Business Partner

Transparent table · BUT000Replaces LFA1 + KNA1Shared dimension

The one master record for suppliers and customers. In S/4HANA there's a single Business Partner per company you deal with; a supplier role and a customer role hang off it, so the same party is never two records.

Primary key: PARTNER — the Business Partner number. The general data sits in BUT000; roles in BUT100; addresses in BUT020.

◆Key fields (BUT000)

Field	Key	In reports	Description
PARTNER	PK	●	Business Partner number — the single ID for the supplier and the customer.
TYPE		○	Category: 1 person · 2 organization · 3 group.
BU_GROUP		●	BP grouping — sets the number range and account group.
NAME_ORG1		●	Organization name (line 1) — the supplier / customer name.
NAME_ORG2		○	Organization name (line 2).
NAME_LAST / NAME_FIRST		○	Person name — used when TYPE = person.
BU_SORT1		○	Search term.
BPKIND		○	BP type — your own classification.

The address isn't in BUT000 — it lives in BUT020 → ADRC (the central address table). Join through there for street, city, country.

◆The three Business Partner tables

Table	Holds	Key
BUT000	General data — name, type, grouping	PARTNER
BUT100	Roles — which hats this partner wears	PARTNER · RLTYP
BUT020	Addresses — link to ADRC	PARTNER · ADDRNUMBER

◆Roles — one partner, many hats

A Business Partner does nothing on its own until you add a role. Each role adds a set of data and, behind the scenes, writes the matching legacy table.

Role	Makes it a	Adds / writes
FLVN00	Supplier (Finance)	Recon account, payment methods → writes LFA1 / LFB1
FLVN01	Supplier (Purchasing)	Currency, incoterms → writes LFM1
FLCU00	Customer (Finance)	Recon account, dunning → writes KNA1 / KNB1
FLCU01	Customer (Sales)	Sales area data → writes KNVV
000000	General partner	Name, address, language (always present)

◆What it replaced

The old vendor and customer master tables still exist — but they're now kept in step by CVI. The Business Partner is the source of truth.

Legacy table	Was	Now in S/4HANA
LFA1 / LFB1	Vendor master	CVI-synced → BUT000
KNA1 / KNB1	Customer master	CVI-synced → BUT000

The analytics trap: a report that reads LFA1 or KNA1 directly still runs — but can return stale or incomplete attributes if it bypasses the Business Partner. Build the supplier / customer dimension on BUT000 (or the released views below), not on the legacy table.

◆Where this surfaces — released CDS views

I_BusinessPartner — the basic Business Partner view (general data)
I_Supplier — the supplier lens over the Business Partner
I_BusinessPartner_To_BP_Role — which roles each partner holds (BUT100)
C_BusinessPartner — the consumption view behind the Manage Business Partner Master Data app

◆Reports that use this dimension

AP Aging — supplier role (FLVN00)
AR Aging — customer role (FLCU00)
Supplier / Customer balance & statement
Spend by supplier · revenue by customer

How the data gets out: a SAP-compliant extract of the released CDS view via SLT or Table / Table-CDC — never ODP-RFC (SAP Note 3255746). See the extraction pattern →

Need a clean supplier / customer dimension?

We build it on the Business Partner — one conformed party dimension your AP, AR, and spend reports all share — and you own the code.

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Terms on this page

Business Partner: The single S/4HANA master for suppliers and customers.
BUT000: The table holding the Business Partner's general data (key = PARTNER).
BUT100: The table listing which roles a Business Partner holds.
Role: A "hat" a partner wears — supplier, customer — that adds its data.
FLVN00 / FLCU00: The finance supplier role / finance customer role.
CVI: Customer / Vendor Integration — keeps LFA1 / KNA1 in sync with the BP.
LFA1 / KNA1: The old vendor / customer master tables — still there, now synced from the BP.
CDS view: Core Data Services — an SAP-supplied, upgrade-safe view onto the data.
ADRC: SAP's central address table — where the street / city / country actually live.
ODP-RFC: An older extraction route SAP now bans for non-SAP tools (Note 3255746).