SAP Vendor Master Data Report
A vendor master report joins SAP's general, finance and purchasing vendor tables into one flat Excel sheet keyed by vendor number, so every supplier attribute sits on a single row.
- PostNow ships this report out of the box – pick it, set filters, run, and it lands in Excel; no SE16, joins or ABAP.
- The data spans several tables. It joins LFA1, LFB1, LFM1, T024E / T005T on LIFNR and resolves the text lookups.
- The standard route is manual. Teams use XK03/MK03 for a single record, then SE16 or SQVI to stitch tables together in Excel.
- You get clean, labelled columns. LIFNR, NAME1, ORT01, LAND1, STCEG, KTOKK and more, each with a plain-English heading.
- Refreshable, not a one-off dump. Rerun the report to pull the latest, with your own SAP authorizations enforced. Works on ECC and S/4HANA.
What the vendor master report shows
A SAP vendor master data report answers a simple question that SAP makes surprisingly hard: give me every vendor master record, with all the attributes that matter, in one place I can filter and share. On screen, SAP shows one record at a time and splits its attributes across several views. This report flattens all of that into a single Excel sheet, one row per record, with the codes turned into readable labels.
Because the output is a plain sheet, it becomes the starting point for the work people actually do with it: a data-quality review, a cleanup before a migration, a hand-off to an auditor, or a source for a pivot. The value is not just the extract, it is that the extract is complete and consistent every time you run it.
The SAP tables behind it
A supplier spans three master views. LFA1 is the general, client-level record: name, address, country and the VAT registration number, keyed by the vendor number LIFNR. LFB1 holds the company code (finance) view, such as the reconciliation account and payment terms, keyed by LIFNR plus BUKRS, so a vendor used by two company codes has two LFB1 rows. LFM1 holds the purchasing-organization view, such as the order currency and purchasing terms, keyed by LIFNR plus EKORG. Readable purchasing-org and country labels come from T024E and T005T. A full vendor report joins all three views on the vendor number and adds the texts.
The joins are the whole reason this is worth automating. Miss one and the report is subtly wrong; get the key fields slightly off and rows fan out or drop. Doing it once, correctly, and then reusing it is what turns a fragile spreadsheet exercise into a reliable report.
The columns you get
Every column below is a real SAP field, labelled in plain English, with the table it is read from. These are the fields most teams want on a vendor master report; a tool like PostNow lets you add or remove columns without touching the underlying join.
| SAP field | What it is | Source |
|---|---|---|
| LIFNR | Vendor number | LFA1 |
| NAME1 | Name | LFA1 |
| ORT01 | City | LFA1 |
| LAND1 | Country | LFA1 |
| STCEG | VAT reg. number | LFA1 |
| KTOKK | Account group | LFA1 |
| EKORG | Purchasing org | LFM1 |
| WAERS | Order currency | LFM1 |
| ZTERM | Payment terms | LFB1 |
| BUKRS | Company code | LFB1 |
| AKONT | Reconciliation acct | LFB1 |
| SPERR | Posting block | LFA1 |
| LOEVM | Deletion flag | LFA1 |
Building it yourself: XK03/MK03, SE16 or SQVI
XK03 and MK03 display one vendor at a time. SE16 on LFA1 gives you the general records as a browsable list, but the finance view in LFB1 and the purchasing view in LFM1 come out as separate extracts that you then match in Excel on the vendor number. SQVI can join them, but building and transporting the query is a small project in itself, and it still leaves the purchasing-org and country texts unresolved. Add a bank detail or a withholding attribute and you are back to a developer and an ABAP report.
None of this is impossible; people do it every month. The problem is that it is manual, easy to get subtly wrong, and stale the moment it is saved. Each refresh means repeating the same exports and the same lookups, and any new column means another round with a developer. For a one-off you can push through it. For a report you run every period, the cost adds up. If you want the general landscape of options first, see our overview of SAP reporting tools and how to get SAP to Excel.
