Topic overview

An organization is a partner category used for the registration of companies, branch offices, departments, etc. An organization can be part of an organizational structure for the task areas Purchasing, Inventory Management, Financials, or Sales. As element of such an organization structure, the organization is also called one of the following, depending on the task area: Purchasing organization, Inventory Management organization, Sales organization, or Financials company.

The following topics are discussed in this article:

• Organizations and organizational structure – describes how an organization and organizational structures work for the purpose of building relationships and dependencies
• Logon authorizations – for authorizing external partners (organizations) to work in Comarch ERP Enterprise subject to controls
• Content-based authorizations – used for specifying which content-based authorizations are granted to a user, depending on the user’s organizational affiliation

The scope of the activated, organization-specific applications is specified using settings in the Customizing application. Thus, for example, in a multi-site environment the Organizations and Customer/Supplier/Sales representative logon authorizations applications are available for suppliers, customers, and sales representatives. This is only the case in a single-site environment when Content-based authorizations is activated.

Definition of terms

Logon authorizations

Logon authorizations are authorizations for external partner who may log on to the system. The content-based authorizations for the external partners logged on are determined via the assignment of the external partner to an internal organization. Logon authorizations can be assigned for customers, suppliers, and representatives

Company

A company is an organization with the Financials role assigned in the organizational structure. A company is a corporate body with a separate balance sheet. In Financial Accounting, any number of companies can be kept in one database. You can set the Financials company for the data records transferred from the OLTP database in the Customizing application.

Content-based authorizations

Content-based authorizations are authorizations for internal and external partners. Read and write access to data and the use of functions are controlled with content-based authorizations. They are determined based on the organizations assigned.

Inter-company billing

The clearing or offsetting of business transactions between organizations of a corporation is known as inter-company billing. Clearing between the organizations is done based on differently assigned companies in Financials.

Multi-site

Multi-site means the mapping of business processes of a group of companies within one OLTP database. When mapping the business processes and the associated organizations, it does not matter whether the different organizations of the group involved are legally independent organizations or not. The organizations may also be in different countries and therefore subject to different jurisdictions and time zones. The Multi-site function provides the shared use of master data within a corporate group and the handling of business processes across the individual organizations. For this purpose, separate organizational structures for the Purchasing, Inventory Logistics (including Production), Financials, and Sales task areas have to be built. These structures map the procedural and the structural organization of the corporate group.

Organizations

An organization is a partner category used for the creation, for example, of companies, branch offices, departments, etc. An organization can be part of an organizational structure for the task areas Purchasing, Inventory Management, Financials, or Sales. As element of such an organization structure, the organization is also called one of the following, depending on the task area: Purchasing organization, Inventory management organization, or Sales organization, or a Financials company.

Organizational structures

An organizational structure basically reflects the procedural organization in a corporation. The company structure is also mapped to some extent. Organizational structures are needed for the use of content-based authorizations and for mapping business processes of a corporation. These structures can be built up for the following task areas:

• Purchasing
• Inventory Management
• Financials
• Sales

Purchasing organization

A purchasing organization is one that is part of the Purchasing organizational structure and therefore represents a node of this organizational structure.

Inventory management organization

An inventory management organization is one that is part of the Inventory Management organizational structure and therefore represents a node of this organizational structure.

Sales organization

A sales organization is one that is part of the Sales organizational structure and therefore represents a node of this organizational structure.

Single site

Single site describes an environment in which only the active OLTP client is mapped as a legally independent company. For the organizational structures, this company is both purchasing, inventory logistics, and sales organization, as well as the company for Financials. With activated content-based authorizations, several organizations that are part of the company, such as branch offices, departments, etc., can be assigned to the organizational structures in a single-site environment.

Organizations and organizational structures

The master data of the organizations are entered in the Partners application. Organizational structures are mapped using the partners in the Organization partner category.

Organizational structures reflect, in part, the procedural and structural organizations of a company or corporation. The various partners assume different tasks within the company or corporation. Not every partner fulfills all tasks; a meshing of various partners is generally the norm. For this reason, the following areas of responsibility are distinguished:

• Sales
• Purchasing
• Inventory management
• Financials

Sales, purchasing, and inventory management

For the sales, purchasing, and inventory management areas of responsibility, a hierarchical organizational structure of any width and depth can be set up in each case. If a partner in the Organization partner category is assigned to an area of responsibility, this partner represents a node in the respective organizational structure. This assignment integrates the partner into the organizational structure of the respective area of responsibility.

