message and does not save your changes until you resolve the errors
You should not maintain certificates with overlapping validities for the same country/region, certificate ID, and region.
For multiple business partners, do not maintain the same certificate (having the same country/region, certificate ID, number, and valid from date).
In addition to managing certificates for business partners, you can also utilize features such as exemption, extension, renewal, deletion, and restoration.
To exempt a business partner from a mandatory certificate validations, you should maintain the exemption reason. Once added, the exemption details will be displayed in the business partner master data and can be used in various business processes but can not be used in the validation process *.
To ensure that a business partner's certificate remains valid and up-to-date, there are two ways to extend or renew its validity. You can update "Valid To" date for an active or exempted certificate to a future date, or create a copy of an active certificate that has a validity starting after the validity of the original certificate.
If you have a certificate that is no longer required, you can delete it. Once you delete the certificate, it will not be displayed in the business partner master data and will not be used anymore. However, if you want to view the deleted certificates, you can use the "Show Deleted" checkbox to display them at any time. You can also restore a deleted certificate and use it again for the business partner.
In conclusion, the Business Partner Certificates Localization solution is a useful feature for customers to manage legal and business certificate information related to their business partners. By following the steps outlined in the article, customers can configure the certificates necessary for their country or region, maintain the certificate information related to their business partners, keep track of the certificate validity, and take the required actions to manage their system transactions with their business partners. Overall, this solution can help SAP customers comply with legal requirements, improve their business processes, and build stronger partnerships with their suppliers and customers.
(*) please note that the feature of the validation process is planned for future development in the roadmap of the Business Partner Certificates Localization solution.
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