BPs

Use this function to create and maintain the Business partner table and associated tables: Addresses, Contacts, and Bank details.

You can create, display, and update the database information associated with a business partner.

A business partner can be a supplier, customer, sales representative, carrier, order-giver, service provider, factoring organization, and so on.

A business partner can have multiple roles. A customer can also be a supplier and/or service provider and/or carrier and so on. In this case, there is a single business partner record, which is used to provide the grouped common identifying data including related roles, different addresses, bank accounts, and contacts.

Each business partner type has certain common data, as well as additional data linked to one of the business partner roles.

For order-givers and service providers, the additional information is available from the related functions in the Actions panel.

An intersite business partner ships product between sites without invoicing.

Prerequisites

SEEREFERTTO Refer to Implementation.

Screen management

Header

This section details basic information about the business partner.

Identity tab

Use this section to enter the identification data for the business partner such as selecting roles and entering role-specific details.

Select the Service provider checkbox to access the Service provider info from the Actions panel, Functions menu. The term Service provider refers to an after-sales service provider you can call when all internal customer support employees are unavailable.

Select the Service caller (Order-giver) checkbox to access the Order-giver info from the Actions panel, Functions menu. The term Order-giver groups all customers for the account for which customer support services are carried out. That is, service requests that are processed for customers of our customers.

EU VAT ID validation

You can interactively validate the EU VAT no. by selecting the EU VAT ID validation icon.

Note: This includes validating GB VAT numbers.

A message box displays with the validation results. The exact content varies depending on the check result and web service used.

  • If the validation is successful, you receive a confirmation message and the Verified checkbox is selected.
  • If the validation failed, you receive a message that displays the reason for the failure.
  • If the validation could not be completed (for example, if only the VAT number was validated and not the address), you have the option to accept the results as valid or not. If you select Yes, the Verified checkbox is selected.

Note: The validation results for EU VAT IDs are stored in a table. GB VAT numbers are not stored.

If a previously-validated VAT number is modified, the Verified checkbox is cleared.

Validation levels:

A Qualified validation verifies the EU VAT no. and company name and address. All data must be valid.

An Unqualified or simple validation only verifies the EU VAT no. Note that the EU validation web service performs only unqualified validations.

Address management:

Results are recorded with the original address code.

For the main EU VAT no., the standard company address is used.

You can manually revalidate VAT numbers using the EU VAT ID revalidation function (EVCBAT).

Note: This field is only available if a web service is identified by the EVCSERVICE – Webservice for EU VAT ID parameter (CPT chapter, VAT group) and the sender's EU VAT number is set by the EVCCOMPANY—EU VAT ID source company parameter (CPT chapter, VAT group)

Addresses tab

Use this section to enter the business partner addresses. You need to enter at least one address. When several addresses are linked to the same BP, you must define one of them as the default address. In creation mode, the first address entered is the one suggested by default.

When entering the post code, an automatic control can be performed and the town entered depending on the settings of the CTY - Nonexistent city alert, POSCOD - Nonexistent postal code alert, and POSCODCPY - Multi-country post codes parameters (SUP chapter, INT group).

Accounting tab

Use this section to enter the information used in accounting to consolidate and add any information required for European accounting.
An access code is available for you to filter the business partners presented in the miscellaneous accounting reports.

Bank details tab

Use this section to record bank details and associated paying banks. The entry format of the Bank account no. depends on the country where the bank is based.

The information related to international transfers can be accessed in record mode, usually the Intermediary bank. An intermediary bank is often used in commercial relationships with non-western countries at the request of the BP or issuing bank.

If the conditions are met, the Enter bank details window is automatically displayed when leaving the Country field. In this window, you can enter the bank details in your local format.
SEEREFERTTO. See Enter bank details window documentation for more information.

Contacts tab

In this section, you can list the contact persons for the BP in the Contacts table. You also need to indicate the default contact.

To add a new contact:

  • Select an existing Contact (relationship) 
  • Create a new contact:
    - Enter a code
    - Add details: the code is automatically created when saving the record.
    In both cases, the contact is automatically recorded in the Contacts table.

The management of contacts, from the Contacts function, ensures that each individual record is unique.  A contact with a particular role can be recorded as one Contact amongst many business partners. Based on the record of one contact, you can create relationships across records, provided that they have a Contact section.

SEEINFO A contact can only be recorded as a person or individual. Only identification information such as the last name, first name, date of birth are common to the contact (relationship) record and to the details entered at the general contact level.
Other information such as the address, email address, landline number and fax number are managed separately between the relationship contact and each one of his/her contacts. At the 'relationship' contact level, the information is considered as being personal; at the general contact level, the information is considered as being professional.

SEEREFERTTO For further examples, see the documentation of the Contacts function.

BP / company tab

The display of this section is subject to the MUL - Multi-company business partner activity code.
Use this section in a multi-legislation and multi-company context. You can define exceptions by indicating specific information by company/BP at the level of the BP and/or customer. For example, the tax rule, payment condition, default BP discount code, accounting code, and so on.

Reports

By default, the following reports are associated with this function :

  BPARTNER : Business partner listing

  GLGRP : GL journal account details

  GLGRPAUX : Auxiliary general ledger

  GLGRPDEV : General ledger/currency

  GLGRPDEVAUX : Auxiliary ledger/currency

  TRSNMOUV : BPs with no postings

  UNALLOCCASH1 : List of prepymts to allocate

This can be changed using a different setup.

Customer

When the business partner is a customer, you can use this action to manage data specific to the customer.

Supplier

When the business partner is a supplier, you can use this action to manage data specific to the supplier.

Carrier

When the business partner is a carrier, you can use this action to manage data specific to the carrier.

Sales reps

When the business partner is a sales rep, you can use this action to manage data specific to the sales rep.

Prospect

When the business partner is a prospect, you can use this action to manage data specific to the prospect.

Error messages

In addition to the generic error messages, the following messages can appear during the entry :

At least one address must exist

This message is displayed in creation or modification of a business partner, upon of validation, if no address has been assigned to the business partner.

An address must be defined as default

This message is displayed in creation or modification of a business partner, upon validation, if no address has been assigned as the default address.

Country: ...non-existent record

This message is displayed when the country code entered does not exist in the Countries table. Use the Actions icon to access the Countries table and create the country record.

Code already exists on line NNN

Several events can trigger this message:

  • The Bank account no. already exists in one of the lines in the grid. You must enter another number.
  • The address code already exists in one of the lines in the grid. You must enter another code.
  • The name of the contact already exists in one of the lines in the grid. You must enter another name.
Currency: non-existent record

This message is displayed when the currency code entered does not exist in the Currencies table. Use the Actions icon to access the Currencies table and create the currency code.

Non-existent address code

This message is displayed when the address code entered in the bank details or for the contact does not exist at the level of the selected entity. You must define this code beforehand in the Address section.

Post code does not exist

This message is displayed when the post code entered does not exist in the Post codes table. This error is not blocking and it is possible to continue with the entry. To prevent this message from displaying again, you must create the post code in the Post codes table.

Town does not exist

This message is displayed when the town/city name entered does not exist in the system. This error is not blocking and it is possible to continue with the entry.

This address code is used in a Bank ID

This message is displayed when the address code that you have attempted to delete is used at the level of one or more bank account numbers. In order to delete an address code, you must first remove it at the bank account number level.

This address code is used in a contact

This message is displayed when the address code that you have attempted to delete is used at the level of one or more contacts. In order to delete an address code, you must first remove it at the Contact level.

Tables used

SEEREFERTTO Refer to documentation Implementation