This article goes over how to configure SAP S/4HANA Entity Sync in Ironclad. Once configured, Business Partner records maintained in S/4HANA are automatically created and updated as entities in Ironclad.
Use Case
Procurement and finance teams keep their master list of suppliers and other organizations (SAP Business Partners) in S/4HANA, while legal and contracting teams need those same records as entities in Ironclad to launch and manage contracts.
Rather than re-entering company details by hand and risking stale or mismatched data, Entity Sync mirrors S/4HANA Business Partners into Ironclad and updates them automatically whenever they change in S/4HANA. This way, contracts always reference accurate, current counterparty information pulled straight from your system of record.
Prerequisites
| Features | Integrations, APIs, Entities |
| Connected Systems | SAP S/4HANA |
| Packages |
SAP Data Foundation or SAP Procurement Automation |
| Permissions |
Admins or users with Integrations Management permissions. |
Step 1: Open the S/4HANA Integration in Ironclad
- In Ironclad, click your profile picture in the top right corner and select Company Settings.
- Click the Integrations page in the left sidebar menu.
- Under the Enterprise Resource Planning section, click SAP S/4HANA.
Step 2: Set Up the Mapping Configuration
- Under the Entity Sync tab, click Create Entity Configuration to set up a mapping configuration.
- Click Edit.
- Under Relationship Type Mappings, click the Add Relationship Type dropdown menu. There are three relationship types to choose from:
- Customer: an entity your organization sells to or contracts with as a buyer of your products or services.
- Partner: an entity your organization works with to deliver, resell, implement, refer, or otherwise collaborate on business outcomes.
- Vendor: an entity that supplies goods or services to your organization. In SAP S/4HANA, suppliers typically map to the Vendor relationship type.
- Select Vendor.
- Enter the Role Code.
- Note: You can find the Role Code in S/4HANA by navigating to Master Data - Business Partners > Manage Business Partner Master Data. Click Go to bring up the available business partners, and under the Role column, you’ll find the Supplier label followed by the Role Code enclosed in parentheses (e.g., ABCDE01).
- Under Field Mappings, click +Add Attribute for each field you want to populate, and map it to the matching field in the Business Partner schema (e.g., External ID maps to Internal ID).
- Map the Address field.
- Note: Map each line separately by expanding the nested fields in the Business Partner schema.
- Click Save.
After saving your mapping configuration, you’ll return to the S/4HANA integration page.
You’ll be able to return to the Entity Sync tab to retrieve the Entity Sync Configuration URL used to set up the SAP Integration Suite.
Step 3: Set Up the OAuth Client
- Under the OAuth Client tab, click Create Client App.
- Click Continue.
This step generates the Client ID and Client Secret app codes, and the Scopes URL needed to set up the SAP Integration Suite.
Step 4: Set Up the SAP Integration Suite
To set up the SAP Integration Suite:
- Open the SAP Integration Suite.
- Click Design in the left sidebar menu and select Integrations and APIs.
- Note: Each Ironclad company will need a dedicated Integration Flow (iFlow).
- Under Packages, select the package you want to sync. You’ll be taken to the Overview page for that package.
- Click the Artifacts tab to see the available Integration Flows.
- Select the Actions icon (ellipsis) next to the desired Integration Flow, and click Configure.
- In the Address field, copy and paste the Entity Sync Configuration URL from Step 2.
- You’ll also need to create a Credential Name:
- In another browser tab, open the SAP Integration Suite, and navigate to Monitor > Integrations and APIs from the left sidebar menu.
- Under Manage Security, select Security Material.
- Click the Create button in the top right corner and select OAuth2 Client Credentials.
- Fill out the Name.
- Fill out the Token Service URL. You can copy and paste this from our API documentation. Be sure to update the domain to match your instance.
- Set Grant Type to Send as Part of Body.
- Copy and paste the Client ID and Client Secret app codes from Step 3 into their respective fields.
- Set Client Authentication to Send as Request Header.
- Copy and paste the Scopes URL from Step 3 into its respective field.
- Set the Content Type to application/x-www-form-urlencoded.
- Click Deploy.
- Copy the Credential Name and paste it into the Credential Name field of your iFlow.
- Click the More tab, and check to ensure that the hostName field matches the host name of your S/4HANA instance.
- Update the userEmail field to match the API user’s email address.
- (Optional) Configure the AllowedBPCategories field to decide which business partner categories sync over.
