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 supplier location using the Procurement Options page in the Supplier component. When the system retrieves the settings, it first looks in the supplier location and only if not specifically defined there does it use the general purchasing business unit settings.
The purchase order is dispatched to the supplier.
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 supplier 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 optionally perform a process to assist buyers when purchase orders have not been acknowledged by the supplier.

Use the Run Acknowledgement Alerts page (PO_POA_ALERTS) to 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.

Navigation:

Purchasing > Purchase Orders > Acknowledgements > Run Acknowledgement Alerts > Run Acknowledgement Alerts

If the buyer specifies alert criteria for the purchasing business unit using the POA Settings page in the Processing Options component or for a supplier location using the Procurement Options page in the Supplier 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 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 supplier. EDX POAs use a similar approval flow as those submitted online.

See Manage PO Acknowledgements - Header Page.

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:

Term	Definition
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:

Term	Definition
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:

Term	Definition
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:

Term	Definition
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