Business Partner

Back to Master Data Management

Introduction

Business partner master data window is the place where you can easily organize and centralize business partner data.

Nowadays organizations deal with many third parties such as customers, suppliers, creditors, etc., therefore it is recomended to import large number of business partners instead of creating them one by one by using the Import Data module

Anyway, Openbravo allows you to enter business partner master data information whenever it is needed as your business takes place, therefore the procedure described within this section explains how to set up a single business partner of any type.

Business Partner

There are many business partner types such as customers, suppliers and employees you can define and configure.

There is one key field in the business partner header window which is the "Business Partner Category".
You should select a category to which the business partner is going to belong to.
To learn more about "Business Partner Category", visit Business Partner Category section.

Rest of fields at header level are common fields which require to enter basic business partner information such as:

• the Search Key or short name which will help you to measly identify and search a given business partner
• the Commercial Name
• the Fiscal Name if known. If it is know, it is the one used in "official" documents such as invoices and tax reports, otherwise the commercial name will be used instead.
• a brief Description if needed
• the business partner URL if known
• a Reference No which can be used as an additional way to identify a business partner
• and finally the Consumption Days information which will be used while creating sales or purchase orders for that particular business partner, by using a process named "Copy Lines".
  To learn more about that process, visit Sales Order and Purchase Order sections.

It is not the same to enter and configure a customer than a supplier/creditor or an employee, that is the reason why
"Business Partner" window has three main tabs and therefore sub-tabs which allows you to set up each main business partner type separately:

• Customer tab
  • Customer Accounting sub-tab

Above defaulted configuration means that it is not possible to complete either a sales order, a goods shipment or a sales invoice for the blocked customer but to receive a payment. Note that it is always possible to change the defaulted configuration as required.

• Vendor tab
  • Vendor Accounting sub-tab

Above defaulted configuration means that it is not possible to complete either a purchase order, a purchase invoice or to make a payment but to receive goods sent by the vendor. Note that it is always possible to change the defaulted configuration as required.

As already mentioned if a business partner of any type is blocked it is not possible to Complete (or book) some documents types however it is always possible to Void them.

You will realize that Openbravo shows an error message stating that it is not possible to complete a document while trying to make it for a document issued for a blocked business partner.

• Employee tab
  • Employee Accounting sub-tab

Above mentioned tabs and sub-tabs are described in the next chapters of this section.

Finally, it is very important to remark that:

• there could be other types of business partners which require to be set up as business partners in this window; business partners which have nothing to do with either a customer, or a supplier/creditor or an employee.
  That is the case of the Banks.

The Banks needs to be created in the business partner window header by just entering basic header information and no data in any of the business partner window tabs, but Location and Contact.
The reason why is because "Bank" type business partners are needed in the "Remittance" financial workflow.
To learn more about this workflow visit, Financial Account

Customer

Customer related data can be entered and configured once the "Customer" check-box is enabled.

As shown in the image above there is a list of relevant data to be entered for customers together with current customer balance information:

You could either select any data such as "Price List" from a previously created list of values, or create it "ad hoc" by navigating to the corresponding window, and then select it.

• Price List - the one selected will be the one applied while creating sales documents such as sales orders or sales invoices for that customer.
  If a Business Partner has already generated Credit, it will not be possible to select a Price List in a different Currency from the generated Credit. In that case is possible to conver Credit to a different Currency.
  To learn more visit Price List.
• Payment method - the one selected will be the one applied while creating and managing the payments received from that customer.
  If a Financial Account is linked to the customer, the payment method to select here will be one of the payment methods linked to the financial account.
  To learn more visit Payment Method
• Payment Terms - the one selected will be the one used while managing sales invoices payment plan.
  To learn more visit Payment Term
• Financial account - the one selected will be the one use while collecting and reconciling the payments made by that customer.
  To learn more about "Financial Account", visit Financial Account
• Invoice terms - there are few invoice terms which can be used while generating sales invoices.
  To learn more visit Generate Invoices
  • After Order Delivered - the invoice could be automatically generated once all the goods of the sales order have been shipped
  • After Delivery - the goods of the sales order will be automatically invoiced as they are shipped, even if there are partial shipments
  • Do not invoice - no invoice will be generated automatically
  • Immediate - the invoice will be generated on the next run of the Generate Invoices process.
  • Customer Schedule after Delivery - the invoice will be generated according to the calendar agreed with the customer and once the goods ordered have been shipped.
    If this is the option selected a new field named "Invoice Schedule" is automatically displayed for you to select the corresponding "Invoice Schedule" or calendar.
    To learn more visit Invoice Schedule
• Credit Line limit - If the sum of all pending payments is over the credit limit specified for a customer, the system will alert you by saying that this customer has reached the credit limit whenever this business partner is selected in a sales documents (order, shipment or invoice).
• A customer can be define as "Tax Exempt" whenever applicable, therefore only those Tax rates also defined as exempt apply.
• Sales Representative - you can select here a customer sales representative. A sales representative is an employee set as such.
• SO BP Tax Category - this field can be found under "More Information" section.
  You can use a business partner tax category to get that the sales documents created for a customer can only have a specific set of tax rates linked to that tax category.
  To learn more visit Business Partner Tax Category
• Customer Blocking - this checkbox allows to block a customer therefore some specific documents cannot be fulfilled for it. If checked the Business Partner Blocking section is then shown with the following fields and default values. Default values can obviously be changed as required:
  
