How You Automatically Inactivate Suppliers Based on Activity

When you keep your supply base current by inactivating suppliers you're no longer doing business with, and those marked as one-time suppliers, you improve the transaction processing and so reduce the risk of fraud. Manual processes may lead to errors and delays. You can automatically inactivate one-time suppliers after payment as well as suppliers without procure-to-pay activity for a specified time period. Automation of the inactivation process helps support a well-maintained supplier master, which leads to smoother transaction processing and a reduced risk of fraud.

You can run the Inactivate Suppliers process from the Import Suppliers or Schedule Processes pages. You can use the Advanced Options section of these pages to schedule the process to run on your preferred schedule, such as monthly or quarterly. It's recommended that you schedule the process to run on a monthly basis. The Inactivate Suppliers process uses these parameters:

Suppliers with No Transactions: Select this parameter to inactivate suppliers with no purchase orders, invoices, and sourcing transactions in the defined time period that you have set.

Months Since Last Transaction: Identify and inactivate suppliers with no transactions for the specified number of months. For example, when you enter 24 months, suppliers with no transactions in the last 24 months are considered for inactivation.

Paid One-Time Suppliers: Select this parameter to inactivate one-time suppliers who have received at least one payment.

Generate inactivation list only: Select this parameter to review the list of suppliers to be inactivated based on the specified parameters before you actually inactivate the suppliers.

If you select, Generate the inactivation list only, you can review the output file of the Inactivate Suppliers process. Otherwise, submitting the process will initiate supplier inactivation and set the inactive date to the current system date for the targeted suppliers. To inactivate suppliers, Import Suppliers process is run. You can review the output file of the Import Suppliers process to see the number of suppliers inactivated and review any suppliers that can't be inactivated due to errors.

Here are a few things to keep in mind.

• You can submit two processes with different schedules, one to inactivate suppliers with no transactions and another to inactivate one-time suppliers, if you'd prefer to process these options separately.
• When you inactivate suppliers for the first time, it's recommended to generate the inactivation list first for review before inactivating suppliers.
• The Months Since Last Transaction parameter is only applicable when you inactivate suppliers with no transactions. It has no impact on inactivating one-time suppliers.
• Suppliers that have a future inactive date won't be inactivated by the Inactivate Suppliers process. If you have suppliers you want to ensure are never automatically inactivated, setting an inactive date far in the future is the best way to ensure the process will never include them.
• To activate a supplier again, simply remove the inactive date from the supplier profile.