For contract invoicing to be possible, the customer realm must have the SAP Ariba Contract Compliance (ACC) module of SAP Ariba Buying and Invoicing turned on.
If ACC is configured customers can create release and no-release contracts in their site.
A release contract requires a purchase order, or release order, to apply the contract pricing terms to the items on the release order and approve purchases from the contract. The release orders are used to consume funds from the contract.
A no-release order contract enables contract terms to be applied during invoicing when users create an invoice against the contract and, depending on the realm enabled features, during receiving.
A contract-based invoice is an invoice aligned with an existing no-release contract or blanket purchase order within SAP Ariba Buying. Instead of matching the incoming invoice with a PO, SAP Ariba will match the invoice against the contract terms. This process enforces already negotiated contract terms and pricing with the supplier.
Depending on the site setup and business process in place, contract-based invoices can be created via:
- By suppliers through their SAP Business Network accounts.
- By suppliers through collaborative invoicing.
- By the Accounts Payable users of the customer who enter invoices manually in their SAP Ariba Buying and Invoicing tool.
Note
Please review the Invoicing and Payment Process guide to learn more about SAP Business Network-validated contract invoicing done by suppliers.In a scenario where the contract is with a supplier that can not provide an electronic invoice, invoice agents on the customer side convert the invoice to an electronic format in the SAP Ariba Buying and Invoicing application.