Hope we all are aware about trading partner functionality from SAP FICO point of view, which is mainly used for recording and reporting of inter-company transactions.
Trading partners are updated in GL, Customer and Vendor master and majorly used in customers and vendors. Some clients may use trading partner in an indirect way to update in GL transactions thereby not updating in GL master through exit or substitutions.
Trading partner can be inherited or derived from master or can be entered manually in transactions. Updation of trading partner is being controlled through relevant document type configuration in SAP.
Lets take an example of the document type configuration:-
Its being controlled through two main checkboxes in document type configuration (OBA7 transaction code) namely, "Inter-company postings" and "Enter Trading partner" checkboxes
a) If "Inter-company postings" checkbox is set and "Enter Trading partner" is not set
Functionality: Trading partner is derived from master data and no manual entry is possible in line item / transactions. Here trading partner must not be unique in a document.
b) If "Inter-company postings" checkbox is not set and "Enter Trading partner" is set
Functionality: Trading partner can be manually entered in line item / transaction by choosing Extras menu button -> Trading partner which will be applicable for all the line items in a document. Here trading partner is unique in the document.
c) If both "Inter-company postings" and "Enter Trading partner" checkboxes are set
Functionality: Trading partners are derived from master data and can also be entered manually in the line item / transaction in the "More Data" screen. Here trading partner must not be unique in a document.
d) If both "Inter-company postings" and "Enter Trading partner" checkboxes are not set
Functionality: Trading partner can be manually entered in a line item / transaction by choosing Extras menu button -> Trading partner which will be applicable for all the line items in a document. Here trading partner is unique in the document.
In short, both (b) and (d) represents the same functionality and it depends on each of the document type configuration with the business process involved.
Error message: We normally get error message "Consolidated Companies are different" Message F5080 in either posting or clearing transaction codes.
I faced this problem specifically in clearing transaction codes especially with AB document type where one of the document contains trading partner and other doesnt contains blank or different trading partner.
Solution: For example, in AB doc type, "Enter trading partner" is set but "Inter-company postings" checkbox is not set. The above error message can be solved by also ticking "Inter-company postings" so that even different trading partners or blank trading partner field will be cleared off without any error message.