Business Partner field guide

The Business Partner master is the shared identity used by sales, purchasing, receivables, payables, tax, payments, and integrations. It describes who the legal counterparty is; transactions describe what happened with that counterparty.

Header fields

Open Business Partners → Partners → New and complete the header before adding addresses or accounting defaults.

Field	Example	Purpose and impact
Partner code	CUS-004281	Immutable key for documents and APIs
Partner type	Customer + supplier	Enables controlled two-way use
Legal name	Demo Retail Group LLC	Printed legal identity
Display name	Demo Retail	Search convenience only
External ID	NAV-CUS-8821	Idempotent cross-system match
Registration number	CN-784201	Duplicate and legal checks
Tax number	TRN-100200300	Tax validation and reporting
Country	United Arab Emirates	Tax and address defaults
Base currency	AED	Receivable/payable settlement
Active	Yes	Controls future selection; history remains
Risk class	A / B / C	Credit and approval policy
Confidentiality	Standard / restricted	View and export scope

Codes should not encode mutable branch or price-list information. Registration and tax numbers need format and uniqueness checks within legal scope. Merges preserve the old code as an alias; posted history is never deleted.

Role and accounting detail

Add customer, supplier, carrier, broker, or inter-company roles with effective dates and owners. A role enables the relevant documents and sets defaults.

Detail field	Example	Impact
Role	Customer	Sales orders and receivables
Price list	Retail UAE	Default line price
Payment term	Net 30	Due-date calculation
Credit limit	AED 250,000	Exposure and order hold
Receivable account	121100	Invoice journal mapping
Payable account	211100	Supplier invoice mapping
Tax category	Standard UAE	Tax defaults
Withholding	None / 5%	Payment deduction
Settlement method	Bank transfer	Payment proposal filter

For an inter-company role, record selling company, buying company, due-to, due-from, transfer-pricing policy, currency, and tax treatment. Do not use an ordinary customer role where consolidation evidence is required.

Addresses and contacts

An address has type billing, shipping, remittance, registered, or service; lines, city, state, postal code, country, tax jurisdiction, and effective dates. Set one default billing and shipping address per role and company scope. A transaction may override ship-to only with permission. Historic invoices retain the address printed at posting.

Contacts include name, title, department, phone, email, language, preferred channel, consent, active flag, and role. Billing, purchasing, service, legal, and executive contacts should be distinguishable. An email is not authority to change bank details.

Credit and collections

Credit fields include limit, risk class, exposure method, grace days, overdue action, owner, review date, guarantee, deposit, and suspension status. Exposure may include posted invoices, open orders, unapplied receipts, credits, and disputes according to policy.

With AED 240,000 exposure against an AED 250,000 limit, a new AED 20,000 order should warn or hold. An override records reason, amount, expiry, and approver. Changing the limit requires its own approval.

Tax and statutory data

Store tax number, category, exemption reason, effective dates, withholding class, reverse-charge flag, export status, and filing jurisdiction. An exemption needs certificate number, issue date, expiry, and attachment. Expiry should restore the default or create an exception.

Tax defaults are suggestions; transaction date, item category, ship-to jurisdiction, and legal entity remain authoritative. Manual overrides require permission, reason, and audit event.

Banking and payment

Bank records include bank name, country, account name, IBAN/account number, currency, beneficiary type, verification status, verified date, source, and effective dates. Mask sensitive values. A new supplier bank stays pending until independent verification with requester, old/new value, callback evidence, approver, and effective date.

Payment preferences include method, remittance email, discount, withholding, calendar, and minimum amount. Failed payments retain bank reason and retry state. Never remove the payable to hide a failed transfer.

Commercial defaults

Customer defaults include salesperson, territory, warehouse, carrier, delivery terms, service level, and return policy. Supplier defaults include buyer, lead time, minimum order, incoterm, receiving warehouse, quality requirement, and claim window. Defaults accelerate entry but must remain visible on the resulting document, with an override reason where required.

Evidence, lifecycle, and journals

Attach registration, tax certificate, contract, bank verification, insurance, licence, and correspondence with document type, number, issue/expiry, owner, retention class, and access rule. Deactivate only after checking orders, balances, claims, contracts, and recurring schedules.

Customer invoices debit receivable and credit revenue/tax. Supplier invoices credit payable and debit expense, inventory, or asset. Receipts and payments clear control accounts while allocations remain drillable to source documents.

API mapping and practice

Use immutable id, externalId, companyId, and updatedAt; do not match by display name. Send role, address, contact, tax, and accounting objects explicitly and use an idempotency key.

{"externalId":"NAV-CUS-8821","legalName":"Demo Retail Group LLC",
 "roles":[{"type":"CUSTOMER","companyId":"company_uae","creditLimit":"250000.00"}],
 "addresses":[{"type":"BILLING","country":"AE","city":"Dubai","isDefault":true}],
 "tax":{"number":"TRN-100200300","category":"STANDARD"},
 "payment":{"termCode":"NET30","method":"BANK_TRANSFER"}}

Practice: create a customer-supplier partner, add role defaults, addresses, contacts, tax certificate, credit limit, and verified bank account. Create sale and purchase documents, trigger a credit hold, expire the certificate, change bank details, merge a duplicate, and reconcile journals. Explain every field owner, format rule, permission, status, audit event, and API ID.

Related: Partners Atlas, Sales field guide, Procure to pay, Advanced GL Mapping, and API cookbook.