  • Sales Order: Blocked
  • Goods Shipment: Blocked
  • Sales invoice: Blocked
  • Payment In: Not blocked

Customer Accounting

Customer accounting tab allows you to configure the ledger accounts to be used while posting customer related transactions such as customer receivables and customer advances to the general ledger.

As shown in the screen above, you can configure for each customer and general ledger the accounts to be used in:

• the Customer Receivables transactions such as sales invoices posting.
  To learn more visit Sales Invoice
• the Customer Prepayment transactions such as those cases when the company shipping the goods requires the customer to advance part or full amount of the debt.
  To learn more visit Customer Pre-payments

At first, these accounts are inherited from the Defaults accounts of the organization's general ledger for which the business partner is being created. The end-user can always change them.

Besides, it is important to remark that it is possible to configure the creation of new correlative accounts for the business partners as described in the General Ledgers tab of the Organization window.

Vendor/Creditor

Vendor or Creditor related data can be entered and configured once the "Vendor" check-box is enabled.

As shown in the image above, there is a list of relevant data to be entered for suppliers or creditors, also know as vendors:

• Purchase Price List - the one selected will be the one applied while creating purchase documents such as purchase orders or invoices for that vendor.
  If a Business Partner has already generated Credit, it will not be possible to select a Price List in a different Currency from the generated Credit. In that case is possible to conver Credit to a different Currency.
  To learn more visit Price List.
• Payment method - the one selected will be the one applied while creating and managing the payments made to that vendor.
  If a financial account is linked to the vendor, the payment method to select will be a payment method linked to that financial account.
  To learn more visit Payment Method
• Payment Terms - the one selected will be the one used while managing supplier invoices payment plans.
  To learn more visit Payment Term
• PO Maturity Date 1 - as indicated in the Payment Term the PO Maturity Date is used in combination with the Fixed Due Date in the payment term to be set to Y and the Next Business Day set to N. The due date of the payment is based on the payment term defined in combination with the PO Maturity Date.
  
  • For example, the defined payment term is 30 days and the PO Maturity Date 1 is set to 10. If the invoice date is the 1st of the months, based on the 30 days payment term, the payment due date is the 1st of the next month, but since the PO Maturity Date is set to 10, the payment due date as a result is the 10th of next month.
• PO Maturity Date 2 - a second PO Maturity Date can be set to be combined with the payment term and the first PO Maturity Date.
  
  • For example, the payment term is 30 days, the PO Maturity Date 1 the value is 10, the PO Maturity Date 2 is 20. The example given in PO Maturity Date 1 will remain the same. However, if the invoice date is the 11th of the month, the payment due date will be the 20th of next month: the 30 days of the payment terms are taken into account and since the 10th of the month is passed the second maturity date of the 20th is taken into account.
• PO Maturity Date 3 - a third PO Maturity Date can be set to be combined with the payment term and the first and second PO Maturity Date.
• Financial account - the one selected will be the one use while withdrawing and reconciling the payments made to a supplier.
  To learn more visit Financial Account
• Tax Category - you can use a business partner tax category to get that the purchase documents register from a vendor can only have a specific set of tax rates linked to that tax category.
  To learn more visit Tax Category
• Vendor Blocking - this checkbox allows to block a customer therefore some specific documents cannot be fulfilled for it. If checked the Business Partner Blocking section is then shown with the following fields and default values.Default values can obviously be changed as required:
  • Purchase Order: Blocked
  • Goods Receipt: Not blocked
  • Purchase Invoice: Blocked
  • Payment Out: Blocked

Vendor Accounting

Vendor accounting tab allows you to configure the ledger accounts to be used while posting vendor related transactions such as vendor liabilities and vendor advanced payments to the general ledger.

You can configure for each supplier or creditor and available accounting schema, the ledger accounts to be used in:

• the Vendor Liability transactions such as purchase invoices posting.
  To learn more visit Purchase Invoice
• the Vendor Prepayment transactions such as those cases when the supplier of the goods requires the company to pay in advance part or full amount of the debt.
  To learn more visit Vendor Prepayments

At first, these accounts are inherited from the Defaults accounts of the Accounting Schema assigned to the Organization for which the business partner is being created. The end-user can always change them.

Besides, it is important to remark that it is possible to configure the creation of new correlative accounts for the business partners being created as described in the Org Schema tab of the Organization window.

