Managing Buying and Invoicing Data

While guided buying follows the same procurement processes as SAP Ariba Procurement solutions, like catalog searching and requisitioning, it doesn't replace them. Moreover, the guided buying capability uses master data, such as users, purchasing units, accounting information, commodity codes, and suppliers, that administrators must load in SAP Ariba Buying. This data is typically imported as part of SAP Ariba's deployment of your site and might be updated by periodic imports from an integrated ERP system.

Not all features that are part of or planned for SAP Ariba Procurement solutions are used in guided buying. Only functionalities that directly impact casual users are supported in guided buying.

​In addition to master data, administrators also need to configure:

• Catalogs – items loaded in SAP Ariba Procurement that can be searched in guided buying
• Approval processes – business rules to specify the approvals required for the different requests
• ​SAP Ariba Sourcing templates – required when users are allowed to request quotes from suppliers through guided buying
• Spot buy – capability that allows users to search for and request non-sourced goods through guided buying

Play the video to learn how catalog information in the SAP Ariba Buying application is leveraged in the guided buying capability.

SAP Ariba Buying solutions use business rules to specify the approvals required for requests that users create in guided buying.​

You configure approval processes, which are flow diagrams of approval rules that define the conditions and actions for each rule. You can then test the approval processes by previewing approval flows generated for requests.​

Each request created in guided buying references your active requisition approval process in SAP Ariba Buying to add the correct approvers to the Approval Flow section of a submitted request, as in the following example process diagram.