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A series of mini-lessons about SAP terminology and the SCEIS project

Vendor Master

The vendor master contains the data of all vendors that a company conducts business with. Data in vendor master records also controls how transaction data is posted and processed for a vendor.

What data are contained in the Vendor Master Record? 

The master record is used not only in Accounting (FI) but also in Materials Management. By storing vendor master data centrally it only needs to be entered once.

Inconsistencies can be prevented in master data by maintaining it centrally (recommended best practice). If one of your vendors changes their address, you only have to enter this change once and your accounting and purchasing departments will always have up-to-date information.

Master records are divided into the following areas so that each company code and each purchasing organization can store its own information for doing business with vendors:

1. General data

This is data that applies to every company code and every purchasing organization in your company. The general area includes, for example, the vendor’s name, address, language, and telephone number.

2. Company code data

This is data that is specific to an individual company code. Company code data includes, for example, the reconciliation account number (GL Accounts Payable account), bank data, alternate payee (remit to), tax numbers, minority business indicator, payment methods (check, Bank Transfer), payment terms, 1099 settings

3. Purchasing organization data

This is data relevant to the purchasing organization of your organization. For example, requests for quotations, purchase orders, and invoice verifications are stored in this section.

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How are Master Records numbered? 

Each master record has a unique number. This number is needed to display or change the master record and to post to the vendor account.

The vendor master record number can be assigned either internally or externally. Internal numbers are assigned by the system, whereas external numbers are entered when the vendor master record is created.

Vendor numbers are assigned based on the Vendor Account Group and the vendor number ranges.

SCEIS Vendor Account Groups (subject to change)

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Functions of the Reconciliation Account: Vendor Master Records 

When items (invoices) are posted to a subsidiary ledger, the system automatically posts the same data to the general ledger. These reconciliation accounts ensure that the balance of G/L accounts always reconciles.

Special Fields in Vendor Master Records 

Some fields in vendor master records have special functions:

Alternative Payee: the payment program can make payment to a vendor other than the one to which the invoice was posted. Payment is made to an alternative payee, which must be specified in the master record.

Clearing between a Customer and Vendor: if a vendor is also a customer, or vice versa, you can have the payment program and the dunning program clear the vendor and customer open items against each other. You can also select the customer line items when you display the vendor line items for this account

Functions for Maintaining Vendor Master Data 

The following functions are available for processing vendor master records:

• Create
• Change
• Display
• Block/unblock
• Mark for deletion/remove mark

If the Materials Management (MM) application is also implemented, vendor master records can be maintained either together or separately as follows:

• Separately for the company code
• Separately for the purchasing area
• Centrally for both the company code and purchasing area at the same time

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