The out-of-the-box way: PostNow's vendor master report
PostNow's Report Library already contains this exact report, pre-built. You do not assemble the joins or resolve the texts; that is done for you. You open Excel, log in to postnow.ai from the task pane, pick the vendor master report, set your range filters, and run. The governed, joined data lands in the sheet, ready to filter, pivot or share, and you can refresh it whenever you need the latest.
Two things make this different from a SE16 dump. First, it is governed: PostNow enforces your own SAP authorizations, so you only ever see the data you are entitled to, and every row can be traced back to its source. Second, it is repeatable: the same report, the same columns, refreshable on demand, with no ABAP to write or maintain. That is the payoff of teaching the hard version first, then handing you the shortcut.
Filters and selection you'll want
A good vendor master report is only as useful as the selection you can put on it. The filters most teams reach for are:
- Vendor range (LIFNR from / to)
- Purchasing org (EKORG)
- Company code (BUKRS)
- Account group (KTOKK)
- Country (LAND1)
- Block / deletion flag (SPERR / LOEVM)
You set these once as your selection, then reuse or adjust them each run. Because the selection travels with the report, a monthly extract becomes a single refresh rather than a rebuild.
ECC vs S/4HANA
In S/4HANA suppliers are Business Partners maintained in transaction BP, but the LFA1, LFB1 and LFM1 tables persist underneath, so a table-based vendor report behaves the same on ECC and S/4HANA.
The practical takeaway is that a report built on the tables and read through standard interfaces survives a migration far better than one wired to a specific screen or a custom program. When you eventually move from ECC to S/4HANA, a table-based vendor master report keeps working, which is one less thing to rebuild in an already large project.
Frequently asked questions
How do I get a vendor master report out of SAP into Excel?
You can export the underlying tables with SE16 and stitch them together in Excel, build a query in SQVI, or ask a developer for an ABAP report. The quickest governed route is a tool that already has the report built: in PostNow you log in to postnow.ai from the Excel task pane, pick the vendor master report from the Report Library, set your filters and run, and the joined data lands in the sheet.
Which SAP tables hold vendor master data?
The data is spread across several tables that have to be joined on their key fields: LFA1, LFB1, LFM1, T024E / T005T. The report links them on LIFNR and resolves the text tables so the output reads in plain language.
Is there a standard SAP report or transaction for vendor master?
There are standard transactions (XK03/MK03 and others), but they are built for on-screen display or for a fixed layout, not for a clean, refreshable Excel extract with exactly the columns you want. That is why most teams fall back to SE16 exports or a custom report.
How do I export vendor master data to Excel without ABAP?
Use a tool whose SAP connection is set up once and then reads through standard interfaces, so no ABAP is needed for day-to-day reporting. PostNow reads the vendor master tables, performs the joins and text lookups, and writes the result straight into Excel, refreshable on demand, with your own SAP authorizations enforced.
Can I refresh or schedule the report?
Yes. Because the report keeps its connection and selection, you can refresh it to pull the latest data at any time rather than rebuilding the extract. This is the main advantage over a one-off SE16 dump, which is stale the moment it is saved.
Does it work in S/4HANA?
In S/4HANA suppliers are Business Partners maintained in transaction BP, but the LFA1, LFB1 and LFM1 tables persist underneath, so a table-based vendor report behaves the same on ECC and S/4HANA.
What is the difference between LFA1, LFB1 and LFM1?
LFA1 is the general vendor record at client level, with name, address, country and VAT number. LFB1 is the company code (finance) view, with the reconciliation account and payment terms, one row per company code. LFM1 is the purchasing-organization view, with order currency and purchasing terms, one row per purchasing org. A full report joins all three on the vendor number.
Can I see vendors with a posting or purchasing block?
Yes. The posting block SPERR and the deletion flag LOEVM sit on LFA1, and finance and purchasing views carry their own block indicators. A PostNow report can show these columns and filter to blocked or flagged vendors so you can review them before a payment run.