How to Create a Subaccount in SAP BTP

With the help of subaccounts in SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP), you can structure your global account according to your needs and the organization of your projects.

You can structure the management of members and permissions as well as entitlements.

Understanding Subaccounts in SAP BTP

Each subaccount must be created within a region and a data center. The region reflects the physical location of the data center in which applications, data, and services are hosted. The region does not have to be the same as your company's location.

The subaccounts structured under a global account are independent of each other. You must take this into account when planning the overall architecture regarding security, member administration, data management, data migration, and integration. In the SAP BTP cockpit, under the Account Explorer menu, all subaccounts assigned to your global account are displayed (see below).

Select a Reasonable Subaccount Structure

At the subaccount level, you can configure system connections, among other things. Separate subaccounts for production systems and development are recommended, just to separate resources and system connections. Furthermore, you can create additional security by separating the backends used (SAP ERP HCM, SAP ERP, etc.) or the responsible teams.

How to Create a Subaccount in SAP BTP

In contrast to global accounts, you can create subaccounts yourself, as follows:

1. In the account explorer, navigate to Create Subaccount.
2. In the dialog to create the subaccount, select a name under Display Name.
3. In the dropdown menu for Region, select an option. The options are sorted by the service host, then by region. You can choose Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform, or Microsoft Azure, each of which offers multiple regions. Your data will be hosted by the provider in a data center in that region (see below).

4. Next, you can select a Subdomain (see figure below). This step is optional. The subdomain is automatically generated as a suggestion and can be overwritten by a customer name, which must be unique within SAP BTP. We’ll discuss the subdomain in more detail ahead.

5. In the Advanced section, you can check the Used for Production box if this is a production account (as shown in the previous figure). This has no direct effect on your subaccount, but it helps the SAP system to prioritize your support tickets when it is a productive subaccount.
6. Finally, click Create to create the subaccount.
7. After a short while, the Creation Pending label (see next figure) disappears, and the subaccount is ready for use. 

When choosing the subdomain, you should pay attention to the following points:

• The subdomain name may only contain letters, numbers, and underscores.
• The subdomain name must not contain any hyphens at the beginning or end.
• The subdomain must be unique across all subaccounts in the selected region. If another customer already uses the subdomain you want, you must choose a different subdomain.
• Upper- and lowercase letters are allowed, but the case will not affect name matching.

Organizing Subaccounts with Directories

When creating subaccounts, you may have noticed that there is also an option to create directories. If you have a lot of accounts to manage, it is a good idea to divide them into directories. As you can see in the first figure below, you can customize the view in the account explorer. In addition, you can access a graphical view by clicking the Distribution button, as shown in the second figure.

Checking Service Availability by Region

Because not all services are available in all environments and regions, we recommend that you check in advance in the SAP BTP documentation whether the desired services are available from the preferred provider in the desired region. SAP Discovery Center lists all cloud services and their geographical availability. When you activate a service via the Services > Service Marketplace path, you can also see in which data centers the service is offered (see final figure).

Conclusion

Creating subaccounts in SAP BTP is an essential step in structuring your global account for flexibility, scalability, and security. By carefully selecting regions, defining subdomains, and organizing accounts with directories, you can better align your SAP landscape with your business needs. Before provisioning services, always confirm their availability in your chosen region to avoid disruptions. With a well-planned subaccount strategy, you’ll ensure smoother system connections, improved resource management, and a foundation that supports both development and production environments in SAP BTP.

Editor’s note: This post has been adapted from a section of the book Configuring SAP Business Technology Platform: The Practical Guide for Administrators by Martin Koch and Siegfried Zeilinger. Martin is the managing director of CloudDNA GmbH, an SAP partner in Austria. Siegfried is a freelancer and managing director of a small management consultancy.

This post was originally published 9/2025.