Understanding SAP EDI Partner Number Mapping with EDPAR and PUMA

Why This Matters

When you exchange EDI documents such as 850s (Purchase Orders), 810s (Invoices), or 856s (ASNs), your trading partners include their own customer or vendor numbers — which rarely match your internal SAP account numbers.

Without proper mapping, IDocs can fail, or worse, create sales orders under the wrong customers. And if you send incorrect values back on an 810 or 856, you risk delayed payments or chargebacks.

How SAP Solves This

SAP manages these differences through partner number mapping, primarily using two tables:

• EDPAR – for inbound and outbound customer/vendor mappings
• PUMA (V_PUMA) – for outbound mappings, especially in ASNs

These tables translate external partner IDs from EDI into the correct internal SAP business partner numbers, and vice versa for outbound documents.

Understanding the EDI Data

In X12 transactions, partner IDs are typically found in the N1 segment, in position N1/03–N1/04.

N1*SH*My New Store*92*SID56234

Here:

• N1/03 = 92 indicates the qualifier type (“Assigned by Buyer”)
• N1/04 = SID56234 is the external ship-to code

Some of the most common N1/03 qualifiers include:

Inbound Mapping with Table EDPAR

Typically, EDI mapping puts the external partner value from N1/04 (e.g., SID56234) into E1EDKA1-LIFNR for the corresponding partner function. Then, using table EDPAR (transaction VOE4), SAP cross-references that external value to your internal SAP number.

“For sold-to 100000 (typically also the partner used in WE20) and external ship-to SID56234, use internal ship-to 100022.”

This ensures that when an inbound sales order IDoc is processed, it finds the correct ship-to location and posts cleanly.

Outbound Mapping (Invoices and ASNs)

After creating the order, you’ll want to send the customer’s external ship-to value (e.g., SID56234) back out on your outbound 810 and 856 documents.

For invoices, the same EDPAR table is used — but a separate entry is required.

• On the inbound side, SAP looks up the Customer field based on your control record (WE20), usually your sold-to.
• On the outbound side, both the Customer and Internal Partner Number should refer to the same partner function (e.g., Ship-to).

This distinction ensures SAP can correctly find and send the external partner number during IDoc generation.

Outbound Mapping for ASNs (Using PUMA)

For ASNs, SAP uses a different mapping mechanism — the PUMA table (maintained via V_PUMA in SM30).

PUMA allows you to specify:

• The sold-to or bill-to customer
• The partner you are converting (e.g., the ship-to being translated to the external value)

This table handles outbound translations specific to logistics documents like the delivery/856, ensuring your EDI matches customer expectations.

Why This Matters

By correctly maintaining both EDPAR and PUMA, you can:

• Prevent inbound order errors and IDoc failures
• Ensure outbound invoices and ASNs include the proper customer-defined IDs
• Avoid costly chargebacks and maintain seamless trading partner communication