In SAP R/3 the behaviour of transactional data depends upon how the master data is structured. Several factors affect the master data relating to customers and vendors. The layout of the customer and vendor
master data fields can be controlled using field statuses. Field status represents the fields which a user will have to fill up at the time of master data entry for a particular type, class, group of vendor or customer. There are three ways in which field status control can be affected.

1. Account Group Control - At the account group level, field status can be controlled so that all accounts of one group will have the same screen layout.

2. Transaction Dependent Control - Field status can also be configured at the master data transaction level i.e. during Create, Change, and Display. Thus, if a user wishes that after creation of master data certain fields should not be changed, same can be set as 'Display'. One such example can be fields like reconciliation account, payment terms etc.

3. Company Code Dependent Control - Field status can also be controlled at the company code level. Fields which are mandatory for certain company codes can be set as 'Required'. Similarly, in case fields not used for
one company code can be suppressed. Lastly, in case one does not wish to control field status to avoid account group level conflict, same can be set as 'Optional' entry.

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