Customer Blocking

Customers have their purchase history where all orders, payment transactions, invoices, and deliveries are stored. All this information is stored in SAP S/4HANA. If some transactions have been already created for customers, you will not be able to remove these customers in SAP S/4HANA, however you can block them and prevent from placing orders in a Sana webstore. You might want to block customers for variety of reasons, for example, until customers pay their outstanding invoices.

A blocked customer cannot:

  • see price and stock information

  • place orders and quotes

  • pay invoices

  • convert quotes to orders

  • create return orders

You can block a customer in SAP S/4HANA. Customer blocking in SAP S/4HANA is managed by the BP (Maintain Business Partner) transaction. There are several blocks using which you can prevent a customer from performing certain actions.

Use the Posting Block to prevent a customer from carrying out any financial postings. It will block the customer and prevent from placing orders in the Sana webstore. Customers can still log in to the webstore, but they will see a message at the top informing customers that they cannot place orders, see prices and stock.

Use the Order Block, Delivery Block, and Billing Block to restrict all sales and distribution processes for a customer.

Call the BP (Maintain Business Partner) transaction and open the necessary business partner. In the Display in BP role field select FI Customer and click Company Code at the top of the window. Then, go to the Customer: Status tab.

  • Posting block: Prevents financial transactions like payments, invoices, and credit memos from being posted for the customer. Suitable for scenarios where financial operations must be restricted.

  • Deletion block: Prevents the customer master record from being flagged for deletion. This ensures the customer record remains in the system until manually unblocked.

Call the BP (Maintain Business Partner) transaction and open the necessary business partner. In the Display in BP role field select Customer and click Sales and Distribution at the top of the window. Then, go to the Status tab.

  • Sales Order Block: Prevents the creation of new sales orders in the specified sales areas. Existing orders and related processes like delivery or invoicing can still proceed unless further blocks are applied.

  • Delivery Block: Stops delivery creation for any new or existing orders in the blocked sales areas.

  • Billing Block: Prevents invoice creation for any deliveries or orders in the specified sales areas. Existing processes like order entry and delivery creation remain unaffected.

Customers can be also blocked, if they do not meet the requirements set in the table Data Validation Rules in SAP S/4HANA. For more information, see Customer Blocking.