SAP Purchase to Pay process

No continuous SAP P2P process in use?

This leads to the following problems in companies:

• 15 % of additional cost on average due to Maverick Buying
• 75 € is the average process cost per purchase order
• 87 % of procurement executives believe that digitization will improve the purchasing process

Functions of the digital Purchase to Pay process in SAP

The Purchase to Pay process in SAP is fully digitizedThe entire procurement process of a company can

The entire procurement process of a company can be digitally represented from the request for needs to payment and booking of the order. The process steps such as Purchase Requisition, Purchase Order, Order Confirmation, Goods Receipt, and Invoice Receipt are natively integrated within your SAP system.

Purchase Requisition: The digital purchase requisition

In the company, the need for goods is coordinated and reported through a Purchase Requisition (PR) via SAP. This is automatically forwarded to the responsible processor to place the order with the right supplier under the negotiated conditions.

Order & Order Confirmation

After placing an order based on the purchase requisition (PR), the order confirmation and purchase order data are electronically matched to avoid manual verification processes and minimize errors. The workflow-based verification and approval processes can be monitored through an SAP cockpit.

Process the goods receipt digitally

After the arrival of the goods, the delivery note is also electronically captured and compared with the underlying order and order confirmation. There is an immediate overview of goods receipts in SAP, and any deviations and subsequent processes are accelerated.

SAP invoice workflow: A seamless process

The SAP invoice workflow concludes the P2P process. Invoices are extracted, classified, and automatically compared with process-relevant documents and SAP master data. They are then assigned to responsible individuals for approval and invoice verification in SAP. Right from the beginning of the entire purchase-to-pay process, process-relevant documents are archived in a legally compliant and GDPR-compliant manner. This allows each individual process to be traced using an SAP document.

The P2P process is archived in a legally compliant manner.

At the beginning of the entire purchase-to-pay process, the process-relevant documents are archived in a tamper-proof and GDPR-compliant manner. This allows for the traceability of each individual process through an SAP document.

If the procure-to-pay process is not mapped end-to-end in SAP, there will be stumbling blocks: 

• A lack of checks in purchase order processes can result in wild buying behavior (the maverick buying effect). This means a department can end up buying goods or services without involving the purchase department. 
• Long waits for approvals and the resulting long processing times lead to reminder fees and the loss of cash discounts. 
• A lack of transparency in the process increases the loss of control and leads to breaches of company guidelines. 
• Manual steps in the process are very time-consuming, which often leads to dissatisfied employees. 

These stumbling blocks ultimately have a negative impact not only on employee satisfaction, but also on the company’s bottom line. Potential advantages cannot be leveraged – advantages your competitors may have already secured. You too can reap the benefits of an optimized P2P process with a document management system integrated into SAP.