Acknowledging Purchase Orders Online

This chapter provides an overview of online purchase order acknowledgements (POAs) and discusses how to:

Create online POAs (suppliers).
Review and approve online POAs (buyers).
Respond on behalf of the supplier (buyers).

Understanding Online POAs

PeopleSoft eSupplier Connection enables your suppliers to enter POAs directly into the system, bypassing the need to perform the transaction using an electronic data exchange (EDX) method. This online POA feature enables buyers and suppliers to collaborate on any acknowledgement issues in realtime and capture the supplier response history and purchase order details at the time acknowledgements are made.

The online POA business process follows these general steps:

(Optional) The buyer establishes POA settings.

POA alert criteria and POA tolerance settings are defined by the buyer for the purchasing business unit using the POA Settings page in the Processing Options component or for a vendor location using the Procurement Options page in the Vendor component. When the system retrieves the settings, it first looks in the vendor location and only if not specifically defined there does it use the general purchasing business unit settings.
The purchase order is dispatched to the vendor.

When PeopleSoft eSupplier Connection is installed and the email dispatch method is used, an URL is provided to bring your suppliers back into your supplier portal and to the specific POA. This is done for initial dispatching of purchase orders as well as change order dispatches. When a change order is dispatched, the email indicates that the order is a change order including the change order number. Within the POA, the latest changes associated to the change order number are shown to the supplier for review and acknowledgement.
The supplier creates an online acknowledgement using the Purchase Order Acknowledgement component, and can:
1. Accept or reject the purchase order in its entirety, or at the line item level.
2. Suggest changes to prices, quantities, shipping methods, or delivery dates.
3. Indicate backorder schedules and suggest splitting schedule lines if required.
4. Save a POA in progress for later submission.
5. Submit the POA for buyer approval.
  
  Note. If there are no changes to the POA or if there are changes made to a POA but they do not exceed the POA tolerance settings defined, the status is automatically set to Buyer Accepted since there is either nothing for the buyer to approve or the buyer wishes to have the system automatically approve changes that are within the tolerance settings defined for the supplier.
  
  Note. A workflow option is included which sends notification to the buyer when a supplier creates a POA specifying changes. To enable this workflow, activate the event Buyer Notify within activity PO_ACKNOWLEGEMENT; this adds worklist entries for the buyer user associated to the purchase order that link to the buyer side PO Acknowledgement page.
  
  See Delivered Workflows for PeopleSoft eSupplier Connection.
6. Send an ad hoc email to the buyer or other external users containing a link to access the POA directly (the recipient must have proper security to the page).
7. Collaborate on any further issues with the buyer.
  
  For example, if the buyer is not satisfied with the vendor response, they can enter comments and reset the status back to Supplier Review so that they can continue to collaborate until the issues are resolved.
The buyer uses the Acknowledge Purchase Orders component in PeopleSoft Purchasing to view supplier-entered POAs, and can:
1. Review the changes suggested by the supplier.
2. Acknowledge on behalf of the supplier. For example, the supplier called them with changes and the buyer wants to log them as acknowledgements.
3. Approve a POA and if desired, submit the PO Auto Change Order process immediately.
  
  The PO Auto Change Order Application Engine process (PO_AUTO_CHNG) is a process that runs the Load Change Request process and the Process Change Orders process sequentially. If you want to run those processes individually you still can.
  
  The POA can be changed at any time before the Load Change Request process is run. Once the process runs, the POA is not editable. Approved POAs feed suggested changes such as quantity, price, and schedule date into the Change Request Load tables, which when approved update the original purchase order.
  
  Note. You can set up automatic approval for online POA change requests on the Purchasing Definitions - Business Unit Options page. Once approved using the Purchase Order Acknowledgement pages, the changes won't need to be approved again between the Load Change Request and Process Change Orders processes. You must have this set up to automatically approve online POA change requests if you wish to submit the PO Auto Change process directly from the Maintain Purchase Order pages.
4. Return the POA with changes for supplier review.
5. Send an ad hoc email to the supplier or other internal users containing a link to access the POA directly.

