The Procure - to - Pay Cycle

The Procure - to - Pay Cycle

Introduction

SAP Business One has the capability to meet the procurement process needs of SMBs - small and medium scale businesses. In a typically organization, there's usually a purchasing department. The responsibility of this department is to handle the procurement of materials. However, this process impacts on other departments - inventory, material requirement planning, production and Financial. Suffice to say that, at any point in time, you are either impacting on stock quantity and/or stock value.

In this posting, I shall be explaining the procurement process in SAP Business One as it relates to inventory and of course financial. Ideally, the process starts with a purchase requisition is created and then purchase order. A goods receipt that is based on the purchase order is then created. Based on the goods receipt, an invoice is then created upon which the outgoing payment transaction is based. However, in SAP Business One, purchase requistion is not catered for.


Figure 1.

At this juncture, it is worth mentioning that SAP Business One leverages the draw document wizard to facilitate the creation of a target document (e.g Goods Receipt PO) based on a source document (e.g purchase order). During the copying process, options as to how the inheritance of definitions should be carried out can be customized if need be. It is important to state that the A/P Invoice is the only document that is mandatory in order to register a procurement process. Base documents such as the purchase order and the goods receipt PO are optional.

The Purchase Order
The purchase order is a document used to request a supplier to supply goods or services. This document usually contains strict conditions on which the supply is based. A purchase order can be tied to cost centers or projects. The essence is to allow for better analysis as to what it's actually meant for. Goods receipt and invoicing ideally references the purchase order.

You can minimize data entry by duplicating an existing purchase order. Also, when purchase order data such as the vendor and items are entered, default values are displayed based on the definition in the relevant master data. For example, the address of the vendor, the payment terms and payment systems, price and item description are copied from the corresponding master data.

The purchase order contains the header part, line details and the footer. The header part contain information about the entire purchase order such as document currency, document date and due date. The line item level contains information about the items ordered such as item code and name. The footer also displays general document information such as payment due and total discount value.

When a purchase order is created, no entry is made in accounting; however, the inventory status is updated based on the quantity ordered. This is reflected in the ordered and in stock fields in the inventory tab of the item master data and the inventory report. The Purchase Order can be accessed under:
Purchasing - A/P > Purchase Order

Figure 2 shows the Purchase Order screen.

Figure 2


Goods Receipt PO (GPO)
The second step in the procurement process in SAP Business One is the creation of goods receipt that is based on a purchase order. Ideally, referencing a previously created purchasing order creates this document. However, it can be created without referencing the purchase order. When you record the receipt of goods, the system updates the open item for the purchase order.

At this stage, it is pertinent for the appropriate department to check whether the correct items are delivered and whether the actual quantity has been delivered, over delivery and under delivery is also ascertained at this level. In more complex situation that involves perishable items like pharmaceuticals, the expiration date can also be validated at this stage.

It is possible to create several goods receipt by referencing a single purchase order especially when batch delivery is practiced. When a goods receipt is created based on a purchase order, the information entered in the purchase order is inherited. Hence, the elimination of the need for double entry. However, some of these definitions can also be edited or modified when creating the goods receipt.

When goods receipt PO is created in the system, the inventory status is updated by the quantity received. Also, if stocks are continuously managed, relevant accounting information is updated in financials. The Goods Receipt PO can be accessed under
Purchasing - A/P > Goods Receipt PO

Figure 3 shows the Goods Receipt PO screen.

Figure 3

AP Invoice
After purchase order and goods receipt creation, comes invoicing. When you reference a purchase order or goods receipt when creating an invoice, the system copies the data defined in the preceding document(s). This information includes vendor details, item code, item description and quantity. These inherited values can be modified, for example, installment payment. However, the system verifies if there are irregularities between the purchase order or goods receipt and the invoice. System messages are displayed accordingly depending on the business rule defined in the system and invoices can be blocked as a consequence. Basically what happens at the background is that when an invoice is based on a purchase order and goods receipt, the system copies the order prices from the purchase order document and the received quantities from the purchase order document. Furthermore, the system determines the quantities that are yet to be invoiced by calculating the difference between the quantity delivered and the quantity that was invoiced earlier. The system also calculates the expected value for the items, which is a product of the quantity to be invoiced and the order price. This value is not static. It can be modified accordingly. When an invoice is created, the corresponding vendor accounts is updated accordingly. The AP Invoice can be accessed under this path:
Purchasing - A/P > AP Invoice

Figure 4 shows the AP Invoice screen

Figure 4

Outgoing Payment
Most times, outgoing payment is based on account payable invoices. When a vendor is chosen, a list of all invoices awaiting payment is displayed. You simply click on the particular invoice to be paid and effect the transaction. When an outgoing payment transaction is created, corresponding journal entry is created. Payment could be made in check, bank transfer, credit card or cash. If you create outgoing payment for a vendor that has a pre-defined consolidating business partner, the journal entry is created against the consolidating business partner.

It is possible for outgoing payment to be based on one or more invoices that were fully paid. In such case, the transaction of the paid invoices and the outgoing payment are automatically reconciled. Furthermore, the amount due and the paid/credit fields in the paid invoice are updated accordingly and the status of the invoice changes to closed.
The outgoing payment can be accessed under this path:
Banking > Outgoing Payments > Outgoing Payment

Figure 5 shows the Outgoing Payment screen

Figure 5

It is important to state that workflow - approval procedures and document reversal - Goods Return and Credit Memo are not discussed here.