What does this change in practice?

The practical distinction is this: the order is a transaction, the material on the order is master data. Fixing an order affects one order; fixing a material affects every order still to come — which is why registration deserves a process of its own.

Which domains are usually master data?

Customer, supplier, material, service, and the accounting and tax structures that classify them. The set varies by company, and defining it is the first decision of the programme.

Where should it live?

Where it is born governed. The ERP is usually the main consumer, not the place where registration is decided.

Glossário

Master data

Master data is the registration information that several areas use and that changes rarely: who the customer is, who the supplier is, what the material is, what the service is. It does not record an event — it records the existence of something. That is why an error in it contaminates every transaction that references it.

See the glossary MDM (Master Data Management)

In practice

What this changes in your master data

Changes rarely, used widely

That combination is what makes it critical: the cost of an error multiplies by the number of areas consuming it.

It has an owner, not a generic custodian

Master data without a responsible area is data nobody fixes, because fixing costs effort and the benefit shows up elsewhere.

It is not reference data

Reference data is a closed list — units, currencies, countries. Master data is an entity, and entities are born and change.

Questions

Frequently asked questions about this term

Keep going

Related terms

MDM (Master Data Management) · Golden record · Data steward

See the data domains

Name Company Corporate email Phone The international code is added when you save.

What is the intended scope? Describe your scenario I agree to the processing of my data so that 4MDG can respond to my enquiry through the channels I provided, including WhatsApp, in accordance with the Privacy Policy.