Additional Processing Actions

You can perform an additional process to assist buyers when purchase orders have not been acknowledged by the supplier.

To notify buyers that POAs have not been received, the buyer runs the POA Alerts Application Engine process (POA_ALERTS) optionally.

If the buyer specifies alert criteria for the purchasing business unit using the POA Settings page in the Processing Options component or for a vendor location using the Procurement Options page in the Vendor component, this process will create worklist entries for the buyer specifying which purchase orders have not been acknowledged by the supplier with a POA.

POA Status

POA status is defined at several levels in PeopleSoft eSupplier Connection.

Note. POAs that are submitted to PeopleSoft Purchasing from EDX use a status structure (header, line, and schedule) that refers to the action taken in the POA rather than the collaboration status the POA is in between the buyer and vendor. EDX POAs use a similar approval flow as those submitted online.

See Reviewing Acknowledgement Header Information.

Acknowledgement Status

The stage of the dispatched purchase order, and its subsequent acknowledgement by the supplier, applies to the entire POA and determines the following:

New	The purchase order has not been acknowledged, or has been redispatched because of a change order and requires new acknowledgement.
Supplier Review	The supplier is working on the POA, which cannot be viewed or edited by anyone else at this stage.
Supplier Responded	The supplier has saved and submitted the POA with changes, which can now be viewed by the supplier, or edited by the buyer.
Buyer Accepted	Both buyer and supplier can only view the POA, which is ready to be processed by Change Request Load process if it includes changes. This is also the default status when a supplier submits the POA without any changes.

This status appears on the:

Search/Filter Options pages.
Header section of the Acknowledgement Details pages.
Recently Dispatched POs pagelet.

Header POA Response

The action the supplier has taken; applies to the entire POA and indicates to the buyer the following:

Accepted	The supplier has accepted entire purchase order without changes. This is the default response status for new POAs.
Reject With Detail	The supplier has rejected the entire purchase order. All editable fields on the Acknowledgement Details page are reset to the current purchase order values and the quantity is reset to zero. If approved by the buyer this will cancel the entire purchase order.
Accepted - Changes Made	The supplier has made changes to the purchase order. This may include changes to line items or schedules, and rejected lines.

This POA response status appears on the Header section of the Acknowledgement Details pages.

Line POA Response

Indicates the following:

Accepted	The supplier has accepted the line item without changes. This is the default response status for new POAs.
Reject with Detail	The supplier has rejected the entire line item. The editable fields for the line and schedules are reset to the current purchase order values and the quantity is reset to zero. If approved by the buyer, this cancels the purchase order line.
Accepted - Changes Made	The supplier has made changes at the line item or schedule level.

Schedule POA Status

The action the supplier has taken; applies to the selected schedule, and indicates the following:

New	The schedule is added when supplier splits a row.
Canceled	Caused when a line is rejected or by changing the schedule quantity to zero.
Changed	Any changes to the schedule fields (due date, quantity, shipping method, and price).

POA Status Example

This table shows the different statuses that occur when a POA is required and change order acknowledgements are required during the processing of a POA.

Action	PO Status	POA Status on PO	POA Status in Acknowledgment	POA Required (on purchase order)
Initial purchase order is created.	Open, Approved, or Pending Approval	Awaiting Dispatch (WD)	Won't see in POA at this time.	Y
Purchase order is dispatched.	Dispatched	Awaiting POA (WR) Note. Dispatch process moves the status because it was awaiting dispatch.	New	Y
Supplier responds with changes.	Dispatched	Responded, Awaits Review (SR)	Supplier Responded (SRP)	Y
Buyer accepts POA.	Dispatched	Approved, Changes Pending (BA)	Buyer Accepted (BAC)	Y
Change order is processed.	Open or Approved	Acknowledged, with Changes (AC)	Can only see in history mode.	N
Purchase order is redispatched.	Dispatched	Acknowledged, with Changes (AC) Note. Dispatch won't change status because not awaiting dispatch.	New (change order 1) Note. POA not required for this one, because this is actually the change order reflecting the changes that the supplier made above.	N
Buyer makes more changes to the purchase order.	Open or Approved	Awaiting PO Dispatch (WD)	Won't see in POA because purchase order is not dispatched.	Y
Purchase order is dispatched again.	Dispatched	Awaiting POA (WR)	New (change order 2) Note. POA required now, because it contains changes that are new to the supplier (that didn't come from the last round).	Y
Supplier responds with no changes	Dispatched	Acknowledged (AK)	Buyer Accepted (BAC)	N

