Understanding the end-to-end sourcing workflow in Source-to-Pay Operations
Summarize
Summary of Understanding the end-to-end sourcing workflow in Source-to-Pay Operations
This guide provides a high-level understanding of the complete sourcing workflow within the Source-to-Pay (S2P) suite, spanning the Sourcing and Procurement Operations (SPO), Supplier Lifecycle Operations (SLO), and Accounts Payable Operations (APO) products. The sourcing process initiates when there is an active contractual price for a product or service a shopper intends to purchase. It integrates multiple roles and application portals to streamline procurement from request to payment.
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Prerequisites
To enable the end-to-end sourcing workflow, customers must install and activate the necessary plugins for each product:
- SPO: Sourcing and Procurement Operations plugin
- SLO: Supplier Lifecycle Operations plugin
- APO: Accounts Payable Operations plugin
Following the recommended installation sequence ensures smooth integration across the suite.
Workflow Steps and Roles
The sourcing workflow involves distinct user roles and applications collaborating to complete sourcing effectively:
- Employee (snshop.shopper): Initiates sourcing requests for products or services without contractual prices or catalog presence via Shopping Hub or Employee Center.
- Approver (snshop.procurementspecialist): Reviews and approves sourcing requests in Employee Center following predefined approval rules.
- Procurement Specialist/Sourcing Manager (snshop.procurementspecialist): Adds approved requests to sourcing/negotiation events using the Source-to-Pay Workspace; manages supplier qualification and onboarding.
- Supplier Manager (snslm.manager): Oversees supplier onboarding playbooks, assigns supplier tasks such as risk assessment and information collection within Source-to-Pay Workspace.
- Supplier Contact (snslm.contact): Completes assigned onboarding tasks and risk assessments through the Supplier Collaboration Portal.
- Accounts Payable Specialist (snapapm.accountspayablespecialist): Handles invoice processing, including managing exceptions and converting invoice types in Source-to-Pay Workspace.
- Accounts Payable Agent (snapcm.agent): Manages invoice cases, communicates with suppliers or employees for additional information, and assigns tasks.
Key Process Highlights
- Negotiations are automatically created with qualified suppliers.
- Supplier onboarding is facilitated through automated playbooks that handle risk assessments and data collection.
- Purchase requisitions and purchase orders are auto-generated and reviewed by procurement specialists.
- Employees confirm receipt of goods or services via Shopping Hub or Employee Center.
- Invoices are auto-created; accounts payable specialists intervene for exceptions or manual invoice creation.
- All stakeholders have full visibility into the workflow status through their respective application portals.
Benefits for ServiceNow Customers
This integrated, role-based sourcing workflow enables ServiceNow customers to streamline procurement activities, improve supplier onboarding efficiency, ensure compliance through structured approvals, and maintain transparency throughout the source-to-pay lifecycle. Customers can expect enhanced collaboration across procurement, supplier management, and accounts payable teams, resulting in faster, more accurate sourcing and payment processes.
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.
The sourcing workflow is triggered when there is an active contractual price for a product or service that the shopper intends to purchase.
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 sourcing 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 Use 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 sourcing 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.