Preface – This post is part of the SAP Ariba series.

Introduction

SAP Ariba provides easy to use workflow design for your company which does not need any configuration from the external source. Although you can modify the rules with the help of specified settings and also it becomes easy to build, test and deploy the workflow with workflow builder. In this article we will explore more about SAP Ariba Configurable Workflow.

Invoicing and payment workflow

The general purpose of SAP Ariba Invoicing Solution, SAP Ariba Buying and Invoicing and SAP Ariba Invoice Management is the same.

Depending upon the invoice process flow configuration, the invoice is created. After the invoice is submitted, SAP Ariba invoicing creates an approvable invoicing document. When the invoice is completely approved, the two documents are created:

• Invoice Reconciliation document (IR): It is used to resolve discrepancies in purchase order such as the mismatch of quantity in orders.
• Payment Request Document: It is used to generate payment once the invoice is reconciled.

In case the advance payment is made for the purchase order, a payment manager is added to the approval flow of the invoice reconciliation document. The role of the payment manager is to adjust the payments against the invoice. To find any discrepancy in the IR, the reconciliation processor matches the IR to existing PO, contracts, receipts and validates it according to the site’s configuration. One of the two cases that can happen in this process: either the inconsistency is found in IR or there is no inconsistency.

If inconsistencies are present in IR, they must be manually reconciled and are displayed as an exception on the IR document. Once the exceptions are resolved by the handlers they are sent to the responsible person for the approval to pay the supplier.

On the other hand if there are no discrepancies in the IR, it is sent directly to the responsible person for the approval to pay the supplier.

Once the final approval is received for the IR, the invoice status changes to Reconciled and the payment to the supplier is scheduled.

Ariba also supports other configurable workflows such as SAP Ariba Contract Invoicing, Ariba Services Invoicing and many others.

Refer to the below link for the existing SAP Ariba Configurable Workflow:

https://www.ariba.com/solutions/solutions-overview/financial-supply-chain/invoice-management