The same organization can serve as a node in any area of responsibility, but only once per area of responsibility. For each organization, it is possible to specify whether special country features must be taken into consideration and the time zone in which the organization is located.

For example, if an organization is used as a node in the Sales organizational structure, it is designated as a sales organization. An organization becomes a purchasing organization or an inventory management organization in the same way. An organization can therefore be a sales organization, a purchasing organization, and an inventory management organization as well as a financials company simultaneously and in any combination.

Because the root of all organizational structures is the active OLTP client in each case, it must be a purchasing organization, an inventory management organization, and a sales organization simultaneously.

Financials

A hierarchical structure is not set up in Financials. A legal entity having a separate balance sheet and referred to as a company is mapped. An organization can be designated as a company. This organization can also be a node in all other areas of responsibility. An OLTP database can include as many companies as there are different jurisdictions.

Each organization is assigned a responsible company. The active OLTP client can be a company, but it does not have to be.

Usage of organizational structures

Organizational structures are used in the following cases:

• If content-based authorizations are active in a single-site environment, then the organizational structures are used in the detailed allocation of these authorizations to internal employees and external partners. You can set up organizational structures for purchasing, inventory management, and sales. This does not apply to Financials, because only the active OLTP client forms this organizational structure. In addition, it is possible to specify individually for each organization that master data are shared or adopted differently.
• In a multi-site environment, the organizational structures serve the sharing or customized use of master data over multiple organizations of a corporation. Likewise, as in the single-site environment, the organizational structures are also used in the detailed allocation of content-based authorizations. Furthermore, the multi-site function enables transaction of multi-organization business processes. In particular, automated inter-company billing can be carried out based on the relevant organizational structures. Organizational structures can be set up for purchasing, inventory management, financials, and sales.

Mapping of an organizational structure

The organizational structure is mapped based on the partners in the Organization partner category. A designated partner, the active OLTP client, represents the root of the organizational structure.

To build an organizational structure, create a partner of the Organization category for the following internal organizational units of your company or corporation (multi-site environment): Organizational units that

• are located in different countries and are thus under different jurisdictions and potentially in different time zones,
• are geographically separated,
• appear as independent participants in business processes,
• apply different business rules.

As a result, the organizational units can use separate master data for items, customers, etc. In addition, master data can also be shared by several organizations.

The affiliation of the partner, internal or external, specified in the partner master data does not play a role in the mapping of an organizational structure. You specify the affiliation to an internal or external organizational structure separately.

Sites

In the Inventory management area of responsibility, inventory management organizations are designated as sites. Exactly one site per organizational structure path must be specified. Warehouses can only be assigned to inventory management organizations designated as a site. Each warehouse must belong to a site. For all inventory management organizations that are also a Site, totals for the inventories are maintained per inventory owner, item, and inventory unit.

A production order is always transacted for a site. All associated material receipts and issues must reference warehouses that belong to the same site. This also pertains to the resources to be reserved; therefore, each resource is assigned to a site. The material requirements planning as part of the Planning framework can be carried out on a site-related basis or across sites.

Organizations application

In the Organizations application, you primarily specify for an internal organizational structure

• that the selected organization is to belong to an internal organizational structure,
• the organizational structure(s) (purchasing, inventory management, financials, or sales) in which the chosen organization is included,
• which organization in the respective organizational structure is the parent organization.

Based on this definition, an organization becomes a node within an organizational structure.

Master data

A multi-site environment or a single-site environment with active content-based authorizations allows for sharing of master data. The adoption and customization ability depends on the master data category and, thus, on the business entity. A distinction is made between:

• business entities that apply to all organizations and, thus, are valid across corporations, such as countries or units
• business entities that are valid across corporations, but for which it is possible to restrict or specify which organizations may use them, such as all order types, delivery terms, and warehouses
• business entities that are always developed for a specific organization, such as payment terms, commission agreements
• business entities that are always developed for a specific country, such as the master data for Intrastat and packaging disposal
• factors, such as item and partner, that consist of multiple business entities and that are developed corporation-wide (e.g., Items – Base view) in some cases and for a specific organization (e.g., Partner – Customer view) in other cases.

