1. Objective and Scope

2. Vendors Master Data maintenance

2.1 Account Group

This field is mandatory, it is customised per country and is a fundamental element in SAP for piloting the creation of a new vendor. A vendor may have different accounts groups. Therefore is never a duplication if a new vendor is created with the same exact data, but with a different account group.

Account Groups: 

• Zxyy (Normal vendor): a code specific by country, or group of countries, involving the usual supplier.
  Depends on the country, where the x letter corresponds to a country or a group of countries, like: ZBEN for Belgian suppliers, Z3U0 for US suppliers, Z3M0 for Mexican suppliers, ZQ00 for suppliers of all countries not represented by a specific code.
• ZxAD (Address): a code intended to cover addresses in specific functions in SAP.
  Allows recording the same companies, or others, only for the purpose of sending documents, such as SAP contracts, SAP purchase orders, SAP invoices, and so on. The same supplier may have one record in group Zxyy and one more, or several, in account group ZxAD.
• ZZCD for miscellaneous creditors.
  Is intended for creditors that bill expenses that are not purchases, such as taxes, non negotiable fees, etc… The same company may have a record in Zxyy as a supplier, and a second one in ZZCD as a miscellaneous creditor (for example, a law company may bill law consulting and also legal non negotiable fees).
• ZXAG (Agents): This type of account is intended for vendors classified as agents. 
  The same vendor can be created as normal vendor (Zxyy), miscellaneous creditor (ZZCD), or as Agent (ZXAG) or as address (ZxAD).
• ZZPE (Employees): Personnel for expense accounts.

Specific features

• Italy: natural persons and professionals are recorded in account group ZIPA, with a specific numbering. Indicator "natural person" must be filled, ad well as the individual tax code 1.
• Germany: account groups in Germany and Austria - ZD15 and ZA15 - are branches and they have to be linked to a head office (company code level).
  
  

2.2. Display Vendor: Address

2.2.1 Title

This field can only be used for "politeness" title, which must be printed on documents but which is not part of the partner's official name, such as "Mr", "Mrs",…..

Official title part of the company name, such as "Inc." must be included in the Name fields and not in this "title" field.

It is printed in the address block of commercial documents.

To avoid the language problem mentioned above, entries are inserted for each "title" in each language needed, copying the description text unchanged in all language codes.

No specific check performed by the Data Controller.

2.2.2 Name (Line 1 mandatory)

The name is recorded on one line or more, exactly as the supplier gives it on the original document provided. Four (4) lines for the name may be entered, the first one is mandatory.

If the name exceeds 35 positions, it will be continued to the second line by cutting reasonably the name in two parts, avoiding cutting in the middle of a word.

The name lines cannot contain "address" data.

The use of the fourth line is not recommended, as it may not be printed on some documents.

A mention such as #XXXXXX# is allowed in the first line of the Name, when the vendor is suppressed, to show the new number for replacement.

• Italy: Except for "Natural Persons", all names of vendors should finish with the kind of corporation (SPA, SNC, SRL, SAS ...)
• Spain: Except for "Natural Persons" all names of vendors should finish with the type of corporation. The list (non exhaustive) of possible types of corporations in Spain is: "S.A." (Sociedad Anónima) "S.L." (Sociedad limitada) "S.A.L" (Sociedad Anónima Laboral) "S.C" (Sociedad Colectiva) "S.C.S." (Sociedad en Comandita Simple) "S.C.A" (Sociedad en Comandita por Acciones) Ltda. (Sociedad de Responsabilidad Limitada) 

2.2.3 Search Terms

The Search Term 1 (mandatory field) contains the most common abbreviation used by the purchasing and procurement network. 

It is used for search by match code in the vendors' database. Thus the search term must be types with care, without misspells.

In case a vendor changes its name, it is good practice to check if the search term should be adjusted accordingly.

Specific definition on vendors representing a subsidiary of SOLVAY.

The Search Term 2 is used by the DATA team to mark when needed a vendor as CHARTERING (CH), SHIPPING (SH), Vendor (VN), Ordering Address (OA), Invoicing Presented by (IP), Goods supplier (GS), Vend. Inv. Recipient (F9).

2.2.4 Street Address

• C/O:
  This additional information may be inserted in the address block and will be generally printed before the "main street" line.
  
