Purchase to Pay - Best Practices-1529003411

We are in the process of configuring our On Premise Platform to include our Purchase-to-Pay process. It is my understanding that you cannot pass a task between file cabinets so I am struggling with how to set this up so that the documents can move throughout the process.

For example:
Our Sales team will submit a request to purchase material needed for a specific customer order. That request along with backup documents, will need to end up in Purchasing where they will submit a purchase order. Now that purchase order needs to be sent to Receiving, so that when the material arrives, receiving can relate the packing list to the purchase order which is already associated with the original requisition. Finally, those documents (specifically the packing list and purchase order), need to move on to Accounts Payable so that the invoice can be processed.

This seems like a very basic process, but I do not understand how the task will get passed off to each role/department if we have a file cabinet set up for each functional area. Do we need to set up a file cabinet called "Requistions" instead? If we do that, how will we be able to relate the sales documents to the requisition? I have considered the clip function, but am unsure if that would prevent the clipped documents from being looked up later.

We currently have Task Manager, not Workflow Manager.
Any insight as to what works for you is greatly appreciated!

Brittney,
For a Workflow or process all the documents must be in the same file cabinet.
For a Task Manager based process, you will use a status field to move the document through the different tasks.
So, the Purchase Request is stored along with any other documents clipped to the request. This document should be stored with a status of "New" or "Requested" for example. All "New" documents appear in the Purchasing Task List.
A Purchase order is raised, and the PO number recorded as an index field in the documents index data. This can easily be acheived by using Stamps. The Stamp when placed by Purchasing can record the PO number, the date of the purchase, and the next status for the document which is probably "Ordered" or something similar. The PO document should be clipped to the Request as well.

Now, the Receiving deaprtment has a list of all "Ordered" requests. When they receive the goods, they in turn will clip relevant documents to the PO Request and stamp the document "Received", with the Date and again the Status can be automatically set by the Stamp to send it on the Accounts for payment.

And so on....

Relevant fields for the cabinet should be:

Purchase Request #
Purchase Request Date
Vendor
Status
PO Number
PO Date
Goods Receipt #
Receipt Date
Payment Reference
Payment Date

Along with any other information neccessary.

Status's could included:

New (or Requested) - goes to Purchasing Dept.
Ordered - goes to Receving Dept.
Received in Part - stays with Receiving until complete.
Received in Total - goes to Accounts Payable
Paid - end of process.

When clipping documents to the Request during the process, they should be clipped to the back of the documents so when paging through in the viewer, the whole paper chain is in logical order. Also, note that each department can stamp the specific document they are dealing with. So Ordeering will stamp the Request, Receiving will stamp the PO, and Accounts will stamp either the PO or Goods receipt - whichever is most suitable.

Hopefully this gives you a starting point for your process design.

Phil Robson
Senior Director Support Americas