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Zhengzhang Lu
March 3, 2020 9 minute read
Hi All,
As you know, there are two important integration scenarios in the Financial function, one is ‘Order to Cash’
(Financial – Sales&Distribution integration) and another is ‘Procure to Pay’ (Financial – Material Management
integration).
I have introduced ‘Order to Cash’ in my last blog post (the URL can be found from the bottom of this blog post).
In this blog post, I will walk through the simple ‘Procure to Pay’ process in the S/4 HANA system. Please be
aware, this is just a simple introduction, ‘Procure to Pay’ has a lot of useful functions not covered in this blog
post.
Image a scenario, there is a food trading company and their customer just called them to buy 50 bags of rice.
But the trading company nds that they do not have enough stock. So they decide to purchase 100 bags of rice
from their vendor and will pay the money to the vendor after they receive the goods.
As a step-by-step guide, I will maintain the necessary objects for the food trading company and the vendor from
the beginning and then run the ‘Procure to Pay’ process. Please be aware, all the steps and data are based on
the system’s existing con gurations, the di erent systems may need di erent works/steps.
One company may have more than one purchase organization, di erent purchase organization takes
responsibility for purchasing di erent materials or services.
https://blogs.sap.com/2020/03/03/step-by-step-to-run-a-simple-procure-to-pay-process/ 1/15
11/9/2020 Step-By-Step to run a simple ‘Procure to Pay’ process | SAP Blogs
We can use the ‘New Entries’ button to create a new purchase organization.
We can use the ‘New Entries’ button to create a new purchase group.
Step 3: De ne Plant
After we create the plant, we should assign the storage location information to the plant.
Before we can create a Business Partner with the vendor roles, we should maintain the FI master data for the
new vendor.
https://blogs.sap.com/2020/03/03/step-by-step-to-run-a-simple-procure-to-pay-process/ 2/15
11/9/2020 Step-By-Step to run a simple ‘Procure to Pay’ process | SAP Blogs
a. Company
Company ‘ZJC3’
b. Company Code
c. Reconciliation Account
We should create a new reconciliation account for the vendor under the company code.
In this blog post, the reconciliation account is ‘100100’. As a vendor reconciliation account, the ‘Recon. Account
for Acct Type’ eld should select ‘Vendors’.
As mentioned in my last blog post, there is no separate transaction code (TCODE) to maintain customer and
vendor data in the S/4 HANA system, the things have been moved to Business Partner (BP). We should create
a new Business Partner with Vendor roles (FLVN00, FLVN01) for this vendor.
Transaction Code: BP
https://blogs.sap.com/2020/03/03/step-by-step-to-run-a-simple-procure-to-pay-process/ 3/15
11/9/2020 Step-By-Step to run a simple ‘Procure to Pay’ process | SAP Blogs
Data in the tabs should be maintained based on the requirements. Save the changes after you maintain the
data.
Using the company code and reconciliation account which we created in step 4 in the poped screen.
As mentioned, the food trading company will buy 10 bags of rice from the vendor. We should create the material
master data for rice.
Maintain material master data can be a big work. There are a lot of elds can be used in MM01 to meet the
business requirements. In this blog post, I will use the most basic functions to maintain the material master
data.
https://blogs.sap.com/2020/03/03/step-by-step-to-run-a-simple-procure-to-pay-process/ 4/15
11/9/2020 Step-By-Step to run a simple ‘Procure to Pay’ process | SAP Blogs
c. Input the organization level data, using the data which we created in the previous steps.
Weight information:
https://blogs.sap.com/2020/03/03/step-by-step-to-run-a-simple-procure-to-pay-process/ 5/15
11/9/2020 Step-By-Step to run a simple ‘Procure to Pay’ process | SAP Blogs
After we click the ‘Save’ button, the system may ask us to maintain the values of other elds, this is based on
the existing system con gurations.
After the objects are created, we should maintain the relationship between them. Please carefully check the
assignments and make sure all the objects which just created have been linked correctly before we start the
‘Procure-to-Pay’ process. Di erent error messages will appear in the ‘Order to Cash’ process if the links are not
maintained correctly.
https://blogs.sap.com/2020/03/03/step-by-step-to-run-a-simple-procure-to-pay-process/ 6/15
11/9/2020 Step-By-Step to run a simple ‘Procure to Pay’ process | SAP Blogs
We can create a purchase order based on a purchase requisition, or we can create a purchase order directly.
This is dependent on di erent requirements.
Input the necessary elds (item, material, quantity, purchase group, plant, etc.)and save the change. After that,
a new purchase requisition will be created.
