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Master Data 141

a company code and include data such as payment terms and the reconciliation
account in the general ledger. Recall from Chapter 3 that (1) customer accounts
are subledger accounts, (2) subledger accounts are linked to the general ledger
via reconciliation accounts, and (3) the accounts receivable account is typically
used as the reconciliation account for customers. The accounting department
will typically complete this part of the customer master data. Sales area data
are specifi c to a particular sales area, which, as we discussed earlier in this
chapter, is made up of one sales organization, one distribution channel, and
one division. Sales area data relate to sales, shipping, billing, and partner func-
tions. Examples are the sales offi ce and the currency in which the transaction
is conducted. Shipping data specify the preferred delivering plant, priorities,
and methods. They also defi ne delivery tolerances and policies for dealing with
partial deliveries. Billing data include billing terms and tax-related data.
If a customer is served by multiple sales areas, then the data must be
defi ned separately for each sales area. This arrangement permits a company
to apply different terms and conditions for different areas. Figure 5-16 illus-
trates this approach for a hypothetical customer with offi ces in both the United
States and Germany. The customer purchases materials from both GBI’s US
and Germany companies. The general data for the customer apply across both
GBI companies—that is, the GBI enterprise that is represented by the cli-
ent. However, accounting data for the customer must be defi ned separately
for each GBI company. Recall that one piece of data in the customer master
record is the reconciliation account, which is based on the chart of accounts. If
GBI US and GBI DE use different charts of accounts, then they may have dif-
ferent reconciliation account numbers. Further, the currencies and tax-related
data are also different. Thus, the accounting data are different for each country
(company code).
Finally, the customer purchases materials for its facilities throughout the
United States. Consequently, it deals with both US sales organizations (UE00
and UW00). In addition, the customer purchases exclusively on a wholesale basis.
Therefore, master data for this customer must be defi ned for two sales areas
in the United States UE00 WH BI and UW00 WH BI (see Figure 5-16).

Figure 5-16: Multiple defi nitions of a customer

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