---
sourceDocument: Yokohama Finance and Supply Chain
sourceDocumentLink: https://servicenow-prod.fluidtopics.net/r/yokohama/source-to-pay-operations

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    - yokohama

ft:locale :

    - en-US

ft:publication_title :

    - Yokohama Finance and Supply Chain

ft:clusterId :

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workflow :

    - Employee


---

# Sourcing intake guided experience with playbooks

# Sourcing intake guided experience with playbooks {#ariaid-title1}

* Release version: Yokohama
* 
* Updated January 30, 2025
* 
* ![](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/portal-asset/ico-clock) 3 minutes to read

Summarize  
![AI sparkle icon](https://servicenow.com/docs/portal-asset/ai-sparkle-icon) Summarized using AI  
This content was generated using new OpenAI-powered functionality. Results are provided on an as is basis and are not guaranteed to be accurate or complete.  

## Summary of Sourcing intake guided experience with playbooks

ServiceNow's sourcing intake and negotiation setup playbooks provide sourcing managers with guided workflows to efficiently handle complex sourcing requests and negotiations.
These playbooks streamline the intake process, facilitate collaboration, and help focus efforts on productive activities such as negotiating supplier savings.
Show full answer Show less  

## Key Features

* **Sourcing Intake Playbook:** Enables review of employee or requester requirements including purchase lines and approvals. It allows requesting clarifications, collaborating with cross-functional teams by creating tasks and cases, and deciding on negotiation timing.
* **Negotiation Setup Playbook:** Supports managing sourcing events by reviewing and adding sourcing requests, purchase lines, suppliers, and handling qualification work. This playbook can be accessed either immediately or after initial qualification based on the sourcing manager's approach.
* **Configurable Playbooks:** Customers can tailor playbook stages, activities, declarative actions, and the user experience to align with their specific processes through the Playbooks and Activity Definition modules.
* **Troubleshooting Guidance:** Provides steps to diagnose and resolve issues with playbook activities, including process navigation, workflow checks, and activity experience reviews within configuration tables.

## Practical Use and Benefits

By using these playbooks, sourcing managers can:

* Gain clear visibility into sourcing requests and their progress with guided steps.
* Make informed decisions on whether to start negotiations immediately or after qualification.
* Collaborate effectively with internal teams and manage supplier interactions within a structured framework.
* Customize playbooks to fit organizational sourcing workflows and improve user experience.
* Quickly identify and fix issues when playbook functionalities do not perform as expected.

## Additional Support

ServiceNow provides related playbooks and tasks to support sourcing processes such as contract fulfillment, NDA routing, delivery address verification, and supplier risk assessment, as well as handling various purchase order and requisition edits within the sourcing lifecycle.  
As sourcing managers, you can use the sourcing intake and negotiation setup playbooks to guide you through the complex request intake process so that you can focus on actual productive work such as negotiating savings from
suppliers.
The sourcing intake playbook and the negotiation setup playbook embedded in the sourcing intake playbook as a flow, guide you through these actions with clear steps to view your progress​.

Here's a quick breakdown of the playbooks and their associated tasks.

## Sourcing intake playbook {#sourcing-intake-guided-exp__section_gmm_qlj_y1c}

The sourcing request playbook, also known as the sourcing intake playbook, enables you to:

* Review an employee or requester's requirements, which include details of the sourcing intake, purchase lines, and approvals.
* Request clarifications or more information from the requester, if necessary.
* Collaborate with cross-functional teams and create other work such as tasks and cases for them, if necessary.For more information on how to perform these actions on the sourcing intake playbook, see [Review details and request clarification on a sourcing request in playbook](https://servicenow-prod.fluidtopics.net/VgpJ0zJCfYm15LVQDaQuKQ "Get complete clarity on a sourcing request by reviewing the intake details, purchase lines, and approvals, and requesting clarification on the request, if necessary. You can perform these actions from the Request details section of the sourcing intake playbook.").

* Decide if you should negotiate in a sourcing event or not.Here, as the sourcing manager, you can select a sourcing approach to source with similar employee requests. You can decide whether to work on negotiations with
  suppliers right away or at a later stage. In case of the former, you must add the sourcing request to a new or existing sourcing event​ to proceed.

  For more information on how to perform these actions on the sourcing
  intake playbook, see [Select a sourcing approach in playbook](https://servicenow-prod.fluidtopics.net/VAfuHHeMSr2V27MOZbFJnw "Decide if you want to negotiate with suppliers right away, or skip this step and start qualifying the sourcing request instead. You can perform these actions from the Sourcing approach section of the sourcing intake playbook.").  
  Note:  
  If you have skipped negotiations at this stage, you have the option to work on negotiations after the qualification is complete. You can add the sourcing request to an exiting sourcing event or create a new sourcing event as required, before working with the sourcing event.
{#sourcing-intake-guided-exp__ul_j3d_zlj_y1c}

## Negotiation setup playbook {#sourcing-intake-guided-exp__section_xkx_qlj_y1c}

The sourcing event playbook, also known as the negotiation setup playbook, enables you to:

* Review and add sourcing requests and purchase lines, if necessary.
* Review and add suppliers, if necessary.
* Manage qualification work.For more information on this, see [Set up negotiations with suppliers and manage qualifications in playbook](https://servicenow-prod.fluidtopics.net/GoC~ulAkYkhXn~ttjCsR7A "Work on a negotiation setup playbook to manage qualification work, and review the sourcing requests, suppliers, and purchase lines, all within the premises of a sourcing event.").

