Purchase requisition merging
Summarize
Summary of Purchase Requisition Merging
Purchase requisition merging in ServiceNow helps avoid unnecessary multiple purchase orders by grouping requisitions and purchase lines under specific conditions. This feature supports enforcing approval limits and streamlines procurement processes by consolidating orders from the same supplier when criteria such as timing, requester, and cost center match.
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Key Scenarios for Merging Purchase Requisitions
- Scenario 1: When a purchase requisition (PR) is Pending Approval, new lines from the same supplier and matching attributes (submitted by, supplier, cost center, business owner) added within 24 hours are automatically merged into the existing PR. If sourcing is required and the supplier is awarded, lines are added similarly.
- Scenario 2 and 3: For PRs in Awaiting Task Completion or Final Review states without an associated purchase order, procurement specialists can manually merge newer requisitions into existing ones within 24 hours, reverting the merged PR to Pending Approval. Annotations guide merging actions.
- Scenario 4: If a PR in Awaiting Task Completion is not merged, subsequent purchases within 24 hours automatically merge with the most recent PR in Pending Approval.
- Scenario 5: When multiple PRs are in Awaiting Task Completion or Final Review, users can select which PR to merge with from a list of eligible requisitions created within 24 hours sharing the same attributes.
- Scenario 6: Requisitions created as PO revisions are excluded from merging. However, non-PO revision requisitions follow similar merging criteria.
- Scenario 7: PRs that are Closed (Canceled, Rejected, or Complete) do not accept new lines; instead, new PRs are created.
- Scenario 8: If a PO already exists for a supplier, new requisitions and purchase requests are created for additional supplier products.
Purchase Line Merging
Within a single purchase requisition, lines can be merged when the supplier product, business owner, cost center, requester, delivery dates, location, payment method, and purchase reason are identical except for quantity. Different delivery dates, locations, or payment methods require separate lines or adjusted cost allocations. Different purchase reasons are combined and listed with quantities.
Important Notes
- Merging options appear only on the most recently created purchase requisition in the UI.
- Bundled products are excluded from both purchase requisition and purchase line merging.
Purchase requisitions can be merged if certain criteria are met. This avoids multiple purchase orders from being created unnecessarily and also helps enforce approval rule limits.
Consider these various scenarios for purchase requisition grouping.
Scenarios for merging purchase requisitions
A procurement buyer can group new products by the same supplier into an existing requisition so that multiple orders are not sent to the supplier. Consider the following scenarios:
- Sourcing not required:
If the shopper adds a supplier product from the same Supplier A in Shopping Hub, and it has the same submitted by, supplier, cost center, and business owner as PR1, then the lines are automatically grouped with PR1 with the state Pending Approval. PR1 remains in Pending Approval state. Approvals are re-assessed similar to revisions. If the line was created more than 24 hours after PR1, it is not grouped automatically and is created under a new purchase requisition.
- Sourcing required:
If the shopper adds a supplier product from the same Supplier A in Shopping Hub that does not have an active contractual price, a sourcing request is created. In the sourcing request, assuming that the line was awarded to the same Supplier A, and there is an existing purchase requisition with the same submitted by, supplier, cost center, and business owner, and the newly sourced line was created not more than 24 hours after PR1, the purchase line references PR1 when the supplier is awarded, and a purchase requisition is created. The line is added into PR1 with the state Pending Approval. PR1 remains in Pending Approval state. Approvals are re-assessed similar to revisions.
- A procurement specialist has to manually merge the purchase requisitions.
- Sourcing not required:
- An annotation is displayed on the header of PR2 indicating that this purchase requisition can be merged with another existing requisition <purchase requisition number>, where <purchase requisition number> is a link to PR1 that has the same submitted by, supplier, cost center, and business owner as PR2. This annotation is cleared once an order is created against PR1.
- The user can select Merge on the PR2 header to move the lines from PR2 to PR1. If there are no other requisitions or sourcing requests belonging to the purchase request that PR2 belongs to, then the purchase request and PR2 are deleted. The merged lines are in the state Pending Approval, and the purchase requisition is also reverted to Pending Approval. However, the original lines remain in their original state. Approvals are re-assessed similar to revisions.
- If there were other requisitions or sourcing requests under purchase request 2, then the purchase request is not deleted. Only purchase requisition 2 is deleted.
- The Merge UI action is only available if PR2 and the corresponding lines were created not more than 24 hours after PR1.
- Sourcing required: Upon awarding the sourcing request, a similar annotation is displayed on the header of the sourcing request indicating that this line can be merged with another existing requisition <Purchase requisition number>. The user can select Merge with Existing Requisition or Create Requisition. If merged, PR1's state reverts to Pending Approval.
Scenario 3: PR1 for Supplier A exists, in state Final Review. PO does not exist yet. Same as Scenario 2.
Scenario 4: PR1 in state Awaiting Task Completion, PR2 not merged with PR1 and in state Pending Approval. Another purchase is created. If the procurement specialist decides not to merge PR2 with PR1, and PR2’s state is still Pending Approval, then the new purchase lines automatically merge with PR2 according to the criteria in Scenario 1.
- When the user selects Merge on the new purchase requisition, display a list of all the purchase requisitions in the state Awaiting Task Completion or Final Review, and allow the user to select which one to merge with.
- In this scenario, an annotation is displayed on the most recent purchase requisition indicating that this purchase requisition can be merged with several other requisitions.
- Purchase requisitions of type Revision, created as a result of PO revision, are not eligible for merging.
- Purchase requisition revisions, where no PO is created, can be considered for merging using similar criteria documented in the previous scenarios.
Scenario 7: PR1 for Supplier A exists, in state Closed Canceled, Closed Rejected, or Closed Complete. A line is not grouped into a PR that has the state Closed Canceled, Closed Rejected, or Closed Complete. Instead, a new PR is created.
Scenario 8: PO already created, and supplier product(s) from the same supplier is added. Create a new purchase request and purchase requisition (PR2).
Purchase line merge
- If the supplier product, business owner, cost center, submitted by, delivery date or start date/end date, delivery location, payment method, and purchase reason are identical, except the quantity, the purchase lines can be grouped into a single line instead of separate lines.
- If the delivery date, start date/end date, or delivery location is different, a new line must be created.
- If only the payment method is different, the cost allocation entries should be updated accordingly, based on the combined ratio.
- If only the purchase reason is different, append the purchasing reasons as follows:
- Purchasing reason 1 - qty 1 (example: New hire orientation - qty 10)
- Purchasing reason 2 - qty 2 (example: IT hardware refresh - qty 2)