• Street/House number: 
  Main official street name, without house, box, floor, room or office number.
  Even if the SAP field contains 40 characters, only the 35^th first must be used, the last 5 digits will be not printed on some documents. According to the country, the address contains such words as "RUE", "AVENUE", "STREET", "ROAD", "CARRETERA", "CALLE"…
  House and letterbox numbers, including their "natural" supplement (e.g. "19bis" or "25/R"). This field is printed on the "Street" line, before or after the street, according to the local use in the country.
  House number supplement is a floor, office, ect. This field is generally printed at the end of the "Street" line
• Street 4: 
  This field may be used to enter a supplementary street line. This line will be generally printed after the "main street" line.
• District:
  This additional data represents a subdivision in a city. It is printed:
  • after the City, on the same line (FR, IT, BE, NL, ES, PT…)
  • or before the "Main street" line (DE, …)
  • or before the "City" line (GB, …)
  • or not printed (US, where the district represents the county …).
  The requester must check the result through button "preview" in the procedure.
• Postal Code/City: 
  Required field if postal codes have been activated for that country in the country table customising. Only official postal codes must be used.
  The City is a mandatory field. An official name of the locality must be entered, in the local language, whenever possible.
• Country:
  Official country code must be recorded according to the ISO codification (mandatory field).
• Region:
  The region represents the main administrative division of a country. Whenever possible, official codes are used, with a preference for ISO codes when they exist. The region code is required (even if not mandatory in SAP) in some countries: USA (Federal State), Italy, Germany (Federal state = Bundesland) , Austria, Switzerland (cantons) . (non exhaustive list)
• Time Zone: 
  The right time zone must be chosen in the list.
• Tax Jurisdiction:
  This code is specific to USA; it is mandatory (for automatic determination of tax codes in Purchase Orders) and covers a geographical field.
  Most often the jurisdiction code is determined automatically by SAP after the city, postal code and region code are recorded. Alternative: click on the field, then on the search button, enter the country, region (US State), ZIP code, county (not mandatory) and the city.. In some States and cities, SAP proposes more than one county for selection. The headed letter from the supplier provides the exact county.

2.2.5 PO Box Address

• PO Box:
  Only the P.O. Box number must be entered. Mentions as "P.O. Box", etc, must not be entered as they are automatically printed when necessary by SAP.
• Postal Code:
  This field must be used to record the official postal code of the P.O.

2.2.6 Communication

• Language (mandatory):
  Usual language of the supplier, which is usually applied to send purchasing documents.
• Telephone:
  This field may contain several phones. The format is free but SAP does not accept specific characters, except "/" and "-". Do not insert the country code as it will be automatically inserted.
• Fax:
  This field may contain several fax numbers. Each fax number can be used manually to send faxes to someone in the vendor's organisation. One fax among others can be used to send purchase orders through the fax network: this fax number is marked by the indicator: "Standard". This indicator is used for sending orders to suppliers of raw materials, packaging, technical materials, transport (hauliers, carriers,…).
• E-mail (mandatory):
  This field may contain several e-mails. Use the standard e-mail format. Each e-mail address can be used manually to send mails to someone in the vendor's organisation. One e-mail among others can be used to send purchase orders through internet: this e-mail is marked by the indicator: "Standard". This indicator is used for sending orders to suppliers of raw materials, packaging, technical materials, transport (hauliers, carriers,…).
  
  Controls to be performed:

• if e-mail origin belongs to supplier
• In case of doubts, a contact to Vendor should be made by PtP HD in order to confirm veracity of the update request
  It is highly recommended, before recording a new entry, to check if the existing entry is used for sending orders. If it is the case, add the new entry (this new entry will take the indicator "Standard"), and then re-enter the existing entry, which will take the indicator "Standard".
  As often as possible, record the email address for sending purchase orders in an Ordering Vendor address. Then this email number cannot be altered by an update in PRS.

2.2.7 Comments

The field Comments should be used to add useful information related with the update performed (ticket number, workflow number, project name ...).

