Purchase order procedure

The purchase order procedure covers the complete administrative procedure for purchasing goods or services.

The procedure includes these steps:

Step 1. To create purchase orders

Purchase orders can be created as follows in the Purchase Order - Lines (tdpur4100m900) session:

Step 2. To approve purchase orders

After purchase orders are created, purchase order approval is a mandatory step in the purchase order procedure. The execution of the order procedure activities can start when a user approves the order.

Step 3. To print purchase orders

After the order is registered and approved, you can print the purchase order and send it to the buy-from business partner as confirmation. The Print Purchase Orders (tdpur4401m000) session is only mandatory if you communicate the purchase order to the buy-from business partner by mail or by electronic data interchange (EDI). If you use the phone to communicate purchase orders, this step is optional.

After the purchase order is printed, you can still modify the purchase order.

Step 4. To release purchase orders to Warehousing

After the buy-from business partner is informed about the purchase order and the purchase order is approved, you can release the purchase order to Warehousing in the Release Purchase Orders to Warehousing (tdpur4246m000). As a result, the warehousing department is informed about the goods to be expected.

When purchase orders are released to the warehouse, several activities are triggered in Warehouse Orders, starting with warehouse order creation in the Warehousing Orders (whinh2100m000) session. The activities in Warehouse Orders depend on the warehouse order type that is linked to the purchase order type. You must first link activities to a warehousing procedure in the Activities by Procedure (whinh0106m000) session. You can link a warehousing procedure to a warehousing order type in the Warehousing Order Type (whinh0110m000) session, after which you can link the warehousing order type to a purchase order type in the Purchase Order Types (tdpur0194m000) session.

It is not mandatory to release purchase orders for cost items and service items to Warehousing. This depends on the setting of the Release to Warehouse check box in the Item - Purchase (tdipu0101m000) session. Direct deliveries are never released to warehousing.

Step 5. To receive the purchased goods

You can record the receipts of purchased goods:

  • In Warehousing if the purchase order is released to Warehousing. The receipt procedure is covered by the inbound procedure and the inspection procedure in Inventory Handling (INH).

    When receipts are recorded in Warehousing, the receipt data is reported back to Procurement. You can view this data in the following sessions:

    • Purchase Orders - Receipt Overview (tdpur4531m000)
    • Purchase Receipts (tdpur4106m000)
  • In Procurement for non-inventory items that are not released to Warehousing. You can record the deliveries in the Purchase Receipts (tdpur4106m000) session.

After a receipt is confirmed in the Purchase Receipts (tdpur4106m000) session, you can no longer change the receipt data in this session. However, you can still change specific receipt data in the Correct Purchase Receipt (tdpur4106s100) session.

When the goods are received, the prices and discounts of the goods may be changed. Use the Change Price and Discounts after Receipt (tdpur4122m000) session to maintain prices and discounts.

Step 6. To pay for the purchased goods

To manage the payment of the purchased goods, you must use Accounts Payable (ACP). You can only carry out this process if the Financials package is implemented.

In the purchase order procedure, the business partner does not need to send an invoice. Instead, you can use self-billing to automatically generate invoices for the purchased goods.

Self-billing is typically used if you have:

  • A contract with the business partner for the price of the goods you are buying.
  • An agreement with the business partner that you will pay for the goods without receiving an invoice for them.

Self-billing is controlled by the following fields in the Purchase Orders (tdpur4100m000)/ Purchase Order Lines (tdpur4101m000) session:

  • Self-Billed Invoice
    If you select this check box, an invoice can be generated for each order line receipt. In the financial company to which the purchase office is linked, you can select the order lines and generate the invoices in the Generate Self-Billed/Internal Purchase Invoices (tfacp2290m000) session.
  • Invoice after

    This field can be set to one of the following:

    • Inspection
      Self-billed invoices can only be created for the total approved received quantity, after all inspections have been finished for a particular receipt.
    • Receipt
      A self-billed invoice can be immediately created for the total received quantity. If, after inspection, some quantity is rejected, in the Generate Self-Billed/Internal Purchase Invoices (tfacp2290m000) session, an invoice is created for the rejected quantity. This invoice contains a negative quantity.
Step 7. To process purchase orders

At the end of the purchase order procedure, all purchase orders must be processed in the Process Delivered Purchase Orders (tdpur4223m000) session. The processed purchase orders are transferred from the regular database to the history database.