Creating Online POAs (Suppliers)

Suppliers can enter POAs directly into the PeopleSoft system.

This section discusses how the suppliers:

Search for POAs.
Create online POAs.
View and change acknowledgement details.

Pages Used to Create Online POAs

Page Name	Object Name	Navigation	Usage
Acknowledge Purchase Orders - Select Vendor	WV_SS_VND_LIST	Manage Orders, Acknowledge Purchase Order	Suppliers select a vendor to navigate to its POA pages. Available only if more than one vendor is associated with the user.
Acknowledge Purchase Orders - Search/Filter Acknowledgements	PO_SS_POA_SEARCH	Manage Orders, Acknowledge Purchase Orders. Optionally select a vendor on the Acknowledge Purchase Orders - Select Vendor page. Click the Show All Acknowledgements link on the Recently Dispatched POs pagelet.	Search for dispatched purchase orders awaiting acknowledgement, or existing supplier-entered or EDX-submitted POAs. Also, view past POAs.
Acknowledge Purchase Orders - Acknowledgement Summary	PO_SS_POA_SUMMARY	Click a linked purchase order number value on the Acknowledge Purchase Orders - Search/Filter Acknowledgements page. Click a linked Acknowledge Status value on the Recently Dispatched POs pagelet.	Create new POAs, maintain existing POAs, or view accepted POAs. Note. EDX POAs are shown in the results as information, but can not be changed online. (They can be seen in history as well.)
Acknowledge Purchase Orders - Acknowledgement Details	PO_SS_POA	Click a line number link on the Acknowledge Purchase Orders - Acknowledgement Summary page.	View POA line details.
PO Changes - Details	PO_SSPOLNCHG_SP	Click the Change Order link for changed order lines on the Acknowledge Purchase Orders - Acknowledgement Details page. This link only appears for change order purchase orders.	Review the purchase order line changes for a selected purchase order line.
Ship to Comments	PO_SS_SHIPCOMM_SP	Click the Comments button on the Acknowledge Purchase Orders - Acknowledgement Details page.	Review Ship To comments or attachments for a selected purchase order schedule. This button only appears if there are Ship To comments.
Acknowledge Purchase Orders - Acknowledgement Summary - History	PO_SS_POA_SUMMARY	Click a linked purchase order number value in history mode on the Acknowledge Purchase Orders - Search/Filter Acknowledgements page.	View the history of a POA.

Searching for POAs

Access the Acknowledge Purchase Orders - Search/Filter Acknowledgements page.

This page essentially duplicates the Manage PO Acknowledgements page (as documented later in this chapter), with these exceptions.

See Searching for Online POAs.

The supplier selects the criteria with which to filter the search. In particular:

From Date and To Date	Select the purchase order dispatch date range.
Current Acknowledgements	Select a status of the POAs you want to search on. Values are: New/Supplier Review and Supplier Respond/Buyer Accepted. See POA Status.
View History	If you select this option, the system displays the supplier responded history for past POAs.
PO Status	Displays the change order revision if the line is a change order; otherwise, it indicates that the purchase order is being dispatched for the first time.
Source of Acknowledgement	Displays the source of the acknowledgment. Values are: Online or EDX. POAs created using PeopleSoft eSupplier Connection POAs are always created as source of Online. (On the buyer side, within PeopleSoft Purchasing, online and EDX POAs are consolidated for review and approval on this page by the buyer. ) If you are viewing current acknowledgements, depending on the Source of the POA, clicking the purchase order number takes the supplier to the Acknowledge Purchase Orders - Acknowledgement Summary page for online collaborative POAs. POAs with a source of EDX can not be changed by the supplier, they are shown for informational purposes. (However, on the buyer sided POAs with a source of EDX will take the buyer to the Review POA page for EDX which is not collaborative. If you are viewing history, clicking the purchase order number takes the supplier to the Acknowledge Purchase Order - Acknowledgement Summary - History page. Using the history page you can view the POA history. See Using Purchase Order Acknowledgements. See Reviewing Acknowledgement Header Information.

