Business partners synchronization

[former_member619039]

Hi

We have FSCM configured with collections, disputes and Credit management. All 3 of them are active and working in production. We are migrating another business into existing implemented SAP FSCM.

In Existing implementation we have business partners created for every customer created in AR. All of them were numbered sequentially ranging within 8 digits (ranging from 20000000 to 89999999). We have activated customer master data synchronization and whenever a new customer is created a BP gets created automatically with the same number range (Customer to BP sync is activated with BP having same number range as in customer master but it is set as External numbering in BP numbering). We also had customer contact details created. Contact persons were also having BPs created internally (in background) for every contact person is created in AR. Contact person in AR doesn't need a number range but since BP needs a number, it was assigned to a series of number range starting from 00001 to 10,000 and they were set to internal number range. Customer contact persons were almost 8000 and all those internal numbers were used and created as business partners till 8000.

Since we are bringing new customers from new business we have customers whose numbers are under 10,000 as well. Since we wanted to keep the numbers same, I have to make adjustments to business partner number range and I have changed BP number range from 1 to ZZZZZZZZZ (and kept external) so that it can accept all number ranges from customers as is. However the new customers are still having issues as system cannot create new BP for new customer as numbers under 10,000 were already used in existing system.

Is there a way, I can delete all existing 10,000 business partners which were created as BP and re-use these numbers for new customers?

Can I overwrite all this data with new customer master data being created?

Can I delete the link between Customer & BP for existing ones?

If I can delete a link and overwrite new data, can they be linked to customer master which is needed?

Any suggestions or any ideas please?

Thanks

Aleem

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

A couple of points

Having one number range for all BP's is not a good idea. This will mean no other processes can use BP's

I would amend the number range back to your original number range.

In terms of the new customers - I would just add them to the existing customer account group - and therefore number range. There is a field in the customer master for previous account number so you could use that to record the original customer number. You could still report against your old customer number. It will also mean you dont need to create a new customer account group for the new customers.

[former_member619039 · Accepted solution]

Thanks for quick reply Mark.

We did not create new account group at customer master and we are creating customers in the same account group. However we had to adjust number range from ( 20000000 to 89999999) to (1 to 89999999). Due to this I had to adjust BP number range also from (20000000 to 89999999) to (1 to 89999999 or ZZZZZZZZ ). Customer creation was fine for new customers which were under 10,000 but business partner is conflicting with existing BPs which were created as contact person.

Since we are not using BP's for contact person in any place, they are of no use sitting as business partner and using the numbers. Hence I am trying to delete existing BPs which were under 10,000 to free up the numbers to re-use for new customers.

Any more suggestions please?

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

I cant recommend using such a wide number range for business partners.

If you wanted to use Business Partners for a different process, you would not be able to. (In house cash, treasury etc)

I would delete the 10,000 new customers with their original number range - and add those to the number range 20000000000 to 89999999999

[former_member619039 · Accepted solution]

Ok. I have that in my list in case if we don't find any option. The reason for not changing new customer number and keeping as is, is coming from business as customers need to be notified of changing their numbers and it is a huge task and business don't want to take it.

When I contacted SAP for any Notes which can be applied to delete link between existing customer & BP, they have suggested to use SAP note 974504- Inconsistencies in link tables of master data sync. But this Note is checking for inconsistencies and correcting it. Since we already had this note implemented with reports ZCUSTOMER_LINK_CHECK_REPORT and ZCUSTCONTACT_LINK_CHECK_REPORT, this is only checking inconsistencies and correcting it. This did not help me in deleting the link.