- Click Save to preserve your settings. When you’re ready to deploy, click Deploy.
- Confirm deployment by clicking Yes when prompted.
For Step 5, you’ll also need the inbound service endpoint address (e.g., /ironclad-demo/entity-sync) that S/4HANA sends data to:
- Navigate to SAP Integration Suite > Design > Integrations and APIs.
- Under the Artifacts tab, click the relevant iFlow.
- Click the first SOAP entry point.
- In the SOAP overview panel at the bottom of the page, select the Connection tab.
- Under Connection Details, copy the value in the Address field to your clipboard.
With the endpoint address ready, you can proceed to set up communications in S/4HANA.
Step 5: Set Up Communication in S/4HANA
These steps connect S/4HANA to your SAP Integration Suite instance so that Business Partner data can flow to Ironclad. Here, you’ll configure a Communication User, Communication System, and Communication Arrangement.
To set up a Communication User in S/4HANA:
- From the S/4HANA home page, go to Administration > Communication Management.
- Under Integration Setup, click Maintain Communication Users.
- Create a communication user with a username and password. This user handles the inbound connection.
Once saved, you can proceed to set up your communication system.
To set up a Communication System in S/4HANA:
- Under Integration Setup, click Communication Systems and create a new communication system (e.g., Integration Suite).
- Enter the System ID and System Name.
- Enter the Host Name. This is the API host URL for your specific integration suite instance.
- Enter your Logical System and Business System names.
- Under OAuth 2.0 Settings, define the Token Endpoint.
- Note: You can find the Token Endpoint URL in the SAP BTP cockpit under Services > Instances and Subscriptions > Instances > Credentials.
- Under Users for Inbound Communication, add the communication user.
- Under Users for Outbound Communication, enter the Client ID and Client Secret from the BTP cockpit, and set the authentication method to OAuth2.
Once saved, you can proceed to set up your communication arrangements.
To set up a Communication Arrangement in S/4HANA:
- Under Integration Setup, click Communication Arrangements.
- Click New in the top right corner to create a new communication arrangement for your Entity Sync.
- Select Scenario ID SAPCOMM0008 (Business Partner, Customer, and Supplier Integration).
- Name the arrangement (e.g., BPSync)
- Select the communication system you created.
- Note: The inbound communication user and outbound communication user fields populate automatically; select them if they don't.
- Under Outbound Services, deselect all Service Status checkboxes that say Active next to them except for the one under Business Partner - Replicate from SAP S/4HANA Cloud to Client. Leave that one selected.
- For the Business Partner - Replicate from SAP S/4HANA Cloud to Client:
- Enter the iFlow path, beginning with /cxf followed by the inbound service endpoint address (e.g., /cxf/ironclad-demo/entity-sync) in the Service URL field.
- Set the Port to 443.
- Define the following Additional Properties:
- Replication Model: Any string you choose (e.g., rep-bp-int).
- Replication Mode: C
- Output Mode: D
- Click Save.
The master data integration in S/4HANA should now be configured.
Step 6 (Optional): Define the Replication Filter Criteria
The replication filter controls which Business Partners sync. Filtering by the supplier role code syncs only suppliers. Once you’ve defined and activated the replication model for your business object, you may want to define the filter criteria. Learn more about defining filter criteria in the SAP Help Center.
To define filter criteria in S/4HANA:
- Type “filter” into the search bar in the top right corner and select Define Filter Criteria from the dropdown list.
- Click the Go button to populate the Replication Models view.
- Select your replication model.
- Add a filter criterion (e.g., set BP Role equal to your Supplier Role Code (e.g., ABCDE01)).
Step 7: Trigger the Initial Sync
Now that your master data integration in S/4HANA is configured, you can trigger the initial sync.
To trigger the initial sync:
- Type “replicate” in the search bar in the top right corner and select Replicate by Replication Model from the dropdown list.
- Click the Replication Model field, and select the replication model you’ve created.
- Click Replicate in the top left corner.
If the entity sync was configured successfully, your entities will sync over to Ironclad.
To confirm ongoing sync, edit the supplier in S/4HANA (for example, change the name) and click Save. The update appears on the matching Ironclad entity automatically.
Note:
Once the connection is active, you can click on a synced entity in Ironclad to open an overview panel with an external link that takes you directly to the supplier profile in S/4HANA.
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