In SAP S/4HANA, the standalone Vendor Master table no longer exists. Vendors are created and maintained as Business Partners (BP) with a Supplier role assigned. This is a structural change from ECC, and it affects how your data migration team must approach legacy vendor data.
The Business Partner Model
In SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud, suppliers are managed using the Business Partner (BP) approach. A Business Partner serves as the central master record that stores general information such as the organization name, address, contact details, tax information, and bank details. Instead of maintaining separate vendor and customer master records as in SAP ECC, a single Business Partner can perform multiple business functions through assigned roles.
For supplier management, the Business Partner is typically extended with two supplier roles:
- FLVN00 – Supplier (Financial Accounting): Contains company code–specific information required for financial transactions, such as reconciliation accounts, payment terms, dunning procedures, and payment methods. This role enables the supplier to participate in accounts payable processes.
- FLVN01 – Supplier (Purchasing): Contains purchasing organization–specific information used during procurement activities, such as order currency, Incoterms, partner functions, and supplier-specific purchasing data. This role enables the supplier to be used in purchasing transactions such as purchase requisitions, requests for quotation, contracts, and purchase orders.
This role-based model allows a single Business Partner to simultaneously act as a supplier, customer, employee, or other business entity without creating duplicate master records. As a result, organizations benefit from improved data consistency, simplified master data maintenance, and reduced integration issues that were common when separate customer and vendor master’s existed in SAP ECC.