Service and Material Procurement Process Flows Overview
Learn about service and material procurement in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, professional services. Understand the process steps, business roles, agreements, purchase orders, supplier invoices, service entry sheets, goods receipts, and more.
The figure displays an overview of the process flows for the Service and Material Procurement (J13) scope item.

Learn how SAP S/4HANA Cloud streamlines procurement and professional services, automating processes from order to invoice. Gain agility, optimize processes, and integrate with SAP Ariba Network.
Description
The Service and Material Procurement scope item covers all relevant procurement processes of the professional services scenario.
Possible procurement sub-processes are:
Service procurement: You order an external service. The external service company confirms the purchase order and performs the service. The supplier invoices the service. You enter and process the supplier invoice.
Example 1: purchasing the services of a contingent worker or contractor to be staffed to the project, capture time, and then automatically have their service entry sheet updated against their purchase order for comparison upon receiving the supplier invoice.
Example 2: A sub-contractor is used to perform a specific service on the project (for example graphics services) and their services are confirmed against the supplier invoice that is received.
Material procurement for consumption: A material is requested for a customer or internal project. You create a purchase order and sent it to the supplier. The supplier delivers the material and you enter the goods receipt. Finally, you enter and process the supplier invoice.
Example: A specialized piece of equipment (for example high-spec laptop) is required for a data analysis project which is to be ordered and received by the project team and charged to the project (optional: to be charged to the customer).
Procurement for third-party order processing: You order a material for an end-customer. The supplier ships the material directly to this end-customer.
Example: As part of the contract agreement, the customer has purchased a server to be used in an implementation project for which the delivering company will raised the purchase order, pay the supplier invoice but the server will be delivered directly to the customer.
Key Process Steps
Procure services:
My Purchase Requisitions - New
Create and approve purchase order
Send purchase order to supplier
Confirm service from supplier
Post expenses of service
Create supplier invoice
Procure material for consumption:
My Purchase Requisitions - New
Create and check the purchase order
Send purchase order to supplier
Post and check goods receipt
Create supplier invoice
Procure for third-party order processing:
My Purchase Requisitions - New
Create and check the purchase order
Send purchase order to supplier
Post and check goods receipt
Create supplier invoice
Create contracts (optional):
Create contract from scratch
Create contract based on purchase requisition
Benefits
Optimize and streamline procurement process to professional services scenario requirements
Simplify procure-to-pay, invoice-to-pay
Integrate to the SAP supplier network natively (SAP Ariba Network)