Setup Step 14 — Customer / Vendor for Inter-Company STO

OPTIONAL Layer 5 · MM↔SD ⏱️ ~15 min BP OMGN

🎯 Why this setting exists

When you move stock between two plants that belong to different company codes, it is not just an internal transfer — it is one legal entity selling to another. SAP therefore needs each plant to carry a commercial identity in the other company's books: the supplying plant must exist as a vendor (so the buyer can owe it money) and the receiving plant must exist as a customer (so the supplier can bill it). Only with both identities in place can SAP raise the internal delivery + invoice that records the cross-company sale. Skip it and an inter-company STO has nobody to deliver to or bill.

💡 Easy example

Our Dubai DC (AE01) sits in company code PSAE; our Karachi factory (PK01) sits in company code PSPK. For Dubai to "buy" 50 t of iron from Karachi across company codes:

Karachi is set up as a vendor inside Dubai's books — so PSAE can record a payable to Karachi.
Dubai is set up as a customer inside Karachi's books — so PSPK can bill Dubai and book the receivable.

It's like one branch of a group buying from a sister branch: even though it's the same owner, the two companies still raise a real invoice between them for the tax authorities and the consolidated accounts.

🔗 How this connects to everything else

This is a bridge setting — it only matters once you cross a company-code boundary, and it leans on master data and the SD module to actually move and bill the goods. Here's the web around it.

⬆️ Depends on (must exist first)

Step 3 — Plants: both the supplying plant (PK01) and receiving plant (AE01) must already exist, each assigned to its own company code.
Step 18 — BP / Vendor & Customer master: the Business Partner config and number ranges must be live so you can create the customer + vendor roles here.
An SD sales area (Sales Org / Distribution Channel / Division) to attach to the shipping data in OMGN.

⬇️ Enables (what this unlocks)

Inter-company STO — the full cross-company stock-transfer flow in Scenario 8.
Its SD leg — outbound delivery + inter-company billing, configured in Step 16.
Inter-company invoice posting between PSPK and PSAE (the receivable/payable pair).

🧩 Who owns it & why MM cares

MMSD A shared MM↔SD setting. To ship between two company codes, the supplying plant needs a vendor identity and the receiving plant a customer identity, so SAP can raise an internal delivery + invoice. MM owns the STO and the plant shipping data (OMGN); SD owns the delivery and billing that ride on top.

🔮 Links to other modules (now & later)

SD Delivery: the customer assigned to the supplying plant drives the outbound delivery (VL10B / VL02N).
SD Billing: inter-company billing type (IV) creates the invoice between the two company codes.
FI The invoice posts a receivable in the supplier CC and a payable in the receiver CC.

🔧 Configuration — fields & steps

BP create master data · OMGN SPRO → MM → Purchasing → Purchase Order → Set up Stock Transport Order → Define Shipping Data for Plants

⏭️ You can skip this for now

The org structure is complete without it. Come back when you actually want to test inter-company STO. Intra-company STO (between two plants of the same company code) works without any of this — no customer/vendor identity is needed because there is no second legal entity to bill.

What OMGN actually does

OMGN defines the shipping data per plant. For each plant you assign the Customer number (used when this plant acts as a supplier and must ship via an SD delivery) plus the Sales Area — Sales Org / Distribution Channel / Division. This is what lets SD raise an outbound delivery for a cross-company stock movement.

Action sequence (when you're ready)

Create a Customer for Plant PK01 in CC PSAE via BP with the customer role.
Create a Vendor for Plant PK01 in CC PSAE via BP with the vendor role.
Do the same in reverse: create the Customer + Vendor for Plant AE01 in CC PSPK.
Run OMGN → maintain shipping data per plant (which customer represents which plant, plus its sales area).
Configure inter-company billing in SD — see Step 16.

🧭 Which identity does each plant need?

Plant	Home company code	Identity needed in the OTHER CC	Why
PK01 (Karachi)	PSPK	Vendor in PSAE, Customer in PSAE	Vendor: so Dubai can owe it. Customer: links to the SD delivery when Karachi ships.
AE01 (Dubai)	PSAE	Customer in PSPK, Vendor in PSPK	Customer: so Karachi can bill it. Vendor: for the reverse direction (Dubai shipping back).

Rule of thumb: a plant is a vendor in the buyer's books and a customer in the seller's books. Set up both directions and either plant can supply the other.

🚨 Issues & fixes

Symptom	Cause	Fix
STO PO won't let you pick the receiving plant / "not defined for cross-company"	Shipping data missing for the plant in OMGN	Run OMGN → add the plant → assign its customer + sales area.
Delivery (VL10B) finds no customer for the supplying plant	Plant has no customer number assigned in shipping data	Maintain the Customer field for that plant in OMGN.
Inter-company invoice fails / no payable raised	Vendor identity for the supplying plant missing in the buyer's CC	Create the vendor via BP in the buyer company code.

More cross-company errors are catalogued in the Troubleshooting Center.

✅ Verification

In OMGN, both PK01 and AE01 show a Customer number + a complete Sales Area.
Via BP, the supplying plant exists as a vendor in the buyer's CC and the receiving plant exists as a customer in the seller's CC.
You can create a cross-company STO PO and follow it through to a delivery + inter-company invoice — walked through in Scenario 8.

✅ Step 14 complete (or skipped for now)

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Step 13: Create Purchasing Groups

Step 15: OBYC Account Determination