Integrating Purchase Orders

A Purchase Order (PO) is a commercial document and the first official offer issued by a buyer to a seller. It specifies the types of materials or services, quantities, and agreed-upon prices for products or services.

It is used to manage the purchasing of products and services from external suppliers. A seller's acceptance of a purchase order creates a contract between the buyer and seller, and no contract exists until the purchase order is accepted.

Buyers create purchase orders to request products or services using their SAP ERP or SAP S/4HANA (on-premise) system and send them to their Buyer account on the SAP Business Network, which then routes the purchase order to the appropriate supplier.

These are the types of purchase orders supported in the integration using the Managed Gateway:

• Standard purchase orders
• Blanket purchase Orders
• Scheduling agreement purchase orders
• Service purchase orders
• Subcontracting purchase orders
• Purchase orders with returns
• Consignment purchase orders

If the items in the purchase order change, the buyer can send a Change Purchase Order to the supplier and cancel the order. When a buyer sends a purchase order from the SAP system to SAP Business Network, the purchase order contains the following information: ​

• Company code
• Purchasing org. and purchasing group
• Batch-managed material items

Buyers can send XML and MIME attachments in the purchase orders. They can download the MIME envelope and the attachments from the Transaction Tracker on the Managed Gateway portal. ​When buyers send a Purchase Order (OrderRequest cXML document) to the SAP Business Network, they receive a generic response acknowledging receipt of the purchase order. SAP Business Network responds with a synchronous cXML document that contains one of the following status codes:

• 2xx, to indicate that SAP Business Network has accepted the document
• 4xx, to indicate that a permanent error has occurred and has been logged
• 5xx, to indicate that a transient error occurred. The Managed Gateway then resends the document with the same payload ID for the specified number of retry attempts

If you create a Purchase Order, Scheduling Agreement, or Scheduling Agreement Release document for materials with an MRP controller assigned, the MRP controller and its name are sent to SAP Business Network.

Additional Information, Prerequisites, and Restrictions:

• Buyers can control the transmission of their accounting information to the supplier.
• Buyers can send the Confirmation Control Key to the SAP Business Network along with the Purchase Order, Scheduling Agreement, and Scheduling Agreement Release documents.
• Buyers can send the Item Price Tolerance only when the Adopt Price Variance flag is activated in the Confirmation Control sequence in the SPRO configuration.
• To use Confirmation Control Keys for validating delivery quantity tolerances when suppliers create a Ship Notice against a standard Purchase Order, maintain the following fields in the Confirmations tab:
  • Select a value in the Conf. Control field for the order confirmation.
  • Check the Acknowl.Reqd field.
• To enable the integration of unit price tolerance levels for materials configured in the SAP system through confirmation control keys, Buyers must:
  • Activate the feature to configure unit price tolerance levels using confirmation controls on the SAP Business Network.
  • Set the lower and upper tolerance limits of the unit price for materials on the IMG Activity page for Set Up Confirmation Control in the buyer's SAP system.
• Buyers can utilize BRFplus output management to configure the output parameters for purchase orders in the SAP S/4HANA (on-premise) systems.

In this lesson, we explored the role and importance of Purchase Orders (PO) within SAP ERP or SAP S/4HANA (on-premise) systems, particularly focusing on integration with the SAP Business Network via the Managed Gateway. Purchase Orders serve as official offers issued by buyers to sellers and establish contracts upon acceptance by the seller. We reviewed various types of purchase orders supported by the integration, including standard, blanket, and service purchase orders, among others.

We covered the key components included in a Purchase Order, such as company code and purchasing group details. Additionally, the lesson explained how buyers can send XML and MIME attachments with their orders and track these documents using the Managed Gateway portal.

We discussed the responses from SAP Business Network on receipt of Purchase Orders, including status codes that indicate acceptance, permanent errors, or transient errors needing retry attempts. Moreover, we examined how MRP controllers are involved in the exchange of purchase order information.

The lesson highlighted essential controls and configurations, such as accounting information transmission, confirmation control keys, and item price tolerance settings in the buyer's SAP system. For enhanced integration functionalities, buyers can utilize BRFplus output management.

For comprehensive details and additional functionalities related to purchase orders, students are encouraged to refer to the SAP Integration Suite, Managed Gateway for Spend Management and SAP Business Network Overview Guide, particularly focusing on supported transactions, cXML interfaces, and additional prerequisites.