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credit limit at the enterprise level, meaning that it assigns all company codes
to one credit control area.
In contrast, an enterprise that utilizes a decentralized model maintains
multiple credit control areas, each of which manages credit for one or more
companies within the enterprise. For example, in the hypothetical scenario
illustrated in Figure 5-14, GBI has two credit control areas, one for all com-
panies in North America (GBI US, GBI Canada, and GBI Mexico) and one
for all companies in Europe (GBI DE and GBI Great Britain). If GBI were to
expand operations into the Asia-Pacifi c region, it likely would create a third
credit control area to supervise credit for customers of those companies. Even
when using a decentralized approach, however, it is possible—and prudent—
to establish credit limits for customers at the enterprise level and for each
credit control area. This policy ensures that customers purchasing from com-
panies belonging to different credit control areas (e.g., GBI US and GBI DE
in Figure 5-14) do not exceed credit limits across the enterprise.

Figure 5-14: Decentralized credit control areas

MASTER DATA

In Chapter 4 we discussed the material master, pricing conditions, and output
conditions from the perspective of procurement. In this section we will explore
these master data as they pertain to fulfi llment. In addition, we will discuss
master data that are relevant only to fulfi llment, namely, customer master,
customer-material information record, and credit management master record.

MATERIAL MASTER

The key organizational elements in fulfi llment for which material master data
are defi ned are client, sales organization, distribution channel, and plant.
Recall that material master data are grouped into views and that each view
is relevant to one or more processes and defi ned for specifi c organizational
levels. The three views relevant to fulfi llment are basic data, sales organization
data, and sales plant data.

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