The item’s release strategy can be found from the tab ‘Release strategy’. Please be aware, the di erent systems
may have di erent release strategies.
An example:
Before we can use the purchase requisition to create a purchase order, we should make sure the item has been
released.
As mentioned, we will create a purchase order from the purchase requisition which we created in step 8.
a. Click the ‘Document Overview On’ button at the top left screen (if it shows ‘Document Overview O ’ button
then ignore this step)
https://blogs.sap.com/2020/03/03/step-by-step-to-run-a-simple-procure-to-pay-process/ 7/15
11/9/2020 Step-By-Step to run a simple ‘Procure to Pay’ process | SAP Blogs
Input the purchase requisition document number on the new screen and click the ‘Execute’ button.
Input the vendor number and other organization data which we created in the previous steps.
https://blogs.sap.com/2020/03/03/step-by-step-to-run-a-simple-procure-to-pay-process/ 8/15
11/9/2020 Step-By-Step to run a simple ‘Procure to Pay’ process | SAP Blogs
I am using value ‘K’ (Cost Center) in the ‘Account Assignment Cat.’ eld in this blog post, this value should be
changed based on di erent requirements.
After we create a new line item, we should also maintain the line item detail data for the line item.
As we are using ‘K’ (Cost center) as ‘Account Assignment Cat.’ for the line item, the elds under the tab should
be lled. Controlling related con guration is out of the scope of this blog post, I will introduce it in another blog
post.
Before we can create the inbound delivery document, the item should be con rmed in the purchase order.
Conformation control is based on customization.
After we nished the changes, we can click the ‘Save’ button and a new purchase order will be created.
https://blogs.sap.com/2020/03/03/step-by-step-to-run-a-simple-procure-to-pay-process/ 9/15
11/9/2020 Step-By-Step to run a simple ‘Procure to Pay’ process | SAP Blogs
As mentioned in step 9, the item under the purchase order should be con rmed before we can create the
inbound delivery based on the purchase order.
a. Input the ‘Vendor’ and ‘Purchase Order’ information and check the ‘Delivery Date’ value. Click the ‘Continue’
button to the next screen.
b. Fill the ‘Delivery quantity’ eld, check other elds and save the change.
In this test, before we can create a good receipt for the purchase order, we should maintain the purchase order’s
item to delivery complete.
Selecting ‘Goods Receipt’ and ‘Purchase Order’ from the dropdown lists. Fill the empty eld on the right side
with the purchase order number which we created in step 9.
https://blogs.sap.com/2020/03/03/step-by-step-to-run-a-simple-procure-to-pay-process/ 10/15
11/9/2020 Step-By-Step to run a simple ‘Procure to Pay’ process | SAP Blogs
After we ll/check the data, click the ‘Item Ok’ checkbox and click the ‘Post’ button.
The FI documents will be created when we create a good receipt for the purchase order.
Selecting ‘Display’ and ‘Material Document’ from the dropdown lists. Input the material document number
created in step 11 in the empty led.
https://blogs.sap.com/2020/03/03/step-by-step-to-run-a-simple-procure-to-pay-process/ 11/15
11/9/2020 Step-By-Step to run a simple ‘Procure to Pay’ process | SAP Blogs
Input the ‘Invoice date’ and the purchase order number which we created in step 9.
https://blogs.sap.com/2020/03/03/step-by-step-to-run-a-simple-procure-to-pay-process/ 12/15
11/9/2020 Step-By-Step to run a simple ‘Procure to Pay’ process | SAP Blogs
The documents (MM document and A/P Invoice) will be created if there is no issue appeared in the posting.
Click the ‘Follow-On Documents’ button, the correspondence A/P invoice will be displayed.
If the A/P invoice is not cleared (automatic payment not con gured) then the invoice should be cleared by
transaction code F-53 (‘Post Outgoing Payment’).
After the posting successful nish, the ‘Purchase Order History’ tab will appear in the related purchase order,
we can check it by transaction code ME23N.
Conclusion
In the blog post, we go through the simple ‘Procure to Pay’ process from building the master data ( ‘Purchase
Organization’, ‘Purchase Group’, ‘Plant’, ‘Company’, ‘Company Code’, ‘Business Partner’) and the transaction
data (documents) from the beginning. I advise you to do the con gurations and postings by yourself, this will
help you to have a better understanding of ‘Procure to Pay’ processing.
My blog post for introducing the ‘Order to Cash’ simple process can be found from the URL below:
https://blogs.sap.com/2020/03/02/step-by-step-to-run-a-simple-order-to-cash-process/#
https://blogs.sap.com/2020/03/03/step-by-step-to-run-a-simple-procure-to-pay-process/ 13/15