Purchasing from punchout or third-party suppliers
Summarize
Summary of Purchasing from punchout or third-party suppliers
ServiceNow shoppers in the punchout group can access and purchase from punchout or external third-party supplier sites directly through Shopping Hub or Employee Center. They can track their third-party purchases and shipments via the My Purchases page in Shopping Hub, enabling centralized visibility and management of external procurement activities.
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Accessing External Suppliers
- Shopping Hub: Shoppers can find external punchout suppliers under the Suppliers > Supplier sites tab by filtering with the Supplier site checkbox. The "Purchase directly from the supplier site" widget displays up to four external supplier cards, with more accessible via a complete list.
- Employee Center: Punchout group shoppers can access external suppliers under Purchase and Expense > Quick links > Purchase directly from supplier sites.
This integration provides a seamless experience to browse and select products from third-party suppliers without leaving the ServiceNow environment.
Checkout Process
Shoppers can search and order products from external suppliers within Shopping Hub's Products and Services page. The checkout experience depends on the punchout supplier’s Order API configuration:
- If the Order API is configured, shoppers can add products to their cart and complete checkout entirely within Shopping Hub.
- If not configured, shoppers are notified and redirected to the supplier’s external website to add items and place orders, then returned to Shopping Hub to finalize checkout.
This flexibility ensures that customers can efficiently order external products while maintaining procurement workflow consistency.
Post-Checkout and Order Tracking
After checkout, third-party purchase requisitions appear in the My Purchases page with detailed information including supplier data, product lines, approvals, contracts, and cases. Once approved, procurement specialists generate purchase orders, which can also be viewed in the external supplier’s order logs.
Order and shipment confirmations from suppliers update the Shipment Details table in ServiceNow. Any order revisions (quantity or price changes) from suppliers are received as purchase requisition revisions and synchronized accordingly.
Troubleshooting
For issues with purchase requisition creation or order processing, administrators should:
- Review import logs and transform history records.
- Check flow action executions for punchout setup and order confirmation errors.
- Investigate errors such as HTTP 500 codes indicating credential or configuration issues.
- Resolve purchase orders stuck in Pending Supplier Confirmation by reviewing system logs.
These steps help ensure smooth punchout procurement operations and timely issue resolution.
Shoppers who are part of the punchout group can navigate to punchout or external third-party supplier sites from Shopping Hub or Employee Center and make purchases. They can view the third-party purchases in the My purchases page on Shopping Hub, and also view the shipment records received from the third-party sites.
External suppliers on Shopping Hub
- tab: Shoppers can select the Supplier site check box to filter their search for external or punchout suppliers.
- Purchase directly from the supplier site widget: Shoppers can view up to four external supplier cards here. If there are more than four external suppliers, they can view all by going to the complete list.
For more information on punchout groups and how to configure them as an admin, see Configure punchout for third-party site purchases.
External suppliers on Employee Center
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For more information on Employee Center, see Sourcing and Procurement Operations integration with Employee Center.
Checkout from external supplier sites or Shopping Hub
The shoppers can search for all products, including the ones offered by external suppliers, from within Shopping Hub.
The configuration of the punchout supplier's Order API determines whether the shoppers can place orders for products within the Shopping Hub or on the supplier's external website.
All products from punchout or third-party suppliers are shown on the Products and Services page within Shopping Hub. If a supplier has configured the Order API, the shopper is no longer redirected to the supplier's external website to view products and add them to the cart. The shopper can do this directly within Shopping Hub and then proceed with the usual quick or full checkout process.
However, if a supplier hasn't configured the Order API, a notification message appears, informing shoppers that they are leaving the Shopping Hub application and are being redirected to the supplier's external website. After the shopper selects Confirm, they are navigated to the supplier's external website to add items to the cart and place the order. The shopper is subsequently redirected to Shopping Hub where they can continue with the checkout process.
For more information, see Configure punchout for third-party site purchases.
For more information see Order a product with quick checkout and Complete your checkout.
Post checkout from external supplier sites or Shopping Hub
After successfully completing a checkout from either an external third-party supplier site or from within Shopping Hub, a shopper can view the third-party purchase requisition in the My purchases page from Shopping Hub Home. The purchase requisition record contains details of the third-party supplier, purchase lines with product names, and the associated approvals, contracts, and cases.
Once the necessary approvals are received and the associated cases are completed, a purchase order is created by the procurement specialist. The same purchase order can also be viewed by the procurement admin in the external site in their order logs. The order confirmation and shipment confirmation details are received from the external supplier site as and when the order is processed. Shipment details are captured in the Shipment Details table by purchase lines.
In case of an update to the order quantity or price at the external supplier end, the same is sent as a revision during order confirmation to SPO, which is then updated in SPO as a revision purchase requisition. For more information on purchase revision scenarios, see Purchase revision flows.
For information on emails triggered by the system, see Alerts and email notifications from Shopping Hub.
Troubleshooting errors
- In case of any failures in creating purchase requisitions, check the import logs or transform history records. Check the flow actions 'Send Punchout Setup request' and 'Send punchout order request' context executions for connection setup failures and order confirmation failures. Check the 'Punchout Edit/Cancel flow' context executions for punchout revision flow failures.
- An error code of 500 would indicate an invalid credential record or a missing punchout configuration in the third-party registration for supplier.
- If a purchase order or purchase requisition is stuck in the Pending Supplier Confirmation status, review the system logs for any potential errors and resolve them to allow further processing of the purchase order or purchase requisition.