Source-to-Pay sourcing workflow
Summarize
Summary of Source-to-Pay sourcing workflow
The Source-to-Pay (S2P) sourcing workflow integrates the Sourcing and Procurement Operations (SPO), Supplier Lifecycle Operations (SLO), and Accounts Payable Operations (APO) products to provide a seamless end-to-end process for sourcing, supplier onboarding, procurement, and invoice management. This workflow supports multiple roles and applications to ensure smooth execution and visibility throughout the sourcing lifecycle.
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Prerequisites
To utilize the sourcing workflow, customers must install and activate the necessary plugins for SPO, SLO, and APO products according to specified installation sequences.
Workflow Steps and Roles
- Request Initiation: Employees create sourcing requests for items without contractual pricing or catalog availability via Shopping Hub or Employee Center (role: snshop.shopper).
- Approval: Requests are routed to approvers who review and approve them through Employee Center (role: snshop.procurementspecialist).
- Procurement Specialist Assignment: Work assignment rules assign procurement specialists, who add sourcing requests to negotiation events in Source-to-Pay Workspace.
- Supplier Negotiation and Qualification: Negotiations automatically include qualified suppliers; new suppliers undergo qualification and onboarding using guided playbooks and task management (roles: snshop.procurementspecialist, snslm.manager).
- Supplier Collaboration: Supplier contacts complete assigned onboarding tasks and risk assessments through the Supplier Collaboration Portal (role: snslm.contact).
- Awarding Suppliers: Sourcing managers award suppliers upon closing of responses.
- Purchase Orders: Purchase requisitions are auto-created and reviewed by procurement specialists who finalize purchase orders.
- Order Fulfillment and Confirmation: Employees confirm receipt of products or services via Shopping Hub or Employee Center.
- Invoice Processing: Invoices are auto-created; accounts payable specialists handle exceptions, manual invoice creation, invoice type conversions, and invoice case management through Source-to-Pay Workspace (roles: snapapm.accountspayablespecialist, snapcm.agent).
Visibility and Collaboration
All key participants—including employees, approvers, procurement specialists, supplier managers, and accounts payable personnel—have full visibility into workflow status and progress through their respective portals, enabling effective collaboration and process tracking.
Gather a high-level understanding of the end-to-end sourcing workflow with the Sourcing and Procurement Operations (SPO), Supplier Lifecycle Operations (SLO), and Accounts Payable Operations (APO) products within the Source-to-Pay (S2P) suite.
Prerequisites
Workflow of the sourcing process
The following figure shows how different personas use the various applications withing the SPO, SLO, and APO products to complete the end-to-end sourcing process within the Source-to-Pay (S2P) suite.
- An employee creates a sourcing request for a product or service that doesn't have a contractual price, or isn’t available in the catalog. For more information, see Complete sourcing checkout and Requesting for products or services that you don't see on ShoppingHub, respectively.
Role: sn_shop.shopper.
Application portal: Shopping Hub and Employee Center respectively.
- Approval rules route the sourcing request to one or more assigned approvers.
- An approver reviews the sourcing request and approves it. For more information, see Approve a request from Employee Center.
Role: sn_shop.procurement_specialist.
Application portal: Employee Center.
- Work assignment rules route the sourcing request to an assigned procurement specialist.
- The procurement specialist, with the contained role of a sourcing manager, adds the sourcing request to a negotiation event. For more information, see Add a sourcing request to a negotiation event.
Role: sn_shop.procurement_specialist.
Application portal: Source-to-Pay Workspace.
- Negotiations are auto-created with qualified suppliers. For more information, see Sourcing intake guided experience with playbooks.
If sourcing with a new supplier, see Improve sourcing experience when working with new suppliers.
Role: sn_shop.procurement_specialist.
Application portal: Source-to-Pay Workspace.
- Begin the qualification process to onboard the new supplier. For more information, see Supplier qualification.
Role: sn_shop.procurement_specialist.
Application portal: Source-to-Pay Workspace.
- Review the supplier onboarding case and start the supplier onboarding using playbooks. For more information, see Using the supplier onboarding playbook to onboard suppliers.
The playbook automatically creates supplier tasks to conduct risk assessment and to collect supplier information, such as banking information and location details.
Role: sn_slm.manager.
Application portal: Source-to-Pay Workspace.
- The supplier manager assigns the supplier tasks to the supplier contact.
Role: sn_slm.manager.
Application portal: Source-to-Pay Workspace.
- The supplier contact completes the following tasks:
- Assigned tasks. For more information, see Viewing supplier contact tasks from the Supplier Collaboration Portal.
- Risk assessment questionnaire. For more information, see Complete a risk assessment from the Supplier Collaboration Portal.
Role: sn_slm.contact.
Application portal: Supplier Collaboration Portal.
- After the supplier manager reviews the supplier risk score and completes the different activities in each stage of the playbook, the supplier is successfully onboarded.
Role: sn_slm.manager.
Application portal: Source-to-Pay Workspace.
- On reaching supplier responses close date, the sourcing manager awards one or more suppliers. For more information, see Award multiple suppliers from a negotiation event.
Role: sn_shop.procurement_specialist.
Application portal: Source-to-Pay Workspace.
- Purchase requisitions are auto-created. The procurement specialist reviews the purchase requisitions and its associated purchase lines, and creates purchase orders. For more information, see SPO list page.
Role: sn_shop.procurement_specialist.
Application portal: Source-to-Pay Workspace.
- On fulfillment, the employee confirms receipt of the requested product. For more information, see Confirm receipt of your order from Shopping Hub Home and Confirm receipt of your order from Employee Center.
Role: sn_shop.shopper.
Application portal: Shopping Hub or Employee Center.
- Invoices are auto-created. When invoices aren’t auto-submitted or don’t match the purchase orders, or when invoice exceptions must be resolved, an accounts payable specialist gets involved. For more information, see Accounts Payable Invoice Processing.
Alternatively, the accounts payable specialist manually creates invoices. For more information, see Accounts Payable Specialist manual tasks.
Role: sn_ap_apm.accounts_payable_specialist.
Application portal: Source-to-Pay Workspace.
- The accounts payable specialist converts invoices of purchase order type to invoice types such as non-purchase order, credit memo, and debit memo, based on their interactions with shoppers and suppliers of business services.
For more information, see Accounts Payable Specialist manual tasks.
Role: sn_ap_apm.accounts_payable_specialist.
Application portal: Source-to-Pay Workspace.
- An accounts payable agent manages and works on assigned invoice cases, requests more information from suppliers or employees if necessary, and creates and assigns tasks to the users. For more information, see Invoice Case Management.
Role: sn_ap_cm.agent.
Application portal: Source-to-Pay Workspace.
- The employee, approver, sourcing manager, procurement specialist, supplier manager, accounts payable specialist, and accounts payable agent have complete visibility into the status of the workflow through process completion, from their respective portals.