2.2.8 International Version

The international version contains the name and address of the vendor in local languages/alphabets (e.g. Kanji). The options are:

• A - Arabic
• C - Chinese
• H - Hangul (Korean)
• K - Kanji (Japanese)
• R - Cyrillic
• T - Thai

2.3. Display Vendor: Control

2.3.1 Account Control

• Customer:
  This field shows that the vendor is also a customer. Then it contains the customer’s code.
• Trading Partner:
  This field contains the “Cheops enterprise code” for partners belonging to the SOLVAY group. This code is the same as the one used for company codes. Currently this field is only used for the Solvay Group.
  Therefore it should be empty. If a company code number is filled, the Data Controller must return explaining this field is only used for intra-group vendors.
• Authorization (mandatory):
  The authorization group allows extended authorization protection for particular objects. For regular vendors you add the code from the vendors country and for intragroup vendors you add HQ.
• Corporate Group:
  If the customer or the vendor belongs to a group, you can enter a group key here. The SOLVAY group code is 0000800001.

2.3.2 Tax Information

• VAT Reg. No.:
  This field concerns only vendors belonging to the European Union, it must be left empty for others countries.
  • ES (SPAIN):  the VAT registration number for "S.L." companies is always letter "B" after country code. For "S.A.", it is always "A". For "Natural Person" (that are not Juridical entities) the first character is never a letter and has always a random letter at the end of the VAT code. Other letters are possible along the legal form of the company or association.
    The VAT registration number may be updated when a corporation changes its type (e.g. from "S.L." to "S.A."). In that case, the VAT registration number only changes in one letter.
  • GB (UNITED KINGDOM): different companies may have the same VAT registration number, since it is not an identification of the vendor itself
    
    
• Other ... :
  This button allows recording the VAT registration number of one European fiscal representative of the supplier (or several), outside of the vendor's own country.
  
  
  
  

  The column "country" must contain the ISO code of the country. The column "VAT Number" must contain the full VAT number (including the country code).

  VAT reg. numbers of fiscal representatives must be:

  • only for fiscal representatives in the EU (it's not authorised to enter a Swiss VAT code in this list);
  • a vendor outside EU can have fiscal representatives inside the EU (a Swiss vendor can have a fiscal representative in a EU country);
  • the same country cannot be inserted twice

  As the fiscal representative of the vendor can change, these codes can be changed.

• Tax Number 1:
  This legal fiscal identification is required by some national authorities. Its definition varies among countries. 
  In some countries, tax code 1 is coupled with the VAT registration number.
  
  
  

No VAT : this indicator must be clicked if the vendor has no VAT registration number and is not a natural person (see indicator "natural person").- this indicator becomes field "sales/pur tax" in the masterdatabase (LFA1-STKZU) (forecast in 2011).

If the vendor gives a VAT registration number on the original document provided, it has to be recorded. This is a requirement expressed by CC Audit, in order to improve the reliability of the data, and prevent from possible frauds, inside and outside Solvay.

If the vendor does not provide a VAT registration number, check that it is a normal situation. Indeed some categories of our suppliers have no VAT registration number.

Examples of Vendors without VAT reg. number: Physical persons, Administrations, Universities, Public hospitals, Associations…. These exceptions are depending on each country and there is no rule to know if a vendor has or not a VAT number.

By principle, a VAT registration number will never be updated (unless an initial error, or national exceptions). Updating a VAT registration number, or erasing it, must be explained and justified by the requester in the Communication Area.

When a vendor changes its VAT registration number, a new vendor must be recorded, in order to prevent from any confusion between its old and new fiscal identification. When appropriate, the old vendor must be blocked and suppressed (see section 6), after its purchasing views have been blocked and suppressed, in both PF1 and WP1 systems, meaning that all relationship has been terminated.

When a vendor changes its name and/or address and/or tax code 1 without changing its VAT registration number, those fields can be updated without creating a new vendor in the database.

The validity of the VAT registration number in Europe can be checked on the websites: http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/vies/vieshome.do?selectedLanguage=EN 

Example: a supplier in the Netherlands may have a representative in Belgium and a representative in Germany, with VAT registration numbers in Belgium and in Germany.

The column "country" must contain the ISO code of the country

The column "VAT Number" must contain the full VAT number (including the country code)

VAT reg. numbers of fiscal representatives must be:

• only for fiscal representatives in the EU (it's not authorized to enter a Swiss VAT code in this list)
• only one by European country
• a vendor outside EU can have fiscal representatives inside the EU (a Swiss vendor can have a fiscal representative in a EU country)

As the fiscal representative of the vendor can change, these codes can be changed.