Employee

A business partner can be set up as employee once the check-box "Employee" is enabled.

Employee tab allows you to set which of your business partners are "Employees".
An employee can be:

• appointed as sales representative of a customer
• defined as the responsible of a company project/s.
  To learn more visit Projects and Services Management
• allocated to a production process as a resource.
  To learn more visit Production Management
• and can issue expense's sheets as part of his/her involvement in a company project.
  To learn more visit Expense Sheet

Employee Accounting

The ledger accounts to be used while posting employee related transactions such as paryroll accounting could be added in this tab.

As you can see in the image above, nowadays there is no ledger account required to be defined for employee accounting.
The reason why is because there is no transaction susceptible of being posted for employees.

Anyway, this is the place where "Human Resources" related modules or features should point to while defining the accounts to be used in any employee transaction susceptible of being posted.

Cost Salary Category

ManualDoc:T1005100000

Bank Account

Bank account tab allows you to list and setup business partner bank accounts.

It is possible to configure and properly setup business partner bank accounts to be used while making or receiving business partner payments of any type.

Therefore, we strongly recommend you to properly setup bank accounts as those will be used by Openbravo as required within Openbravo payment management processes.

The "bank account" related data you can enter is:

• the Bank Name
• Active flag - We recommend you to set as "Active" only one bank account, if possible, in order to avoid errors; otherwise you should keep an eye on the right bank account used.
• Country - you can select a country from the list to specify if the bank account is a domestic bank account or a foreign bank account.
• User/Contact - in case you want to associate a contact for this bank account
• Bank Account Format - List that contains all the possible values for generating the Displayed Account Number, which will be later on used by other reports or processes to get the account identifier. Possible values are: Use Generic Account No., Use IBAN or Use SWIFT + Generic Account No. Note: Other options can be added by other modules that extend the supported Bank Account Format.
• Generic Account No - a generic account number to identify the bank account can be introduced here. This field must be mandatory set in case either Use Generic Accoun No. or Use SWIFT + Generic Account No. is selected at the Bank Account Format field.
• IBAN - The International Bank Account Number (IBAN) is an international standard for numbering bank accounts.
  The IBAN consists of a two letter ISO 3166-1 country code, followed by two check digits, and up to thirty alphanumeric characters for the domestic bank account number, called the BBAN (Basic Bank Account Number). This field must be mandatory set in case Use IBAN is selected at the Bank Account Format field. The IBAN code will be automatically validated when inserting/updating the record taking into account the rules for the country bank defined.
• SWIFT Code - Corresponds to the ISO 9362 international bank code identifier. It must be mandatory set in case Use SWIFT + Generic Account No. is selected at the Bank Account Format field.
• Displayed Account: It is automatically generated based on the value selected into the Bank Account Format. This field is read only and it is used by other reports or processes.

Location/Address

Business partner locations and full address details can be set up in this tab.

Business partners might have different addresses details depending on location/address used for either "Goods Receipts/Shipments" purposes or location/address used for "Invoices" purposes.

Openbravo allows you to define any type of business partner address, by filling in below information:

• Location/Address - if you click in this field the location selector box opens, there you can enter below information:
  • the address 1st line
  • the address 2nd line, if needed
  • the Postal Code
  • the City
  • the Country - you can select one from the list, if any
  • the Region - once the country is selected, you can select one region of the country selected, from the list, if any.
    • Once the location entered is saved, it's listed in the "Location" window. To learn more visit Location
• the Phone number
• an Alternative Phone number, if any
• the address Name - this field is automatically filled in by Openbravo, once the location / Address information has been configured. You could change it as needed.
• the Fax number
• Ship to Address check box - you should flag this one if the address being set up must be used for Goods Receipts/Shipments related transactions.
• Invoice to Address check box - you should flag this one if the address being setup must be used for sales or purchase invoices transactions.

Contact

Contact tab allows you to add and configure the business partner contacts you deal with.

As you can see in the image above, basic "Contact" data such as:

• First and Last Name of the contact
• as well as his/her Position in the business partner

can be configured in this tab.

Basic Discount

Basic Discount tab allows you to add and configure business partner Basic Discounts.

It is possible to enter as many Discounts as agreed with your business partners, by filling in below information:

• the Discount to be applied while creating sales / purchase transactions for that business partner can be selected from the list (if any) or created by navigating to the Discount window.
• Customer: this checkbox must be selected if the discount is going to be applied to a Business Partner set as "Customer"
• Vendor: this checkbox must be selected if the discount is going to be applied to a Business Partner set as "Vendor"
• Apply in Order: this check box must be selected in case the discount can be applied in sales or purchase orders as applicable.
• Cascade calculation of the discount. For instance, if first discount is 10% and second one is 5%, a cascade calculation of the total discount won’t be 15% but 14.5%

Full list of Business Partner window fields and their descriptions is available in the Business Partner Screen Reference.

Back to Master Data Management