Implement and Manage Supply Chain Processes
Order to cash
The sales cycle runs quotation, sales order, picking and packing, packing slip, then invoice. Sales agreements lock quantities and prices over time; order holds stop processing; direct delivery ships vendor to customer without touching your warehouse; intercompany chains create linked orders across legal entities. Order promising (ATP/CTP) checks available-to-promise or capable-to-promise and writes confirmed dates onto the order.
Procure to pay
Purchase requisitions collect internal demand and pass through workflow before conversion to a purchase order. Requests for quotation (RFQ) gather vendor bids; a reply can be accepted from only one vendor per RFQ line, and accepting creates or updates the purchase order. Purchase agreements commit to a quantity or value; blanket orders are repeat-order templates with no commitment. Receipts post a product receipt, and vendor invoices can use three-way matching of PO, receipt and invoice.
Pricing and charges
Trade agreements hold prices and discounts by account (specific, group, all) and date, and the price search picks the best applicable record. Discount journals define line, multiline, total and threshold discounts. Auto charges add freight or fees by module, account code, delivery mode and tier.
Traps
- Confusing agreements (commitment) with blanket orders (no commitment).
- Assuming trade agreements change the item base price - they override at order entry.
- Forgetting requisitions need approval, and RFQ acceptance is single-vendor.
- Mixing header-level and line-level charges, or ignoring over/under-delivery tolerances.
Rule of thumb
Agreement = commitment, blanket = convenience, trade agreement = price. When a question asks where a negotiated price belongs, answer trade agreement or purchase/sales agreement, not the released product base price.