Vendor group creation is the first step in sap accounts payable sub module. We request you to plan the groups that you are going to create as you you will be creating master data under this group in your following steps.
If you do not plan properly then you may require to change these groups again and again which will be difficult for companies having huge data.
To create vendor group you can use transaction code OBD3 or following path;
SPRO > Financial Accounting > Accounts receivable and accounts payable > vendor accounts> master records > preparation for creating vendor master records > define account group with screen layouts
Enter your group name, description and other details.
While creating vendor group, number range is the most important factor as this will determine the master data number in sap.
Another important factor is one time account. If you are going to use a particular vendor only once then use this vendor group as one time account. Or else you need not select this. If you select this then create one vendor master under this group. You need to use this master data for all your one time vendor related transaction.
Fields status
Field status of your master data is managed from vendor group. While creating this group you can see all the possible fields required for creation of vendor master. You can manage those filed by selecting it as optional entry, required entry or suppressed for an entry. Field status functionality used here has the same functionality as in the case of general ledger accounts.
You have three types of data maintained for vendor group field status;
- General data
- Company Code data
- Purchasing data
Fields under general data tab will be valid for all the company codes in which this group will be used in sap.
Company code data fields are only required for a particular company code. These fields are applicable to a particular company code under which this vendor group will be used. If you use this vendor group for a different company code for which you want fields to be managed differently then you need to configure for it.
Purchasing data deals with the functionality related to mm module. So you need to discuss with MM module consultant for this. If they want to change any settings then they can do so.
Number Ranges
You can create number ranges by using transaction code XKN1 or following path;
SPRO > Financial Accounting > Accounts receivable and accounts payable > vendor accounts > master records > preparation for creating vendor master records > create number range for vendor account
Assign number ranges to vendor group
You can assign the created number range to it by using transaction code OBAS or path;
SPRO > Financial Accounting > Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable > Vendor Accounts > Master records > preparation for creating vendor master records > assign number ranges for vendor accounts