  Note:  
  This action in available in both the playbooks, depending on when you want to get started with managing qualification work.
{#sourcing-intake-guided-exp__ul_p1x_3xl_21c}

## Configurations {#sourcing-intake-guided-exp__section_as3_lcd_2yb}

The playbook stages and activities of sourcing requests and sourcing events can be modified by the customer from Playbooks. ​The Declarative Actions can be edited or newly created, and their mappings modified in the Activity Definition section. The look and feel of the activities can also be configured from Activity
Experience in the Activity Definition section.​

For details on how administrators, agents, and fulfillers can configure playbooks, see [Running playbooks](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=playbook-agents-and-fulfillers&version=yokohama&pubname=yokohama-build-workflows&ft:locale=en-US). For more information on Playbooks stages and activities, see [Stages and activities](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=process-automation-designer-lanes-activities&version=yokohama&pubname=yokohama-build-workflows&ft:locale=en-US).

## Troubleshooting {#sourcing-intake-guided-exp__section_ews_41d_2yb}

If your playbook activities aren't working as expected, perform these actions.

1. Navigate to the respective process in Playbooks. For sourcing requests and sourcing events, the processes are Sourcing Intake and Negotiation Setup respectively.
2. Within the process, go to the corresponding activity that is not working as expected. For example, in the Sourcing approach section, which is the second stage of the playbook:
   * If stage 2.1 is skipped, it should go to the Qualification workflow.
   * If stage 2.1 is completed, it should go to the Add to an existing negotiation workflow.
   * If stage 2.1 is canceled, it should go to the Create new sourcing event workflow.
   {#sourcing-intake-guided-exp__ul_ogg_fjn_11c}
3. Under the Automation tab, navigate to the corresponding subflow in Workflow Studio.
4. Open the executions of the subflow and check further.
5. To check the activity experiences, go to the sys_pd_process_definition table and check the process configurations. This table contains all the activity definition configurations and action mappings for Declarative Actions.
{#sourcing-intake-guided-exp__ol_tqz_zbd_2yb}
* **[Review details and request clarification on a sourcing request in playbook](https://servicenow-prod.fluidtopics.net/VgpJ0zJCfYm15LVQDaQuKQ)**   
  Get complete clarity on a sourcing request by reviewing the intake details, purchase lines, and approvals, and requesting clarification on the request, if necessary. You can perform these actions from the Request details section of the sourcing intake playbook.
* **[Select a sourcing approach in playbook](https://servicenow-prod.fluidtopics.net/VAfuHHeMSr2V27MOZbFJnw)**   
  Decide if you want to negotiate with suppliers right away, or skip this step and start qualifying the sourcing request instead. You can perform these actions from the Sourcing approach section of the sourcing intake playbook.
* **[Set up negotiations with suppliers and manage qualifications in playbook](https://servicenow-prod.fluidtopics.net/GoC~ulAkYkhXn~ttjCsR7A)**   
  Work on a negotiation setup playbook to manage qualification work, and review the sourcing requests, suppliers, and purchase lines, all within the premises of a sourcing event.

**Related concepts**   

* [Fulfilling request for copy of contract in playbook](https://servicenow-prod.fluidtopics.net/5~lsSxzgTkJESXofi__~4Q "Reduce manual effort by providing your procurement specialist with a playbook for attaching the contract from and sending it as an email to the employee who requested for it.")
* [Routing NDAs to suppliers](https://servicenow-prod.fluidtopics.net/JjI7atR1v9bgyoyHInz2Mg "Reduce manual effort by providing your procurement specialist with a single place to perform all the necessary actions when creating and routing Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) to suppliers and third parties.")
* [Verifying delivery addresses in playbook](https://servicenow-prod.fluidtopics.net/21Jmo9h4dCemoMlFDQ3cdA "Procurement specialists can verify delivery addresses and notify shoppers through email for delivery address-related updates using playbook.")
* [Reviewing and updating general ledger details in playbook](https://servicenow-prod.fluidtopics.net/KOS7A6fA_Krz4lh8kiSqbg "As a fulfiller working in the procurement team, you can review and update missing General Ledger (GL) account details using playbook.")
* [Streamlining the supplier risk assessment workflow](https://servicenow-prod.fluidtopics.net/2PlfaGO1GpsMa5krwkHsMQ "As procurement specialists, track activity on the Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM) records, and update and make changes to the sourcing requests and purchase requests based on the final risk rating.")  
**Related tasks**   

* [Process a purchase order edit in playbook](https://servicenow-prod.fluidtopics.net/PH67Gx58U2Sk_jFFu3~Eow "You can edit and revise the quantity of the product or delivery location of the purchase orders based on your requirements.")
* [Process a purchase requisition edit request in playbook](https://servicenow-prod.fluidtopics.net/UumKFwg4iz8xrYfs195ecw "Use the procurement playbook to approve or reject the revision requests for the quantity of the product or delivery location.")
* [Process a return request in playbook](https://servicenow-prod.fluidtopics.net/_QHQVq4hCxFnlztSgjrTAw "Use the procurement playbook to approve or reject return requests.")
* [Process a replacement request in playbook](https://servicenow-prod.fluidtopics.net/DlWFGev_9mjR2oQjQUYsFg "Use the procurement playbook to approve or reject replacement requests.")
* [Process an edit receipt request in playbook](https://servicenow-prod.fluidtopics.net/yg0MgrB3BHNw0YKUqWXQaw "You can revise previously approved receipts to correct any discrepancies, ensuring the delivery receipt accurately reflects the quantities received for a specific purchase order.")