5.4    Operational Purchasing

SAP S/4HANA real-time analytical SAP Fiori apps provide visibility and insights to the procure-to-pay process, which helps users with an enhanced user experience, identifies issues proactively, controls risks, and improves performance of the procure-to-pay process. There are two types of requisitions covered here: direct procurement and indirect purchase requisition. Let's explore these further:

• Direct procurement
  Purchase requisitions are generated from the MRP run for direct procurement. The procurement department converts the purchase requisitions to purchase orders manually or automatically based on the purchase requisition release date (date on which the purchase order should be initiated from the purchase requisition).
• Indirect purchase requisition
  The employee creates purchase requisitions in SAP S/4HANA. All indirect purchase requisitions are approved by required approvers and converted to purchase orders.

In this section, we’ll describe how SAP S/4HANA helps employees, buyers, and approvers in purchase requisitioning to purchase order processing and automate the operational procurement processing.

5.4.1    Self-Service Requisitions

Self-service requisitioning allows employees to procure goods and services through purchase requisitions. Employees can create purchase requisitions with free text items, or they can select items from an external catalog and submit the purchase requisitions. Figure 5.9 shows the Employee Self Services SAP Fiori apps available for employees to procure goods and services, monitor the status, and perform goods receipt

Figure 5.9    Employee Self Service SAP Fiori Apps

Each SAP Fiori app in employee self-service procurement helps you perform certain tasks, as described here:

• Create Purchase Requisition
  Employee creates purchase requisition to procure goods and services.
• My Purchase Requisitions
  Employee monitors the status of purchase requisitions. Figure 5.10 shows a list of purchase requisitions with status and options.
• Confirm Receipt of Goods
  Employee confirms receipt of goods and performs return delivery of goods.

Figure 5.10    Purchase Requisition Status from My Purchase Requisitions App

5.4.2    Managing Purchase Requisitions

Managing purchase requisitions is one of the important operational procurement activities of the buyer. In SAP ERP, buyers use Transaction ME57 to convert a purchase requisition to a purchase order. Buyers go back and forth to change selection parameters, which requires additional effort.

SAP S/4HANA offers the Manage Purchase Requisition app to manage purchase requisitions in an effective manner. Buyers can convert purchase requisitions to purchase orders using this SAP Fiori app. Buyers also have the option to create a request for quotation (RFQ) for unsourced items. RFQs can be sent to the SAP Ariba sourcing module to trigger the sourcing event. Section 5.5 discusses SAP S/4HANA and SAP Ariba sourcing integration in detail.

Buyers can also use the filtering option in the header section to filter the data by Purchasing Group and Plant and download the purchase requisition data for analysis. Figure 5.11 shows the Manage Purchase Requisitions app with options to create RFQs and purchase orders.

Figure 5.11    Manage Purchase Requisitions App with Options to Create RFQs or Purchase Orders

5.4.3    Purchase Order Processing

In most scenarios, purchase orders will be created automatically from the MRP run or created from converting the purchase requisition. SAP S/4HANA provides the Create Purchase Order app, allowing you to quickly create purchase orders based on search and filter options available in the header section. Options are also available to create purchase orders from info records or contracts. Figure 5.12 shows you the options in the Create Purchase Order app.

Figure 5.12    Create Purchase Order App Options

5.4.4    Purchasing Document Approval

SAP S/4HANA offers the transactional My Inbox app, which allows approvers to approve purchase requisitions, purchase orders, contracts, and invoices from a single SAP Fiori app.

5.4.5    Purchase Order Collaboration

Purchase order collaboration helps buyers and suppliers in tracking purchase orders effectively and provides visibility into purchase orders. SAP S/4HANA natively integrates with Ariba Network for purchase order collaboration. No additional add-on or IT setup is required.