Configuring Initial Settings for Spot Buy Operations

Assign administrators to Spot Buy Administrator groups so they can perform necessary tasks including:

• Update Approval Process for items for Spot Buy, if necessary​
• Enable marketplace for buyers​
• Set up restriction

Required groups and permission:

Spot Buy User – provides access to Spot Buy and allows the user to add Spot Buy items to Purchase Requisitions.

​Spot Buy Power User – Spot Buy Power User – provides permissions to manage restrictions in Spot Buy.

​Spot Buy AP Administrator – gives permission to view and manage the Spot Buy Administration Tools tab: Use the Order Lookup, Use the Data Enricher feature, and approve or decline restricted item requests from other users on the Work Queue tab.

Spot Buy Administrator – provides permission to configure a Spot Buy account, create restrictions for specific product categories, and apply product category restrictions to certain users in the Ariba Spot Buy feature. 

You can implement Spot Buy Restrictions for certain product categories in your organization. These restrictions include:

• Preventing all organization members from purchasing items in a specific category.
• Establishing a price limit that, if exceeded, requires items in a category to undergo an approval process. This process must be configured in your ERP or SAP Ariba solution.

Power users can be given the ability to bypass these restrictions for particular categories.

Spot Buy provides default notifications for the following situations:

• Items exceeding the designated price limit needing approval.
• Items that are restricted from purchase.

These buying restrictions and notifications can be managed through the Spot Buy Administration interface or by importing CSV files into your SAP Ariba Buying solutions. 

The following table describes the status icons found in the Restrictions area: 

Status Icon	Description
	Items in this group category cannot be purchased through Spot Buy.
	Items in this product category can be purchased through Spot Buy. If there is not an amount specified beside this field, there is no price limit above which an item must go through your organization's approval process. If there is an amount specified, the amount is the price above which an item must go through your organization approval's process.
	Member of the Spot Buy Power User Group cannot override restrictions on items in this product category. This means that, for items in this category, a power user can only do what a normal user can do. So, if the category is restricted and/or there is a price limit, then the restriction or limit also applies to power users.
	This indicates that members of the Spot Buy Power User Group can override or bypass any price or category restrictions. So, even if an item is above the price limit, or belongs to a category that is restricted, the power user can still order it.

To access the Spot Buy Restrictions in the user interface, navigate to Manage → Spot Buy Administration → Setup → Restrictions. Here, you can perform any of the following:

• To restrict a commodity, select the Disallow icon and then enter the restriction amount. The restriction amount is the price at which a requisition must go through an approvals process when buying an item in this product category.
• To allow the purchase of a commodity, select the Allow icon.
• To exclude members of the Spot Buy Power Users Group from a commodity restriction, select the Power User Override icon.
• To remove a power user override, select the Remove Override icon.