Approving or Denying a Supplier Request

Objectives

After completing this lesson, you will be able to:
  • Describe the approval options available for supplier requests
  • Approve or deny a supplier request

Supplier Request Approval

When people in your organization submit internal supplier requests or suppliers outside of your organization submit external supplier requests, notifications inform approvers when a request requires approval. Approvers can also see outstanding requests on their My Tasks page in the SAP Ariba user interface.

Approvers can edit supplier requests to add missing information, correct mistakes, or supply information only approvers can add before approving the request and creating the supplier. They also see a list of potential duplicate suppliers so they can deny duplicate requests and only approve requests for genuinely new suppliers.

When a supplier request is approved, the supplier is created in your site's supplier database.

Supplier Request Approval Options

Your company’s configuration determines whether supplier requests are automatically or manually approved and whether they require a final step for validation in an integrated SAP Master Data Governance for Suppliers (MDG-S) system.

Automatic Approval

With automatic approval, supplier requests are automatically approved upon submission. SAP Ariba recommends enabling auto-approval for internal supplier requests if your organization plans to have the requester also be the approver and if you do not need additional approvers.

Manual Approval

If your site requires manual approval, approvers perform one of the following actions:

  • Approve the supplier request
  • Deny the supplier request
  • Request additional information about the supplier request from the requester

Automatic or Manual Approval with External Validation

If your site is integrated with SAP Master Data Governance for Suppliers (MDG-S), the supplier request workflow can include a final step for validating approved supplier requests in SAP MDG-S before creating suppliers in the database. If SAP MDG-S identifies the supplier as a duplicate, SAP Ariba marks the approved request as a duplicate, hides it, and redirects the requester to the existing, matched supplier instead.

Note

External validation of approved supplier requests is designed to work in integration landscapes that use SAP MDG-S for supplier master data management. It does not work with SAP ERP or SAP S/4HANA landscapes that do not include SAP MDG-S.

How to Approve or Deny a Supplier Request

If you're in the approval flow for a supplier request, use these steps to approve or deny it. Approving a supplier request creates the supplier in your site.

Prerequisites

  • If the self-service configuration parameter Application.SM.SupplierRequest.RestrictRequestEdit is enabled in your site, you must be the person who created the supplier request or a currently active approver who is also a member of the Supplier Request Manager group to edit a supplier request while it's in approval. If the parameter is disabled, all Supplier Request Manager group members can edit a supplier request while it's in approval. Administrators in your organization manage this parameter.
  • If your organization uses the supplier request with Dun & Bradstreet lookup and the requester has selected a D&B supplier, certain questions are automatically filled in with D&B data where it's available, including address answers. These answers aren't editable by default, even if there's no data from D&B. If the self-service configuration parameter Enable Extended Address editing in supplier requests using Dun & Bradstreet lookup is enabled in your site and you otherwise have permission to edit the request during approval, you can also edit address answers.

Business Scenario

Joe Ortiz is a category manager at NSM Global. His responsibilities include approving supplier requests for the information technology and telecommunications category.

In this video, you'll watch a demonstration of Joe approving and denying supplier requests.

Steps

  1. Perform one of the following actions to open the approval task details page for the supplier request:

    • Choose the link in the notification email to open the request.
    • On the dashboard, choose Manage → My Tasks. Locate the supplier request you want to work with, choose the associated approval task, and select View Task Details.

  2. Review the information in the supplier request.

  3. Optional: If the option is available, choose Edit to edit the supplier request, then choose Save to save your changes.

    Note

    In external supplier requests, some fields in bank and tax questions depend on data from your site that's not shown to suppliers but is shown to internal requesters and approvers. Suppliers can't enter information in those fields. In this situation, you can edit the request to add that information.

  4. If SAP Ariba has identified any existing suppliers that match the information in your request, choose See duplicates to view details about potential duplicate matches.

  5. Perform one of the following actions:

    • To approve the request, choose Approve.
    • To deny the request, choose Deny, enter explanatory comments to tell the requester the reason for the denial, and choose Confirm denial.
    • To request additional information, choose Request additional info, enter a comment for the requester explaining what information you want, and choose Confirm request additional info.

      Note

      This option is only available in internal supplier requests.

Result

The following table describes the results of an approver's action on the supplier request:

Approver ActionResult
Approved

  • In sites without validation in an integrated SAP MDG-S system:

    The supplier is created in your site with the registration status Not Invited, and the supplier contact specified in the request is added as the primary contact. The supplier now has a 360° profile, and the Supplier request area shows information from the supplier request.

  • In sites with validation in an integrated SAP MDG-S system:

    The process flow diagram for the supplier request shows a new automatic step, MDGS Validation, and the supplier is in In External Approval status. If SAP MDG-S matches the request to an existing supplier, the request is automatically denied, and you're redirected to the existing supplier's 360° profile. If SAP MDG-S doesn't match the request to an existing supplier, the supplier is created in your site with the registration status Not Invited, and the supplier contact specified in the request is added as the primary contact. The supplier now has a 360° profile, and the Supplier request area shows information from the supplier request.

DeniedThe supplier is not created. A notification to the requester includes your comments explaining your denial.
Requested additional informationThe supplier is not created. The internal requester must edit and resubmit the supplier request, at which point it re-enters the approval flow. Your site's configuration determines whether the current node in the approval flow restarts or the entire approval flow restarts from the beginning.
Edited the requestThe supplier is not created. The request re-enters the approval flow.

Approved suppliers become available in SAP Ariba Supplier Risk, SAP Ariba Sourcing, and SAP Ariba Contracts. SAP Ariba Buying & Invoicing requires additional supplier details before use.

Approve a Supplier Request

In this exercise, you'll approve a supplier request as a category manager.

ExerciseStart Exercise

Steps

  1. On the dashboard, choose Manage → My Tasks.

  2. Choose the Approval for internal supplier request task that’s in approval.

  3. Select View Task Details.

  4. Review the information in the supplier request.

  5. Approve the supplier request.

    1. Choose Approve.

    2. Choose Confirm.

  6. Choose Done.

Next Steps

After the supplier request is approved, you can start a supplier registration to gather detailed profile information about a supplier.

If your site is integrated with SAP ERP, SAP S/4HANA, or SAP Master Data Governance for Suppliers (MDG-S), your site's integration settings determine whether the new supplier is automatically or manually synchronized with the integrated system's vendor master list at this point or later in the supplier lifecycle. Automatic synchronization occurs automatically when the supplier reaches the specified status and is designed to synchronize all suppliers of that status in SAP Ariba Supplier Management solutions with the integrated system. With manual synchronization, when the supplier reaches the specified status, an ERP synchronization link appears in the ERP data area of the supplier 360° profile. A category or supplier manager chooses the link when they're ready to transact with the supplier. Otherwise, suppliers of that status are not synchronized with the integrated system.

Note

Only an administrator can set up your site’s initial supplier data synchronization settings.

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