Indirect Procurement

Main Process

 

Self-service requisitioning empowers employees to create and manage their own requisitions. Relieves your purchasing department of this administrative burden while making the procurement process both faster and more responsive. Providing catalogs of the most frequently ordered materials ensures that employees can easily manage their own purchase orders in accordance with your organization's rules. Self-Service Requisitioning means purchasing non-strategic goods, that is, goods not directly linked to the value chain (often called MRO maintenance, repair, and operations items). Examples include office materials, work clothes, and IT equipment.

The classic scenario that is included in SAP ERP relies on the backend system, as all materials management documents, such as purchase orders, goods receipts, service entry sheets, and invoices, exist there. Shopping cart creation and the pre-entry of confirmations and invoices take place in SRM. SRM communicates the information to the backend system where the active documents are created.

Purchase order processing fulfills direct procurement requirements through conversion from demands to purchase orders, issuance, and confirmation of purchase orders. Includes dedicated processes for the purchasing of direct materials, indirect materials, and services (for example, subcontracting for components, Internet-based employee-centered approach for MROs).

Conversion of Demands to Purchase Orders

The requirements that have been created and released for procurement (for example, demands for spare parts coming from plant maintenance, demands for raw materials determined in a planning run, or requests for office supplies entered by an employee) are transferred to purchasing as purchasing requisitions. They are presented to the purchasing agent in worklists that support him or her in converting the requisitions into purchase orders. The purchasing agent can check the source of supply and the price and conditions that have been assigned to a requisition and start a request for quotation or bidding process if necessary. Release procedures are available to control critical procurement processes.

Confirmation and Monitoring Purchasing Activities

Several types of purchase order confirmation can be received from the supplier (for example, order acknowledgements, loading confirmations, or shipping notifications). Depending on the rules that have been customized, reminders are sent automatically if follow-on activities (for example, a confirmation or delivery by the supplier) are missing or delayed. Functions for transportation management and foreign trade are available for both the inbound and outbound sides. Monitoring functions provide an overview of the status of all running procurement processes.

Informs other departments about the received and accepted quantity of ordered goods.

Acknowledgment of Receipt within Logistics

Your confirmation of the quantity received forms the basis of the information flow to the planning and purchasing departments. These departments can consider the new stock or requirement situation and see the receipt in the order history. If the receipt is relevant for warehouse management, the receipt confirmation is linked to physical inbound processing.

Material Valuation

The receipt confirmation automatically triggers the material valuation and creation of documents for accounting. Documents for controlling are also created if necessary.

Receives, enters, and checks vendors invoice for correctness.

Receiving an Incoming Invoice

You can manually enter incoming invoices and automated procedures for creating invoices, such as the automated settlement of goods receipts. You can park invoices if you want to involve several persons or departments in the invoice verification process. Workflow features help to control this process.

Verifying an Incoming Invoice

In logistics invoice verification, incoming invoices are checked for correctness in terms of their content, prices, and arithmetic, thus defining the basis for the payment run. The price and conditions are compared to the conditions in the purchase order, or the invoiced quantity is compared to the received quantity. If differences exceed customized limits, the invoice is blocked automatically for payment. Tax calculation and settlement of delivery costs are also integrated.

Release of Blocked Invoices

Invoices that have been blocked can be released for payment using a monitor function. The automated release of invoices for which the blocking reasons have been clarified is also possible. Workflow features support the release process.