When master data are entered, there is always a reference to a responsible organization. This organization is responsible for editing these data, for example, for creating new partner roles. Other organizations cannot edit these roles, but they can apply the roles at any time. Thus, for example, an organization can use a customer of another organization without having to enter the data itself.

For all relevant business entities that are always developed for a specific organization, it can be specified that the data may be used and edited by a group of organizations. For example, this applies to almost all classifications and to accounts. Each organization in this group of organizations can edit the respective business entity. The changes made are available immediately to all organizations in the group, thereby reducing the editing effort for each organization. An organization can be removed from the group at any time. As a result, modified data are no longer available immediately and the organization continues to be solely responsible for editing its data.

For permanently predefined business entities, the organizations permitted to use them can be specified for each instance, if required. For example, you can specify this for delivery terms and warehouses.

Effects of organizational structures

The current node in the organizational structure is displayed in a selection field at the top right of the workflow bar. The field contains a subset of the organizational structure for selection, corresponding to the organizations that the user may work with.

In order for a user to open an application in an OLTP database in a multi-site environment or a single-site environment with active content-based authorizations, an organizational context must be specified in advance. Internal and external users are distinguished in this process.

The following must be specified for internal users:

• The user must be assigned to the system in question using the Employee license category.
• In the OLTP database to be used, there must be exactly one partner of the Person category to whom the user is assigned.
• This person must be assigned the exact internal organizations, whose business events the user is to view or edit. The assignment can be made in a time-dependent manner.

The following specifications are required for external users:

• The user must be assigned to the system in question using the Business partner license category.
• In the OLTP database to be used, there must be exactly one partner of the Person category to whom the user is assigned.
• This person must be assigned the exact external organizations, whose business events the user is to view or edit. The assignment can be made in a time-dependent manner.
• The external organizations must be assigned to the responsible internal organizations in the applications for the logon authorizations.

The organizational context also includes which areas of responsibility the organizations assigned to the person belong to. For external organizations, this context results from the responsible organizations assigned for the logon authorizations in the applications. The areas of responsibility are thus indirectly assigned to each user. In addition, all applications are assigned either to no task areas, one task area, or multiple task areas. In the case of a combination, there is a corresponding set of applications that a user may open. This depends on the system authorizations, which are considered additionally.

Upon log on, the set of organizations available to the active user is calculated for the chosen OLTP data base and at the logon time. When an application is opened, this set is restricted to those organizations that reference the areas of responsibility of the respective application.

For most users, this results in exactly one organization per application. If multiple organizations come into use, the user can select one of them. In this way, only one organization is ever active at a time.

The active organization is the determining factor when a new business entity is created. Customizing settings, master data, and thus most of the defaults are determined based on the active organization.

Customizing

The Customizing application can be used to activate or deactivate the various functions for each organization in the internal organizational structure. In addition, the data entered for the active OLTP database can be applied.

Authorizations

Users (a partner of the Person category) receive their authorizations at the time they are assigned to an organization. The authorizations from the authorization roles, among others, also take effect. For external partners, the assignments of internal organizations in the applications for the logon authorizations also apply. In general, the optional specifications for content-based authorizations apply to internal and external partners.

Logon authorizations

Logon authorizations are used to assign external organizations to an internal organization. The assigned internal organization determines the content-based authorizations.

The following partner roles each have their own application:

A special case is the internal sales representative: an internal employee with the Sales representative partner role. Although not external users, internal sales representatives are also assigned an internal sales organization in the Sales representative logon authorization application, which allows them to receive the relevant content-based authorizations. They are then treated in downstream processes as if they are external partners.

Content-based authorizations

In the Organizations application, you can specify for each organization whether the content-based authorizations are to be determined for it. For this purpose, you will find a list of all relevant business entities on the Authorizations tab.

The read and write authorizations of organizations are stored in the relevant applications on the business entities, such as the Sales order types application. On this basis, the content-based authorizations for each organization are determined for other applications that use these specifications.