Source-to-Pay purchasing workflow
Summarize
Summary of Source-to-Pay purchasing workflow
The Source-to-Pay (S2P) purchasing workflow integrates the Sourcing and Procurement Operations (SPO) and Accounts Payable Operations (APO) products to provide an end-to-end purchasing process. This workflow supports multiple roles and applications, guiding transactions from employee purchase requests through procurement fulfillment and invoice processing to payment completion.
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Prerequisites
- Installation and activation of the necessary SPO and APO product plugins.
- Refer to the documented plugin installation sequences for SPO and APO to ensure proper setup.
Purchasing Process Workflow
- Employee Purchase Requests: Employees initiate purchases via quick checkout for contract-priced products or full checkout for other products/services using the Shopping Hub portal with the shopper role.
- Approval: Purchase requisitions are routed through defined approval rules to approvers who review and approve requests via Employee Center under the procurement specialist role.
- Purchase Order Fulfillment: Procurement specialists fulfill approved purchase orders using the Source-to-Pay Workspace portal.
- Receipt Confirmation: Employees confirm receipt of goods/services from Shopping Hub or Employee Center portals.
- Invoice Handling: Invoices are typically auto-created; accounts payable specialists intervene when invoices require manual creation, exception handling, or conversion between invoice types using the Source-to-Pay Workspace portal.
- Invoice Case Management: Accounts payable agents manage invoice cases, request additional information, and assign tasks to ensure resolution.
Visibility and Collaboration
All involved roles—including employees, approvers, procurement specialists, accounts payable specialists, and accounts payable agents—have full visibility into the workflow status through their respective application portals. This transparency facilitates collaboration and efficient processing throughout the purchasing lifecycle.
Gather a high-level understanding of the end-to-end purchasing workflow with the Sourcing and Procurement Operations (SPO) and Accounts Payable Operations (APO) products within the Source-to-Pay (S2P) suite.
Prerequisites
Workflow of the purchasing process
The following figure shows how different personas use the various applications withing the SPO and APO products to complete the end-to-end purchasing process within the Source-to-Pay (S2P) suite.
- An employee performs a quick checkout with a product or service that has a contractual price. A purchase requisition is created. For more information, see Order a product with quick checkout.
Alternatively, an employee performs a full checkout with products or services that have contractual prices. For more information, see Complete your checkout.
Role: sn_shop.shopper.
Application portal: Shopping Hub.
- Approval rules route the purchase request to one or more assigned approvers.
- An approver reviews the purchase request and approves it. A purchase order is created. For more information, see Approve a request from Employee Center.
Role: sn_shop.procurement_specialist.
Application portal: Employee Center.
- A procurement specialist fulfills the purchase order from the associated supplier.
Role: sn_shop.procurement_specialist.
Application portal: Source-to-Pay Workspace.
- On fulfillment, the employee confirms receipt of the requested product. For more information, see Confirm receipt of your order from Shopping Hub Home and Confirm receipt of your order from Employee Center.
Role: sn_shop.shopper.
Application portal: Shopping Hub or Employee Center.
- Invoices are auto-created. When invoices aren’t auto-submitted or don’t match the purchase orders, or when invoice exceptions must be resolved, an accounts payable specialist gets involved. For more information, see Accounts Payable Invoice Processing.
Alternatively, the accounts payable specialist manually creates invoices. For more information, see Accounts Payable Specialist manual tasks.
Role: sn_ap_apm.accounts_payable_specialist.
Application portal: Source-to-Pay Workspace.
- The accounts payable specialist converts invoices of purchase order type to invoice types such as non-purchase order, credit memo, and debit memo, based on their interactions with shoppers and suppliers of business services.
For more information, see Accounts Payable Specialist manual tasks.
Role: sn_ap_apm.accounts_payable_specialist.
Application portal: Source-to-Pay Workspace.
- An accounts payable agent manages and works on assigned invoice cases, requests more information from suppliers or employees if necessary, and creates and assigns tasks to the users. For more information, see Invoice Case Management.
Role: sn_ap_cm.agent.
Application portal: Source-to-Pay Workspace.
- The employee, approver, procurement specialist, accounts payable specialist, and accounts payable agent have complete visibility into the status of the workflow through process completion, from their respective portals.