S4hana Create Business Partner

s4hana-create-business-partner

Create business partners on SAP S/4HANA — suppliers, customers, or combined. Verified production-ready against SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition 2026-05-12: BP 1000080 (supplier), 1000081 (customer), 1000082 (combined customer+supplier), plus 73 prior bulk-migrated suppliers.

Phase 0 — Setup check (MANDATORY, no exceptions)

Before any API call, before any tool use, do this check. Even if you already know credentials from earlier in the conversation — IGNORE that knowledge and re-check from scratch each invocation.

1. Announce: tell the user "Checking for SAP credentials in <current cwd>..."
2. Check ONLY these two sources:
   • A .env file at ./.env (in the current working directory — NOT parent dirs, NOT ~/.env, NOT any memory file)
   • Shell-exported env vars: SAP_HOST AND SAP_AUTH_MODE both present
3. If neither: auto-create ./.env from the bundled template (curl from https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ilia-inovaflow/s4hana-create-record-skills/main/.env.example), append .env to .gitignore if not already there, tell the user clearly what to fill in (auth mode + host + creds), and wait for them to say "ready" before making any API call. Never overwrite an existing .env.
4. If credentials are present: report back to the user: "✓ Loaded credentials for <host> in <auth-mode> mode. Proceeding with [task]."

Never use credentials from conversation memory, from another project's .env, or from any tenant the user previously worked with in a different session. Each project gets its own .env. See shared/setup-check.md for the full rationale and edge cases.

When to trigger

Verbs: create / post / add / generate / seed / onboard / clone Objects: BP(s), business partner(s), supplier(s), vendor(s), customer(s), debtor(s), creditor(s), trading partner(s) Counts: 1 to ~100 records.

Hard rules (never violate)

1. Always do a 1-record live POST per BP type as a probe before bulk (≥3 records).
2. Never invent master data IDs — verify CompanyCode, PurchOrg, SalesOrg, recon accounts, GLAccount exist in target.
3. If a required field has no sensible default and the user didn't specify → ask once, then auto-pick.
4. Scripts go in <cwd>/.s4hana-tmp/create-bps-<YYYYMMDD-HHMM>/. Never commit, never modify .env.
5. POSTs are sequential with 200ms delay; halt on 3 consecutive failures.

Endpoint

• Service path: /sap/opu/odata/sap/API_BUSINESS_PARTNER/A_BusinessPartner
• Method: POST (deep-insert with nested Address, Role, Customer, Supplier and their sub-entities)
• Communication scenario: SAP_COM_0008 — "Business Partner Replication"

Phases

Phase 1 — Parse: what kind of BP?

User intent maps:

• "vendor" / "supplier" → supplier
• "customer" / "debtor" / "client" → customer
• "trading partner" / "both customer and supplier" → combined

Phase 2 — Tenant defaults

Cache via tenant memory. For <your-tenant>:

Use BP02 by default — internal numbering means the system auto-assigns the BP number (next 7-digit ID like 1000083). If user wants a specific 8-digit ID like 20500001, use BP03 and supply BusinessPartner explicitly.

Phase 3 — Build payload

Supplier-only (verified)

{
 "BusinessPartnerCategory": "2",
 "BusinessPartnerGrouping": "BP02",
 "OrganizationBPName1": "<name>",
 "to_BusinessPartnerAddress": {
 "results": [{ "Country": "DE", "CityName": "...", "PostalCode": "...", "StreetName": "..." }]
 },
 "to_BusinessPartnerRole": {
 "results": [{ "BusinessPartnerRole": "FLVN00" }, { "BusinessPartnerRole": "FLVN01" }]
 },
 "to_Supplier": {
 "to_SupplierPurchasingOrg": {
 "results": [{ "PurchasingOrganization": "1010", "PurchaseOrderCurrency": "EUR", "PaymentTerms": "0004" }]
 },
 "to_SupplierCompany": {
 "results": [{ "CompanyCode": "1010", "ReconciliationAccount": "21100000", "PaymentTerms": "0004" }]
 }
 }
}

Customer-only (verified)

{
 "BusinessPartnerCategory": "2",
 "BusinessPartnerGrouping": "BP02",
 "OrganizationBPName1": "<name>",
 "to_BusinessPartnerAddress": {
 "results": [{ "Country": "DE", "Language": "EN", "CityName": "...", "PostalCode": "...", "StreetName": "..." }]
 },
 "to_BusinessPartnerRole": {
 "results": [{ "BusinessPartnerRole": "FLCU00" }, { "BusinessPartnerRole": "FLCU01" }]
 },
 "to_Customer": {
 "to_CustomerSalesArea": {
 "results": [{ "SalesOrganization": "1010", "DistributionChannel": "10", "Division": "00", "CustomerGroup": "01", "CustomerPaymentTerms": "0004", "Currency": "EUR" }]
 },
 "to_CustomerCompany": {
 "results": [{ "CompanyCode": "1010", "ReconciliationAccount": "12100000", "PaymentTerms": "0004" }]
 }
 }
}

Customer-specific required fields you'd miss otherwise:

• Language on to_BusinessPartnerAddress — error FSBP_ECC/030: Standard address doesn't have a language, needed for customer
• Currency on to_CustomerSalesArea — error CVI_API/003: Currency (KNVV-WAERS) is a required entry field

Combined customer + supplier (verified)

Same as customer-only but ALSO include the supplier blocks. Both deep-inserts go through in one POST.

Phase 4 — POST

Standard CSRF flow — see ../s4hana-create-po/references/csrf-flow.md. Single POST creates BP + Address + Roles + Customer + Supplier + their org/company assignments — typically 10-15 child entities in one transaction.

Phase 5 — Verify

$expand=to_BusinessPartnerAddress,to_BusinessPartnerRole,to_Customer,to_Supplier on the new BP to confirm structure.

Cross-tenant migration notes

• Source IDs do NOT carry forward — Cloud auto-assigns with BP02. Build a source-ID → target-ID mapping CSV.
• Country distribution and BP-name patterns can be preserved.
• For customers, propagate language preferences from source addresses.

Cleanup quirks (Cloud-specific)

• A_BusinessPartner DELETE is blocked (CI_DRAFTBP_MESSAGE/032). To retire a test BP: PATCH BusinessPartnerIsBlocked=true + rename OrganizationBPName1=_TEST_DELETE_ME.
• A_Product POST is blocked on Cloud (API_PRD_MSG/009). For migrations involving new materials, reuse the existing HAWA/FERT/SERV pool — don't try to clone materials.

Output structure

<cwd>/.s4hana-tmp/create-bps-<YYYYMMDD-HHMM>/
├── payloads.json
├── create-log.jsonl
├── results.json
├── source-target-mapping.csv # for cross-tenant migrations
└── verify-sample.json

Reference files

• references/bp-roles-and-groupings.md — full role catalog (FLCU/FLVN/BUP/etc.), grouping conventions, numbering policies
• references/customer-vs-supplier.md — side-by-side comparison of required fields per role type
• references/cross-tenant-migration.md — the pattern for cloning BPs from on-prem to Cloud with ID remapping
• scripts/bulk-bp-poster.mjs — reference implementation