SAP – Customizing Guide - General Setting

1. General Setting
1.1. Set Countries

1.1.1. Define Countries
1.1.2. Set country–specific checks
1.1.3. Insert regions

-->Set Countries


-->Define Countries
You must include all countries with which your company has business relationships. You need the following
information for each country:

• General data
• Foreign trade characteristics
• Further test data

This data is then checked during master data maintenance.

Standard settings
In the SAP standard delivery system, all countries are defined according to the international ISO standard.

SAP recommendation
SAP recommends that you use the ISO standard for your additional entries.
If your entries do not correspond to the ISO standard, you cannot implement data exchange in international
communication (e.g. payment transactions with banks).

Activities
1. Check that the country entries are complete.
2. Add the missing countries, if necessary.
3. Use the ISO standard for your entries.
4. For each country, maintain the associated detail screen. In the detail screen you must, for
example, create test data.

-> Set country–specific checks

 
For all countries with which your company maintains business relationships, you must include rules for
checking the following data:

• Bank data
• Postal data
• Control data

This data is then checked during master data maintenance.

Standard settings
In the SAP standard delivery system, all countries are defined according to the international ISO standard.

SAP recommendation
SAP recommends that you use the ISO standard for your additional entries.

If your entries do not correspond to the ISO standard, you cannot implement data exchange in international
communication (e.g. payment transactions with banks).

Activities
1. Complete the check rules for the new countries.
2. Use the ISO standard for your entries.
3. For each country, maintain the associated detail screen. In the detail screen you should, for
example, store the check rules

-->Insert regions

You enter the required regions in this step.
The region is used for the following functions:

• Part of address
• Tax reporting in FI
• Pricing in SD (only for tax)

The usage can vary from country to country.
The relevant functions can be taken from the following table
Ctry Part of address Relevant for Relevant for tax reporting (FI) pricing (SD)
======================================================================== AU yes
no no BE no no no CA yes yes yes CH no no no DE no no no ES no yes no FR no no no
IT can yes no JP yes no no NL no no no PT no no no SG no no no US yes yes yes

Note
The region is not used for evaluations carried out according to regional aspects of the business (e.g. market
segments, sales areas).

Additional information
The "region" has a different name in the following countries:

•  BE: province
•  CA: province
•  CH: canton
•  DE: federal state
•  FR: department
•  JP: administrative district
•  NL: province
•  US: state

Actions
1. Define new regions according to your requirements.

2. Enter a key and description for the regions.