Creating Online POAs

Access the Acknowledge Purchase Orders - Acknowledgement Summary page.

The fields on this page essentially duplicate those on the Managing PO Acknowledgements - Acknowledgement Summary page, although the suppliers always access this page in create mode, while buyers can create, review, and approve POAs.

See Reviewing Acknowledgement Header Information.

The system displays purchase order or POA history details in view-only fields. The supplier can accept or reject the entire purchase order or the selected line item, or enter changes in the editable fields. In particular:

Line	Click the linked line number to review and modify the details of the line such as quantity or date.
Reset to PO Values	Click this button to restore all POA values to the values specified on the current purchase order, forgoing any changes made on the POA.
PO Header Detail	Click the arrow to expand this section. This section displays the purchase order header details.
Standard BU Comments	Click this arrow to expand this section. This section displays any comments that are associated to the PeopleSoft Purchasing business unit. If there are no business unit level comments, the system doesn't display this section.
PO Header Comments	Click this arrow to expand this section. This section displays any purchase order header comments or attachments associated with the selected purchase order. If there are no header comments or attachments, the system doesn’t display this section. If there are multiple rows of header comments/attachments, you can scroll through them or click View All to display all of them.
PO Qty (purchase order quantity)	Displays the sum of all schedule quantities for this line on the purchase order that is being requested.
Acknowledge Quantity	Displays the sum of all schedule acknowledge quantities being replied. The purchase order quantity appears as the default when you first view the purchase order acknowledgement.
Change Order	Click this link for each line that has a change order to access more detail about the change. This shows the details of what changes were made from the last time this purchase order was dispatched. (For example, if this purchase order is on change order 3, it shows the changes made from change order 2 to change order 3.) This link will only appear when viewing a purchase order revision.
Comments	Click this arrow to expand this section. The supplier can enter comments for the buyer, and in subsequent sessions, view any buyer responses.
Save	Click this button to save any changes and have the system set the acknowledgement status to Supplier Review. This will indicate to the system that this POA is in process and still under review.
Save & Send Acknowledgement	Click this button to save any changes and: Change the POA mode for the vendor from editable to view-only. Set the acknowledgement status to Buyer Accepted if there is no change or the changes that are made do not exceed the tolerances specified for the supplier. Sets the acknowledgement status to Supplier Responded if there are changes the buyer needs to approve. If workflow is enabled, this also sends notification to the buyer for the POA with changes needing review. Updates the Purchasing EC tables (PO_POA_HDR_HIST, PO_POA_LN_HIST, PO_POA_SHIPHIST) to capture supplier response history and pertinent purchase order values at the time the response is made.
Send Email	Click this link to access the Acknowledge Purchase Orders - Email Message page. Using this page the supplier can send an ad hoc email containing URLs to access the POA directly.

Viewing and Changing Acknowledgement Details

Access the Acknowledgement Purchase Orders-Acknowledgement Details page by clicking a purchase order line number.

Change Order

Click the Change Order link to access more detail about changes to schedules. This shows the details of what changes were made from the last time this purchase order was dispatched. For example, if this purchase order is on change order 3, it shows the changes made from change order 2 to change order 3.

Change Order check box

The system displays the check box if there is a change order for this schedule. To view these changes, you must click the Change Order link. This is a visual indicator to help identify which schedules were modified from the last dispatch.

