Objective
So now that our friend Sandy has received her keyboards from the vendor, the next step is for her to log in and confirm the receipt of those keyboards.
Sandy has received the keyboards, she ordered from the vendor. Her next step is to now confirm the receipt of the keyboards.
Receiving is simply the acknowledgement by someone that their goods have arrived.
The process officially starts when the supplier ships the goods and the goods arrive at their location.
When your system is configured, your administrator defines the details of your receiving process, such as the types of receipts to be used and who is authorized to perform the receiving.
Receipts can be done manually, automatically, or combination of both based on configurable business rules.
SAP Ariba also supports partial receiving and you can turn on approvals for receipts if necessary.
When the shipment arrives, the person who receives the items submits a receipt document through the SAP Ariba Procurement Solution to acknowledge that goods have arrived.
During the configuration process, your administrator specifies the details of your organization’s receiving process such as which types of items require a receipt, who is authorized to perform receiving, and whether the SAP Ariba Procurement Solution should export completed receipts to your ERP system.
In the default configuration, you manually create receipts by quantity and submit them for approval. The system can also be configured to automatically create receipts and can be overridden to allow manual receiving based on order amount, line amount, commodity code, or line-item part number. In addition, your administrator can set tolerances for under-receiving thresholds and over-receiving allowances.
To view receiving options and perform receiving, you must belong to the group Purchasing User, Receiving Agent, or Receiving Manager.
Receiving types define how the receiving will be done.
The system can be configured for manual receiving, which is performed by the requisitioner or some other designated user. Auto receiving is performed automatically by the SAP Ariba system, or you can also configure your system for no receiving.
If no receiving is used, the system will then perform a two-way match between the purchase order and the invoice, rather than a 3 way match, including the receipt.
If an item was set for auto receive, you can also click receive manually to convert the receipt to manual.
Receiving types also determine how the receipt will be entered.
The system allows receiving by quantity where the receiver enters the quantity of items being received or the system can receive by dollar amount, where the receiver enters the dollar amount, the items being received.
Receiving Types also determine what is entered on the receipt:
Approval rules determine who will perform manual receiving and who, if anyone must approve the receipt.
There are two common receiving configurations. The first is received by Requester.
In this case, receiving is performed by the original requester of the goods.
This user will also be the first approver in the approval flow if approvals are enabled for receipts.
The second configuration is receipt at central receiving, where receipts are performed by a member of a particular group based on some field on the order.
The default for central receiving is based on commodity code where anyone in the specified group would receive these goods for a specific commodity code.
Goods are received at a central location, and receiving is performed by a member of a group (can be a custom group) based on some attribute of the order
After Sandy receives the keyboards, she will need to confirm the receipt in the system.
To do this, Sandy will first log into, guided buy to find the purchase order that needs to be received.
Most users should have only a small number of PO's at any given time, so there will likely be no need to search for PO numbers. However, you can filter and search if needed.
Next, Sandy will need to click on access your requests and then the two receive link.
She will find any purchase orders that need to be received under the quantities and submit their receipt.
You can click receive all or SAP Ariba also supports partial receiving so you can enter just the quantities received for that line item.
Lastly, Sandy will need to submit the receipt and acknowledge the confirmation popup.
If Sandy needs to access her order after it's fully received, she can find it under your requests and then the all link.
The SAP Ariba system will allow for over or under receiving based on tolerances configured by your administrator. Most organizations will allow for some level of over receiving.
This may be necessary for certain items, such as printed materials, where it is common to expect a greater quantity than ordered to allow for defect.
It is less common to allow for under receiving because most organizations will not allow purchase orders to be considered fully received until all quantities have been received.
You can accomplish this by setting the tolerance value to zero.
Normally, the quantities and amounts on a receipt match the quantities and amounts of the PO. However, you might receive fewer items or for a lesser amount than was specified on the PO (under-receiving), or you might receive more items or for a greater amount than specified on the PO (over-receiving). Under- and over-receiving is allowed and controlled by tolerances.
Tolerances can be defined based on absolute quantity, percentage of quantity or value, or line item value. The system can be configured so that both absolute and relative tolerances must be met for a receipt to be fully received, or that either one of the tolerance settings must be met for the receipt to be complete. POs with receipts for which the quantity or amounts are within the tolerance limits are considered fully received and require no further actions.
Most customers allow some level of over-receiving. Over receiving is necessary for some categories – for example, printed materials – where industry best practice is to ship more than the ordered quantity to allow for an expected level of defects. Most customers do not allow under-receiving tolerances – they set under-receiving tolerance values to zero – because they do not want POs to be considered fully received unless ALL of the ordered quantity has been received.