BP Role maintainence

Question

Thought this would be useful:
Frequently Asked Questions about Business Partner Roles in CRM.
Solution
Business Partner Roles functionality in CRM can be confusing. For further information it's worth to know some basic facts:
General Information
Any Business Partner in CRM can be seen in any Role, but it doesn't affect to its data.
In CRM the term "Role" is used for different object, which is, in fact, just a screen template for a transaction BP. Role is not a characteristic of a Business Partner in CRM, instead Partner Functions (SalesArea-depended) are used.
Business Partner Role means nothing in CRM. It's not involved into the PartnerDetermination process or Business Transactions. Again, only Partner Functions and Relationships are used instead.
Is there a Relation between CRM BP Role and R/3 Partner Role?
No.
R/3 Partner Role is mapped to Partner Function in CRM.
CRM BP Role is not trasnferred to any other system, and used
exclusively for the transaction BP in CRM.
Why BP created in R/3 has another Roles in CRM?
CRM BP Role has NO relation to R/3 Partner Role.
In CRM any BP can have any Role, which can be switched anytime. This value is CRM-specific, and doesn't relate to R/3 role. Mapping between CRM and R/3 is based ONLY on Classifications, Roles are not used.
You can think about BP Roles as of Screen Templates for comfortable maintenance of Role-depended data.
Are Validity Periods for BP Roles supported in CRM?
Currently it's not planned to add a validity to the role and we don't recommend to implement this, bacuse no processes support this validity check.
Are Validity Periods for BP Roles supported in CRM 5.0?
Yes, in CRM5.0 a validity of a role technically is realized. As in CRM4.0, still no process in CRM supports this validity. Therefore the possibility to maintain BP Roles in a timedependent way is deactivated in the CRM5.0 shipment. Though, under certain conditions this function can be activated. For further details see note 810634.
Is it possible to delete a Role from the BP?
Generally speaking, No.
Even if it's technically possible, it should never be done.
Explaiantions and reasons are following:
First of all, as it was explained above, this is not a characteristic of a BP, so it's not just some field value, which technically can be stored and then changed anytime.
Technically, Role is a dynamical link to the group of BP subscreens in the table BUT100, this is an only place where this Role is presented phisycally. This value is not shown anywhere, and used only by a transaction BP for internal purposes.
But even after usage of some solution for doing it, nothing can prevent automatical detection. That means, if you maintain some BP data, which is enough for some particular role, this role will be marked as "maintained" anyway.
This is not an only side effect, which can not be resolved. Please remember, that actual BP Data is not changed by changing a Role. That means, that after deleting of a Role, which provides an access to some Role-specific data, this data won't be deleted, just hided from user in transaction BP.
In this case, when some program will request for this data, it will receive it without a problem, and potentially this program can determine this BP incorrectly.
Also, when somebody switch a Role for this BP to the "deleted", already maintained data will "suddenly" appear. The same can happen, if this data is shared between several BP Roles (like Sales Area data for Ship-to party and Sold-to Party) - after switching to another Role, data for "deleted" Role will appear again.
Is it possible to delete a Role from the BP in CRM5.0?
Yes.
In the BP maintenance in transaction BP there is a function to delete Roles from the BP. Removing a Role from a BP means deletion of the corresponding record from table BUT100, whereas using the time dependency of the BP Role and limiting the validity of a Role to a past date just changes the attribut value in table BUT100 without physical deletion of the Role from this table.
Given the above described consequences by deleting a Role and accessing the Role-relevant data of the BP afterwards, the difference between deletion and restriction of the Roles' validity becomes obvious.
Note, that Roles, which are not updated in table BUT100 (such as technical Role "BP General") can't be deleted.
Will changes of a BP in CRM5.0 still be exchanged with R/3 after deletion of BP Role "Sold-To Party"?
Yes.
The BP Role just becomes importance concerning data exchange with R/3 whilst creation of the BP for defaulting the corresponding Sales Classification-flag, but itself doesn't influences data such as the BPs' Account Group etc.
For the same reason restriction of the validity of a Role to the past there are no consequences concerning data exchange as well.
We don't need a "BP General" role. Is it possible to hide it, or to change according to our requirements?
NO.
"Business Partner (general)" is a technical role, which is required for internal needs of CRM system. Despite the fact, that there's a solution in Note 507748, which allows to customizize this role, it shouldn't be done!
For further details see Note 533396.
CreationBP in Role, different from "BP (general)" is strange. Sometimes data is lost, and strange popup appears.
Read the popup message carefully.
Why Classification is not assigned automatically when I change a BP
Role? It works during creation of BP.
During creating of a BP in some standard Role, Classication is assigned automatically as well. How can it be done for custom-defined Role?
This behaviour is hardcoded for standard Roles, so it can't be customized. But you can define a standard Role as a Higher-level for your own custom-created Role using transaction BUSD. In this case, when BP is created in your custom-defined role, a standard Higher-level Role will be maintained automatically, and correponded Classification will be assigned also.
Will Classification be assigned automatically when creating BP in a custom-defined Role in CRM5.0?
Yes, this easily can be done. As in CRM5.0 there is a distinction between the Role itself and the Role category (in which SAP applications and customer programs as well can use the Role category on which is hardcoded), any custom-defined Role assigned to Role category "Sold-To Party" can be used to create a BP in and automatically assign Classification. This is because the automatic assignment of Classification uses the Role category, not the Role.
For further information see note 873055.
If CRM BP Role has so less functionality in CRM, why I need it?
An only place where BP Role is used is BP Master Data Maintenance.
WhenBP is created in some basic Role, some predefined hardcoded values will be maintained automatically (like Classification).
Another purpose is to separate BP Data between logical Screen Containers, which make BP Maintenance more comfortable. You can hidesome fields, group them differently, and make some values mandatory according to the Role, in which BP is currently displayed.

Answer 1

I don't understand your doubt either, but I will assume you are talking about the BP role (partner function).
By default the customers from ERP are created in CRM with the sold-to party role, this is the standard behaviour,  if you want to replace that logic  to use a specific role or even add another role you must add a custom FM to the middleware event table for BPs, you will find lot of information about this if you search a little.
Cheers!
Luis