Description
This report allows you to use list editing to display or maintaincustomer hierarchies. You can do so directly or through transactionsVDH1 (maintain) and VDH2 (display).
A customer hierarchy is made up of the various hierarchy nodes assignedto it.
A node is made up of the combination of customer/salesorganization/distribution channel/division.
Every assignment has a validity period.
The assignment of a (lower-level) node to a (higher-level) node mustalways be unique, in other words, one node cannot be assigned toseveral nodes within the validity period. It is not possible torepresent networks.
Customer hierarchy data is only saved in table KNVH. The attributes ofa hierarchy node (for example, rebate or pricing-relevant indicator)are originally stored in the customer master (tables KNVV/KNA1). Whenyou maintain the assignments, the system copies them from the masterand stores them in table KNVH as redundant (for performance reasons).
In the meanwhile, if the attributes of a node change in the customermaster record, they can be updated before or during hierarchymaintenance. You cannot update the attributes directly in thehierarchy.
On the selection screen, first specify the hierarchy type. Thisdetermines what the customer hierarchy is used for. Different types ofhierarchy are not related to each other, which means that an assignmentwithin a hierarchy of a certain type is unique but could also appear inanother hierarchy type. Customer hierarchies are typically used forpricing (standard hierarchy type A) and statistics, where a hierarchycan be used for more than one purpose. The system proposes the currentdate as the validity (or selection) date. It then displays allassignments that are valid on this date. If you choose a date in thepast, the system only displays the assignments because you cannot makeretrospective changes to hierarchy data. You can select according tocertain nodes or subnodes (such as sales organizations) within thehierarchy. All hierarchy trees are displayed that contain nodes thatmeet your selection criteria. We recommend that you use this selectionif there are a large number of data records for a hierarchy type, asreading all the records can lead to performance problems or a time-outerror.
You can choose whether the hierarchy nodes or assignments should bedisplayed with the customer name or validity period. You can alsorestrict the depth of the display to one of the first three levels toobtain a better overview. For easy navigation, simply place the cursordirectly on the node you want to see.
You can maintain the hierarchies in that you can either change thevalidity period of an existing assignment (assignment details) orcreate a new assignment. You can also use the processing options - cut,subordinate, assign to higher-level, move and delete - to edit nodesand/or sub-trees. If the system detects errors when it reads thehierarchy data (for example, not permitted assignments), you can selectthem in an error list and analyse them in detail.
You can also display the hierarchy graphically. You can change thegraphic display parameters in Customizing for SAP Graphics. You can godirectly from the hierarchy to the display or maintenance of thecustomer master data, to make any changes needed.
You determine which hierarchy types and assignments of account groupsand sales areas are permitted in Customizing for Sales and Distributionunder Master Data -> Business Partners -> Customers -> Customerhierarchy.
Here you define the relevant hierarchy tpye for pricing per salesdocument type, as well as hierarchy partner functions and their use inthe partner determination procedures for sales and billing documentheaders.
Once your settings are consistent and you have structured thehierarchy, during sales order entry, the system checks whether thesold-to party appears in the pricing hierarchy defined for that salesdocument category. If it does, the system copies the path of all thehigher-level nodes of the sold-to party including their rebate andpricing-relevant indicators. The individual nodes with hierarchypartner functions (from the initial partner function for the hierarchytype) are stored as partners. You can see this path on the partnerscreen of the order if you change or expand the display. Note that youneed to define enough hierarchy partner functions so that all thehigher-level nodes can be copied.
These partner hierarchy functions are only defined for copying to thesales document and should not be used in the partner determinationprocedure for the customer master data, because maintaining them thereis irrelevant. The system then determines the first node from the pathof hierarchy nodes that contains a rebate or pricing-relevantindicator. If hierarchy conditions are also stored for this node (atcustomer and/or customer-material level), these are included in rebateor price determination.