Customer master is the primary master data in SAP SD. Typically SAP SD functional consultant will have to customize the customer master at least a little bit to suit the requirements of the project. Since this is very standard data and needs to be synced across systems ( For Example ECC CRM ), SAP allows very little customization to the customer master. Nevertheless, SAP allows full customization in the customer master in terms of fields (Hide, show, grey out fields, make fields mandatory etc)and external interfaces ( Interacting with external tax vendors like Vertex etc ) .

Configuration

Menu Path is [ SPRO -> IMG -> Logistics General -> Business Partner -> Customers -> Control ]

Configure Field Statuses in Customer Master

Step 1. - The control is defined at the customer account group level. So for a customer type of Sold-to – 0001 , the fields can be customized. Select the Customer Account Group. In this case we have selected the 0001 – Sold-to Party.

Step 2. - A customer master in standard R/3 can have multiple views – General view, company code view and the sales view. Double click on the corresponding text in the Field status tab to customize the specific view.

Step 4. - Fields in the customer master data are grouped into “Status Groups” or “Field Status Groups” . For example, the Address group contains all the fields related to the address data like the name, street name, zip code etc. Select the right field status group.

Step 5 .- Each field can have any of the following 4 statuses – These statuses are self-descriptive.

• Suppress – Do not show the field in the master data.
• Required Entry – Make this field mandatory.
• Optional Entry – Make this field an optional entry.
• Display – Gray out this field.

DEMO

Here is an example of the customer master “Name” field for the standard customer account group 0001- Sold to party. The little check mark in the name field signifies that the field is indeed mandatory.

Now change the radio button of the first field ( Name 1/Last name ) to Opt. entry.

If you create a new customer now, you can see that the name of the customer will be optional ( As is evident by the lack of the check mark in the Name field )

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