Acknowledge Due Date and Quantity

The system provides these fields as a default to the Purchase Order. Suppliers can modify Due Date, Quantity, and other values for the line/schedule to indicate a change.

Click the Split Line button to split the schedule if the scheduled quantity is to be backordered between two or more dates. After clicking the split line button, adjust the quantities between the original and new line and enter a new acknowledge due date for the new schedules quantity.

Comments

Click this button for each schedule that includes Ship To comments or attachments to view the comments. The comments and attachments are specific to each ship to location, so if all lines and schedules have the same ship to address, all the ship to comments and attachments will be the same.

Reviewing and Approving Online POAs (Buyers)

Once the supplier has created an online POA, the buyer can review the information, and accept, reject, or change the acknowledgement.

This section discusses how the buyers:

Search for online POAs.
Review and approve online POAs.

Pages Used to Review and Approve Online POAs

Page Name	Object Name	Navigation	Usage
Manage PO Acknowledgements	PO_SS_POA_SEARCH	Purchasing, Purchase Orders, Acknowledgements, Manage PO Acknowledgements	Buyers can search for online POAs and POAs received using EDX. See Using Purchase Order Acknowledgements.
Manage PO Acknowledgements - Acknowledgement Summary	PO_SS_POA_SUMMARY	Click a linked purchase order number on the Manage PO Acknowledgements search page.	Use to view the acknowledgement information for the selected purchase order.
Manage PO Acknowledgements - Acknowledgement Details	PO_SS_POA	Click a linked purchase order line on the Manage PO Acknowledgements - Acknowledgement Summary page.	Review and approve supplier-entered POAs.
POA Alerts	PO_POA_ALERTS	Purchasing, Purchase Orders, Acknowledgements, Run Acknowledgement Alerts, POA Alerts	Initiate the Purchase Order Acknowledgements Alert Application Engine process (POA_ALERTS), which will generate worklist entries (alerts) for the buyer. Buyers will receive a worklist entry for each purchase order that is violating the defined rules for when a POA should be received by the supplier. See Delivered Workflows for PeopleSoft Enterprise Purchasing.
Run PO AutoChange	RUN_PO_AUTOCHNG	Purchasing, Purchase Orders, Acknowledgements, Process Change Orders, Run PO AutoChange	Initiate the Purchase Order Automatic Change Application Engine process (PO_AUTO_CHNG). This process will initiate the Load Change Requests process and then the Process Change Orders process to create change orders for all POAs that have been approved by the Buyer (or automatically approved based on tolerances) that are pending in the system.

Searching for Online POAs

Access the Manage PO Acknowledgements page.

This page essentially duplicates the Acknowledged Purchase Orders - Search/Filter Acknowledgements page, with these exceptions:

Vendor Set ID and Vendor ID	The buyer can search for a vendor within a specific setID.
Current Acknowledgements	The buyer can search for awaiting acknowledgement, supplier responded, or buyer accepted POAs. They can not see any in-process POAs with a status of Supplier Review. Note. The buyer can create a POA on behalf of the supplier by using the Awaiting Acknowledgement check box on this page.
View History	If you select this option, the system displays the supplier responded history for past POAs.
Processed	Indicates whether the (changed) POA has been included in a Load Change Request process run.

Reviewing and Approving Online POAs

Once the supplier submits a POA online, the buyer can access this page to review information such as acknowledged dates and quantities for the given purchase order. From here your buyers can:

Review overall POA response at the header level.
Review any line level exceptions.
Modify and react to them accordingly within this page, which includes changing the POA information or sending the POA back to the supplier for further review.
Approve the POA so that it can be passed to the Change Order processes and update the purchase order.

If using workflow, this action also marks the entry as worked in the worklist for the buyer associated to the purchase order.

See Reviewing Acknowledgement Header Information.

Access the Manage PO Acknowledgements - Acknowledgement Summary page for online POAs.

The fields on this page essentially duplicate those on the Acknowledge Purchase Orders - Acknowledgement Summary page, although the suppliers always access this page in “create” mode, while your buyers are able to use “create, review, modify, and approve” mode.

