Business Partner Fields

The BusinessPartners master fields in SAP B1 — CardCode, CardType (customer/supplier/lead), currency, payment terms, credit limit, addresses, and contacts.

A Business Partner (BP) is a customer, a vendor/supplier, or a lead. It is one of the two pillars of master data (the other is the Item, see the Item Fields reference), and every sales and purchasing document requires one — the header’s CardCode points here.

In the Service Layer the BP master is the BusinessPartners entity (object code oBusinessPartners, 2). Most implementation problems trace back to bad BP data: duplicates, the wrong type, missing addresses, or no credit limit. The fields below are what a document draws its defaults from.

Identity and type

Field	Type	Meaning	Required?
`CardCode`	`Edm.String`	Unique identifier, max 15 chars. The primary key used everywhere as `CardCode`.	Yes
`CardType`	`SAPB1.BoCardTypes`	Customer / Supplier / Lead — see the C/S/L meaning below.	Yes
`CardName`	`Edm.String`	Display name of the partner.	Yes
`CardForeignName`	`Edm.String`	Name in a foreign/secondary language.	No
`GroupCode`	`Edm.Int32`	Classification group (`BusinessPartnerGroups`) for reporting and G/L determination.	No
`FederalTaxID`	`Edm.String`	Tax registration number (VAT ID / EIN).	No

The C / S / L type meaning

CardType is the field that decides what a partner is, and getting it wrong (e.g. a supplier created as a customer) is a classic data error that cannot be changed once the partner has transactions. The three values:

CardType	Letter	Meaning
`cCustomer`	C	A customer — someone you sell to. Appears on sales documents (quotation, order, delivery, A/R invoice). Posts to the A/R control account.
`cSupplier`	S	A supplier / vendor — someone you buy from. Appears on purchasing documents (PO, GRPO, A/P invoice). Posts to the A/P control account.
`cLid`	L	A lead — a prospect not yet a customer. Can appear only on quotations/opportunities; must be converted to a customer before an order can bill it.

(cLid is the internal enum name for “lead”; the letter on the SAP form is L.)

Financial terms

These fields set the commercial defaults that flow onto every document raised against the partner. Getting them wrong is a cash-flow and risk problem, not just a data one.

Field	Type	Meaning	Required?
`Currency`	`Edm.String`	Default transaction currency. `##` denotes an “all currencies” BP.	No
`PriceListNum`	`Edm.Int32`	Default price list applied when pricing document lines.	No
`PayTermsGrpCode`	`Edm.Int32`	Payment terms group (net 30, 2/10 net 30, …) → drives `DocDueDate`.	No
`CreditLimit`	`Edm.Double`	Maximum open balance allowed. Exceeding it can block/warn on new documents.	No
`MaxCommitment`	`Edm.Double`	Maximum total commitment (open orders + open invoices).	No
`SalesPersonCode`	`Edm.Int32`	Default sales employee credited on the partner’s documents.	No
`DiscountPercent`	`Edm.Double`	Default customer/supplier discount.	No
`VatLiable`	`SAPB1.BoVatStatus`	Tax treatment (liable / exempt / EU).	No
`CurrentAccountBalance`	`Edm.Double`	Current open balance (read-only).	Read-only

A missing CreditLimit means the company takes on unlimited risk; the wrong PayTermsGrpCode means invoices fall due at the wrong time.

Addresses

A BP can have many addresses — several ship-to and several bill-to. On a document, the header’s ShipToCode / PayToCode select which one to use. Addresses live in the BPAddresses collection.

Field (on `BPAddresses`)	Type	Meaning
`AddressName`	`Edm.String`	The address code/label (what `ShipToCode`/`PayToCode` reference).
`AddressType`	`SAPB1.BoAddressType`	`bo_ShipTo` (delivery) or `bo_BillTo` (billing).
`Street`	`Edm.String`	Street line.
`City`	`Edm.String`	City.
`ZipCode`	`Edm.String`	Postal code.
`State`	`Edm.String`	State / province code.
`Country`	`Edm.String`	Country code.

A partner with no default addresses is a common cause of failed deliveries — the document has nowhere to ship to or bill.

Contacts

Named people at the partner live in the ContactEmployees collection. The header’s ContactPersonCode selects one for a given document.

Field (on `ContactEmployees`)	Type	Meaning
`Name`	`Edm.String`	Contact’s name (the code referenced by `ContactPersonCode`).
`Phone1`	`Edm.String`	Primary phone.
`E_Mail`	`Edm.String`	Email address.
`Position`	`Edm.String`	Job title / role.
`Active`	`SAPB1.BoYesNoEnum`	Whether the contact is still active.

Common data problems

Duplicate records — the same customer created twice under different CardCodes, splitting their history and balance.
Wrong CardType — a supplier created as a customer (or vice versa); it cannot be corrected after transactions exist.
Missing default addresses — deliveries fail with nowhere to ship.
No CreditLimit — unlimited credit exposure.
Wrong PayTermsGrpCode — invoices due at the wrong time.

Discovering user-defined fields

BPs commonly carry UDFs (User-Defined Fields), which appear with a U_ prefix. The BP table is OCRD; list its UDFs with:

GET /b1s/v1/UserFieldsMD?$filter=TableName eq 'OCRD'