5.2.2 Tax Code 2

This legal fiscal identification is required by some national authorities. Its definition varies among countries (see chart). This field is mandatory for some countries. 

5.2.3 Tax Code 3

This tax code 3 is reserved for vendors in Russia: KPP code (registration reason code) (to be added beginning of 2009). Format: 9 digits, optional. 

5.2.4 Tax Code 4

This tax code 4 is reserved for vendors in Russia, for internal use (FI reports) (to be added beginning of 2009). Format: 10 digits, optional. 

5.3 Tax Number

This tax number is reserved for vendors in Germany ("Steuernummer" (to be added beginning of 2009). It is mandatory, in creation of a new vendor, if the vendor gives it. Its format is max 18 positions, variable from one Federal State in Germany (Bundesländer), usually several digits, often separated with "/". Examples: 123/456/789. 

5.4 Natural Person

This indicator must be filled in if the vendor is a physical individual person.

5.5 Industry Code 1

When the vendor is a haulier (or carrier), i.e. supplier of road transport, or sea transport, for finished goods, that needs to be managed through specific tools for Logistics in PF1, enter its classification (road transport = 60, sea transport = 61).

5.6.1 Group

The code 0000800001 shows that the vendor belongs to the SOLVAY Group.

6. Blocking & Suppressing a Vendor

6.1 Definitions

Blocking a vendor stops any possibility to create purchasing documents such as purchase orders, contracts, and requests for quotation, and/or posting any invoice and payments..

Suppressing a vendor allows archiving its data after some delay managed by SIS – the data can nevertheless be displayed.

6.2 Level of Information

Blocking and suppressing can be done at three levels for each vendor:

• for each purchasing organization (in PF1-020 or WP1),
• for each company (in PF1-020 or WP1),
• at client level, in PRS (PF1-050), valid for all companies and purchasing organizations.

Blocking and suppressing are managed by separate indicators at each level.

6.3 General Procedure

If Solvay stops its commercial relationship with a vendor: block and suppress this vendor in the appropriate purchasing organization (or several, or all).

Blocking and suppressing at company level and at client level will be done by periodic programs later.

If Solvay stops its commercial relationship temporarily, block the vendor, without suppressing.

6.4 Replacement of a Vendor Number by a New One

Situation: a vendor must be replaced by a new one, following a change of name, address, VAT registration number, …

Step 1: create a new vendor through the usual procedure (transaction Z1S_VWF_REQUEST  or XK01 if we identify the replacement) in PRS (PF1-050): Name, address, fiscal codes, communication, bank data…

Step 2: open its purchasing view - then initiate the commercial relationship through a request for quotation, a contract, purchase orders, … –  company data should be created manually in both systems.

Step 3: for handling and posting invoices coming from the old vendor linked to existing purchase orders, on request by SBS BO, insert the new vendor number as partner IP (invoice presented by – auteur de facture).

Step 4: when appropriate, block and suppress the old vendor number at purchasing level

Step 5: update the name of the old vendor, to inform on its new vendor number

Modify the name as follows:

Introduce in the old vendor code XXXXXXX the mention: ### USE XXXXXXX ###. Move the vendor name to the second line.

To inform in the 1rst line in SAP-MM, lists, BW

Example :

6.5 Chart for Tax Code 1

Comments on tax code 1 in some countries

FRANCE:

Two vendors cannot have the same SIRET (same tax code 1 of 14 characters). In case of duplicate, check on the website

Two vendors may have the same SIREN (first 9 positions of tax code 1) and the same VAT if they have the same name. The 5 last digits of the SIRET can be changed upon communication by the supplier.

SIREN and SIRET codes can be checked and searched on this website:

http://avis-situation-sirene.insee.fr/

ITALY

The Tax Code 1, in Italy, is the fiscal code. If the company is a Juridical Entity, sometimes it is equal to VAT ID., sometimes it is a different number, but anyway they is always a numerical code.

For a "Natural Person" (that are no Juridical entities) it is an alphanumeric code of always 16 positions (egg, MSTGNN53A13L736E).

To check the VAT CODE (Italy):

http://www1.agenziaentrate.it/servizi/vies/vies

6.6 Chart for Tax Code 2

Legal fiscal identification needed by the national authorities, according to the use defined by SAP.