In addition, the buyers have the option to immediately create change orders by selecting the Run PO Auto Change check box and then saving and approving the POA.

See Creating Online POAs (Suppliers).

Note. POAs that are created by way of EDX are visible in the summary results but not visible within this collaborative POA page. Clicking a POA that was created from EDX will transfer the buyer to the EDX review pages discussed in the purchasing section.

See Using Purchase Order Acknowledgements.

Reset to PO Values	Click this button to revert the POA to the values submitted on the original purchase order.
Save	Click this button to save any changes; acknowledgement status remains as Supplier Responded or Buyer Accepted.
Save & Approve	Click this button to save any changes and set the acknowledgement status to Buyer Accepted. This enables the POA to be processed by the PeopleSoft Purchasing Load Change Request process. This also marks any worklist entry as worked for the buyer associated to the purchase order, if workflow is enabled.
Return for Supplier Review	Routes the POA back to the supplier. Acknowledgement status is changed to Supplier Review. Buyer can include comments for the supplier, which the supplier can review as part of an iterative review and acknowledgement process on the supply side.
Run PO Auto Change	Select this check box if you want the system to automatically create change orders that are reflected on the POA. Once you select this check box and click the Save & Approve button the system will automatically run the Purchase Order Auto Change process. This process runs the Load Change Requests process and then the Process Change Order process in the background. You should have the PO Business Unit setting to enable auto approval of buyer approved POAs turned on, for this to work successfully. Otherwise the changes will stop in between the two jobs pending another approval step.

Responding on Behalf of the Supplier (Buyers)

This section discusses how to respond on behalf of the supplier.

Pages Used to Respond on Behalf of the Supplier

Page Name	Object Name	Navigation	Usage
Manage PO Acknowledgements	PO_SS_POA_SEARCH	Purchasing, Purchase Orders, Acknowledgements, Manage PO Acknowledgements	Buyers can search for online POAs and POAs received using EDX. See Using Purchase Order Acknowledgements.
Manage PO Acknowledgements - Acknowledgement Summary	PO_SS_POA_SUMMARY	Click a linked purchase order number on the Manage PO Acknowledgements search page.	Use to view the acknowledgement information for the selected purchase order.
Manage PO Acknowledgements - Acknowledgement Details	PO_SS_POA	Click a linked purchase order line on the Manage PO Acknowledgements - Acknowledgement Summary page.	Review and approve supplier-entered POAs.

Responding On Behalf of the Supplier

Access the Manage PO Acknowledgements page.

The buyer can accept and create acknowledgements for the supplier against a purchase order. For example, the supplier called them with changes and the buyer wants to log them as acknowledgements.

This process basically functions the same as that discussed in the section Reviewing and Approving Online POAs (Buyers) except the buyer will search for POAs with an Awaiting Acknowledgement status.

Select the Awaiting Acknowledgement check box on this page under the Current Acknowledgements option to retrieve the POAs that you want to address for the supplier.

See Reviewing and Approving Online POAs (Buyers).

Change Order	Click the Change Order link to access more detail about changes to schedules. This shows the details of what changes were made from the last time this purchase order was dispatched. For example, if this purchase order is on change order 3, it shows the changes made from change order 2 to change order 3.
Change Order check box	The system displays the check box if there is a change order for this schedule. To view these changes, you must click the Change Order link. This is a visual indicator to help identify which schedules were modified from the last dispatch.
Acknowledge Due Date and Quantity	The system provides these fields as a default to the Purchase Order. Suppliers can modify Due Date, Quantity, and other values for the line/schedule to indicate a change.
	Click the Split Line button to split the schedule if the scheduled quantity is to be backordered between two or more dates. After clicking the split line button, adjust the quantities between the original and new line and enter a new acknowledge due date for the new schedules quantity.
Comments	Click this button for each schedule that includes Ship To comments or attachments to view the comments. The comments and attachments are specific to each ship to location, so if all lines and schedules have the same ship to address, all the ship to comments and attachments will be the same.