How is ‘Master Data’ different from ‘Transaction Data’?

There are three kinds of data residing in any SAP system: 1. Table Data 2. Transaction Data 3. Master Data Table Data refers to the customized information for a particular Client. This includes data such as payment terms, discounts, pricing, tolerance limits, etc., which you do not normally change on a day-to-day basis. Transaction Data is the day-to-day recording of business information such as purchase orders, sales returns, invoices, payments, collections, etc. This includes both system-generated data (tax, discount, etc., automatically calculated by the system during document posting) as well as user- generated data. Master Data is the control information required to decide how transaction data gets posted into various accounts (such as customers, vendors, GL, etc.). The master data is usually shared across modules (for example, customer master records are common both to FI and SD in SAP) obviating the need for defining it in various application areas. The master d...